The Belgian poet, dramatist, and essayist Count Maurice Maeterlinck (1863-1949) is known for his symbolist dramas and for his writings on insects, flowers, and man's mystical inner life. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature in 1911.

Maurice Maeterlinck was born in Ghent on Aug. 29, 1863. He was destined by his family for a career in law but turned early to the world of letters. In 1886 he went to Paris, where he met Villiers de I'Isle-Adam, Saint-Paul Roux, and Catulle Mendès. Three years later he published a volume of verse, Serres chaudes (Hothouses), and a five-act play, La Princesse Maleine, the first in a long series of dramatic works, among the most notable being two one-act plays, L'Intruse (1890; The Intruder) and Les Aveugles (1890; The Blind); Pelléas et Mélisande (1892); Intérieur (1894); La Mort de Tintagiles (1894); Aglavaine et Sélysette (1896); Monna Vanna (1902); and...