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Max Havelaar

Multatuli,

Ina Rilke (translator)

David McKay (Goodreads Author) (translator)

3.50 · Rating details · 5,875 ratings · 372 reviews

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 ...more

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Paperback, 336 pages

Published December 4th 2018 by NYRB Classics (first published May 17th 1860)

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Apr 09, 2011 Pvw rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: social-criticism, historical

This book is like an onion. It is based on the collected writings of a certain Max Havelaar, a Dutch assistant-governor of the former colony of Java. His writings, originally in German, are translated by the young student Stern, who resides as a guest in Amsterdam, in the house of the selfish coffe tradesman Droogstoppel. It is this character, Droogstoppel, that supposedly tells the reader the different stories.

I have no idea why Multatuli chose this multi-layered technique. It does however This book is like an onion. It is based on the collected writings of a certain Max Havelaar, a Dutch assistant-governor of the former colony of Java. His writings, originally in German, are translated by the young student Stern, who resides as a guest in Amsterdam, in the house of the selfish coffe tradesman Droogstoppel. It is this character, Droogstoppel, that supposedly tells the reader the different stories.

I have no idea why Multatuli chose this multi-layered technique. It does however allow him to write an extremely strong ending, where the author suddenly emerges from the complexity of the interweaving versions and boastfully proclaims all his characters to be nothing but fictions, created by him. Then he tells them to shut up while he, Multatuli, takes up the pen and addresses the Dutch people and the king directly, to put an end to the misery and the abuse of the native Javan population. One could say he has his Prospero moment.

Max Havelaar's story is almost literally based on the real experiences by Eduard Douwes Dekker, who was an assistant-governor who protested against the abuses and was as a result kicked out of his job. With this book he gets back at the people who are responsible for the injustice. And it worked; after the publication public opinion was appalled, measures were taken and when Holland lost the Indonesion colonies during the World Wars, it remained a sensitive point up to this day that they never really got the chance to set right the wrongs that were comitted.

To be honest, most parts of the book are utterly unreadable because they are composed in the hyper formal tone that nineteenth century clerks used when they wrote each other, on offical matters. The weird thing is that Multatuli/Dekker can actually write very well when he wants to. The ending, as mentioned, is retorically strong and the (sad) love story of the young natives Saidja and Adinda is lively and very moving.

The Dutch sometimes nominate Max Havelaar as the best book written in their language. That certainly isn't true and I wouldn't recommend anyone to read it for fun! However, it may be one of the most important books ever written, because it actually changed things for the better. I believe Marx somewhere says that "philosophers have interpreted the world, but that the important thing is to change it". That, at least, is something that Max Havelaar has done. ...more

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Oct 16, 2014 Czarny Pies rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everybody. This is a great introduction to the economic problems of the third world.

Shelves: dutch-literature, asian-history

Colonialism has had a bad press since the sixteenth century. The problem in such unanimity of opinion, few ever bother to explain exactly how it creates such misery. It this remarkable work which is not a true a novel is the expose of a failing colonial system. Using the pen name of Mutlatuli, Eduard Douwes Dekker, a former dutch colonial administrator explained in great deal how the Dutch colonial administration worked and why it was failing.

Dekker identified three very fundamental problems:

-1- Colonialism has had a bad press since the sixteenth century. The problem in such unanimity of opinion, few ever bother to explain exactly how it creates such misery. It this remarkable work which is not a true a novel is the expose of a failing colonial system. Using the pen name of Mutlatuli, Eduard Douwes Dekker, a former dutch colonial administrator explained in great deal how the Dutch colonial administration worked and why it was failing.

Dekker identified three very fundamental problems:

-1- the Dutch forced their colonies to produce crops for exports so as to generate generate revenues for the home country. Staple crops were neglected creating poverty and starvation in the colonies which had ample quantities of arable with which to feed their populations
-2- the prices of export crops fluctuated wildly, which meant that the export crops could not be relied on to finance the development of an industrial infrastructure (electricity, public water supplies, ports, trains, etc.) Consequently the colonies failed to industrialize
-3- finally taxation of the colonies was excessive significantly compounding the problems created the export oriented economy.

