This Earth of Mankind (Buru Quartet) [Paperback]

Pramoedya Ananta Toer (Author), Max Lane (Translator, Afterword)

Book Description

Release date: May 1, 1996 | Series: Buru Quartet (Book 1)

Minke is a young Javanese student of great intelligence and ambition. Living equally among the colonists and colonized of 19th-century Java, he battles against the confines of colonial strictures. It is his love for Annelies that enables him to find the strength to embrace his world.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Indonesian novelist and political dissident Toer's compelling tale of love and colonialism is narrated by a young native student in turn-of-the-century Java who becomes involved in the intrigues of one of the island's leading families.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Protagonist Minke is due all the honors of a Dutch high school graduate in his native Java. Though the 20th century is just dawning, he is a champion of science, technology, and openness amongst the many ethnic levels of Java's colonial society. Himself a Native, Minke marries Annelies, a Mixed-Blood daughter of an astute concubine, one whose owner has left her alone to develop and manage a vast business. When Minke moves in with Annelies and her mother, they form a family at once perfect within yet challenged from without by racial and legal threats that eventually destroy them all. Toer's novel is a beautiful archetype of the evils inherent in colonial and racially stratified societies. The novel was written during Toer's 14 years as a political prisoner, and his continuing city arrest in Jakarta is testimony to its power. Such extraordinary struggle has produced a novel worthy of its author's sacrifice.
- Paul E. Hutchison, Pequea, Pa.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Penguin Books (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0140256350
• ISBN-13: 978-0140256352
• Product Dimensions: 5 x 0.7 x 7.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #77,467 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

27 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the great political novels of this century October 13, 2000

By Devin Rambo

Format:Paperback

The Kirkus review printed above damns Toer's novel with faint praise when it states that the book is "too obvious a polemic." Too obvious for whom? I wonder if the reviewer would take the same view of any other number of political novels which were used by their authors as a barely disguised fictional framework to attack flawed or unjust cultural values. Is The Grapes of Wrath too obvious a polemic? Of course not, and neither is This Earth of Mankind. Toer makes no effort to disguise the nature of his critique of the social and political values of colonial Indonesian society. Toer's narrative is brilliant; the characters are vivid and developed so well that we have no trouble identifying with them personally, and yet at the same time they are patently obvious symbols of the different racial and social strata in the world of which the novel is set. Toer has been accused of being overly melodramatic in this novel, and while I think that is a reasonable criticism, I have to disagree. The antagonists here are hissable characters, but Toer plays fair with them. They have a clear rationale for what they do and the justification for their actions may seem reasonable and even honorable to them even if we view it as an outrage. Toer balances this all with a tone that never comes across as angry, although given the hardships he himself has endured would make it perfectly understandable if the novel had been tinged with more brimstone. But the narrative does give one the sense of social and political displacement felt by Minke, the book's narrator, and by the family he meets in whose fate he becomes entangled.... In This Earth of Mankind, Toer exposes the evils of a society based on and obsessed with castes of race and money, and in doing so has produced one of the essential political novels of the 20th Century. Read more ›

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing window on the story of Java August 22, 2001

By Lawrence M. Yoder

Format:Paperback

I am impressed by this English translation of BUMI MANUSIA, but the original is still more rich and colorful. I lived for a decade 30 miles from Pramoedya's home town of Blora, presumably the B____ from which Minke comes. All of Pram's books were banned then and Pram himself was in the midst of his imprisonment on Buru, but I had discovered what an amazing opening they provided to the world of turn-of-the-century colonial Java. I am a student of Javanese history and culture, but Pram's works, beginning for me with TJERITA DARI BLORA (Stories from Blora), provided a florid vision to the realities of that world for people of every caste of the colonial social structure. Every time I went into a used book shop I searched for his works. THIS EARTH OF MANKIND is in my mind an unparalleled gift to Indonesia and the world, providing innumerable images of the range of human experience in colonial Java. The Kirkus reviewer needs to know that "nyai" is not a person's name but an appelation applied to unofficial "rightless" wives of European men who were part of the colonial system. There were many of them in every town. Read CHILD OF ALL NATIONS to learn how this particular woman became Ndoro Mellema's nyai. Pram's story opens the window for us to see a whole range of human experience heretofore hidden from public view even from present-day Indonesians who were denied access to Pram's works until recent years. The subsequent novels in the quartet carry on the stunning and poignant revelations. Grievously last month when I out of habit looked again for Pram's works in bookstores in Indonesia they had again disappeared from the shelves of major stores! The story goes on.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Important Subject, Fine Writing October 22, 2005

By Francoise Noy

Format:Paperback

This is a good start to understanding how colonialism can affect culture and history.

The narrative is perceptive and well-written. Indonesians, especially the Javanese, will find this book compelling and all can walk away with a better understanding of the history of Southeast Asia.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A Love Story Introduction to Indonesian Nationalism June 1, 1998

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

The history of South East Asia is often misunderstood and misrepresented. By itself, this book stands as a classic love story of a timeless beauty. As an historical passage, this book brings home an understanding of the seeds of Indonesian nationalism. Anyone wishing to learn more about South East Asian history around the period of colonial rule and/or the struggles of a people against a cycle of abuse will find this story compelling, especially given the circumstances under which it was written. I loved the book from both the love story and historical perspectives.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Difficult, but rewarding April 11, 2002

By Pat Bracewell

Format:Paperback

The most stunning thing about this novel is the fact that Toer composed it, orally, while in prison. That accomplishment alone puts him in a league way above any to which most modern writers even pretend to aspire. However, if you're looking for a book that is an easy read, this isn't it.

Originally composed in Indonesian, This Earth of Mankind follows a year in the life of a young Javanese student in 1898. At eighteen Minke is a true tabula rasa - guileless, impressionable, awed by the Dutch academic institution in which he finds himself. He is a child with his feet in two distinct worlds, the world of Dutch colonialism, and the world of his native culture, Java. But even as his intellect and education appear to open doors of opportunity for him, he discovers that the fact of his birth will restrict and oppress him. For Minke is not European, nor even Indo (half European, half native), but merely a native Javanese. Like other native peoples subjugated by European colonials, the Indonesians suffered humiliating restrictions in every arena: legal, political, financial, educational and social.

Although the story line is reminiscent of other classic works of drama and fiction, Toer does not invest his characters with any emotional energy. The star crossed romance of Minke and Amelie, reminiscent of Romeo and Juliet, lacks the intensity that makes us weep for Shakespeare's lovers. Minke's stunned recognition of the cruelty of white man's justice is bland if one compares it to the sharp, satiric edge of Twain's Huckleberry Finn. Toer seems to be less interested in creating memorable characters than in revealing the character and history of the Indonesian people. If read with that in mind, the book is fascinating and rewarding.

Toer's purpose, in the end, is political.... For him, art and politics are two strands of the same rope. But his political agenda comes at a price. The story, as literature, suffers. Still, it does instruct.....especially someone as woefully ignorant about Indonesian history as myself. Read more ›