Max Havelaar, or, The coffee auctions of the Dutch Trading Company

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 quixoticidealist. Some think him a fool, others a genius, but ';one thing is certain: he was anunusual man, and worthy of observation.' As Havelaar crusades against corruption,he makes a few unsettling observations of his own. Why don't the financial statementsadd up? Did the previous assistant resident really die a natural death?Andwhy are his superiors obstructing his efforts to learn the truth?

A few years later in Amsterdam, the stolid Dutch coffee broker Batavus Drystubbleobtains Havelaar's papers from the threadbare Shawlman, who wanders the streetsin search of work. Drystubble pores over the documents in the hopes of lucrativerevelations about the coffee trade. But his spirited young son Frits and romanticsouledGerman 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 Havelaaris a fiery indictment of colonial misrule and one of the masterpieces of Dutchliterature. This is the first new English translation of Multatuli's furious and funnymasterpiece in more than fifty years.