Dutch writers of fiction have been and are far more numerous than could have been expected from the limited number of those able to read their works.  In the second half of the 19th century, J. van Lennep and Mevrouw Bosboom-Toussaint were the most prolific writers.  Both of these were followers of the Walter Scott tradition, their novels being mainly patriotic romances based upon episodes illustrating the past history of the Dutch people.  Van Lennep’s contributions to literature were, however, by no means confined to the writing of fiction, as his great critical edition of Vondel’s poetical works testifies.  Mevrouw Bosboom-Toussaint’s novels were not only excellent from the literary point of view, but as reproductions of historical events were most conscientiously written.  Her pictures, for instance, of the difficult and involved period of Leicester’s governor-generalship are admirable.  The writings of Douwes Dekker (under the pseudonym Multatuli) are noteworthy from the fact that his novel Max Havelaar, dealing with life in Java and setting forth the sufferings of the natives through the “cultivation system,” had a large share in bringing about its abolition.

The 20th century school of Dutch novelists is of a different type from their predecessors and deals with life and life’s problems in every form.  Among the present-day authors of fiction, the foremost place belongs to Louis Conperus, an idealist and mystic, who as a stylist is unapproached by any of his contemporaries.

No account of modern Holland would be complete without a notice of the great revival of Dutch painting, which has taken place in the past half century.  Without exaggeration it may indeed be said that this modern renascence of painting in Holland is not unworthy to be compared with that of the days of Rembrandt.  The names of Joseph Israels, Hendrik Mesdag, Vincent van Gogh, Anton Maure, and, not least, of the three talented brothers Maris, have attained a wide and well-deserved reputation.  And to these must be added others of high merit:  Bilders, Scheffer, Bosboom, Rochussen, Bakhuysen, Du Chattel, De Haas and Haverman.  The traditional representation of the Dutchman as stolid, unemotional, wholly absorbed in trade and material interests, is a caricature.  These latter-day artists, like those of the 17th century, conclusively prove that the Dutch race is singularly sensitive to the poetry of form and colour, and that it possesses an inherited capacity and power for excelling in the technical qualities of the painter’s art.

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FOOTNOTES: 

     [Footnote 1:  Hollandais, Hollaender, Olandesi, Olandeses,
     etc.]

     [Footnote 2:  In French books and documents, Jacqueline.]

     [Footnote 3:  Bois-le-duc.]

     [Footnote 4:  By English and French writers generally
     translated Grand Pensionary.]