Novel
Sitti Nurbaya: A Love Unrealized
Sitti Nurbaya
Marah Rusli · 1922
Synopsis
In Padang, under Dutch colonial rule, Samsulbahri and Sitti Nurbaya, children of two noble families, neighbours and classmates, confess their love for each other just as the young man leaves to study in Batavia; caught kissing, he must leave the town. Datuk Meringgih, a rich merchant jealous of the fortune of Sitti's father, Baginda Sulaiman, has his goods destroyed to ruin him; unable to repay what he owes him, the father risks prison, and Sitti agrees to marry the old moneylender to save him.
Context
The novel appeared in 1922 in Batavia from Balai Pustaka, the literary bureau of the colonial administration, and was until 1930 at least one of its most borrowed books. The author combines pantuns from the Minangkabau oral tradition with long dialogues; critics read in it an attack on forced marriage, the dowry and polygamy. Taught as a classic after independence and reprinted more than forty times, it has been adapted twice as a television serial, in 1991 and in 2004, and was translated into English in 2011 by George A. Fowler.
Who it is for
A novel of about three hundred pages in Indonesian, translated into English, in which the author sometimes interrupts the story to address the reader.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as one of the major works of Indonesian letters, and by A. Teeuw as the first true Indonesian novel, it is compared to Romeo and Juliet.