Summary
Lust en Leering (Delight and Instruction) is the first book entirely devoted to Dutch literature written for children and young persons during the nineteenth century - for many, a time in which the most attractive children's books were produced.
Perhaps the first striking aspect of these Dutch children's books was their supra-national character that was very much related to the Netherlands' exceptional position as a cultural delta area and transit port. French, German and English cultural movements were always warmly welcomed here. During the eighteenth century, for example, France long held a dominant position in this regard. After 1770, German theories of education based on the work of Campe, Salzmann and Pestalozzi gained preference, and at the end of the nineteenth century, the English picture books of Crane, Caldecott and Kate Greenaway aroused artistic interests in the Netherlands.
Nevertheless, in addition to all of the openness for ideas from elsewhere, the Netherlands' own identity has always been present as well. The most obvious example of this might be the picture books illustrated with primitive woodcuts: the figurenboeken that were published up until 1840. Due to their illustrations, these secular or Biblical figures looked very much like the Dutch catchpenny prints and most were also issued by the same publishers. Their visual material was often generally European and in any case traditional. What was really typically Dutch, however, were the representations of street vendors, farmers and country people in their regional clothing; the popular customs, children's games and proverbs.
There was even a separate genre of children's book that was found only in great numbers in the Netherlands: the Sinterklaasboek that was closely linked to the family gift-giving festivity held on 5 December. This date commemorates the birthday of this saintly bishop (Saint Nicolas) whose leading promoter was Amsterdam poet, Jan Schenkman (1806-1863). But the list of real Dutch children's books was much broader. It also contained all kinds of stories about the history of the Netherlands, game books and nursery rhymes. Even a genre that was typically English, such as the comical Mother Goose rhymes (‘Old Mother Hubbard’, ‘Dame Trot and her Cat’, etc.) underwent a true metamorphosis to gear them to Dutch tastes.
German children's books have always attracted the attention of Dutch publishers. In 1820, for example, the publishing firm of Diederichs & Zoon in Amsterdam issued a Dutch translation of Grimms' Kinder- und Hausmärchen under the title Sprookjesboek voor Kinderen (fairytales for children). This was both the first publication of Grimms' famous work outside of Germany and the very first illustrated publication ever. On the other hand, various German publishers such as Joseph Scholz in Mainz and Arnz & Co. in Dusseldorf issued many picture books written in Dutch between 1840 and 1880. Until now, researchers had taken little notice of these children's books, one reason being that copies of them have often disappeared in the country where they were published.
After 1870, German influence declined and made way for the English influence as headed by William Morris and his school. Toward the end of the century the artistic picture books illustrated by such artists as Henriëtte Willebeek Le Mair and Nelly Bodenheim began to become popular in the Netherlands. It was particularly the books by Willebeek Le Mair (1889-1966) that enjoyed international fame. Her primarily rather artificial book illustrations, however, contrasted with the more popular presentation of other well-known writers of children's books such as Jan Schenkman and Jan Goeverneur (1808-1889) whose work was deeply rooted in everyday Dutch life. This also applied to the work of Cornelis Jetses (1873-1955) who was not a writer but a lithographer and perhaps the best-ever illustrator of Dutch children's books.
As far as this history of literature is concerned, Lust en Leering is chronologically and thematically arranged into twenty-three chapters: 1 The heritage of the
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