Modern economic historians whether on the right or the left all agree with Multatuli that directing a colonial's agricultural resources into the production of export crops inevitably created poverty and prevented industrialization n the colonies. American industrialized in the north, the farmers produced for a local market. The South which produced cotton for export did not.

Max Havelaar is well written although highly didactic novel about 19th century European materialism that has stood the test of time well. Most of the problems Dekker described still exist in various places through out our planet. Reading his book is great way to start to understand the factors preventing economic growth in the third world.

After finishing this, you might want to read Iceland's Bell by Halldor Laxness which shows many of the problems described by Dekker for Dutch Indonesia also existing in Denmark's North Atlantic colony. ...more

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May 25, 2014 Steve added it · review of another edition

Shelves: dutch

[This book has been translated into many, many languages, including English.]

In the words of J.J. Oversteegen, found in the Afterword of the Dutch edition I read, Max Havelaar (1860 - the uncensored version appeared in 1875) is "de grootste roman, die ooit in Nederland geschreven is" (the greatest novel ever written in the Netherlands). As the Afterword is dated 1983 and not 1883, such an assertion is bound to get my attention(*) since I have a high opinion of the work of Nescio and Harry ...more

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Mar 17, 2019 Tony rated it liked it

Shelves: dutch, nyrb-classics

This is an autobiography, masquerading as a novel cum political tract, wrapped in a homage.

See, Edward Douwes Dekker set sail for Batavia in the Dutch East Indies in 1838, at the hopeful age of 18, to begin his career as a colonial administrator. He proved a tireless worker, yet his rise up the ranks kept getting derailed for what the Dutch called disloyal administration. He became maniacal when he observed corruption and injustice, which grew faster under the Culture System than vegetation in ...more

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Jan 06, 2013 Marc rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: dutch-literature, colonialism, indonesia

If you can read just one Dutch novel, please read this one. Although it's from the mid-19th Century, it still is an impressive indictment against colonial injustice. Highlights are the character of Droogstoppel, the speech to the leaders of Lebak, the little story about the Japanese stone-labourer and the longer story on Saïdjah en Adinda. The middle piece is a bit tiresome, with lots of elaborations, but I still love this novel.

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Jun 23, 2009 Helvry Sinaga rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: indonesia, fiksi-sejarah, rangkasbitung

Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
(Lord Acton, Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, 1887)

Mungkin penyakit yang paling berbahaya tidak akan ditemukan di laboratorium, tetapi dalam semesta kehidupan, dan penyakit itu bernama korupsi. Penyakit tersebut telah lama ada, dan dengan sukses membiakkan dirinya dari generasi ke generasi. Eduard Douwes Dekker yang dikenal dengan nama pena Multatuli, menulis novel ini dengan protagonis Max Havelaar. Max Havelaar adalah ...more

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Sep 22, 2013 Mindy McAdams rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: interested in colonial Dutch East Indies

Shelves: indonesia, southeast-asia

This was the last novel about Indonesia that I read before going there to live for 10 months. It’s not always easy for a 21st century reader to enjoy a 19th century novel, and this one is certainly not going to captivate everyone who undertakes it. I stuck with it even though at times it was annoying. At the end, I was glad to have read it.

I wanted to read it because I have seen many references to this book in my reading about the colonial past of Indonesia. The subtitle, "Or the Coffee Auctions This was the last novel about Indonesia that I read before going there to live for 10 months. It’s not always easy for a 21st century reader to enjoy a 19th century novel, and this one is certainly not going to captivate everyone who undertakes it. I stuck with it even though at times it was annoying. At the end, I was glad to have read it.

I wanted to read it because I have seen many references to this book in my reading about the colonial past of Indonesia. The subtitle, "Or the Coffee Auctions of a Dutch Trading Company," is probably the most misleading tagline ever given to a book, so don’t think for a minute that you will learn anything about coffee auctions here. The subtitle is not unreasonable — just unrepresentative of the story.

