Hella Haasse

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Hella Serafia Haasse (born 2 February 1918 in Batavia) is one of the most important modern Dutch writers. She is often called the Grand old lady of Dutch literature.

Many of her works are historical novels, but she has also produced essays, autobiographical material, short stories, etc. Some of her work, such as her debut Oeroeg, is set in the Dutch East Indies, where she was born and lived during the first 20 years of her life. She also wrote autobiographical texts and books about her life in the East Indies, such as Krassen op een rots (1970). The East Indies continue to play an important part in her novels, e.g. in Sleuteloog (2000), which has the same topic as 'Oeroeg: is a friendship between a Dutch and an Indonesian child possible and can they really understand each other?

She received the prestigious Constantijn Huygens Prize and the P.C. Hooft Prize in 1981 and 1984, respectively. In March, 2007 Haasse was back in the news. While cleaning her house, she happened upon the lost manuscript of a novel she had written in 1950.

Some of Haasse's works have been translated into English. (See below.)

[edit] Incomplete bibliography

• Oeroeg (1948)
• Het woud der verwachting - In a dark wood wandering (1949)
• De verborgen bron (1950)
• De scharlaken stad - The scarlet city (1952)
• De ingewijden (1957)
• Cider voor arme mensen (1960)
• Een nieuwer testament (1966)
• De tuinen van Bomarzo (1968)
• Huurders en onderhuurders (1971)
• De Meester van de Neerdaling (1973)
• Een gevaarlijke verhouding of Daal-en-Bergse brieven (1976)
• Mevrouw Bentinck (1978, 1982 and 1990)
• Charlotte Sophie Bentinck (1978 and 1996)
• De wegen der verbeelding (1983)
• Berichten van het Blauwe Huis (1986)
• Schaduwbeeld of Het geheim van Appeltern (1989)
• Heren van de thee (1992)
• Een handvol achtergrond, 'Parang Sawat' (1993)
• Transit (1994)

[edit] References

• The first version of the bibliography and the information about the prizes were taken from a 1996 copy of Heren van de thee.