Merari Siregar
1896–1941
Biography
Merari Siregar lived from 1896 to 1941 and wrote in the Malay that would become modern Indonesian. He trained as a teacher at a kweekschool, the Dutch name for a teacher-training college, and in 1923 earned a diploma in trade correspondence in Jakarta. His working life moved around the region: he taught in Medan, in North Sumatra, then took a post at a public hospital in Jakarta, and later moved to Madura.
He is usually remembered for Azab dan Sengsara ('Pain and Suffering', 1920), a novel about a forced marriage and the misery that follows it. It is often named as the first novel written in Indonesian. He also wrote Cerita tentang Busuk dan Wanginya Kota Betawi, a piece about Batavia, the colonial city that is now Jakarta, which weighs the rot of the place against its perfume.
Two of his books are on this site. Azab dan Sengsara matters most to the history of Indonesian fiction. Si Djamin dan Si Djohan is a reworking of a Dutch original, Jan Smees by Justus van Maurik, so it shows how writers in Malay of his day borrowed from Dutch stories and remade them for their own readers.
This biography was written by a language model. The sources below are where to check it; treat details with care.
Books
Azab dan Sengsara
by Merari Siregar
Mariamin and Aminu'ddin, who have grown up as neighbours in the highlands of Sipirok, hope to marry, but his father, bound by family interest and custom, sends him away and has Mariamin married off to a stranger. Merari Siregar's novel of 1920, one of the first modern novels in…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.Si Djamin dan Si Djohan
by Merari Siregar
Two poor brothers in Batavia are made to hand over every cent they earn to a hard-hearted woman who beats them for what they do not bring. Merari Siregar's short novel for young readers, in the Dutch-era spelling of 1918, follows their misery and the kindness of a Chinese…
Summary written by Claude Sonnet 5.5.