Ferdinand Bordewijk (10 October 1884 – 28 April 1965) was a Dutch author. His style, which is terse and symbolic, is considered to belong to New Objectivity and magic realism. He was awarded the P. C. Hooft Award in 1953 and the Constantijn Huygens Prize in 1957. Character (1997), an Academy Award-winning film directed by Mike van Diem, was based on his novel of the same name (1938). Biography Ferdinand Bordewijk was born in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and moved to The Hague when he was ten years old. He studied law at Leiden University. After graduation, he worked first at a Rotterdam law firm and became an independent lawyer in Schiedam in 1919, remaining an inhabitant of The Hague all of his life. He was married to the composer Johanna Bordewijk-Roepman. He wrote the libretto for her opera Rotonde (1941). Works His first published work was a volume of poetry titled (Mushrooms) under the pseudonym Ton Ven. It was not particularly well received. His breakthrough came with the short novels (Blocks, 1931), (Growling Animals, 1933) and Bint (1934), and two longer works: (Red Palace, 1936) and ("Character", 1938, in English 1966). was a dystopian work which was perceived as a criticism of communism. It is comparable to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, which appeared one year later and which Bordewijk deemed to be junk (""). Bibliography 1916 – (under the pseudonym Ton Ven) 1918 – (A king of the phrase) in: Groot Nederland 1919 – (Fantastic tales), short stories 1923 – (Fantastic tales II), short stories 1924 – (Fantastic tales III), short stories 1931 – (Cubes), novel 1933 – (novel) 1934 – (novel) 1935 – (The last honor, eulogy) 1935 – 1936 – (Red palace, downfall of the century) 1936 – 1937 – (short stories) 1938 – (novel); English translation: Character, from Dutch by E. M. Prince; London, Peter Owen, 1966, etc. Filmed as 1997 Dutch/Belgian film, directed by Mike van Diem. 1940 – 1940 – (Three plays) 1941 – Apollyon 1946 – (Oaks of Dodona) 1946 – 1947 – (By gaslight) 1947 – (Five fantastic tales) 1948 – 1948 – (Plato's death, symphonic poem) 1948 – (opera) 1949 – , Bint (Cubes, grunting animals, Bint), compilation 1949 – 1949 – 1949 – 1950 – (Tales from the other side) 1951 – 1951 – 1952 – 1954 – 1954 – (Misses and mister Richebois; twenty short stories) 1955 – (compendium) 1955