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14 obres 207 Membres 12 Ressenyes

Sobre l'autor

Obres de Dik van der Meulen

Etiquetat

Coneixement comú

Nom normalitzat
Meulen, Dik van der
Data de naixement
1963
Gènere
male
Nacionalitat
Nederland
Premis i honors
AKO Literatuurprijs (2003)

Membres

Ressenyes

Eduard Douwes Dekker also known under his pen name Multatuli is considered one of the greatest Dutch writers. This reputation is as much based on Dutch people's self-identification with Multatuli as a fighter against injustice, as his work, which, apart from the masterpiece Max Havelaar is rather fragmentary and modest. I have both the one-volume cloth edition of 2002, which has a total of 912 pages, as well as the AKO two-volume hardback edition of 2003, which has a total of 891 pages in the two volumes combined. The paper quality and quality of the illustrations in the Sun edition is much better than the AKO edition. However, I read the two volumes of the AKO edition.

Obviously, I have already read and re-read the Max Havelaar and selections from his collected works. Regretfully, I have no access to the collected works in the 10-volume Elsevier edition of 1888, which I left behind at my Mum's home while in China. However, from that edition I have read parts of the Ideeën (Ideas) which takes up seven or eight out of ten volumes. The Ideeën (Ideas) consist in a sort of scrap book work or aphorisms or all sorts of topics, but is also comprises a large number of fragments which were posthumously compiled and put together by his widow to form the novel Woutertje Pieterse. The remaining works are two plays and some essay-like works. Except for the Max Havelaar none of those works were very popular of widely published in his life time. Like contemporaries in the Nineteenth Century, Eduard Douwes Dekker supplemented his income by writing for newspapers and giving lectures.

The wonderful experience of reading a biography is that you end up with a totally new idea of an author, particularly the biographies of the doorstopper type. In almost each case, the reading of a big biography turned out a large panorama on authors that I had never expected, opening vast vistas on life and works I would sometimes be unfamiliar with and offering a wealth of ideas resulting in the authors rising from the mist of the past. One rarely invests so much reading time in authors one is not already very familiar with or has a profound interest in. You may have read dozens of books by an author and still have no idea of their person. Knowledge of the person of the author is no prerequisite for enjoying their work, but as a piece of historical fiction it enlightens the history of the period, and makes clear what kind of person the writer (subject) is. And the wonderful thing is that sometimes the writer (subject) comes out as a shining hero, but very often turn out to be the most miserable miser. The image that arises from a biography is sometimes hard to reconcile with the impression I had of an author before reading their biography, but I would not view that as a disappointment, but rather as a tremendously invigorating surprise.

Dik van der Meulen's biography Multatuli. Leven en werk van Eduard Douwes Dekker is cleverly structured in three parts. In the AKO edition volume 1 consists of part 1 "Jeugd" (Youth) and part 2 "Indische jaren" (Years in the Indies), while volume 2 covers part 3 "Schrijversjaren" (Years as a writer).

Eduard Douwes Dekker is described in a succinct biography of just over 100 pages. Many biographical details are supposed to have been realistically incorporated in the fragmentary work Woutertje Pieterse, suggesting we may know more about Eduard from the experiences of Woutertje.

The significance of Eduard Douwes Dekker is founded in his life as a colonial administrator in the former colonial Dutch Indies. Colonial rule in the Dutch colony was unlike for example British rule in India. To understand the system of Dutch colonial rule in the Dutch East Indies reading Cees Fasseur's De indologen. Ambtenaren voor de Oost 1825-1950 is indispensable. The Dutch, being vastly outnumbered by the native population ruled using a system of co-operation with local rulers and repression. The colonial administration was also relatively small. As a result of the different colonial systems, the English language emerged as a world language, while Dutch worldwide has only a moderate number of speakers, as it was never made the language of colonial rule. Part 2 of the bography aboutEduard Douwes Dekker's years as a colonial administrator in the Dutch East Indies is a boring part to read. While in the employ of the colonial service, Dekker was more of a failure than a trouble maker. The biography also puts Dekker's role in the right perspective, stripping it of the of the heroic patina it latere acquired. Much of the early facts of Dekker's life, relating to sites he lived and worked, and early documents have also been revealed and described by E. Du Perron who was a biographer of Dekker. The bulk of the biography is taken up by part 3 "Schrijversjaren" (Years as a writer). I provides a meticulous description of the history and development of Dekkers's genesis and maturation as a writer, the reception of his works, and the later years of modest recognition.

