The Legend of Uleneshpigele

Materials for his most famous work - "Legends of Ulenspiegel" - Belgian writer Charles de Bonfire gathered for many years. He was born in 1827 in Munich. The material difficulties of the family did not prevent him from graduating from the university, but everyday circumstances forced the future writer to take a very modest position in the State Archive. However, it was here that the enormous wealth of historical documents, telling about the old life of Belgium and Flanders, opened before him. In 1858, De Koster published the book Flemish Legends, the work on which helped him not only create his image of Tilya Ulenspiegel, but also allowed the most reliable to recreate the life of Flanders from the time of its struggle for independence from Spain. Moster, Balagur and Veselchak Ulenspigel was a popular character in German and Flemish folklore of the XIV century. The merit of de Koster is that he was able to raise this image to an epic height, making it the soul of freedom -loving Flanders. Charles de Koster lived a little more than 50 years. He died in 1879, but the "Legend" immortalized his name.
The text of the epic is given in the excellent translation of Arkady Georgievich Gornfeld. A talented literary critic, publicist and critic, he was born in Sevastopol in 19867 at Kharkov University at once at two faculties - legal and philological. At the age of 26, Gornfeld moved to St. Petersburg and immediately plunged into a literary life with his head. He completed his translation of "Tilya" in 1915, having already managed to won by that time the deserved glory of the expert on the theory of literature. Gornfeld died in 1941 in Leningrad three months before the start of the war.
The publication is decorated with illustrations of the Belgian artist Amede Lynen. He was a versatile person - he was engaged not only in painting, but also by literature, deservedly known as a talented poster, engraver, watercolist and illustrator. Linen was born in 1852, in the Belgian town of Saint-Joss-Ten-Node. After graduating from school, he entered the Brussels Art Academy. In his paintings, posters and illustrations, the influence of modernity was felt. His illustrations to "Legend of Tila Ulenspiegel" became a noticeable contribution to world culture. He began working on them in the prime of life, when the artist was 33 years old, and this fundamental work took him more than three decades. In his works, Linen recreated in hundreds of small household details the everyday life of Flanders of that time, when the roads created by de Costar Ulenspiegel wandered along its roads. The artist died in 1938. One of the streets was named in his native town in his honor