Jurnal Melayu Jilid 12(1) Jun 2014 ISSN 1675-7513 82 Kekuatan Diam Christina Dewi Elbers Kanisius, Jakarta, 2011, 246 pages, ISBN978-979-21-2912-0 After over a century of waiting, the novel De Stille Kracht, is now finally available for Indonesian readers. The novel originally written in Dutch by Louis Marie-Anne Couperus (b. 1863, d. 1923) and was translated into Indonesian as Kekuatan Diam by Christina Dewi Elbers, a PhD candidate at the Universitas Gadjah Mada provides a vivid picture of the life and culture of a Dutch colony in the East Indies in the late 19 th century. The novel Kekuatan Diam is classified as Indische letteren, a special term in the Dutch literary canon which is highly inspired by the Dutch colonial era in the East Indies. Some of the authors of the Indische letteren are of Indonesian descent, while others are native Dutch. Louis Couperus is considered as one of the key figures in the Dutch literary canons. He wrote on several literary genres, but was most well-known as a psychological novelist. His works are commonly referred as “‘Haagse’ romans” (‘Den Haag’ romances). De Stille Kracht is one of his most outstanding works. The original Dutch edition of De Stille Kracht or Kekuatan Diam was first published by L.J. Veen in Amsterdam in 1900. The novel was later reprinted several times in the Netherlands. The latest edition was published by Atheneaum-Polak & Van Gennep in Amsterdam in 2001 as part of a series entitled Salamander Klassiek. Kekuatan Diam presents the sociological and psychological aspects of the lives of the Dutch community in Indonesia. Its literary narrative presents the challenges confronted by the Dutch in understanding the culture and society of the Javanese community in Indonesia in the 19 th century. The protagonist of this novel is a native European named Otto van Oudijck. He serves as the Resident in a somewhat secluded imaginary community known as Labuwangi. Based on the many clues offered by the novel's narrative, it can be surmised that the setting of Labuwangi could possibly be located in East Java. He lives with his second wife Leonie in an official European-styled residency house staffed by indigenous maids. Leonie is a beautiful woman, but she is also a lonely soul. She is secretly having several affairs with men including her own stepsons Theo and Doddy. However, without her knowing, Doddy is also involved in a romantic relationship with Addy, the daughter of De Luce, the owner of a sugar refinery in Patjaram. Van Oudijck has a very tense relationship with the Regent of Labuwangi Raden Adipati Soerio Soenario. He considers the Regent as incompetent for being unable to advise his brother, the Regent of Ngajiwa, who likes to gamble and smokes opium. Once during a party at the house of the Labuwangi residential secretary Onno Eldersma, a drunken Raden Adipati coarsely accuses Van Oudijck. Van Oudijck threatens to dismiss Raden Adipati from his obligations as the Regent of Labuwangi. Raden Adipati’s mother, Raden Ayu Pangeran, who is petite but authoritative, objects to the way Van Oudijck treats her son. She makes a vow that she will retaliate in her own way and declares that all the Dutch will be driven out from the land of Java. After this incident, the lives of Van Oudijck and other members of the European elite society continue as usual in Labuwangi. They continue to organize charity parties and hold social gatherings, whilst gossips about Leonie’s infidelity begin to slowly spread among the society. However, lots of strange things begin to happen in Van Oudijck’s house. At night, somebody starts to throw stones at the roof of the house and the sound of children’s voices can be heard coming from the trees or inside the well. Leonie herself experiences an unsettling incident when she was alone in the bathroom where Leonie is splashed with juice brought to you by CORE View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk provided by UKM Journal Article Repository