Brons Middel, R. - Hermine. Indische Roman.

. Leiden, A.W. Sijthoff [1888]. XII, 304 pp. Bound in modern red half-morocco, spine with 6 compartments, top edge gilt. Fine copy. Hermine is the daughter of a Madurese concubine and a dutchman, but, abandoned by her father she is lovingly adopted by a childless dutch couple living in Soekapoera, a fictitious little town in Java. From then on we follow her life over 2 generations among dutch colonials, eurasians and the local Javanese population. The book gives a lively and excellent description of 'life in the Indies' between 1850 and the 1880's and is also interesting because the author obviously has a penchant for the 'indies' idiom spoken by his protagonists of which he gives many examples, often with lengthy explanations (later he would publish a number of Malay grammars and language guides). A very rare colonial novel (only one copy in a dutch public library), not yet noticed by any of the specialists in the field. - Buur PD 317.