Description
Book SynopsisJacob Gotfried Haafner (1754-1809) was a writer of great talent, and an early dissenting voice from within the colonial enterprise. Haafner was orphaned in the Dutch East Indies, and lived in South Africa, Sri Lanka, India and Mauritius for more than 20 years. On his return to Europe he transformed himself into one of the most popular Dutch writers of the early 19th century, for his travel writing in the Romantic mode. Books like his popular
Travels in a Palanquin were translated into the major European languages, and his essays on the havoc wrought by missionaries worldwide stirred up great controversy, particularly in his home country of the Netherlands. He was a fierce critic of English machinations in India: "Had I to write the history of the English and their deeds in Asia", Haafner once said, "it would be the spitting image of hell". But there was a scholarly side to him to complement the pamphleteer and travel writer, working to promote European understanding of Indian literature, myth and religion, including through his translation of the Ramayana into Dutch.
With the help of generous excerpts from Haafner's own writings, including material newly translated into English, van der Velde tells an affecting story of a young man who made a world for himself along the Coromandel Coast, in Ceylon and Calcutta, but who returned to Europe to live the last years of his life in Amsterdam, suffering an acute nostalgia for Asia: "No, in Europe and especially in its northern climes, no one enjoys their life..." This will be compelling reading for anyone interested in European response to the cultures of Asia.
Trade Review“Haafner’s stories often seem outrageous, yet van der Velde shows how independent records verify his accounts.” “A vibrant and deliberately concise biography. . . . van der Velde paints a unique image of the late eighteenth-century colonial world, through the medium of Haafner’s stories.”
Table of ContentsIntroduction: Haafner's Journeys Haafner's Work and His World Reactions to Haafner My Journey to Haafner Chapter 1: A Wandering Existence Carefree First Adventure in Porto Praya The Cape of Good Hope Adultery and Torture Khoikhoi Love Beads Famous Lost Son The Umbilical Cord Unravels Chapter 2: Struggle for Life Sardis: A Futile Person Graveyard of the Europeans Willem Koelbier: The Bloodthirsty Tiger At the Pen in Nagapatnam The Sadras Idyll Advanced Science Sadras Lost, Disastrous Cost Chapter 3: Where can Our Soul Shelter? Famine in Madras The Foolish Count Bonvoux Anna's Embrace The Palmetto Oh, That Wanderlust! Baker George Most Reasonable of the Unreasonable Mestizo among the Mestizos Delusion and Pimberah Forsaken by Anna Chapter 4: Passion for India Merchant in Calcutta The Impetuous Julius Soubise Sunrise Mamia! Snakebite Lily of the South In the Land of the Dodo and Javanese Hawfinch Heaven and Earth Perished Chapter 5: Languishing in Europe Kees, Kees! Shouted the Orange Rabble A Full Purse The Haafner Case The Dutch Society of Sciences Laureate of the Teylers Theological Society The God of One's Tyrants A Shot across the Bow of the Mission Phallus Worship Farewell Lovable Objects! Postscript Sources Jacob G. Haafner (1754–1809): A Brief Chronology of His Life List of Publications by Jacob Haafner List of Publications on Jacob Haafner Index
