Customer Reviews

Letters Of A Javanese Princess

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This book is a collection of letters by Raden KARTINI, the daughter of a rather enlightened Javanese nobleman, who allowed his daughters some school education. At the beginning of the 20th century this was quite exceptional in a native society where the overwhelming majority of even the male population was illiterate and where an educated woman was considered to be something inconceivable. The young Kartini had some acquaintance with a few enlightened Dutch people, who appreciated her thirst for education and provided her with some books, thereby enabling her to acquire a good knowledge of western civilisation. Kartini had a lively correspondence with these persons, which were rather unrepresentative of the average colonial white people. Her letters have later been edited as this book, whose original Dutch title should be translated as "Through Darkness to Light". The letters were written in Dutch, a language of which Kartini had a good command and which was at the time the only vehicle for higher education in Indonesia.

In her letters, Kartini stressed that education is a precious good, also from a moral point of view, to which every person, women included, is entitled. Her book is a cry for liberation of women from the cultural bondage to which they were condemned in traditional Javanese society. Kartini is considered to be a torchbearer for progressive ideas and education by Indonesian nationalists and feminists. While recognizing that the Javanese had a lot to learn from the progressive side of western culture, she was of course critical of the coarse, materialistic side of it, which predominated in colonial society. Unfortunately, Kartini died at the age of 25, giving birth to her first child.

This is a very interesting book for those interested in the impact of western thought on indiginous people or the emnacipation of women. It is obligatory reading for anyone interested in the history of Indonesia during the colonial period.

The book I received was put through a bad word recognition program without an editor from a copy of the original. Thus the paragraphs, indentations and punctuation were garbage making reading very difficult. Several words, names and dates were misread by the program. Mine was a blank covered edition, not the striped icon edition which was fine. I believe it was the newest General Books edition, so if you wish to read this, buy an older edition.