Max Havelaar: Or, the Coffee Auctions of The Dutch Trading Company (New York Review Books Classics) - Softcover

Multatuli, Multatuli

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1681372622 ISBN 13: 9781681372624

Publisher: NYRB Classics, 2019

Synopsis

"The Dutch East Indies, January 1856. The new assistant resident, Max Havelaar, arrives in the remote regency of Lebak, preceded by his reputation as a quixotic idealist. Some think him a fool, others a genius, but "one thing is certain: he was an unusual man, and worthy of observation." As Havelaar crusades against corruption, he makes a few unsettling observations of his own. Why don''t the financial statements add up? Did the previous assistant resident really die a natural death? And why are his superiors obstructing his efforts to learn the truth? A few years later in Amsterdam, the stolid Dutch coffee broker Batavus Drystubble obtains Havelaar''s papers from the threadbare Shawlman, who wanders the streets in search of work. Drystubble pores over thedocuments in the hopes of lucrative revelations about the coffee trade. But his spirited young son Frits and romanticsouled German assistant Ernest Stern discover something much more astonishing: a scandal that strikes at the heart of the whole Dutch colonial enterprise... Based on the author''s true experiences as an administrator in Java, Max Havelaar is a fiery indictment of colonial misrule and one of the masterpieces of Dutch literature. This is the first new English translation of Multatuli''s furious and funny masterpiece in more than fifty years"--

About this title

About the Author

Multatuli (the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker; 1820-1887) was born in Amsterdam and served as a colonial official in the Dutch East Indies (present-day Indonesia) for almost twenty years. His protests against abuses in the Dutch colonial system led to tension with his superiors and eventually to his resignation in 1856. He hoped that the novel Max Havelaar (1860), by bringing the problems to public attention, would lead to meaningful reform and his reinstatement as a senior official. The book was a great success and provoked public and political debate, eventually leading to changes in colonial policy, and Multatuli became a celebrated author. Yet he argued that these changes did not truly address the issues he had exposed, and was disappointed that Max Havelaar had not propelled him into an illustrious career in public administration or politics. He eventually concluded that Dutch colonialism was doomed to fail. Multatuli's social criticism continued in his later work, such as the popular play School for Princes (1872) and the semiautobiographical novel Woutertje Pieterse (1890), about a young boy in late eighteenth century Amsterdam. Today he is regarded as Holland's greatest writer of the nineteenth century and the father of contemporary Dutch literature. His many admirers have included D.H. Lawrence and Sigmund Freud.

Ina Rilke is a translator of Dutch and French and has received the Vondel Translation Prize, the Scott Moncrieff Prize, and the Flemish Culture Prize for her translations. She lives in Amsterdam and Paris.

David McKay is a translator of Dutch literature living in The Hague. He received the Vondel Translation Prize in 2018 for War and Turpentine by Stefan Hertmans.

Pramoedya Ananta Toer (1925-2006) was born on the Indonesian island of Java. He is best known for the novels that make up his Buru Quartet, which relates the struggle of Indonesia to liberate itself from the Dutch. Among the honors he received were the PEN Freedom to Write Award and the Ramon Magsaysay Award.

From the Back Cover

The Dutch East Indies, January 1856. The new assistant resident, Max Havelaar, arrives in the remote regency of Lebak, preceded by his reputation as a quixotic idealist. Some think him a fool, others a genius, but "one thing is certain: he was an unusual man, and worthy of observation." As Havelaar crusades against corruption, he makes a few unsettling observations of his own. Why don't the financial statements add up? Was the previous assistant resident's death really an accident? And why are his superiors obstructing his efforts to learn the truth?
A few years later in Amsterdam, the stolid Dutch coffee broker Batavus Drystubble obtains Havelaar's papers from the threadbare Scarfman, who wanders the streets in search of work. Drystubble pores over the documents in the hopes of lucrative revelations about the coffee trade. But his spirited young son Frits and romanticsouled German assistant Ernest Stern discover something much more astonishing: a scandal that strikes at the heart of the whole Dutch colonial enterprise... Based on the author's true experiences as an administrator in Java, Max Havelaar is a fiery indictment of colonial misrule and one of the masterpieces of Dutch literature. This is the first new English translation of Multatuli's furious and funny masterpiece in more than fifty years.

Edition details

• Publisher: NYRB Classics
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1681372622
• ISBN 13: 9781681372624
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 336