
IN EXTREMIS.
VACANTIE.
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A stark, first‑person diary opens with a man confronting his own decline, his words tinged with both resignation and a sharp, dark humor. He recounts the slow, relentless advance of a mysterious illness, the ache of solitary evenings, and the thin thread of consciousness that keeps him aware. Through candid, often fragmented entries, he sketches the empty spaces inside him and the frantic plans that still whirl in his mind.
He also lays bare his longing for compassionate care, picturing a gentle presence to ease the final weeks of his life while he grapples with shame, memory, and fleeting hopes. The narrative drifts between bitter observations of indifferent helpers, wistful recollections of family, and philosophical musings that echo classic existential writers. Listeners are drawn into an intimate portrait of mortality that is as raw as it is oddly lyrical, inviting reflection on the fragile balance between suffering and dignity.
Language
nl
Duration
~3 hours (198K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Jeroen Hellingman and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net/ for Project Gutenberg.
Release date
2016-11-10
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1853–1927
Born in Semarang and writing under the name Melati van Java, she became one of the Dutch public’s popular novelists around the turn of the twentieth century. Her fiction often drew on life in the Dutch East Indies, blending romance, history, and social observation.
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