In this biography, Eduard Douwes Dekker emerges as a failure and a charlatan, who stumbled on an issue that created a storm in the consciousness of the Dutch nation. For most of his life, his personal life was a mess, and he was a failure as a colonial administrator. As a writer he was lazy, only producing a minimal output, and, apart from the Max Havelaar nothing very substantial. Perhaps it was his luck that there were no other great Dutch writers on the scene before 1880, and the time was right for his type of polemic. As a personality, Dekker appears as a grumpy old man, particularly in his later years.

Multatuli. Leven en werk van Eduard Douwes Dekker by Dik van der Meulen is a great biography which won the important AKO Prize of Literature in 2003.
… (més)
 
Marcat
edwinbcn | Hi ha 5 ressenyes més | Mar 3, 2022 |
Eduard Douwes Dekker also known under his pen name Multatuli is considered one of the greatest Dutch writers. This reputation is as much based on Dutch people's self-identification with Multatuli as a fighter against injustice, as his work, which, apart from the masterpiece Max Havelaar is rather fragmentary and modest. I have both the one-volume cloth edition of 2002, which has a total of 912 pages, as well as the AKO two-volume hardback edition of 2003, which has a total of 891 pages in the two volumes combined. The paper quality and quality of the illustrations in the Sun edition is much better than the AKO edition. However, I read the two volumes of the AKO edition.

"Indische jaren" (Years in the Indies), while volume 2 covers part 3 "Schrijversjaren" (Years as a writer).

Eduard Douwes Dekker is described in a succinct biography of just over 100 pages. Many biographical details are supposed to have been realistically incorporated in the fragmentary work Woutertje Pieterse, suggesting we may know more about Eduard from the experiences of Woutertje.

The significance of Eduard Douwes Dekker is founded in his life as a colonial administrator in the former colonial Dutch Indies. Colonial rule in the Dutch colony was unlike for example British rule in India. To understand the system of Dutch colonial rule in the Dutch East Indies reading Cees Fasseur's De indologen. Ambtenaren voor de Oost 1825-1950 is indispensable. The Dutch, being vastly outnumbered by the native population ruled using a system of co-operation with local rulers and repression. The colonial administration was also relatively small. As a result of the different colonial systems, the English language emerged as a world language, while Dutch worldwide has only a moderate number of speakers, as it was never made the language of colonial rule. Part 2 of the bography aboutEduard Douwes Dekker's years as a colonial administrator in the Dutch East Indies is a boring part to read. While in the employ of the colonial service, Dekker was more of a failure than a trouble maker. The biography also puts Dekker's role in the right perspective, stripping it of the of the heroic patina it latere acquired. Much of the early facts of Dekker's life, relating to sites he lived and worked, and early documents have also been revealed and described by E. Du Perron who was a biographer of Dekker. The bulk of the biography is taken up by part 3 "Schrijversjaren" (Years as a writer). I provides a meticulous description of the history and development of Dekkers's genesis and maturation as a writer, the reception of his works, and the later years of modest recognition.

Multatuli. Leven en werk van Eduard Douwes Dekker by Dik van der Meulen is a great biography which won the important AKO Prize of Literature in 2003.
… (més)
 
Marcat
edwinbcn | Hi ha 5 ressenyes més | Mar 3, 2022 |
Eduard Douwes Dekker also known under his pen name Multatuli is considered one of the greatest Dutch writers. This reputation is as much based on Dutch people's self-identification with Multatuli as a fighter against injustice, as his work, which, apart from the masterpiece Max Havelaar is rather fragmentary and modest. I have both the one-volume cloth edition of 2002, which has a total of 912 pages, as well as the AKO two-volume hardback edition of 2003, which has a total of 891 pages in the two volumes combined. The paper quality and quality of the illustrations in the Sun edition is much better than the AKO edition. However, I read the two volumes of the AKO edition.

