Multatuli
1820–1887
Biography
Multatuli was the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker (1820–1887), a Dutch writer born in Amsterdam. He spent years as an official in the Dutch East Indies, the colony that is now Indonesia, and served for a time in the Lebak district of Java. He took the name Multatuli, a Latin phrase meaning roughly 'I have suffered much', and it fitted the grievances that drove his writing. After he left colonial service he lived mostly in Europe, often short of money, and he died in Germany in 1887.
His best-known book is Max Havelaar, published in 1860 under the full title Max Havelaar: Of de koffiveilingen der Nederlandsche Handelsmaatschappy, which means roughly 'or the coffee auctions of the Dutch Trading Company'. The novel attacks the way the Dutch colonial government and its trading company squeezed the Javanese peasants through forced coffee cultivation and through local rulers who were pressed to meet quotas. Its most affecting episode is the story of Saïdjah and Adinda, a Javanese couple whose love is broken by the system. Satire, fiction and direct accusation are mixed together, which is part of why the book still startles readers.
The book was not an immediate success, but it became one of the most discussed works in Dutch literature and is now counted among the greatest books the Netherlands has produced. On this site it is listed under its full Dutch title. Readers meeting it here will find a Dutch classic that is also an argument, written by a man whose anger at colonial injustice gave his prose a lasting edge.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
Max Havelaar: Of de koffiveilingen der Nederlandsche Handelsmaatschappy
by Multatuli
Max Havelaar; or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company is an 1860 novel by Multatuli (the pen name of Eduard Douwes Dekker), which played a key role in shaping and modifying Dutch colonial policy in the Dutch East Indies in the nineteenth and early twentieth century.…
Summary from Wikipedia: Max Havelaar (CC BY-SA 4.0)