Belgian literature

The English admiral Horatio Nelson, on board his flagship Victory before the Battle of Trafalgar, in 1805. Nelson's successes at sea during the Napoleonic Wars made him a national hero, but he is best remembered for his defeat of a combined French and Spanish fleet at Cape Trafalgar which ended Napoleon's campaign to invade Britain. He was mortally wounded in the conflict.

There are three literary traditions in the area now called Belgium: Flemish, French, and Walloon. For the Flemish tradition see Flemish literature. The French includes the 12th-century novella Aucassin et Nicolette, the literature associated with the 15th-century Burgundian court, 19th-century naturalists, aesthetes, and Symbolists (notably Emile Verhaeren (1855–1916)), and internationally known writers as different as the dramatist Maurice Maeterlinck and the crime novelist Georges Simenon. Local dialects of Latin and French in the Walloon provinces gave rise to a distinctive vernacular literature, mainly poetic and dramatic, dating back to the 12th century but centred on Liège from the 17th century.