Dik van der Meulen's biography Multatuli. Leven en werk van Eduard Douwes Dekker is cleverly structured in three parts. In the AKO edition volume 1 consists of part 1 "Jeugd" (Youth) and part 2 "Indische jaren" (Years in the Indies), while volume 2 covers part 3 "Schrijversjaren" (Years as a writer).

Eduard Douwes Dekker is described in a succinct biography of just over 100 pages. Many biographical details are supposed to have been realistically incorporated in the fragmentary work Woutertje Pieterse, suggesting we may know more about Eduard from the experiences of Woutertje.

The significance of Eduard Douwes Dekker is founded in his life as a colonial administrator in the former colonial Dutch Indies. Colonial rule in the Dutch colony was unlike for example British rule in India. To understand the system of Dutch colonial rule in the Dutch East Indies reading Cees Fasseur's De indologen. Ambtenaren voor de Oost 1825-1950 is indispensable. The Dutch, being vastly outnumbered by the native population ruled using a system of co-operation with local rulers and repression. The colonial administration was also relatively small. As a result of the different colonial systems, the English language emerged as a world language, while Dutch worldwide has only a moderate number of speakers, as it was never made the language of colonial rule. Part 2 of the bography aboutEduard Douwes Dekker's years as a colonial administrator in the Dutch East Indies is a boring part to read. While in the employ of the colonial service, Dekker was more of a failure than a trouble maker. The biography also puts Dekker's role in the right perspective, stripping it of the of the heroic patina it latere acquired. Much of the early facts of Dekker's life, relating to sites he lived and worked, and early documents have also been revealed and described by E. Du Perron who was a biographer of Dekker.
… (més)
½
 
Marcat
edwinbcn | Hi ha 5 ressenyes més | Mar 3, 2022 |
Heel leesbaar boek over een interessante man, hij leefde van 1859 tot 1941. Hendrik is een jongen uit een gegoed gezin, hij is de oudste en zal zijn vader opvolgen in de onderneming die die heeft opgericht. Hij kiest na een aantal jaren een andere levensvervulling. Hij is dol op reizen en hij is steeds nèt geen ambassadeur in allerlei landen maar wel gezant van net Vader.and. Hij reisde naar Afrika, raakte geheel verschillend aan Oranje Vrijstaat, en De Afrikaanse republiek, Transvaal. Hij deed erg zijn best in de Boerenloorlogen om de Afrikaners te helpen ( een flink aantal werden in concentratiekampen besmet door de Engelse..). Hij zette zich overal voor in, deed veel goeds, was ook, wel erg pedant en altijd uit op roem en onderscheidingen en vooral erkenning, wat hem niet echt lukte.Hij was een conservatief en een negentiende eeuwen met bijbehorende opvattingen over zwarte mensen, nergens en door niemand in die tijd werd kennelijk gedacht dat het toch een beetje wonderlijk was dat Nederlanders en Engelse vochten om een land dat toch echt niet van één van beide landen kon zijn.....
Müller gaat later naar Zuid-Amerika, naar Azië, wordt gezant in Roemenië en later vaan Hongarije. Hij trouwt niet maar heeft wel twee vriendinnen, en dat in die tijd! Hij schrijft heel veel over waar hij is en wat hij mee,zakt, maar schrijft heel aardig en geïnteresseerd over alle mensen die hij ontmoet, met name de oorspronkelijke bewoners van de landen waar hij reist. Een boeiend man met zo zijn eigenaardigheden.
… (més)
 
Marcat
vuurziel | Nov 18, 2021 |

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Obres
14
Membres
207
Popularitat
#106,920
Valoració
½ 3.6
Ressenyes
12
ISBN
24
Llengües
1

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