Max Havelaar

Or, the Coffee Auctions of The Dutch Trading Company

Fiction & Literature
Cover of the book Max Havelaar by Multatuli, New York Review Books
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Multatuli ISBN: 9781681372631
Publisher: New York Review Books Publication: March 5, 2019
Imprint: NYRB Classics Language: English
Author: Multatuli
ISBN: 9781681372631
Publisher: New York Review Books
Publication: March 5, 2019
Imprint: NYRB Classics
Language: English

A fierce indictment of colonialism, Max Havelaar is a masterpiece of Dutch literature based on the author's own experience as an adminstrator in the Dutch East Indies in the 1850s.

A brilliantly inventive fiction that is also a work of burning political outrage, Max Havelaar tells the story of a renegade Dutch colonial administrator’s ultimately unavailing struggle to end the exploitation of the Indonesian peasantry. Havelaar’s impassioned exposé is framed by the fatuous reflections of an Amsterdam coffee trader, Drystubble, into whose hands it has fallen. Thus a tale of the jungles and villages of Indonesia is interknit with one of the houses and warehouses of bourgeois Amsterdam where the tidy profits from faraway brutality not only accrue but are counted as a sign of God’s grace.

Multatuli (meaning “I have suffered greatly”) was the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker, and his novel caused a political storm when it came out in Holland. Max Havelaar, however, is as notable for its art as it is for its politics. Layering not only different stories but different ways of writing—including plays, poems, lists, letters, and a wild accumulation of notes—to furious, hilarious, and disconcerting effect, this masterpiece of Dutch literature confronts the fixities of power with the protean and subversive energy of the imagination.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

A fierce indictment of colonialism, Max Havelaar is a masterpiece of Dutch literature based on the author's own experience as an adminstrator in the Dutch East Indies in the 1850s.

A brilliantly inventive fiction that is also a work of burning political outrage, Max Havelaar tells the story of a renegade Dutch colonial administrator’s ultimately unavailing struggle to end the exploitation of the Indonesian peasantry. Havelaar’s impassioned exposé is framed by the fatuous reflections of an Amsterdam coffee trader, Drystubble, into whose hands it has fallen. Thus a tale of the jungles and villages of Indonesia is interknit with one of the houses and warehouses of bourgeois Amsterdam where the tidy profits from faraway brutality not only accrue but are counted as a sign of God’s grace.

Multatuli (meaning “I have suffered greatly”) was the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker, and his novel caused a political storm when it came out in Holland. Max Havelaar, however, is as notable for its art as it is for its politics. Layering not only different stories but different ways of writing—including plays, poems, lists, letters, and a wild accumulation of notes—to furious, hilarious, and disconcerting effect, this masterpiece of Dutch literature confronts the fixities of power with the protean and subversive energy of the imagination.

More books from New York Review Books

Cover of the book Heaven's Breath by Multatuli
Cover of the book Balcony in the Forest by Multatuli
Cover of the book The Marzipan Pig by Multatuli
Cover of the book What Am I Doing Here? by Multatuli
Cover of the book Songs of Kabir by Multatuli
Cover of the book On Being Blue by Multatuli
Cover of the book Akenfield by Multatuli
Cover of the book Blood Dark by Multatuli
Cover of the book Negrophobia by Multatuli
Cover of the book Henri Duchemin and His Shadows by Multatuli
Cover of the book The Case of Comrade Tulayev by Multatuli
Cover of the book Secret of the Ron Mor Skerry by Multatuli
Cover of the book Grand Hotel by Multatuli
Cover of the book Going to the Dogs by Multatuli
Cover of the book Beirut, I Love You by Multatuli
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy