As I mentioned last week, in June I plan to have a month in which I focus on Dutch literature on this blog. Since I know hardly anything about Dutch literature, having had a prejudice towards it for some years now, I was going to call it “Educating Iris: A Month of Dutch Literature”. But, I would like it to be something that other bloggers can participate in as well, so the Educating Iris thing has been left out for now.
What will the month entail? In short: I plan to post only on Dutch literature during June. I will try to focus on books that have been translated to English, to make it interesting for my international readers.I am trying to accomplish a balance between classics, contemporary literature, books I have wanted to read for some time, books I have avoided for years because they intimidate me, or because their reputation has led me to believe they aren’t for me.
Hopefully, I will also have some guest posts by other Dutch(?) bloggers on their favourites and/or experiences with Dutch lit. Because I hope that other bloggers will join me in reading one or more books translated from Dutch, I will be posting a few resource lists in the upcoming months. I will then post one or two round ups of books reviewed on other blogs during June.
Also, I would like to organise a read along of The Discovery of Heaven by Harry Mulisch, as I suggested back in October of last year. The Discovery of Heaven was recently voted “the best Dutch book of all time” and I remember loving it when I read it in high school.
Since the book is quite long (800 pages or so in the Dutch edition I own) and is divided in four parts, I suggest the following:
- 15 May: part 1
- 30 May: part 2
- 14 June: part 3
- 29 June: part 4
Since I know some people dislike reading in parts for a read along, I am fine with people posting just once on the book, during May or June. I will link to any post people post in participation.
Edit: I will post a sign-up post for the readalong with more details on the book etcetera next week.
I hope you will decide to join me in June or in the Read Along!
(Also, yes, I am the worst at making images for read alongs and theme months. I will try to come up with something better before May/June).
Some Dutch and Flemish fiction I can recommend:
Multatuli, Max Havelaar
Louis Couperus, The Hidden Force
Maria Dermout, The Ten Thousand Things
Willem Elsschot, Soft Soap (all of Elsschot is good!)
I have also heard good things about Arthur van Schendel, Simon Vestdijk, Stijn Streuvels, Willem Frederik Hermans, and Louis Paul Boon, among others. The Sestigers (Sixtiers) group of Afrikaans writers, including Andre Brink, Breyten Breytenbach, Etienne Leroux, and the poet Ingrid Jonker are certainly worth a look if you have the time.
A very fine critical study of Dutch colonial literature about Indonesia was published in English: Robert Nieuwenhuys’s Mirror of the Indies.
Patrick, you seem to know a lot about our old Dutch authors. I love Elsschot, although my favorite author is W. F. Hermans. I’m trying to read up on the more modern Dutch authors now.
I’m in! Ik heb dit boek al een tijdje in mijn boekenkast en stiekem vind ik ‘m ook intimiderend dik. Maar ik ben wel heel erg nieuwsgierig dus ik doe mee.
Misschien wel een mooi boek om samen te lezen met anderen is Godenslaap van Erwin Mortier, weet echter niet of het vertaald is dus dat is lastig. Het is wel een wat taaier boek, ik deed er in ieder geval langer over dan gemiddeld, maar het is wel indrukwekkend. Ik moet nu, twee jaar later, nog steeds wel eens denken aan een bepaald stuk dat ik erg mooi vond.
Verder weet ik ook niet zoveel van Nederlandse literatuur, ik lees voornamelijk buitenlandse fictie. Ben dus benieuwd wat er nog in de comments wordt geopperd.
Oooh… you should read “Meisje met negen pruiken” by Sophie van der Stap. I thought it was one of the best books I have ever read.
I won’t be joining the read along, because I have a fear of thick books
And I am not ready to tackle that yet, since well…. I have so many more smaller books I want to read 
But I give you permission to snatch my review on “a blue butterfly bids farewell” and who knows that I might be able to write a guest post 
(depending on me reading Dutch Lit.)
I’ll join in with the read-a-long!
I am reasonably well versed on the older Dutch authors, but the more contemporary ones, I don’t know that many. I’m trying to catch up by reading at least one Dutch author per week – and publish it on my Dutch blog (http://boekblogger.wordpress.com) but even so, I feel like I don’t know much about contemporary Dutch writers.
I’ll join in too by reading some Couperus, Haase and possibly Mulisch as well (though not The Discovery of Heaven). It’s more likely to be the much shorter “The Assault” .
June sounds like a perfect month to delve into “Max Havelaar” now. ^-^ (Yes, I’m afraid I really do need a push like this to get to it. I need a push for every book on my TBR pile.)
