A Riot Against Authority in Dutch Literature

Dutch literature is actually a two-hundred-year-old riot against authority. It started with boring preachers

writing moral lessons, but then the Tachtigers kicked down the door in the 1880s. They screamed that

art isn't about God, it is about raw passion and being a God in your own

thoughts. Then things got dark with Couperus and the Naturalists, where fate ruins

everything and everyone is depressed. By the time the 1930s hit, writers like Nescio

and Elsschot dropped the drama for the New Objectivity. They proved the best stories aren't

about heroes, but about regular people just trying to survive the daily grind.