Book of a lifetime: ‘The Life of the Bee’ by Maurice Maeterlinck

From The Independent archive: Magnus Mills revels in Maurice Maeterlinck’s truly remarkable early 20th-century book on bees and their perfect but pitiless society

Maeterlinck shows admiration for bees’ ‘unceasing industry and self-sacrifice for the sake of the common good’ (AP)

At the outset of this book, the author declares that he wishes to speak of the bees “very simply”. He confesses that he is not a scientist and can, therefore, only relate to us the observations he has made during 20 years of beekeeping.

Then, in the deceptive guise of an “interested amateur”, Maurice Maeterlinck embarks on an empirical masterpiece rendered in the form of a colourful epic narrative. The Life of the Bee is truly remarkable.

Shakespeare described bees as “singing masons building roofs of gold”, and, at first sight, the hive may indeed appear to resemble the gilded court of Queen Elizabeth I. Under Maeterlinck’s tuition, however, we soon learn that the hive is at once a monarchy, a republic, a democracy, a model of socialism and a totalitarian state.