Dutch
Max Havelaar
Max Havelaar
Multatuli
One of the angriest books of its century, hidden inside one of the funniest.
Editions
Forthcoming
The app
Learn Dutch by reading Multatuli. The original beside a clear translation, read aloud, with every word glossed.
The opening
Tap a line to unfold its translation. In the app, every word unfolds too.
The book
Multatuli hid one of the angriest books of the nineteenth century inside one of the funniest. Before its fury can reach Java it must pass through Droogstoppel, the smug Amsterdam coffee-broker, a comic monster fit to stand beside any in Dickens, who damns himself with every complacent sentence. The satire is merciless and the indignation incandescent, and the book pricked a nation’s conscience without once ceasing to be art. It remains the great novel of the Dutch language.
In the app
The original and the translation, side by side.
The author’s words align line by line with a clear English translation: two columns on iPad, a paired reading flow on iPhone.
Every line, read aloud.
Hear how the language actually sounds: its weight, its rhythm, not just how it looks on the page.
Notes for the line you’re on.
Tap any line for the grammar, the words, and the context behind it, written by us, for this text. An editor at your elbow.
Read aloud, and hear how you did.
Read a line yourself and the edition scores it on your phone: the whole line first, then sound by sound. Your voice never leaves the device.
The particulars
- The text
- Max Havelaar, Multatuli
- Translation
- Public-domain Dutch (Multatuli, d. 1887; published 1860). English translation © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC.
- Method
- The translations are our own, drafted with machine assistance and verified line by line. How the editions are made.
- The app
- The first chapter is free: the complete app, every feature. One unlock covers the rest, yours forever, $4.99. No subscription, no ads.
- Privacy
- Speech analysis runs on device. Your reading and your voice never leave your phone.