Author

Multatuli

Often recognised as the greatest nineteenth-century Dutch writer, Multatuli (Latin for ‘I have borne much’) was the pseudonym of Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820-1887). In 1838 he went to the Dutch East Indies, where he joined the civil service. Despite various disputes with his superiors, his outstanding abilities were soon recognized and he rose through the ranks, but he became increasingly repelled by the brutality of colonial rule and resigned. Years of poverty followed, during which he wandered Europe, struggling to support himself and championing the cause of the Javanese. Max Havelaar, his powerful indictment of colonialism, caused a sensation when it was published in 1860 and has been translated into over forty languages.

Max Havelaar

Max Havelaar

Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company

(Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep, 1860, 352 pages)

Eduard Douwes Dekker wrote Max Havelaar or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company as a condemnation of the abuses of the Dutch colonial administration in the Dutch East Indies.

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Little Walter Pieterse

Little Walter Pieterse

(Athenaeum-Polak & Van Gennep, 1890, 500 pages)

An imaginative boy growing up in a narrow-minded middle-class household, Little Walter Pieterse is the first psychologically complex child protagonist in Dutch literature. The boy wants to meet the expectations of the people around him, but they make demands he can’t fulfil.

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Translations