Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company: Free Audiobook and Listening Guide

Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company, credited to Multatuli, is available as a LibriVox volunteer audiobook. This guide identifies the recording, its source summary and its audio tracks.

About the work

The LibriVox catalogue summary, preserved with the recording, reads:

LibriVox recording of Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company by Multatuli. (Translated by Alphonse Nahuys.) Read in English by John Greenman. Called "the Book that Killed Colonialism", Max Havelaar is an indictment of the Dutch colonial policies of the 1850s that were designed to exploit the native Indonesian masses. In the novel, the protagonist, Max Havelaar, tries to battle against a corrupt government system in Java, which was then a Dutch colony. Although the novel addresses issues of a bygone era, it is still hailed widely for its literary styles and expression of thought. Translator Baron Alphonse Nahuÿs, compared Max Havelaar to Harriet Beecher Stowe’s Uncle Tom’s Cabin for its exposure of the ill-treatment of a subject people by men intent on economic gain. The book raised the awareness of Europeans at the time, that the wealth that they enjoyed was the result of suffering in other parts of the world. Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer argued that by triggering these educational reforms, Max Havelaar was in turn responsible for the nationalist movement that ended Dutch colonialism in Indonesia after 1945, and which was instrumental in the call for decolonization in Africa and elsewhere in the world. Thus, according to Pramoedya, Max Havelaar is "the book that killed colonialism". Note: The author, Dutch writer Eduard Douwes Dekker, used "Multatuli" as a pen name. The German poem was read by Michael Grunze of Heidelberg, Germany. (Summary by John Greenman and Wikipedia)

Recording facts

• Recording title: Max Havelaar; or, the Coffee Auctions of the Dutch Trading Company
• Author credits: Multatuli
• Language: English
• Original MP3 tracks: 21
• Listed recording duration: 11:41:57

Catalogue topics

• anti-imperialism
• dutch empire
• history of java
• exploitation of indiginous populations

Track guide

1. 00 - Preface — 12:04
2. 01 - Chapter I — 16:13
3. 02 - Chapter II — 18:39
4. 03 - Chapter III — 15:47
5. 04 - Chapter IV — 31:53
6. 05 - Chapter V — 42:31
7. 06 - Chapter VI — 40:44
8. 07 - Chapter VII — 45:42
9. 08 - Chapter VIII — 45:39
10. 09 - Chapter IX — 29:21
11. 10 - Chapter X — 13:17
12. 11 - Chapter XI — 42:45
13. 12 - Chapter XII — 26:15
14. 13 - Chapter XIII — 33:01
15. 14 - Chapter XIV — 1:05:03
16. 15 - Chapter XV — 36:21
17. 16 - Chapter XVI — 40:03
18. 17 - Chapter XVII — 58:39
19. 18 - Chapter XVIII — 29:51
20. 19 - Chapter XIX — 23:00
21. 20 - Chapter XX — 35:09

Listen to this recording

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Source and rights

This is a record from LibriVox's official Internet Archive collection, with a public-domain licence recorded in its metadata. LibriVox's policy includes its catalogue summaries as well as its recordings. Its public-domain assessment follows United States law; copyright status can differ elsewhere. The summary and track facts are reproduced and reformatted from that record. Dates attached to the archive upload are not treated as original book publication dates.