Max Havelaar: Or the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company (Penguin Classics)

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 expose 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. 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 (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 **Max Havelaar; or, The Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company** (Dutch: *Max Havelaar; of, De koffi-veilingen der Nederlandsche Handel-Maatschappy*) 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. In the novel, the protagonist, Max Havelaar, tries to battle against a corrupt government system in Java, which was then a Dutch colony. The novel's opening line is famous: "Ik ben makelaar in koffie, en woon op de Lauriergracht, No 37." ("I am a coffee broker, and live on the Lauriergracht, No 37."). (Source: [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Max_Havelaar)) Cover 1 Preface 7 Chapter 1 15 Chapter 2 24 Chapter 3 35 Chapter 4 46 Chapter 5 65 Chapter 6 88 Chapter 7 112 Chapter 8 140 Chapter 9 167 Chapter 10 183 Chapter 11 191 Chapter 12 216 Chapter 13 231 Chapter 14 251 Chapter 15 289 Chapter 16 311 Chapter 17 334 Chapter 18 369 Chapter 19 388 Chapter 20 403 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. Multatuli ; Translated With Notes By Roy Edwards ; Introduction By R.p. Meijer.