I was surprised to find how much of the book is in the voice of a Dickensian coffee broker, Batavus Droogstoppel, who lives in Holland and has never ventured beyond its borders. But in the story-within-a-story format (familiar from other 19th century novels), Droogstoppel has an important part to play — and his stolid Dutch businessman’s attitudes are an artful counterpoint to the core story, which takes place in Java, in the impoverished state of Lebak.

The endearing Max Havelaar is (one learns from the introduction to the Penguin Classics paperback) a proxy for Eduard Douwes Dekker (the author, writing under the pen name Multatuli), who was the Assistant Resident of Lebak in 1856. Max’s miserable experiences with the Regent, the Resident and the Governor General (the first a Javanese noble, and the other two Dutch colonial administrators) serve to illustrate most vividly the oppression of the majority of the people of Java under Dutch rule. It’s clear that one reason this book is so often mentioned in histories of the period is the level of detail about how the system worked — how the fabulous profits flowing out of the Indies and into Holland encouraged the colonial administrators to pretend they did not know how the local people were exploited to produce those profits.

I thought often of slavery in North America while I was reading this book. The mechanics and interpersonal relationships of the system of slavery were different, but I think the selective blindness of the manufacturers of the North (profiting from the raw materials of the South) had a lot in common with the ignorance of the businessmen in Holland who profited from the raw materials of the Indies.

Just as the publication of Uncle Tom s Cabin in 1851 changed Americans’ thinking about slavery, the publication of Max Havelaar changed what the Dutch thought about the people in the Indies. It could no longer be imagined that they were being compensated for the labor that yielded the coffee and sugar that made Holland rich — in fact they were starving to death, or being forced to leave their own lands to avoid starvation. ...more

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Nov 22, 2015 Laura marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction-19th-century, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, e-books, dutch-literature

You may read online here.

Thanks dear Wanda for providing this useful link.

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Jul 05, 2019 Avery rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 100-best-books-of-all-time

This is definitely one of the best novels ever written in Dutch, as well as one of the best books ever written by a colonialist reflecting on the system of colonialism. It is enjoyable to read the original alongside the 50 pages of fiery endnotes, taken from a later edition, in which the author spills unlimited and ferocious hatred for the book's duplicitous critics who belittled the horrors he saw in Java and slandered him. Multatuli was not the modern author who leaves the public to decide for This is definitely one of the best novels ever written in Dutch, as well as one of the best books ever written by a colonialist reflecting on the system of colonialism. It is enjoyable to read the original alongside the 50 pages of fiery endnotes, taken from a later edition, in which the author spills unlimited and ferocious hatred for the book's duplicitous critics who belittled the horrors he saw in Java and slandered him. Multatuli was not the modern author who leaves the public to decide for themselves the meaning of his book and flees into seclusion. In these endnotes, he boldly names the real names of both his critics and the characters in the book, revealing it to be a roman à clef. Contemptuously citing the haters' bad arguments and failure to address his central points, he reminds us that the ad hominem attacks so common on Twitter are nothing new.

The frame story around the book is probably the best frame story I have read. In it, the author hands over the narration to the sort of small-minded merchant who he expects will be given the book (by his wife perhaps). We are shown that where Americans reading Uncle Tom's Cabin were aware of slavery and needed a moralistic lesson in the evils of the system, the Dutch were ignorant of what was happening in Indonesia — and felt SATISFIED by their ignorance out of a feeling that they should all mind their own business. It is emphasized how the Dutch shut Indonesia out of their worlds, not from any feeling of ethnic or cultural superiority, but simply from an intense desire to avoid hearing about distant scandals that might put the morality of their local business into question. In fact, quite unlike the British of that time, most Dutch did not even know how Indonesia was administered or how it related to their burgeoning import business. Even today, if you visit the Netherlands, you will find a collective forgetting, a telling absence of their colonial impact in their museums, books, and galleries — this incuriosity, I think, is the root of their altogether poor aesthetic sense. Multatuli's pointed satire of the narrow mercantile soul is a good reminder of why the Netherlands has produced so little good fiction, and it contains an extravagant and hilarious self-caricature by the long-suffering author.

