A Dog of Flanders

In December 1871, a story appeared in Lippincott's Magazine that would quietly become one of the most emotionally devastating children's tales ever written. A Dog of Flanders, by the English author Ouida, first reached readers as a magazine serial with a single illustration by E. B. Bensell. It came out in book form on January 25, 1872, published by J. B. Lippincott in Philadelphia as part of a collection called A Leaf in the Storm, and Other Stories. British readers got their edition from Chapman and Hall later that July, and a German English-language edition followed from Tauchnitz in Leipzig by December.

The story centers on Nello, an orphan boy who loses his mother at age two and lives with his grandfather Jehan Daas in a tiny cottage near Antwerp. One day they find a large dog named Patrasche, badly beaten and left for dead by the roadside. They nurse him back to health, and Patrasche becomes their loyal companion, helping them deliver milk and haul goods. Nello teaches himself to draw using iodine and charcoal, dreaming of becoming a painter like his hero Peter Paul Rubens. He longs to see Rubens's masterpieces in the Antwerp Cathedral, but the church charges a franc to view the paintings, which are kept behind a curtain. The family's poverty grows worse, and the narrative moves toward a tragic climax that has haunted readers for more than 150 years.

The novel found its deepest audience far from Flanders. In Japan, Korea, Russia, Ukraine, and the Philippines, A Dog of Flanders became a beloved children's staple for generations. The story first reached Japan in 1908, and a 1975 anime television adaptation was seen by over 30 million viewers. Since the 1980s, the Belgian tourism board erected monuments to attract East Asian visitors. A small statue of Nello and Patrasche stands in the Antwerp suburb of Hoboken, and a marble statue by artist Batist Vermeulen now marks the spot near the cathedral, replacing an earlier plaque donated by Toyota. Three physical monuments to the story exist worldwide. [edit]