Pietje Bell
Pietje Bell or Peter Bell is the main character in the book series of the same name by Chris van Abkoude . As a teacher, Chris van Abkoude noticed that the books, which only described good behavior, were not appreciated by the children. After he had already written several books, Pietje Bell's first volume appeared in 1914. Since Abkoude emigrated to the United States in 1916 , Pietje Bell is the last book he wrote in the Netherlands. The volume Pietje Bell goes flying , published in 1936, is also the last book to be written by Abkoude.
character
Pietje Bell is the son of a cheerful shoemaker from Breestraat (Breestraße) in Rotterdam . Pietje later moves with his parents to the Heerenstraat, where people with higher incomes live. Pietje Bell is a cheeky boy with a heart of gold. He is not angry, tries to help and bring happiness and exhilaration to people. In the end, however, there is always nonsense and something is wrong. Pietje's sister Martha is engaged and later marries Paul Velinga, son of a respected family. Martha constantly tries to turn Pietje into an exemplary boy, which, however, always fails. Paul Velinga has fun with Pietje and is the only one who understands him. Then there is old Aunt Cato with her big nose and a pimple (wart) on it. Pietje tries to tie this off with a thread while the aunt sleeps. After all, the aunt would also like to lose the ugly pimple, Pietje thinks only in good faith. However, the aunt begins to scream and thinks she has tied a wire around her nose.
Pietje's greatest enemy is the druggist Geelman with his super good son Joseph. Pietje herself has no hatred against the Geelmans and tries to help them, which of course goes wrong. The Geelmans don't like Pietje. When one day Pietje's father asks about his son's behavior, he just has to laugh.
As an adult, Pietje would like to become a journalist for the Morgenpost of a fictional Rotterdam newspaper, which previously reported on his pranks in scandals.
He manages to free his friend from the hands of his criminal family, who want to lock his friend up. His friend goes to America and that is what Pietje wants. He went to America as a journalist. Meanwhile, Father Bell is no longer a shoemaker, but has a real shoe shop. Finally Pietje comes back after exposing a gang of criminals in America. He is married and has three sons, all of whom are as "cheeky" as he was back then. Pietje becomes editor-in-chief of the newspaper.
The book series takes place in a Rotterdam before 1940 and that is also quite noticeable, various places in the city that appear in the book no longer exist.
Reactions
The newspapers and the Bible school paper condemned Pietje Bell's books, but the books sold well in the Netherlands , Belgium, and even South Africa .
Five years after the death of Chris van Abkoude, an uproar broke out when the Amsterdam public reading room refused to keep these books in stock.
In the 1970s, a report from the Reading Commission of the Utrecht Public Library stated that the books were out of date and that they used particularly poor Dutch, including incorrect use of proverbs .
Nowadays Pietje Bell's books are in all public libraries and none of the above objections can be heard.
Published titles
The following volumes are part of the Pietje Bell series. They were all published by Kluitman Verlag.
- Pietje Bell, 1914, illustrated by Jan Rinke (original title: Pietje Bell or the fate of a cheeky boy) (original title: Pietje Bell of de lotgevallen van een ondeugenden jongen )
- Pietje Bell's flailing years, 1920, illustrated by Jan Rinke (original title: De vlegeljaren van Pietje Bell )
- The sons of Pietje Bell, 1922, illustrated by DA Bueno de Mesquita (Original title: De zonen van Pietje Bell )
- Pietje Bell's Magic Tricks, 1924, illustrated by DA Bueno de Mesquita (Original title: Pietje Bell's goocheltoeren )
- Pietje Bell in America, 1929, illustrated by DA Bueno de Mesquita (Original title: Pietje Bell in America )
- New adventures by Pietje Bell, 1932, illustrated by Jan Lutz (Original title: Nieuwe avonturen van Pietje Bell )
- Pietje Bell is on the way again, 1934, illustrated by Henri Pieck (Original title: Pietje Bell is weer aan de gang )
- Pietje Bell goes flying, 1936, illustrated by Hans Borrebach (original title: Pietje Bell gaat viegen )
These books still appear unchanged. The following three have been revised by WN van der Sluiys to better adapt them to the time picture:
- Pietje Bell's flailing years
- Pietje Bell's sons
- Pietje Bell in America
filming
The first film adaptation of Pietje Bell appeared on March 26, 1964 under the title: The adventures of Pietje Bell, the street boys of Rotterdam . The book Pietje Bells Magic Tricks was filmed by Henk van der Linden .
The most recent film adaptations are by Maria Peters , who has both scripted and directed .
The first part was published under Pietje Bell and the secret of the black hand in 2002 .
The second part is titled Pietje Bell 2 - The Hunt for the Tsar's Crown and was published in 2003 .
In addition, Maria Peters filmed another, more emotionally charged book by Chris van Abkoude with Kruimeltje .
The musical
On Wednesday, October 19, 2005, the premiere of Peter Bell - The Musical took place in the New Luxor Theater in Rotterdam. It was produced by Ruud de Graaf Musicalproducties. The music comes from Ruud Bos. Script and lyrics are by Edwin de Jongh, the choreography by Perry Dossett. Directed by Arnold Hemmel, this production toured all stages in the Netherlands until the beginning of May 2006. The cast were: Johnny Kraaijkamp jr. , Kiki Classen , Brigitte Nijman , Eric Beekes , Roberto de Groot , Arie Cupé , Stan Limburg , Hans Langhout , István Hitzelberger , Menno Leemhuis , Karel Simons , Remco Vereijken , Annemarie Libbers , Jorien Molenaar and Marit Slinger .