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{{short description|Dutch novelist}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2017}}
{{Infobox writer 
| name = Marcellus Emants
| image = MarcellusEmants.jpg
| image_size = 250px
| alt =
| caption = Marcellus Emants (1897) by Theo Kerstel
| pen_name =
| birth_name = Marcellus Emants
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1848|08|12|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Voorburg]], Netherlands
| death_date = {{Death date and age|1923|10|14|1848|08|12|df=yes}}
| death_place = [[Baden, Switzerland]]
| resting_place = [[The Hague]], Netherlands
| occupation = [[Novelist]], [[playwright]], [[poet]]
| language = [[Dutch language|Dutch]]
| ethnicity =
| citizenship =
| education = [[Leiden University]]
| period =
| genre =
| subject =
| movement =
| notable_works =
| spouse =
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| children =
| relatives =
| influences =
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| signature =
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| website =
}}

'''Marcellus Emants''' (12 August 1848 – 14 October 1923) was a Dutch [[novelist]] whose work is considered one of the few examples of Dutch [[Naturalism (literature)|Naturalism]]. His writing is seen as a first step towards the renewing force of the [[Tachtigers]] towards modern Dutch literature, a movement which started around the 1880s. His most well-known work is ''A Posthumous Confession'', published in 1894, translated by [[J. M. Coetzee]].

==Biography==

Marcellus Emants was born on 12 August 1848 in [[Voorburg]], Netherlands. He was born in a family of [[magistrate]]s from [[The Hague]].<ref name="vanbork">{{in lang|nl}} G.J. van Bork en P.J. Verkruijsse, "[http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/bork001nede01_01/bork001nede01_01_0400.php Emants, Marcellus]", ''De Nederlandse en Vlaamse auteurs van middeleeuwen tot heden met inbegrip van de Friese auteurs''. Retrieved on 2012-08-24.</ref> His father was the [[judge]] Guilliam Balthasar Emants (1818–1870) and his mother was Anna Elisabeth Petronella Verwey Mejan (1824–1908).<ref>{{in lang|nl}} Pierre H. Dubois, "[http://www.historici.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/BWN/lemmata/bwn1/emants Emants, Marcellus (1848-1923)]", ''Biografisch Woordenboek van Nederland'', 2012. Retrieved on 2012-08-27.</ref><ref>{{in lang|nl}} H.H.P. Rijperman, ''[http://www.gahetna.nl/collectie/archief/pdf/NL-HaNA_3.20.15.ead.pdf Inventaris van het archief van de familie Emants]'', 1920, [[Nationaal Archief]]. Retrieved on 2012-08-27.</ref>

Emants went to the ''[[Hogere burgerschool|hogereburgerschool]]'' in [[The Hague]] and completed the five-year program.<ref name="branden">{{in lang|nl}} J. G. Frederiks & F. J. van den Branden, "[http://dbnl.org/tekst/bran038biog01_01/bran038biog01_01_1302.php Marcellus Emants]", ''Biographisch woordenboek der Noord- en Zuidnederlandsche letterkunde''. Retrieved on 2012-08-24.</ref> In 1868, at the age of 20, he started his [[Law]] studies at the [[Leiden University]] in [[Leiden]].<ref name="branden"/> Emants complied with his father's wish to study Law, until his father's death in 1871.<ref name="vanbork"/>

Emants did well at university, but his heart lay with the arts, not with legal matters. Initially he could not choose between music ([[cello]]), drawing, [[theatre]] and [[literature]]. He avoided the student scene in the Dutch university town of [[Leiden]], but founded a literary club, Quatuor, with a few friends from [[The Hague]]. His first publication would feature in the club’s magazine.

