Virginie Loveling


Virginie Loveling was a Flemish author of poetry, novels, essays and children's stories. She also wrote under the pseudonym W. E. C. Walter.

Biography

Virginie Loveling was born in Nevele in East Flanders, Belgium. She was the younger sister of Rosalie Loveling, also an author, with whom she co-wrote part of her oeuvre. After the death of their father, Herman Loveling, the family moved to Ghent, where the sisters moved in circles of French-speaking, mainly anti-clerical intelligentsia before eventually returning to Nevele.
Together with her sister, she wrote realistic and descriptive poetry with a romantic undertone. They also published two collections of essays on rural communities as well as on city bourgeoisie.
After her sister's death in 1875, she authored children's stories along with novels and essays that paint a poignant picture of the era. With a noted intellectual and psychological angle, they treat—for that time—controversial subjects like heredity, education, religion and women's rights. She also co-authored Levensleer, a humoristic take on Ghent's French-speaking bourgeoisie with her nephew Cyriel Buysse.
Official recognition followed with the novel Een dure eed in 1891, which received the quinquennial prize for Dutch literature.
Virginie Loveling died on 1 December 1923 in Nevele.

Honours