Themanummer Jacob van Lennep

Rather than aiming at an elegy or a biography of Jacob van Lennep (1802-1868), the popular nineteenth-century Dutch poet and novelist, this special issue of De Negentiende Eeuw takes Van Lennep’s life and work only as viewpoints on nineteenth-century Dutch culture and society as a whole. It consists of the texts of five Jacob van Lennep Lectures, held in Amsterdam since 2009. Generally speaking, the articles discuss three themes: the role of a literary author in public debate and society, the applicability of the concept of ‘Romanticism’ to the Netherlands, and some intellectual forms of historicism from the Netherlands and Europe.