20–20025
The letters are translated from the original Dutch by Agnes Louise Symmers and supplied with a foreword by Louis Couperus. The Javanese women are still condemned by tradition and custom to a secluded prison-life, against which Kartini fought from early childhood. She was the first Javanese feminist and her letters voice her ardent longing for freedom for herself and countrywomen, and testify to her achievements in that direction.
+ Booklist 17:112 D ’20
“The book is astonishingly fresh and fascinating. It should be given to the woman who rejoices in every sign of the liberation of the woman-soul from the bondage of tradition and masculine domination.” Margaret Ashmun
+ Bookm 52:346 D ’20 1100w
“The first of these letters, written in the Dutch language to friends in Holland, breathe the modern spirit. They unfold the story of the writer and show forth the Javanese life and manners in a vivid manner.” E. J. C.
+ Boston Transcript p6 O 30 ’20 600w
“Perhaps the greatest thing in her favour is that, as much as the worship of the shibboleth was in her blood, she did not blindly supplant the shibboleth of native practices with the shibboleth of European practices. On account of her excessive handicaps, however, her grasp of expression is by no means unusual; and as a result, the book is more valuable historically than as a piece of literature.”
+ − Dial 70:231 F ’21 100w
“As a picture of life in a remote corner of the world, the letters have real value, apart from their undoubted human appeal. It is sometimes difficult however to escape the feeling that the writer of them had an eye to their ultimate public appearance, when she grasped the pen, which may account for occasional lapses into a somewhat didactic and self-conscious style.” L. B.