Krains, Hubert 1862–1934

PERSONAL: Born 1862, in Les Waleffes, Belgium; died 1934.

CAREER: Novelist, short-story writer, and critic.

AWARDS, HONORS: Elected to Royal Academy of French Language and Literature (Belgium), 1920; Prix triennal du roman, 1921.

WRITINGS:

Amours rustiques, Société du Mercure de France (Paris, France), 1899.

Le pain noir (novel; title means "The Black Bread"), 1904, reprinted, Maison du Livre Français (Paris, France), 1932.

Figures du pays (title means "Shapes of Our Land"), Dechenne (Brussels, Belgium), 1908.

L'union postale universelle: sa fondation et son dèveloppement, Gustave Grunau (Berne, Switzerland), 1908.

Herbert Krains (anthology), Association des Écrivains Belges (Brussels, Belgium), 1913.

Mes amis (stories; title means "My Friends"), Vromant (Brussels, Belgium), 1921.

Eugène Demolder: lecture faite en séance du 16 juin 1923, Académie Royal de Lange et de Littérature Françaises (Brussels, Belgium), 1923.

Notice sur Georges Eekhoud, H. Vaillant Carmanne (Liège, Belgium), 1929.

Portraits d'écrivains belges (title means "Portraits of Belgian Writers"), Georges Thone (Liège, Belgium), 1930.

Au coeur des blés, Georges Thone (Liège, Belgium), 1934.

L'âme de la maison, Éditions Labor (Brussels, Belgium), 1937.

Hubert Krains, les meilleures pages (collected prose), Renaissance du livre (Brussels, Belgium), 1959.

Writings have been anthologized in The Massacre of the Innocents and Other Tales, translated by Edith Wingate Rinder, Stone & Kimball (Chicago, IL), 1895; and Les conteurs de Wallonie, Éditions Labor (Brussels, Belgium), 1985.

SIDELIGHTS: Novelist and short-story writer Hubert Krains, a native of the Hesbaye region of Belgium, is remembered as one of the most significant of Walloon regionalists. His first novel, Le pain noir, presents the conflict between a rural mother and her disrespectful son, and is marked by a pessimistic view of human nature. Subsequent works, however, convey a more positive tone. According to a contributor to the Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, the short fiction collected in Mes amis is among Krains's best, and is distinguished by humor and emotion as well as a more fluent style.

Krains's criticism, which focuses on such Belgian writers as Eugéne Demolder, Georges Eekhoud (1854–1927), and Émile Verhaeren (1855–1916), is considered perceptive and engaging. Krains received the honor of election to the Royal Academy of French Language and Literature of Belgium in 1920. The following year, he was awarded the Prix Triennal du Roman.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Bédé, Jean-Albert, and William B. Edgerton, editors, Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, 2nd edition, Columbia University Press (New York, NY), 1980.