A Dog of Flandersis an 1872 novel by English authorMarie Louise de la Raméepublished with her pseudonym "Ouida". It is about aFlemishboy named Nello and his dog, Patrasche, and is set inAntwerp.
InJapan,Koreaand thePhilippines, the novel has been an extremely popular children's classic for decades and has been adapted into several Japanese films andanime.[1]Since the 1980s, the Belgian board of tourism caught on to the phenomenon and built two monuments honoring the story to please East-Asian tourists. There is a small statue of Nello and Patrasche at the Kapelstraat in the Antwerp suburb ofHoboken, and acommemorative plaquein front of theAntwerp Cathedraldonated byToyota,[1]that was later replaced by a marble statue of the two characters covered by a cobblestone blanket, created by the artist Batist Vermeulen.
Children selling milk from adogcart, Belgium, ca. 1890
In 19th century Belgium, a boy named Nello becomes an orphan at the age of two when his mother dies in theArdennes. His grandfather, Jehan Daas, who lives in a small village near the city of Antwerp, takes him in.
One day, Nello and Jehan Daas find a dog that was almost beaten to death, and name him “Patrasche”. Due to the good care of Jehan Daas, the dog recovers its health, and from then on, Nello and Patrasche are inseparable. Since they are very poor, Nello has to help his grandfather by selling milk, because the unnamed, crooked landlord demands rent money from them. Patrasche helps Nello pull their cart into town each morning.
Nello falls in love with Aloise, the daughter of Baas Cogez, a well-off man in the village, but Baas doesn't want his daughter to have a poor sweetheart. Although Nello is illiterate, he is very talented in drawing. He enters a junior drawing contest in Antwerp, hoping to win the first prize, 200 francs per year; however, the jury selects somebody else.
Afterwards, a fire has occurred on Baas’s property. The landlord said that Nello was responsible for the fire, to shift the blame of his neglect, as Baas tells Nello to stay away from Aloise. Later, grandfather Jehan dies, and the landlord evicts Nello and Patrasche; life becomes desperate.
Having no place to stay, Nello wishes to go to thecathedral of Antwerp, to seeRubens'The Elevation of the CrossandThe Descent from the Cross— but the exhibition in the cathedral is only for paying customers, and he's out of money. On the night of Christmas Eve, the boy and his dog go to Antwerp, and, by chance, find the door to the church open. The next morning, Nello and Patrasche are found frozen to death in front of thetriptych.
The novel shares a reasonable notability in both theUnited Kingdomand theUnited Statesand is extremely popular inJapan,Koreaand thePhilippinesto the point where it is seen as a children's classic. It inspired film andanimeadaptations, including the 1975 animated TV seriesDog of Flanderswhich reached an audience of 30 million viewers on its first broadcast.[2]
InBelgium, the story is more obscure. Only in 1987 did it receive a Dutch translation; this happened after the tale was adapted into a story of the popular comic book seriesSuske en Wiske. Since then, monuments were raised to commemorate Nello and Patrasche to please tourists. In 2007, Didier Volckaert and An 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.[2]
The novel has been adapted for cinema and television in live-action and animation. None of the film versions, excluding the 1997 Japanese movie andSnow Prince(2009), uses the novel's ending and have preferred to substitute a more optimistic one:
A Dog of Flanders(1914),[3]a short film directed byHowell Hansel
The Dog of Flanders(Japan, 1997),[7]a remake of the 1975 TV series directed byYoshio Kuroda. In this version, Aloise reflects on the life of Nello while working as anunand the landlord is named Hans.
A Dog of Flanders(1999),[8]directed byKevin 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.
Snow Prince(Japan, 2009), directed byJoji Matsuoka.[9](in Japanese)At the end of this film, the boy and the dog are found frozen to death under a tree.
For its authentic 19th century buildings, the Open Air Museum ofBokrijk, Flanders was used as scenery for the 1975 and 1992 anime and the 1999 film.[citation needed]
In one of the film versions (1959),[which?]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 story was used as a plot device in theSuske en Wiskecomic book series, namely the albumHet Dreigende Dinges(The Threatening Thing) (1985). The album was translated into Japanese.[11][2]
There are three monuments built to commemorate the story. The first one was built in 1985 and can be seen in the Kapelstraat inHoboken, Antwerp.[12]Up until the end of 2016 a fictional grave stone stood near the Antwerp Cathedral. 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."[13]
On December 10, 2016, a new monument was revealed on the Handschoenmarkt square in front of the Antwerp Cathedral. 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 Vermeulen (Tist).[14]
In 1985 an employee of Antwerp tourism, Jan Corteel, wanted to promote "A Dog of Flanders". He presumed the village of the story to beHoboken, even though this is never mentioned in the story itself.Ouidais 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.[15]
