Alie Smeding, P.A.H. Hofman - De Zondaar - 1927

Rare first edition in two parts, bound in bindings designed by Pieter Hofman.


Alie Smeding the author was enormously popular in the 1920s, and with this book she managed to pull it off, even though she was married to a Reformed minister in Enkhuizen.
Dirk Hartsen (the sinner) was a teacher, and with his salary he could not imagine a marriage with colleague Toos.
With extra studies and also diplomas, Dirk and Toos could go to Amsterdam where a new job, a house, a salon and a garden awaited.
But what was going on with Toos? Unrecognizably she lived her life and Dirk was at his wits' end.
He contemplates murder plans, thinks he is going crazy and repels all the ladies who make advances to him.
PART 2:
Finally Dirk yields to the charms of the maid Diet, and she was not the worst either.
For a book a hundred years ago this, of course, was something that stood out from the band. I will tell no more, there must still be something to guess.