Dutch · Intermediate
Read Dokter Helmond en zijn vrouw in Dutchwith every sentence explained
English title: Doctor Helmond and His Wife
J.J. Cremer · 1870
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About the book
Dokter Helmond en zijn vrouw by J.J. Cremer was first published in 1870. In Passage you read the full text in the original Dutch, marked intermediate and filed under historical fiction and romance. It runs to about 196,300 words.
A wedding under the hawthorn. A bride who dreams of Paris. A marriage about to be tested.
On the eve of their wedding, young doctor August Helmond and his fiancée Eva Armelo stand beneath the red hawthorn where they first met and promise always to want the same things. August is earnest, modest and generous; Eva is lovely and lively — and already fussing over the church carpet, the organ and the honeymoon in Paris.
Back in the little town of Romphuizen, under the watchful eye of August's gruff foster father, the old general, the newlyweds must build a life together. But small vanities, money and the opinions of “good society” begin to tug at their bond, and a disgraced younger brother in an Amsterdam back street tests just how far August's kindness can go.
Warm, witty and sharply observed, J.J. Cremer's novel was one of the great Dutch bestsellers of the nineteenth century.
- Author
- J.J. Cremer
- First published
- 1870
- Language
- Dutch
- Level
- Intermediate
- Genre
- Historical Fiction, Romance
- Length
- About 196,300 words
How it opens
Toen Cremer nog leefde, was er soms in de gehoorzalen van onze groote en kleine steden een treffend tooneel te bespieden.
Dames en heeren uit de voornamere kringen, anders zeldzaam bij Nederlandsche voordrachten, thans te laat gekomen, daar al de plaatsen reeds een uur te voren bezet waren, stonden zeer verlegen, maar volkomen waardig, uit te zien naar de eene of andere open plek. Een stoel op de verhevenheid naast den spreker, was alles wat overbleef. Eenvoudig, maar toch bewust van zijne kracht, trad Cremer voorzichtig door de dichte rijen zijner hoorders. Zoodra hij begon, ving zijne overwinning aan.
Reading Dokter Helmond en zijn vrouw in Passage
Passage sets the book as a quiet, paginated reader in Dutch. Read at your own pace, and when a sentence stops you, tap it. You get:
- a natural translation of that exact sentence,
- a short note on the grammar, in plain words,
- the key words, which you can save with the sentence they came from,
- all of it in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Turkish or Portuguese, whichever you read best.
It's marked intermediate: comfortable once everyday Dutch feels familiar, with the harder sentences one tap away. The words you save come back later in short review games, so the book keeps teaching after you close it.
