Lemonnier, Camille

Lemonnier, Camille (kämē`yə ləmônyā`), 1844–1913, Belgian novelist and art critic. After abandoning law, Lemonnier published his first work, Salon de Bruxelles (1863), a collection of art essays. His novels, including his masterpiece, Le Mâle (1881), vividly describe rural life and reveal a pantheistic outlook. L'Arche (1894) is one of a trio of novels defending female individuality. His other works include the novels Happo-Chair (1886) and Au Coeur frais de la forêt (1900).

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Lemonnier, Camille 

Born Mar. 24, 1844, in Ixelles; died June 13, 1913, in Brussels. Belgian writer and art critic; wrote in French.

Lemonnier graduated from the University of Brussels. Despite his affinity for naturalism, he was the mentor of the Young Belgium group. His first works were essays in art criticism, The Brussels Art Salon (1863; book 2, 1866), and a book about P. P. Rubens, Our Flemings (1869). Flemish and Walloon Stories (1873) deal with village life. The novel Male (1881) glorifies the richness of nature and freedom of instincts.

In his novels of the 1880’s and 1890’s, Lemonnier approached the basic theme of his era, the conflict between labor and capital —for example, in Bloodsucker (1886; in Russian translation, The Plant, 1922). Lemonnier’s last novels depict idyllic life in a semiprimitive commune: Adam and Eve (1899) and In the Cool Forest Depths (1900).

WORKS

In Russian translation:
Izbr. sock, vols. 1–2. Petrograd-Moscow, 1922.
P’esy. Moscow, 1908.
Konets burzhua. Leningrad, 1963.

REFERENCES

Eikhengol’ts, M. “K. Lemon’e: Zavod.” [Review.] Pechaf i revoliutsiia, 1923, no. 7, p. 264.
Rency, G. C. Lemonnier. Brussels, 1922.
Gauchez, M. C. Lemonnier. Brussels, 1943.

I. N. POZHAROVA