Maurice Maeterlinck

Nobel Prize in Literature 1911

Belgian playwright and poet, born in 1862 in Ghent, and died in 1949 in Nice. Although he studied Law, feeling that he did not have much aptitude for a legal career, he decided to dedicate himself to Literature. While traveling to Paris, he became acquainted with many symbolist poets, among whom the figure of Villiers de l'Isle Adam stands out, from whom he received influence.
In 1899 he composed an anthology of symbolist poems entitled Warm SerresIn the same year, he gained notoriety with a favorable review from Octave Mirbeau (literary critic for the newspaper). Le Figaro) to his first theatrical work Princess Maleine (1889). It also caused a great impact with the play Pelléas et Mélisande (1892), considered a masterpiece of symbolist drama and adapted into an opera by Claude Debussy.
Most of his works are characterized by a certain fatalism, mysticism, and the constant presence of death.
The richness of his imagination is still present in works such as The Intruder (1890), Aladdin and Palomides (1894), Agave and Selysette (1896), philosophical and scientific essays La vie des abeilles (1900), L'Intelligence des Fleurs (1907), La vie des Fourmis and the parts Joyzelle (1903) and L'Oiseau Blueu (1909). In 1911 he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature and in 1932 he was granted the title of Count of Belgium.