Dutch · Advanced
Read Hilda van Suylenburg in Dutchwith every sentence explained
Cécile Goekoop-de Jong van Beek en Donk · 1897
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About the book
Hilda van Suylenburg by Cécile Goekoop-de Jong van Beek en Donk was first published in 1897. In Passage you read the full text in the original Dutch, marked advanced and filed under historical fiction and romance. It runs to about 144,600 words.
She knows Greek and Latin but has never been to a ball. The Hague, 1890s, and a young woman who wants more than a husband.
Orphaned at twenty-one, Hilda van Suylenburg arrives at her aunt's gilded house in The Hague. Her scholarly father raised her in the country among books, big dogs and horses. Now her cousins Eugénie and Corry want to talk about winter gowns, suitors and who is invited where.
Among the tea parties and gossip Hilda meets Corona van Oven, a brilliant woman doctor, and a circle of women who work, study and argue. Why should a woman's life be so small? Why can't she earn her own living, or plead in court? Hilda makes a daring choice: she will study law.
Hilda van Suylenburg (1897) was the sensation of its day, the Dutch novel of the “new woman”, read and fought over everywhere. Its author, Cécile Goekoop-de Jong van Beek en Donk, went on to help organise the great 1898 Exhibition of Women's Labour.
- Author
- Cécile Goekoop-de Jong van Beek en Donk
- First published
- 1897
- Language
- Dutch
- Level
- Advanced
- Genre
- Historical Fiction, Romance
- Length
- About 144,600 words
How it opens
Hilda was juist aangekomen. Het laatste gedeelte van haar reis, tusschen Utrecht en den Haag, had ze alleen in den coupé gezeten, alleen met het steeds sterker wordend besef van een nieuw huis, een nieuwe vreemde omgeving die haar wachtte. Droomend en mat, in doffen weemoed had zij achterover geleund en gestaard naar buiten tot het haar was geweest als of zij stilstond en het landschap haar voorbij vloog in een rondende beweging van kromme lijnen.
Reading Hilda van Suylenburg 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 advanced, with richer vocabulary and longer sentences. If it feels heavy, start with an intermediate Dutch book and come back to it. The words you save come back later in short review games, so the book keeps teaching after you close it.
