The Higher The Flight, The Lower The Fall part 1
by Holland
Introduction
Until comparatively recent times Holland has not produced very much in the way of short stories. Before the beginning of the modem period, and particularly the advent of Herman Heijermans, Dutch writers were more interested in philosophy, theology, poetry, the drama, and history.
But of the early writers Jacob Cats, affectionately known as Father Cats, after more than three centuries still retains his popularity. His fables, or Emblems, have from the Sixteenth Century until modem times been widely known among the Dutch people.
In recent years there have been very interesting revivals both of the drama and the novel. During the Nineteenth Century, however, one figure stands out among the novelists, E. D. Dekker, known under his pseudonym of Multatuli. His celebrated novel, Max Havelaar, which contains The Story of Saidjah, was not only a dramatic revelation of conditions in Java, but a work of high independent artistic