Georges Eekhoud

Born in Antwerp in 1854, Georges Eekhoud became one of the notable French-language writers of Belgium. He wrote novels, short stories, and essays, and his work often focused on people living at the edges of respectable society, giving his fiction an intensity and sympathy that still stands out.

He is especially remembered for La nouvelle Carthage, a novel set in Antwerp, and for Escal-Vigor, a book that brought him major controversy because of its treatment of same-sex love. When that novel led to legal action, he was acquitted, and the case became an important moment in the history of literary freedom.

Eekhoud died in 1927, but his reputation endures through writing that was both socially observant and unusually fearless for its time. Readers coming to his work today often find a mix of realism, atmosphere, and a strong interest in people who refuse to fit neatly into convention.