''Journey Through the Night'' (

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

: ''Reis door de nacht'') is a novel, originally in four volumes published from 1951 to 1958, by

author Anne de Vries. The novel centers around the representation of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

in the Netherlands and the impact it had on a reformed family. Since its publication, it has been translated in English several times, most recently in 2001 by Inheritance Publications. .

Background

Anne de Vries was born in Kloosterveen, on the countryside of

Drenthe Drenthe () is a province of the Netherlands located in the northeastern part of the country. It is bordered by Overijssel to the south, Friesland to the west, Groningen to the north, and the German state of Lower Saxony to the east. As of Nov ...

and lived on a "lonely farm". He however moved to

Zeist Zeist () is the capital and largest town of the municipality of Zeist. The town is located in the Utrecht province of the Netherlands, east of the city of Utrecht. History The town of "Seist" was first mentioned in a charter in the year 8 ...

, a wealthy town between

Utrecht Utrecht ( , , ) is the List of cities in the Netherlands by province, fourth-largest city and a List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality of the Netherlands, capital and most populous city of the Provinces of the Netherlands, pro ...

and

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, to become a teacher at a local school. As he longed back to his childhood on the countryside, De Vries wrote the novel ''

Bartje Bartje Bartels is the main character in a series of Dutch books written by Anne de Vries from 1935 on. Bartje is a boy who lives with his poor family in the countryside of Drenthe. His parents want him to become a farmer like his father, but Bartj ...

'' in the 1930s, which quickly became a popular work of fiction and resulted in De Vries' breakthrough as a writer. In 1940, De Vries moved back to Drenthe. During the Second World War, De Vries was involved in the Dutch Resistance. De Vries also held contacts with

Johannes Post Johannes Post (4 October 1906 – 16 July 1944) was a Dutch resistance leader during the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. He helped lead part of the Landelijke Knokploegen and hid Jews in his village, Nieuwlande. Post was recognized as Righteou ...

, of whom he later also wrote a biography. In 1945, De Vries was arrested by the

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, ''Security Service''), full title ' (Security Service of the '' Reichsführer-SS''), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence organization ...

, but was released because one of the Nazi officers loved his novel '' Hilde''. Stichting 1940-1945, which takes care of the commemorations of the war in the Netherlands, plead Anne de Vries to write an educational children's novel on the war. In ''Reis door de nacht'', De Vries decided to combine both actual events in his life in the 1940s and fiction.

Plot

The book is divided into 4 parts: *Part one : Into the Darkness *Part two : The Storm Rises (published in English under the title ''The Darkness Deepens'') *Part three : Morning Glory (published in English under the title ''Dawn's Early Light'') *Part four : The New Day (published in English under the title ''A New Day'') The main character is Jan (in the translation ''John'') de Boer. He is the eldest son of the family. During World War 2, the 5 year German occupation, he gets involved in the Resistance.

The Storm Rises

Two years have passed. The family is getting used to the war. But father De Boer joins the Underground Resistance. Jan and his sister Guusje (in the translation ''Tricia'') also get involved. At the end of the chapter a meeting of the Underground Resistance is thwarted by the Germans and the family must go underground. During the last chapter, Uncle Gerrit hides in the house from Germans while the rest of the family escape. He is forced to use the house's secret tunnel to escape from the Germans and he flees into the forest. The de Boer family house in destroyed by a German grenade and burns to the ground. The book finishes with the de Boer family hiding in a forest as the Germans destroy their house.

Morning Glory

After the Germans have destroyed the house of De Boer, Jan is in hiding. An old friend joins the Fight Force (Knok Ploeg (KP)). After his adventures in the FF the force is betrayed and Jan must go into hiding again.

Reception

Reception upon release

A ''Gereformeerd gezinsblad'' journalist praised the book for its story-telling and said that the book teaches the younger generation about the war. A journalist of the ''De Heerenveensche koerier'' critiqued the second part of the novel for being slightly idealistic.

Modern reception

Although the novel is generally seen as a

classic A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style; something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality; of the first or highest quality, class, or rank – something that exemplifies its class. The word can be an adjective (a ''c ...

, there has also been criticism that the novel represents a 1950s view of the Second World War that is not dominant anymore. While in ''Reis door de nacht'', taking the right moral choices is seen as one of the main features of being a good person, 21st century historians argue that most Dutch people ended up in certain situations by mere accident. In 2018, ''Reis door nacht'' was part of an exposition of children's literature in the Second World War, alongside ''

Oorlogswinter ''Winter in Wartime'' (''Oorlogswinter'', 1972) is a novel by the Dutch writer Jan Terlouw. The story is about a 15-year-old Dutch boy who lives through the last winter of World War II and is based on the author's recollections; Terlouw was eigh ...

''.

Influences on other work

Dutch author

Maarten 't Hart Maarten 't Hart (born 25 November 1944 in Maassluis) is a Dutch writer. Trained as a biologist in zoology and ethology at the Leiden University, he taught that subject before becoming a full-time writer in the 1980s, having made his debut as a ...

, who grew up in a reformed environment, stated that De Vries' depiction of the character Wiesje Langemaat in the novel awakened his interest in

travesty A travesty is an absurd or grotesque misrepresentation, a parody, or grossly inferior imitation. In literary or theatrical contexts it may refer to: * Burlesque, a literary, dramatic, or musical work intended to cause laughter by caricaturing the ...

.'t Hart, Maarten. Een deerne in lokkend postuur, persoonlijke kroniek 1999, in het hoofdstukje '‘excursie; Wiesje'’ (pag. 191–195) Wiesje Langemaat is a side character and knokploeg member who was born as Koos, but decided on wearing woman's clothes and behaving as a woman after having had to be dressed up as a woman to escape an arrest.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Journey Through The Night 1958 novels 20th-century Dutch novels Dutch-language novels Novels set in the Netherlands Novels set during World War II