Max Havelaar

A fierce indictment of colonialism, Max Havelaar is a masterpiece of Dutch literature based on the author's own experience as an adminstrator in the Dutch East Indies in the 1850s.

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.

Multatuli (1820-1887), born Eduard Douwes Dekker in Amsterdam, was one of the Netherlands' greatest writers. He traveled to the Dutch East Indies in 1838, and had a number of government jobs until resigning from his position as assistant commissioner of Lebak, Java, in 1856, when his efforts to protect the Javanese people from their own chiefs were not supported by the colonial government. Upon returning to Europe, he became renowned for his novel Max Havelaar, first published in 1860, which was based on his time in the Dutch East Indies.

Ina Rilke is a translator of Dutch and French and has received the Vondel 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 and was longlisted for the 2017 Man Booker International Prize for his translation of Stefan Hertman's War and Turpentine.