Charles De Coster

Son of a Belgian court official in Munich, De Coster grew up in Brussels, studying literature and philosophy at the Université Libre de Bruxelles. For ten years, he immersed himself in sixteenth-century Flemish folklore, chronicles, and Renaissance French prose.

In 1867, he published The Legend of Ulenspiegel, an epic masterpiece of rebellion where Thyl Ulenspiegel avenges his burned father with the immortal cry: 'The ashes of Klaas beat upon my breast!' Though he died in poverty, his epic was translated worldwide and hailed by Romain Rolland as a masterwork of world literature.