 Cover of the first edition (1911) | |
| Author | Kartini |
|---|---|
| Original title | Door duisternis tot licht: Gedachten over en voor het Javaansche volk |
| Translator | Agnes Louise Symmers (English, 1919); Bagindo Dahlan Abdullah, Zainudin Rasad, Sutan Muhammad Zain, and Djamaloedin Rasad (Malay, 1922); Armijn Pane (Malay, 1938); Louis Charles Damais (French, 1960) |
| Language | Dutch language |
| Publisher | G. C. T. van Dorp |
Publication date | 1911 (first edition) |
| Publication place | Dutch East Indies |
Published in English | 1920 |
Letters of a Javanese Princess (Dutch: Door duisternis tot licht: Gedachten over en voor het Javaansche volk; 'Through darkness to light: Thoughts about and for the Javanese people') is a posthumous book of letters by the Dutch East Indies women's rights activist and intellectual Kartini. The letters, which were written in Dutch, reveal Kartini's views on society and modern life, and were collected by one of Kartini's correspondents Jacques Henrij Abendanon and published in 1911. They have since been translated into a number of other languages, including an English language version in 1920 and a Malay language version published by Balai Pustaka in 1922. The book became an important symbol both for liberal Dutch colonial policy (the Dutch Ethical Policy) and for Indonesian nationalism.