Waller, Max

(also Siebel; both pseudonyms of Maurice Warlomont). Born Feb. 24, 1860, in Brussels; died there Mar. 6, 1889. Belgian writer who wrote in French.

In the 1880’s, Waller was at the head of a group of writers called Young Belgium, and he strove to achieve a distinctive national Belgian literature. In the collections of short stories The Caprices of Love (1883) and The Kiss (1888) he ironically described the lives of the middle-class citizens of Brussels. His novels A Foolish Life (1883), Greta Friedman (1885), Daisy (1892, published posthumously), and Brigitta Ostend (1930, published posthumously) are distinguished by humor and observation. In his poetry, Waller combined humor, irony, and sentimentality (for example, in Siebel’s Flute, 1891). He wrote the plays Jeannet Bijou (1886) and Poison (1888), lectures on modern literature, and a critical study of Goethe’s Faust (1882).