The Fiery Furnace: A Story from the Time of the Dragonnades in the Netherlands

Wormser, J. A., 1845-1916Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 2.9

Word count: 276K words
Chapters: 28

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.De Vurige Oven: Een verhaal uit den tijd der dragonades in Nederland by WormserAuthor: Wormser, J. A., 1845-1916,Language: Dutch, Class: PT: Language and Literatures: Germanic, Scandinavian, and Icelandic literatures, Release Date: Dec 10, 2008

Editor's review

This book is a historical novel by the Dutch author J. A. Wormser, set against the background of the "Dragonnades" in Dutch history. The so-called "Dragonnades" refer to the historical policy during the reign of Louis XIV of France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of forcing Protestants to convert by quartering dragoons in their homes; its effects also reached the Netherlands. Titled "The Fiery Furnace," the novel carries a clear metaphorical meaning of religious persecution and steadfast faith. As a nineteenth-century historical novel, it combines popular narrative with historical education: on the one hand, it presents ordinary people's choices and suffering under religious conflict through the fates of its characters; on the other, it preserves the historical memory of the Protestant perspective of its time. Readers can thereby learn how Dutch literature handles themes of religious history and become acquainted with the narrative style of nineteenth-century historical fiction. This book is a Dutch-language text, freely distributed by Project Gutenberg, and is suitable as supplementary reading for the study of Dutch literature, religious history, or the European historical novel. Readers are advised to read it in conjunction with the historical background of European religious conflicts in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to better understand the plot and the characters' motivations.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers studying Dutch literature or the European historical novel
Readers interested in European Protestant history after the Reformation
Those with some reading ability in Dutch who wish to practice reading original texts
Literary enthusiasts interested in the theme of religious persecution in historical fiction

Not a good fit for

Readers without Dutch reading ability and without access to a translation
Readers expecting light, entertaining modern fiction
Readers uninterested in religious-historical themes

Reading tips

Learn about the historical background of the "Dragonnades" before reading to help grasp the plot's conflicts.
Read alongside historical materials on the Dutch Golden Age and the Reformation for comparison.
If reading Dutch is difficult, first use a dictionary to read a summary, then closely read key chapters.
Pay attention to the psychological portrayal of characters under pressure of faith and appreciate the narrative techniques of historical fiction.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

What do the "Dragonnades" refer to?

They refer to the policy during the reign of Louis XIV of France in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries of forcing Protestants to convert to Catholicism by quartering dragoons in residents' homes and other means. This policy caused many Protestants to flee and also affected surrounding regions, including the Netherlands. This book's narrative is set against this historical period.

Is this book written in Dutch? How difficult is it to read?

Yes, the original text of this book is in Dutch and belongs to nineteenth-century historical fiction; its language style differs somewhat from modern Dutch and poses certain difficulties for non-native readers. It is recommended that readers have intermediate or higher Dutch reading ability, or use a dictionary and historical background materials to assist their reading.

Is this book suitable for learning about Dutch history?

It can be used as supplementary reading. It is a historical novel rather than a work of historiography, and its narrative contains literary fiction and the perspective of the author's era. Readers may read it alongside formal historical materials to sense the historical memory of religious persecution among Protestant communities of the time, but it should not be used as the sole source of historical evidence.

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About the author

Wormser, J. A., 1845-1916 Author · 1845–1916

J. A. Wormser (1845–1916) is an author about whom little biographical information is publicly available; neither his nationality nor his educational background is clearly recorded. Only one work by him is held in the collection, De Vurige Oven: Een verhaal uit den tijd der dragonades in Nederland, whose title indicates a historical narrative set against the background of the dragonnades in the Netherlands. The work places its story within religious conflict and the upheavals of its era, showing clear features of historical fiction and focusing on individuals and their choices under persecution. Because other biographical materials are lacking, it is difficult to assess his full body of work, the development of his style, or his literary influence; this single work confirms only that his writing dealt with Dutch historical themes and presented the religious and social tensions of a particular period through narrative.