Nello en Patrache

A classic story of love and devotion, set in a world that sees only monetary worth. ( )

Sweet, in the despairing style - like The Little Match Girl. An innocent boy and the dog who loves him are abused by indifference and casual cruelty until, just before everything would have changed, they die. I was crying at the end...but it's so sweet it's saccharine. I would have preferred if he were rescued in time, and actually went on to express his skill in art - or otherwise developed beyond the innocent scapegoat he is here. I'm glad I read it (and it was a very quick read) but I doubt I'll reread. ( )

A Dog of Flanders speelt zich af in Antwerpen, maar het verhaal over Patrasche werd vooral in Japan populair. Het Suske en Wiske verhaal 'De dreigende dinges' is op dit verhaal gebaseerd. Didier Volckaert maakte een uitstekende documentaire 'Patrasche, a Dog of Flanders - Made in Japan'.
Zie ook http://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Een_hond_van_Vlaanderen

A Dog of Flanders: A Christmas Story is a young adult book written by the Victorian English author Marie Louise de la Ramée (aka "Ouida"). It's a sentimental animal fable, part of her lifelong campaign to draw attention to the problem of cruelty to dogs. It's set in Flanders where dogs are routinely worked to death.

I found the story pleasant and emotionally moving. It can be overly sentimental in that Victorian way, and has some Romantic Nationalism, but the story is good and leaves one with a positive feeling in the end. Although Ouida wrote over 40 novels and was very popular in her time, she is hardly read anymore, this children's books now appears to be the most popular of her works. But in her time her most famous work was Under Two Flags (1867), which was still being published and read in the 20th century, including 4 different movie adaptations. Likewise A Dog of Flanders seems to have inspired at least 7 movies, as recently as 1999. It also sells well in Japan.

A Dog of Flanders: A Christmas Story, available at LibriVox (audiobook)
A Dog of Flanders: A Christmas Story, available at Internet Archive (scanned book w/ original artwork)

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2009 cc-by-nd ( )