19th-century Dutch literature
After the last years of the 18th century, which had seen the decline of the Dutch Republic, including the arts and international politics, the 19th-century was marked by a general revival of intellectual force.
Against this backdrop, the most prominent writer was Willem Bilderdijk, an intellectual and intelligent man whose outspoken and eccentric worldview was partly caused by an illness during his adolescence that kept him indoors for ten years.
This transition period removed many old habits and institutions and provided for unitary government, the first constitution (1798) and uniform orthography (Matthias Siegenbeek's spelling).
This period had little influence in literature, and in the new state of Belgium, the status of the Dutch language remained largely unchanged as all governmental and educational affairs were conducted in French.
The language resisted the pressure of German from the outside, and from within broke through its long stagnation and enriched itself, as a medium for literary expression, with a multitude of fresh and colloquial forms.
Under the influence of romantic nationalism, writers in Belgium began to reconsider their Flemish heritage and move for a recognition of the Dutch language in both official affairs (including education) and literature.
With the rise of social consciousness regarding the administration of the colonies and the treatment of their inhabitants, however, a far more influential voice rose from the Indies in the form of Multatuli (ps.
of Eduard Douwes Dekker, 1820–1887), whose Max Havelaar (1860) is a scathing indictment of colonial mismanagement and one of the few 19th-century prose works still widely considered readable today.
The two leading Dutch men of letters in the mid-19th century besides Beets and Douwes Dekker were critics, Conrad Busken-Huet (1826–1886) and Carel Vosmaer (1826–1888).
He lived just long enough to become aware that a revolution was approaching, not to comprehend its character; but his accomplished fidelity to literary principle and his wide knowledge have been honoured even by the most bitter of the younger school.
Until now, the influences of the young Dutch poetry had chiefly come from the United Kingdom; they were those of Shelley, Mrs Browning, the Rossettis (Dante and Christina).
The French naturalists now became an additional ingredient and for some time the new Dutch literature became a sort of mixture of Shelley and Zola, heady and bewildering.
His first literary efforts were lyrics in the Tachtigers style, but Couperus proved far more important and durable as a novelist and his earliest story, Eline Vere (1889) already took him out of the ranks of his contemporaries.
In 1891 he published Noodlot, which was translated into English as Footsteps of Fate It was greatly admired by Oscar Wilde, whose The Picture of Dorian Gray is said to have been influenced by it.
The leading dramatist at the close of the century was Herman Heijermans (1864–1924), a writer of strong realistic and socialistic tendencies who single-handedly brought Dutch theatre into the modern time.
His Ghetto (1898) and Ora et labora (1901) particularly display his peculiar talent, while his fishermen's tragedy Op hoop van zegen ("Trusting Our Fate in the Hands of God"), which is still staged and has been filmed more than once [1], remains his most popular play.