The story itself has been criticized as lacking literary merit, but I found the opposite. Like the Tale of Genji, Max Havelaar is both an intensely psychological and personal work that captures an entire society, as well as a manifesto on what it means to write a story. If this means it breaks the rules of storytelling rigidly obeyed by a thousand dusty romances, now mouldering unread in a university library and soon to be digitized and buried in an off-site archive, so be it!

The edition I review is a great new translation, bringing out the confrontational and persuasive language of the original. ...more

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Feb 21, 2013 Sylvia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: challenge-2013, dutch-literature

This is what you called a must read for very Dutch student studying Dutch literature.
Eduard Douwes Dekker is telling in this novel his life as an assistent-resident (Dutch official in former Dutch Indië).
I have read this book several times as a student. Dekker's work was one of my specialism. His way of writing was new in the 19th century and the book was received with negative and positive critism.
He accused the Dutch Goverment of abuse in their colony, which was used only to get as many ...more

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Aug 13, 2012 Jeske rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015, boxall-s-list-read, audiobook, owned-books, philosophy, auto-biographies-true-stories

Wow, i knew the Netherlands has a deeply shameful history when it comes to their colonies in the East Indies.. but to read it in so much detail.. :( I was deeply vexed and wanted to kick something towards the end of the book. I could so empathize with the anger of Max Havelaar. How could such injustice exist for so long?!
Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker) used an interesting way to tell the story, which i liked. From what i've learnt about him in this book, he seemed a person i would have loved to ...more

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Sep 27, 2012 Jane rated it liked it · review of another edition

Read online: https://en.m.wikisource.org/wiki/Max_...

Scathing indictment of colonialism. This is tempting me to reread.

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Apr 12, 2018 Calzean rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century-lit, culture-indonesia, author-netherlands, culture-netherlands

There is a lot of complexity in the structure used to tell this tale. Based on the collected writings of a Max Havelaar, a Dutch assistant-governor of the former colony of Java. His writings, originally in German, are translated by a young student residing in the house of the Droogstoppel.
Droogstoppel is a wealthy coffee trader, a snob but his insights provide a surprising level of humour.
Havelaar is a frustrated administrator who reveals the corruption of the Dutch in it's management of its ...more

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Dec 08, 2016 Claire rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die

There are books and there are monuments. This book is a monument. If you have never read it, and you even remotely are interested in classics, I suggest you go read it as soon as possible.

The novel, published more than 150 years ago, reads like a contemporary attack at the vices of bureaucracy. While Max Havelaar is a complaint about the awful practices of colonialist administration, the slowness of acting, the corruption, the enrichment of certain groups are still valid. What Multatuli obtains ...more

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Jan 13, 2016 Eva rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Not my cup of tea at all.

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Feb 15, 2015 Odette Brethouwer rated it liked it · review of another edition

If ou don't read some book in high-school, you never read the. My father owns a lovely old leather edition of this book, one he got from his parents when he decided to study Dutch. I loved that I read a beautiful, old edition like that. I remembered I brought this book with me on summer holiday to a lovely house in a little village in France. I always read a lot during summer holidays, and I've already decided to read this book for my last year of high-school. I figured, why not starting the ...more

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Nov 05, 2017 Laura (bbliophile) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Why do all of the books I read for school suck so much?

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Jul 05, 2017 Jolien marked it as dnf · review of another edition

Shelves: school

now that I passed my exam I WILL NEVER FINISH THIS GODDAMN BOOK.
I despised this.

