Jan-Maat’s Reviews > Bruges-La-Morte > Status Update

The adterward points out the (obvious) Orpheus and Eurydice comparison which due to my monomanical fixation on the Christian parallels I had missed. Small wonder that Bruges doesn't have a statue to Rodenbach, a novel ending in femicide can be overlooked but an implicit comparison of the town to Hades - never!

Et des cloches tintaient...

A lietmotiv in the story, "ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee" ? Or something like that?

Et comme Bruges aussi était triste en ces fins d'après-midi! Il l'aimait ainsi! C'est pour sa tristesse même qu'il l'avait choisie et y était venu vivre après le grand désastre.
...
A l'épouse morte devait correspondre une ville morte.

Not sentiments that the town of Bruges currently draws upon to promote tourism

The housekeeper polished the silver and has the feeling that she is on a sacristy. Since the house is a shrine devoted to the memory of the main character's wife this is quite reasonable

Haunted by the sound of clocks as though he charcters life is ticking away towards death (which apparently even in context is not a good thing). I am increasingly reminded of Andrei Bely's Petersburg.

The melancholy streets, the het city. The dreary town as the extension of the main character. Projection.

Orpheus and eurydice

Bruges is perfect for him because it is dead. A dead city lying in its grave ( It's role as tourism hub plainly had not begun at the end of the nineteenth century)

The main character has settled on Bruges not to get away from the death of his wife, but to wallow in it - he surrounds himself with her things and things he associated with her down to the cushions and the curtains.