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Max Havelaar - a Dutch civil servant in Java - burns with an insatiable desire to end the ill treatment and oppression inflicted on the native peoples by the colonial administration. Max is an inspirational figure, but he is also a flawed idealist whose vow to protect the Javanese from cruelty ends in his own downfall. In Max Havelaar, Multatuli (the pseudonym for Eduard Douwes Dekker) vividly recreated his own experiences in Java and tellingly depicts the hypocrisy of those who gained from the corrupt coffee trade. Sending shockwaves through the Dutch nation when it was published in 1860, this damning exposé of the terrible conditions in the colonies led to welfare reforms in Java and continues to inspire the fairtrade movement today.
Roy Edwards's vibrant translation conveys the satirical and innovative style of Multatuli's autobiographical polemic. In his introduction, R. P. Meijer discusses the author's tempestuous life and career, the controversy the novel aroused and its unusual narrative structure.
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I have often heard the wives of poets pitied; and undoubtedly, they cannot have too many good qualities if they are to fill that difficult post in life with dignity. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
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On this background, I was at first a little disappointed with the book, as it seemed to focus extensively on the author himself (the novel is largely autobiographical). Douwes Dekker was forced to resign as a Dutch official in Indonesia after he had pointed to the oppression going on in his district. In his book he appears like a pouting child saying "You're stupid 'cause you wouldn't let me play with you anymore."
This impression, however, did not last. There's a very touching passage where the suffering of a young couple (Saïdjah and Adinda) is described, and it becomes clear that Douwes Dekker's / Havelaar's fight with the Dutch regime started because he so desparately wanted to help the people whose protector he had pledged to be.
The literary style of "Max Havelaar" is very innovative for the 19th century. Contrary to his contemporaries, whose language was artificial and stilted, Multatuli used the everyday spoken language of his time, creating a language tone which was quite unique.
The appearance of several narrators is another innovative technique. Multatuli uses the none too sympathetic coffee dealer Batavus Droogstoppel as a contrast to Max Havelaar, making the circumstances around him appear clearer and strengthening the reader's sympathy for Havelaar.
Having read the whole book, I now understand why it is recognized as a masterpiece. Multatuli knows how to chain events and strings of narration together and keep his audience interested. The topic is certainly one that should interest everyone, and it is still an important subject of debate today, because even if Indonesia is no longer ruled by the Dutch, people in many parts of the world are still being oppressed.
The writer, however, isn't trying to make an objective unemotional description of the events in the East Indies, but he is arguing - making a treatise - for a different/better treatment of the people in the Indonesia, basing his treatise on facts and emotions (he stresses the parts which are undisputed facts in a very natural way). For this he uses al his (well developed) rhetorical abilities.
To give some examples of his rhetorical abilities and the working of the structure:
- at some point in the book he argues against painters which try to show the multitude of misery caused by a certain event, by painting the quantity involved. He argues that this makes people numb for the suffering shown on the painting. Why the writer tells this is unclear, until later when he starts telling a dramatic story about the injustice and suffering endured by an Indonesian boy. Then it becomes clear that this suffering is endured by many Indonesians, but instead of making you dazzle with numbers he tries (and succeeds) to make you feel compassionate with one individual. Only to make you realise afterwards that there are/were many individuals which are enduring the same suffering!
- and instead of stating with certain facts: `this is a fact', he makes himself angry about how shocking/outrages something is, only to afterwards state: `it is true: you can look it up here, or there'.
These are just two examples, but the entire book is a rhetoric masterwork!
However, readers expecting a balanced book will be disappointed. The writer didn't strive for consensus, he strove to make an as great as possible contrast between his ideals (good) and the Dutch merchantmen spirit (evil). The treatise worked much in the same way as the books/movies of Micheal Moore do today. Mixing emotion, fact and rhetorical ability (although Multatuli has greater literary abilities) to create a document that polarises society about great contemporary political issues.
I recently asked 8 Dutch university students if they had read it - the most famous book in Dutch literature. 7 had not. One had started but had thrown it away half finished because it was all so depressingly familiar. (Familiar as a picture of present day attitudes in the Netherlands).
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