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Feb 08, 2019 MJ Nicholls rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: novels, penguin-classics, pre-1900s, senryu-reviews, western-europe

Senryu Review:

Narratorial
pandemonium abounds
in scathing Dutch rant

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Jul 06, 2018 Walter VDE rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book

A difficult one this one.
Multatuli (Eduard Douwes Dekker) wrote this novel about an Administrative Officer, Max Havelaar, in the Dutch Indies during the 19th century. Havelaar tries to fight the extortion of the Javanese by their local chiefs, but gets opposed by his own corrupt superiors and forced to resign.
It's basically the life story of Dekker himself.
It's a strong statement against colonization and extortion of the natives and as such should deserve the full five stars. But how can you ...more

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Jun 11, 2017 Sai rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: bia-bookclub

This is the first real "Victorian era" literature book I've read. It does a golden job of elucidating what a modern day hero looks like. The world we live in is complex, filled with systems that no one person can ever understand, let alone transform or overthrow. Max Havelaar, the titular character is a spirited navigator of a complex world like ours, wherein the desired outcome is seldom easily reached.

Along those lines, the modern world with its high bureaucratic seeming walls, which act as ...more

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May 26, 2019 Louise rated it liked it

Shelves: nyrb-classics, translation, dutch

Not a conventionally written novel but an interesting mixed bag of humour, exposé, poetry, letters and extensive notes.

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Feb 16, 2014 Kristel rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books, 1001-challenge

The story of Max Havelaar is a social commentary on colonialism as well as a political statement of the abuse of government and the ineffectiveness of Christianity without charity. The story is set in 1853 or there abouts in Indonesia (Java) at that time and is the story of why change is almost impossible in systems that are as large as governments and even a good person is basically unable to make any good change.

This is a 4 star read for me. I hated the poor condition of my kindle edition and ...more

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Dec 21, 2014 Jacob Boorsma rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I got one word to describe this book: OUTDATED.

I mean, the book has some nice elements and other things you would like to see in a book, but in this form, the information just doesn't appeal because the book is so outdated.

Also, Multatuli is far too ambitious for a man of his writing skills, with a far too big ego, and it annoys me.

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Jan 12, 2016 Greta rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fictionalized-history

Max Havelaar: Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company

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Feb 01, 2016 Quentin Zero rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Boring, outdated, the writer doesn't even think this is a good book. Please

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Aug 15, 2018 Fuat rated it liked it · review of another edition

"I shall speak of men and women, of creatures who live and move and have their being as we do. To be sure, those who shun emotion and wish to avoid the pain of pity will say that these men and women are yellow or brown--many call them black; and for those people, the difference in colour is reason enough for turning their eyes away from such misery, or, if they deign to look down at it at all, to look down at it without emotion."

Max Havelaar, a bright and altruistic Assistant Resident of Lebak "I shall speak of men and women, of creatures who live and move and have their being as we do. To be sure, those who shun emotion and wish to avoid the pain of pity will say that these men and women are yellow or brown--many call them black; and for those people, the difference in colour is reason enough for turning their eyes away from such misery, or, if they deign to look down at it at all, to look down at it without emotion."

Max Havelaar, a bright and altruistic Assistant Resident of Lebak (Lebak is a regency in Java Island), his job was to make reports to his superior about the development in the area he was assigned for. Many Assistant Resident in Dutch East Indies (presently Indonesia) tend to overlook the harsh treatment inflicted by the native Regent (Sultan, Sunan, Prince, and such) to native peoples in which they were horribly abused, exploited and opressed. But not Max Havelaar, he was burned with desire to put an end to such cruelty.

Max Havelaar was clearly written as an autobiography by Multatuli, a pseudonym for Eduard Douwes Dekker who did assigned as a Assistant Resident of Lebak in 1856. His attempt to bring justice to the locals in Lebak resulted in his removal from the position and he was reduced to poverty. He wrote this book in order to expose this scandal to his government and to the public.