After his father’s death, he became financially independent, broke off his studies and took to travelling the world. He seemed better at ease in the [[Alps]] than in the lowlands and as a result made yearly trips to the former. In Quatuor’s successor, Spar en Hulst (Pine and Holly) he wrote an essay entitled ''Bergkristal van Oberammergau'' (''Mountain crystal of Oberammergua'') in 1872 about the [[Passion plays]] which he had attended there. He himself was a bit surprised about the attention which his text had attracted, but kept on travelling and developed a genre of ‘travel account which is much more than a travel account.’ (Busken Huet)

Although he shared the ''Tachtigers''' vision of the arts' autonomy, Emants kept outside of their group, as he felt he could not participate in their elaborate use of language: ‘I have always wanted to aspire to, if I was reading a book, noticing the words as little as possible.’<ref>E. d'Oliveira: ''De mannen van '80 aan het woord. Een onderzoek naar enkele beginselen van de 'Nieuwe Gids'-school''. Amsterdam, 1920.</ref> Despite this ideal, he would still be called ‘the [[John the Baptist|Johannes Baptista]] of modern literature' by [[Willem Kloos]], who was one of the leading figures of the 1880s.<ref>''De Nieuwe Gids'', 1888</ref>

Emants kept a sober style and a subject which was idealistically pessimistic. His examples were [[Émile Zola]], [[Hippolyte Taine]] and [[Ivan Turgenev]], with the latter even keeping correspondence.

He was vice-president of the ‘Vereniging tot vereenvoudiging van onze spelling’ (Society for the Simplification of our Spelling) and wrote ''{{Ill|A Posthumous Confession|nl|Een nagelaten bekentenis}}'' (1894); (Dutch ''Een nagelaten bekentenis'') translation: [[J. M. Coetzee]], 1976; reissued 2011). He attended the state commission for the reform of Dutch spelling as well, which did not succeed in its setup however. 11 long years after his death, though, Minister of Education Marchant would still implement the proposals made by this commission anyway.

During the [[First World War]], Emants felt locked up within the Netherlands and when [[Armistice]] was finally there, he made preparations to go and establish himself in Switzerland. On 2 March 1920, he finally left The Hague forever and stayed in Switzerland alternatingly in [[hotels]], [[spa]] towns and [[sanatoria]]. Almost immediately he was struck by [[shingles]], followed by a few [[strokes]]. He died on 20 October 1923 in the Grand Hôtel in [[Baden, Switzerland|Baden]] and was interred in The Hague on the General Cemetery.

===Family===
Marcellus Emants was married three times. A first time to Christina Magdalena Prins, a distant cousin, in 1873. He was sadly widowed two years after the marriage, in 1875. Then he married Eva Vemiers van der Loef on 10 July 1880. She published a novel in 1887 under the pseudonym Nessuno: ''Beemsen Esquire'' and died in 1900. On 5 July 1904, he married the German actress Jenny Kühn. Although the marriage was a disaster, they did have a daughter Eva Clara Jenny whom he adored and spoilt. She would later call herself Lillith after a work of his from 1879.

== Publications (in English) ==
* Marcellus Emants: ''A posthumous confession''. Transl. from the Dutch and with an introd. by J. M. Coetzee. New York, 2011. {{ISBN|9781590173473}}

==References==

{{Reflist}}
* F. Boerwinkel: ''De Levensbeschouwing van Marcellus Emants''. Dissertatie RU Utrecht. Amsterdam, 1943.
* Pierre H. Dubois: ''Marcellus Emants, een schrijversleven''. Den Haag, 1964. Tweede druk, 1980.
* Nop Maas: ''Marcellus Emants' opvattingen over kunst en leven in de periode 1869-1877''. Dissertatie VU Amsterdam. Arnhem, 1988. {{ISBN|90-70711-27-3}} / {{ISBN|978-90-70711-27-6}}

==External links==
* {{Commonscatinline}}
* {{in lang|nl}} [http://www.dbnl.org/auteurs/auteur.php?id=eman001 Marcellus Emants] at the [[Digital Library for Dutch Literature]]
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Marcellus Emants}}
* {{Librivox author |id=1794}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Emants, Marcellus}}
[[Category:1848 births]]
[[Category:1923 deaths]]
[[Category:19th-century Dutch dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:19th-century Dutch novelists]]
[[Category:19th-century Dutch male writers]]
[[Category:20th-century Dutch dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:20th-century Dutch novelists]]
[[Category:20th-century Dutch male writers]]
[[Category:Dutch male novelists]]
[[Category:People from Voorburg]]
[[Category:Dutch male dramatists and playwrights]]
[[Category:Leiden University alumni]]

Marcellus Emants - Revision history

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