A Dog of Flanders is an 1872 novel by English author Marie Louise de la Ramée published under her pseudonym "Ouida". It is about a Flemish boy named Nello and his dog, Patrasche, and is set in Antwerp.

In Japan, Korea, Russia, Ukraine and the Philippines, the novel has been a popular children's classic for decades and has been adapted into several Japanese films and anime. Since the 1980s, the Belgian board of tourism noticed the phenomenon and built two monuments honoring the story to attract East-Asian tourists. There is a small statue of Nello and Patrasche at the Kapelstraat in the Antwerp suburb of Hoboken, and a commemorative plaque in front of the Antwerp Cathedral donated by Toyota,

Her brief stay in Flanders, and especially in Antwerp, left a lasting impression on Ouida. As an animal lover and future animal-rights activist, she was struck by the use of dogs as draft animals, which she considered cruel, as well as by the fact that paintings—such as those by Rubens—were not freely accessible to the public but could only be viewed for a fee. The story reflects the conflict between her convictions and what she saw as the reality of Catholic and hypocritical Flanders, and her identification with the misunderstood artist Nello. It was included the following month in a collection of four Ouida tales, A Leaf in the Storm, and Other Stories, issued by three different publishers: Lippincott in Philadelphia on 25 January, Chapman & Hall in London on 27 July, and, also in English, Tauchnitz in Leipzig in December 1872. The UK edition contained an illustration by Enrico Mazzanti, whereas the German edition was not illustrated. Moreover, these latter two editions had the tale divided into four chapters. Other notable illustrators of the work include George Henry Boughton (1891), Edmund H. Garrett (1893), Maria Louise Kirk (1909), Hiram P. Barnes (1914), Gustaf Tenggren (1925), Frances Brundage (1926), and Harvey Fuller (1927).

Originally not written for children, the story was later reissued numerous times, both in other collections and as a standalone work, and is therefore generally regarded as a children's novel, The only markedly dissenting voice was The Pall Mall Gazette, which questioned the story's portrayal of Belgian society, remarking: «whether Ouida does justice to Belgian philanthropy in supposing that there would not have been, at least, a Flemish woman or two to assist Patrasche in bringing back the good-looking boy to life.»

An anecdote recorded in a letter by the artist Edward Burne-Jones to the society hostess Lady Frances Horner offers a further indication of the story's popularity in late Victorian cultural circles. Writing about an episode that likely took place in the 1880s, Burne-Jones recalled: «I remember Ruskin and Cardinal Manning routing [= rooting] on their knees amongst some books to find "The Dog of Flanders" which they loved; getting covered with dust and searching with enthusiasm.»

Popularity

The novel is reasonably notable in the United Kingdom and in the United States and is extremely popular in Ukraine, Russia, Japan, Korea and the Philippines to the point where it is seen as a children's classic. In 1985, a new Dutch translation was published, illustrated by Willy Vandersteen; this happened after the tale was adapted into a story of Vandersteen's popular comic book series Suske en Wiske. Since then, monuments were raised to commemorate Nello and Patrasche to please tourists. In 2007, Didier Volckaert and A van Dienderen directed a documentary about the international popularity of the story: Patrasche, A Dog of Flanders – Made in Japan. It researches all available film adaptations of the story and interviews several British, American and Japanese people about what attracts them to this novel.

Film

  • A Dog of Flanders (1914), a short film directed by Howell Hansel.
  • A Boy of Flanders (1924), directed by Victor Schertzinger and starring Jackie Coogan as Nello.
  • A Dog of Flanders (1935), directed by Edward Sloman.
  • A Dog of Flanders (1959), directed by James B. Clark and starring David Ladd as Nello. In this version, Nello and his dog go to the village church, where the pastor covers them with a woolen blanket, thus saving their lives. Two days later, one of the judges comes. Because he thought Nello was the true winner, he asks him to stay with him. As years pass, Patrasche dies and Nello becomes a famous artist.
  • The Dog of Flanders (Japan, 1997), a remake of the 1975 TV series directed by Yoshio Kuroda. In this version, Alois reflects on the life of Nello while working as a nun. The landlord is also named Hans.
  • A Dog of Flanders (1999), directed by Kevin Brodie. In this version, the landlord is named Stevens and the ending reveals that the character Michel La Grande is Nello's long-lost father.
  • Barking Dogs Never Bite (2000), a South Korean satirical version directed by Bong Joon-ho.
  • Snow Prince (Japan, 2009), directed by Joji Matsuoka. At the end of this film, the boy and the dog are found frozen to death under a tree.

Television

  • Dog of Flanders (1975), a Japanese animated TV series produced by Nippon Animation, consisting of 52 25-minute episodes.
  • "A Dog of Flanders" (1976), a 10-minute episode of the Japanese animated TV series Manga Fairy Tales of the World, produced by Dax International.
  • My Patrasche (1992), a Japanese animated TV series produced by Tokyo Movie Shinsha, consisting of 26 25-minute episodes.
  • A Dog of Flanders (2006), a Korean limited animated streaming series produced by language education company Little Fox, consisting of 16 episodes of 5-6 minutes each.

Comic book version

The story was used as a plot device in the Suske en Wiske comic book series, namely the album Het Dreigende Dinges (The Threatening Thing) (1985). The album was translated into Japanese.

Location and monuments

thumb|Nello and Patrasche in Kapelstraat, [[Hoboken, Antwerp]]

thumb|Nello and Patrasche outside the [[Cathedral of Our Lady (Antwerp)|Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp]]

In 1985 an employee of Antwerp tourism, Jan Corteel, learned of the popularity of A Dog of Flanders in East Asia and attempted to develop a tourist itinerary for it. He presumed the village in which the majority of the story takes place to be Hoboken, even though this is never mentioned in the story itself. Ouida is believed to have visited Antwerp for four hours, and spoke of having seen a village near a canal, not far from a windmill. This vague explanation was used to claim the story took place in Hoboken, but other people contest this. Corteel attracted funds for a monument, which was built in 1985 in the Kapelstraat in Hoboken.

In 1997, American painter Tony Mafia created 'Nello's Dream'. He donated the work to the Hoboken district of Antwerp, where it is now on public display at the district's administrative centre.

A second monument, now removed, was donated by Toyota in 2003 in front of Antwerp Cathedral. A mock gravestone, it had text in English and Japanese that read: "Nello, and his dog Patrasche, main characters from the story A Dog of Flanders, symbols of true and sternful friendship, loyalty and devotion."

On 10 December 2016, the gravestone was replaced by a new monument. A sculpture in white marble represents Nello and Patrasche sleeping, covered by a blanket of cobble stones. The sculpture is made by Belgian artist Batist "Tist" Vermeulen. The removal of the gravestone was accompanied by a noticeable decline in the number of Japanese tourists, the reason for which is unclear.

Additional information

Similar stories:

  • The Little Match Girl (1845)
  • The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree (1876)
  • Black Beauty (1877)
  • Hachi: A Dog's Tale (2009)

Notes

References

Sources

Further reading

  • Project Gutenberg eBook