The Story of André Cornélis

The narrator offers a private confession that traces early schooldays, the shock of a father's unexplained death, and the jealousy stirred by his mother's remarriage. He recalls dormitory life, religious rituals, and an imaginative habit used to escape pain, while silence and secrecy shape his relationships and choices. Memory and introspection propel the account as a domestic tragedy gradually emerges and the narrator struggles with conscience and a desire for relief. The work examines guilt, obsession, the corrosive effects of suppressed grief, and the uneasy search for consolation amid inward suffering.