I think your image-making skills are just fine. If you’re going to revise it anyway, it might be an idea to manually recolour part of the letters of the text, though, to be a little darker in the middle. The higher contrast with the image’ll make them more legible.
And I’m glad I’m not the only one who loved “The Discovery of Heaven” in secondary! Pretty much everyone in my class thought I was crazy. Although ‘loved’ may be too strong a word for my reaction. ‘Really liked’ anyhow.
If you’re stuck for ideas and don’t mind veering off from classical literature, you could look into some of the translated (and still available!) Paul Biegel and Thea Beckman books as well. ^-^ (And Annie M.G. Schmidt and Dick Bruna of course, if you decide to include some children’s lit to highlight.) But you probably already came up with that. ^-^
I will be trying to read Max Havelaar as well. That classic has been on my list for years, but my Dutch teacher thought it a boring book so I never really tried. I hope to tackle it in the upcoming months.
Hah, I would love to do something on Beckman, or any of those great Dutch children/teen authors. I just have to find a way to fit it in (costs etc) and think of titles that have been translated.
Max Havelaar is anything but boring! In fact, from the standpoint of narrative theory, it has to be considered one of the most original novels in any language published during the 19th century.
Iris, your teacher was right, Max Havelaar is terribly boring! (Sorry Patrick, we don’t agree here). I tried the book just last year and didn’t get far. Original it may be but… boring!
I always thought the bits and pieces we had to read for class were interesting, but I never thought to pick up the whole book until I got to uni.
Beckman is fairly easy. It’s only “Kruistocht in Spijkerbroek” (“Crusade in Jeans”) that was translated into English as far as I know. Biegel has had more translations, but I think the only one still in print is “Het Sleutelkruid” (“The King of Copper Mountain”).
Annie M.G. Schmidt and Dick Bruna are a different matter. Although I’d imagine the former has some good collections available in English as well.
For the rest, though… I used to have a link to a website that let you look up writers whose work had been translated, but darned if I can find the thing again. It would’ve been SO useful for this project.
I have Gerbrand Bakker’s The Twin on my TBR shelf; I’ll plan to read it in June as part of your event! I don’t believe I’ve read any Dutch fiction to date…time to remedy that.
I just finished The Assault and would be up for a read-along of The Discovery of Heaven. I also want to read Bakker’s The Twin. Some of the other books mentioned looked good as well.
I am in for the readalong at least Iris. I will have to try to find more books to join you for the month
Love the idea.
I am so glad you’re doing this! One of my goals is to read more books in translation and I would particularly like to read more from Dutch authors. I’ll definitely participate.
Sounds like June will be a really interesting month for you! I will try to locate a copy of The Discovery of Heaven in time for your readalong as it’s a goal of mine to read more books in translation this year.
I’m sure I’ve read more Dutch lit, but right now I can only think of Multatuli… As I’ve mentioned back in October, count me it for the read-along of The Discovery of Heaven.
I’d better find some Dutch lit to read so that I can join in. Lovely idea!
I ll join sorry for delay in Reply I ve few dutch books lining around a hasse van dis in sight as I type also a number of pre 1920 short stories in collection ,also join in with discovery of heaven ,good luck all the best stu
I’m very interested but I’ll have to look through the library first before signing up (on a book buying ban at the moment). Otherwise you can pretty much count me in, too
Oh! Iris?
Some just left a comment on one of my older posts which I’d completely forgotten about. I’m mentioning it because it’s a very short list of Dutch books that I know are translated into English. Which may or may not be helpful. Some of these are also available as (free) audiobooks on LibriVox, I think, so that might also do something to look into.
I just thought I’d drop by and mention it in case you’d find it useful. If not… Well, then you don’t. ^-^
I am not at all familiar with Dutch lit, so I’ll enjoy following your progress! I’ll have to pass on participating this year as I have some other things lined up for book clubs, but I’ll certainly but watchnig for TBR additions!
Hello Iris,
LizzySiddal tposted a comment about this event as I posted a Dutch Literature recommendations list yesterday. I did learn Dutch but it’s a bit rusty by now. I’d like to join your event and hopefully can read something in the original language for it. I’m trying to learn Swedish now as well.
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Not sure where to sign up for the Dutch Literature month,
So will add my name to the cause, here.
Thanks.
Parrish.
Hello,
I’m French, so I read in French.
I’ll be reading L’anneau de la clé by Hella S Haasse. (Sleuteloog)
I’ve also ordered Rituels by Cees Nooteboom and Max Havelaar. I’m not sure I’ll be able to read them too.
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