Cornelia Hubertina "Neel" Doff was an author of Dutch origin living and working in Belgium and mainly writing in French. She is one of the most important contributors to proletarian literature.
Biography
Third born to a family of nine, Cornelia accompanied her family on its perennial successive moves facing a progressively worsening poverty. Determined to fight her way from underneath the rag and tether class she started modeling for a large number of renowned Belgian painters and to a lesser extent sculptors. She posed as Charles de Coster's character Nele by Charles Samuel and for Paul de Vigne, The Little Dutch Girl, and highly probably for the identical Metdepenningen. In these artistic circles she met Fernand Brouez whom she eventually married. Son of Jules Brouez, a rich notary and Victorine Sapin, Fernand Brouez financed and edited La Société Nouvelle, at that time considered the most valuable socialist economical magazine in the French language. After Brouez's death she married Georges Serigiers, a prominent lawyer from Antwerp and family friend of the Brouez family. Years later, when looking at a cluster of youngsters through the window of the Serigiers stately home in Antwerp, the hurtful memories of her past came to life. She poured her heart and soul in her first book Jours de Famine et de Détresse. In picture like stories she tells the tale of a young girl, Keetje Oldema exposed to scorn and humiliation because of her hopeless misery, eventually forced into prostitution by her mother to feed her little brothers and sisters. Laurent Tailhade became her greatest fan and, fascinated by this journey of annihilated youth, defended her work at the 1911 Prix Goncourt. She lost the prize by one vote, but remained nevertheless very impressed with the honour of being nominated. With Keetje and Keetje Trottin, Neel Doff finalised her autobiographical trilogy. She rounded the Doff saga off with various stories about her siblings in other works. In 1907 the Serigiers moved into their splendid new summer residence in Genk. Inspired by the villagers, one family in particular, Neel Doff puts her pen to paper. Tallying her work and enjoying her life as 'Grande Dame' within a selected social circle, she published many short stories in various magazines and periodicals. She also translated three works from Dutch into French. In December 1929 the following quote by Thibaud-Gersen appeared in Le Courier Littéraire: "When will they award the Nobel Prize to the humble and genial Neel Doff"? These words were enough to spread rumours and speculation about the 1930 Nobel Prize awards. Unfortunately the myth that Neel Doff was nominated persists in various publications.. Many compared her work to that of Émile Zola. In her own words in reference to Émile Zola: "He wrote about it while I lived it". Also called "The Dostojevski of the North", the character of Keetje parallels that of Sonja in Crime and Punishment. Henry Poulaille, who became her editor after the death of her husband Georges Serigiers, praises her as surpassing Colette. Neel Doff's somewhat brutish writing style on proletarian issues remains however controversial. She was an autodidact and wrote as she saw and felt. Emile Verhaeren commented on Days of Hunger and Distress that it needed "galvanising". In 1930 Belgium paid tribute to her contribution to French Literature by appointing her Officer of the Order of the Crown, one of Belgium's most prestigious awards. On 14 July 1942, Neel Doff, embittered by the horrors of the war and suffering from kidney failure, died in her house, 16 rue de Naples in Ixelles. In order to secure her estate she only left the author rights of her work to her dear friend Mrs. Helen Temersen, who being Jewish saw her welfare and worldly belongings in peril. Helen Temersen sold the author rights in the early 1970s to the publisher Meulenhoff in Amsterdam. The house in Ixelles was bequeathed to the children of Franz Hellens, author and librarian, who took up residence at the house and wrote there as well. The remainder of her estate went to various individuals. Several art effects, including a James Ensor, mysteriously disappeared from the Ixelles residence and are yet to be found.
Keetje. - Several publications in Paris and Brussels.
Keetje Trottin. - one publication in Paris and one in Brussels.
Angelinette. Paris: Crès, 1923.
Campine. Paris: Rieder, 1926.
Elva, suivi de Dans nos bruyères., Paris: Rieder, 1929.
Une Fourmi Ouvrière. Paris: Au Sans Pareil, 1935.
Quitter Tout Cela! suivi de Au Jour le Jour. Paris-Nemours: Ed. Entre Nous, 1937.
Film
Keetje Tippel, a 1975 film by Paul Verhoeven depicting Doff's life. Distributed in English as Katie's Passion.
Translations made by Neel Doff from Dutch
L’Enfant Jésus en Flandre.. Paris: Rieder 1925.
La Maisonnette près du Fossé.. Paris: Ed. Du Tambourin, 1931. Paris: Lire; Roman inédité et complet, 1931.
De Vieilles Gens... Lost unpublished manuscript.
Many short stories and other writings by Neel Doff were published in various periodicals. These texts were cited in various references: i.e. two of the three biographies written about Neel Doff. In 1975, Dutch filmmaker, Paul Verhoeven created the movie Katie Tippel. The movie holds elements of the trilogy, 'Days of Hunger and Distress'; 'Keetje' and 'Keetje The Errand Girl'. Some of these publications were only very recently discovered and that no record of some of them, the Spanish, English and Russian translations were found in either of Neel Doff's residences.
