The ‘shiver’ Max Havelaar sent through the Netherlands in 1860, was followed by a series of ‘aftershocks’, caused by, for example, the radical Ideën (Ideas, 1862-1877), the frank Minnebrieven (“Love-letters”) (1861) and the moving “Gebed van den onwetende” (“Prayer of the ignorant”), which is said to have inspired painter Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) and the Dutch Queen Wilhelmina (1880-1962). Throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries Multatuli became an example for generations of liberal thinkers, feminists, socialists, teachers and artists in the Low Countries. Abroad, his writings were read by famous intellectuals like Freud, Lenin and Mahler. Multatuli’s work has always been greatly admired, and, simultaneously, heavily attacked. Nowadays, it still has the power to move and provoke its readers. Why? The best way to find out is to read Multatuli’s writings yourself, with, as a starting point, Max Havelaar. The novel has been published many times, in various editions, and translated into English more than once, most recently by #Roy Edwards. Anyone who is interested in the author’s childhood in Amsterdam should read Woutertje Pieterse. A tour de force of Multatuli’s unique writing-style are his ##Letters, which are scattered through the complete works (Volledige Werken, 1950-1995). Especially interesting is the early letter to friend and publisher A.C. Krüseman (1851), which came out in a separate edition in 1995, with an afterword by Annemarie Kets-Vree, under the title Ik ben zwanger van denkbeelden (“I am full of ideas”).
Click >here for a full list of Multatuli’s primary works in Dutch.
From the moment Max Havelaar was published, both his admirers and adversaries have written articles, critical reviews and books about Multatuli. Most recent is the biography by Dik van der Meulen, Multatuli. Leven en werk van Eduard Douwes Dekker (2002). Other biographies, such as Het leven en werken van Eduard Douwes Dekker by J. de Gruyter (1920) and Multatuli by J. van den Bergh van Eysinga-Elias, have become somewhat out-dated. Then there are some, which describe only half of Multatuli’s life, like Eduard Douwes Dekker. Zijn jeugd en Indische jaren by J. Saks (1937) and the important work on Multatuli’s years in the East Indies, De man van Lebak (1956), written by the Dutch author E. Du Perron in one month and originally entitled De zenuwlijder van Lebak (“The neuropath of Lebak”). This book is a plea for Douwes Dekker’s actions as a colonial civil servant in Lebak. Du Perron was planning to write a sequel, about Multatuli’s writer’s years, but, unfortunately, died before he could start this work. The same thing happened to Paul van ‘t Veer, whose biography, Het leven van Multatuli (1979), describes the life of Douwes Dekker before Max Havelaar. Van ’t Veer’s book was followed by Multatuli. Van blanke radja tot bedelman, by Hans van Straaten, in 1995.
One of the most interesting and accessible books on Multatuli’s life and works is De raadselachtige Multatuli (1987) by the Dutch writer Willem Frederik Hermans (1921-1995 ). Some have argued that the book is a veiled self-portrait of Hermans himself. And indeed, Multatuli and Hermans had much in common. Herman’s Mandarijnen op zwavelzuur (1964) (“Mandarins on sulphuric acid”) is often compared with Max Havelaar because of its polemical power and ‘poisonous’ character. De raadselachtige Multatuli is therefore more than a biography alone: it is a literary homage from oneillustrious author to the other, from Hermans to the ‘mysterious’ Multatuli.
The best reference book on Multatuli is K. ter Laan’s Multatuli Encyclopedie, edited by Chantal Keijspers (1995). This encyclopedia is a ‘must’, because of all the interesting, sometimes very unexpected facts about Multatuli and others connected with him and his works.
Click >here for a list of selected secondary literature in Dutch on Multatuli and Max Havelaar.
