Hella S. Haasse
The Garden House (Het tuinhuis)
Past tragedies
Hella S. Haasse is renowned for her historical novels. They are intelligent, exciting, and well-documented; they take the reader by surprise and lead one back, compellingly, to another time and place. When she uses contemporary settings for her novels and stories, she generally writes about ordinary people, characters engaged in a profound struggle with personal choices and circumstances.
Het tuinhuis (The Garden House), a collection of the short stories that Haasse has written during her rich and long authorship, proves that she can create the same effects with fewer words. Most remarkable is the way in which Haasse subtly and imperceptibly lures the reader into a new atmospheric setting each time, imparting the characters’ dilemmas, fears, and desires in an instant.
The mood in Haasse’s stories is often threatening, such as in the powerful title story in which a mother and daughter are locked in a subtle and at the same time painful psychological struggle.
Often a tragedy from the past emerges between the lines. This is the case in ‘Perkara’, in which the Dutch present and the Dutch East Indian past are expertly intertwined. The past imposes itself even more forcefully in ‘Het portret’ (The Portrait), in which a family drama is depicted in a single photograph. The picture brings home just how far a genteel family have descended from their origins as well as the fact that their souls are filled with illusions: ‘He who is hindered by that which is missing, complements it with clutter.’ The story ‘Genius loci’ demonstrates yet again Haasse’s ability to bring places to life with powerful, fascinating, and dark descriptions.
The female protagonist senses that somebody is watching her from the woods surrounding her French house. ‘The invisible presence didn’t seem threatening; she felt no fear but rather a vague disquiet. Something was expected of her, but she didn’t know what it was.’ Haasse creates the mood with just a few elegant, razor sharp strokes of her pen.
Publisher
Querido
Singel 262
NL - 1016 AC Amsterdam
TEL. +31 20 551 12 62
FAX +31 20 639 19 68
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.querido.nl
Publishing details
Het tuinhuis (2006, 151 pp)
Biography
Hella S. Haasse (b. 1918) was born in Batavia, modern-day Jakarta. She moved to the Netherlands after secondary school. In 1945 she debuted with a collection of poems, entitled Stroomversnelling (Momentum). She made her name three years later with the novella given out to mark the Dutch Book Week, Oeroeg. As with much of her work, this tale of the friendship between a Dutch and an Indonesian boy has gained the status of a classic in the Netherlands. Titles such as Het woud der verwachting (In a Dark Wood Wandering, 1949), Een nieuwer testament (Threshold of Fire, 1966) and Mevrouw Bentinck of Onverenigbaarheid van karakter (Mrs Bentinck or Irreconcilable in Character, 1978) have been greatly enjoyed by several generations. In 1992 she published another novel about her home country, the Dutch East Indies: the highly acclaimed Heren van de thee (The Tea Merchants). Her work is characterised by an adequate and well thought out vocabulary and a flexible sentence structure. Her non-historical novels and stories are often about ordinary people who are intensely confronted by their choices and circumstances: De ingewijden (The Insiders, 1957), Huurders en onderhuurders (Tenants and Sub-tenants, 1971), Berichten van het blauwe huis (Messages from the Blue House, 1986), Fenrir (2000) and Sleuteloog (Eye of the Key, 2002). Haasse also published various collections of essays, including Uitgesproken, opgeschreven (Recited, Recorded, 1996) and Zwanen schieten (Shooting Swans, 1998). In 2006 her short stories were brought together in Het tuinhuis (The Garden House). Haasse has received several prestigious literary awards, among which the P.C. Hooft Prize (1983) and the Dutch Literature Prize (Prijs der Nederlandse Letteren, 2004), and her work has been translated into many languages.
Dossier
Quotes
Infinitely intriguing.
Het Financieele Dagblad
Vibrant phrasing, interesting characters and lots of mystery.
NRC Handelsblad
Het tuinhuis displays Haasse’s mastery.
Trouw
Literary jewels.
De Telegraaf
Translations
- Le Génie du lieu; La gloriette: récits. Arles: Actes Sud, 1998
- Continued...
Rights sold
- Iperborea (Milano, Italy)
- Continued...