Monumental Java

Monumental Java

If this book needs an apology, it is one to myself for taking the public at large into the confidence of cherished recollections. The writing was a diversion from studies in a quite different direction and letting my pen go, while living again the happy hours I spent, between arduous duties, with the beautiful monuments of Javas past, I did nothing but seek my own pleasure. Should it turn out that my personal impressions, given in black and white, please others tooso much the better. In any case they must be taken for what they are: a beguilement of lone moments of leisure. Whoever find them readable, they will not satisfy, I hope, a certain class of critics; those, I mean, who extend the paltry rule of mutual admiration, nul naura de lesprit que nous et nos amis, to any field they claim their own and of whom to be dispraised were no small praise. Desirous, I must confess, to stimulate their flattering disapproval, I hasten to admit in advance my many shortcomings, a full list of which they will doubtless oblige me[viii] with in due process of censorious comment. My work sets up no pretence to completeness: there is no full enumeration of all the Hindu and Buddhist temples known by their remains; there are no measurements, no technical details, no statisticsa great recommendation to my mind, as Dutch East Indian statistics go. I am not guilty of an ambitious attempt to enrich the world with an exhaustive treatise on ancient Javanese architecture and sculpturefar be it from me to harbour such an audacious design! I disclaim even the presumption to aspire at being classed as a useful companion on a visit to the island; I deny most emphatically that I intend to swell the disquieting number of tourists vade-mecums already up for sale, clamouring for recognition, and, horribile dictu, scores more coming! Be they sufficient or insufficient, qualitatively speaking, I am not going to increase their quantity. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 42405
Author: Scheltema, J. F. (Johann Friedrich )
Release Date: Mar 24, 2013
Format: eBook
Language: English