There's is no doubt that Max Havelaar is an important piece of work, this book was said to make an impact that encourage fair trade movement (according the back of the cover of this book). But I find that his writing format is quite odd and often hard to follow. First of all, the story started in Amsterdam with a somewhat unrelated character telling his somewhat unrelated story. And it took so long to get into the main story. And this book have like three narrators; a haughty and religious hypocrite Droogstoopel, a sympathetic German Stern, and Max Havelar himself that teels a very detail and extensive story within a story of his own account. This actually give a vivid sense of realism but really drag the pacing of the story a lot, I think.

The highlight of the book was a chapter about a local boy name Saijah and his buffalo. A heartbreaking story that represented cruel treatment received by locals. I found this story really moving and too much to take.

As an Indonesian, I wonder if the situation has changed in our country now? I mean, I can still see everywhere that our own people, not foreigner, doesn't hesitate even a bit to use how much power they have to take advantage of others. I guess we haven't changed much. But I will always long for a Max Havelaar, who determined to bring justice to the wretched, although I wouldn't hold my breath.

"Halfheartedness leads to nothing. Half good is no good. Half truth are untruths." ...more

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May 29, 2017 Julia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

In the form of memoires of fictional character Max Havelaar the author shares his personal memoirs of the life of one of the civil servants in the Dutch colony in Indonesia. The book describes the way the colonial economy had functioned these days: colonial company had been buying goods from locals for outrageously cut-rate prices, then shipped and sold to Europe and the USA. For example, when we say “English tea”, obviously we mean Indian tea, which colonial British companies purchased the very In the form of memoires of fictional character Max Havelaar the author shares his personal memoirs of the life of one of the civil servants in the Dutch colony in Indonesia. The book describes the way the colonial economy had functioned these days: colonial company had been buying goods from locals for outrageously cut-rate prices, then shipped and sold to Europe and the USA. For example, when we say “English tea”, obviously we mean Indian tea, which colonial British companies purchased the very same way from locals and shipped to the UK and Europe under the label of English tea. The same thing goes with coffee, rubber and other commodities in the case of Netherlands colonies in Indonesia. As a civil servant of Dutch administration in the colony, the author had the chance to fully perceive the arduous life of simple peasants who grew and then collected and processed coffee beans. The author often mentions pieces of injustice and even criminal abuse towards locals from the colonial authorities and local big shots. The big story of any country is made of millions of small stories of usual people, doing their daily shores, solving their everyday issues, this is, as I see it, the main point of the story of “Max Havelaar…”.

The author chose a peculiar technique, thus speaking on behalf of the principal characters and the writer himself, emerging from time to time. I especially admire that when speaking from the part of, for instance, the hard boiled and down-to-earth tradesman, the author, just like a professional actor, used the whole set of means of expression, such as specific rhythm of text attributable to this type of businessmen, specific terms and the way of phrasal construction. All of this gave the feeling that we met a real trader to the very roots of his vocation.

I am giving it four stars because it is a notable memorial to the colonial period, and it inspires to search for more sources to better understand people and history of that time in order to get a better perception on what is going on today, and due to the topic it would be interesting perhaps mostly to those who is keen to know more on the history of colonialism.

It took me almost a year to get this book, and it is certainly worth it.
...more

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Jul 06, 2018 Greta rated it liked it · review of another edition

Multatuli caused a big stir in The Netherlands when his book, Max Havelaar, was published in 1860. He succeeded in exposing the massive abuse of power in the Dutch East Indies, and conditions for the native people of Java were improved. The cost was high for the author, his wife & child when he was dismissed for revelations of corruption abroad.

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Jun 02, 2018 Merel rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: reading-challenge-2018

I had to read this book for school, didn't really like it.

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About Multatuli

Multatuli

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Eduard Douwes Dekker, better known by his pen name Multatuli (from Latin multa tuli, "I have suffered much"), was a Dutch writer famous for his satirical novel, Max Havelaar (1860) in which he denounced the abuses of colonialism in the colony of the Dutch East Indies (today's Indonesia). He is considered one of the Netherlands' greatest authors.

Determined to expose the scandals he had witnessed ...more