A Scented Prison

By Arti Purbani; Translated by Patricia Henry

Widati’s father had not realized that his wife had become a gambler, and was stunned to find out that she was deeply in debt, to the point where she was threatened with prison. Only Sugono’s mother could provide help: she was willing to pay off the debt, but Widati had to become her son’s wife. That was why Widati’s father was begging her to accept Sugono’s proposal.

“So, in fact, they want to sell me, and all for her, the Seller of Humans, who has always treated me so badly,” said Widati bitterly. What should she do? She had no money, either; if she had, she would send it to her father without hesitation. Should she go to a blood-sucking money lender? Would it be better to inform her sister of this matter, or better not to get her mixed up in it at all?

In the twilight of the Dutch colonial rule of the Netherlands East Indies, the courts of Central Java were pockets of archaic royal custom being jostled by progressive new ideas. Widati, the leading charact in this novel, A Scented Prison, struggles to find her way between these two worlds as a young woman in love, who longs for authenticity of expression and the liberty to serve the human community.

Arti Purbani (1902–1998), author of A Scented Prison, was the pen name of Bendoro Raden Ayu Partini Djajadiningrat, a member of one of the royal houses of Solo and a daughter of Mangkunegara V. She had first-hand knowledge of the elaborate ceremonies that marked every stage of life in the priyayi world of the Javanese aristocracy, while at the same time benefitting from a Dutch education and exposure to European values.

Although forbidden by her father to write and, with little encouragement from her husband as well, it was during an extended period of hospitalization following the birth of her fourth child in 1925 that she compiled notes on her memories of life in the Mangkunagaran palace. These formed the basis for her novel which was published first, in Dutch, under the title Widyawati, in 1948. A year later Balai Pustaka, Indonesia’s state-owned publishing house, published the Indonesian language version. There were four subsequent editions, the last in 1982.

Dimension: 14 x 21.5 cm
Pages: 250
Publisher: The Lontar Foundation
Year: 2025
Category: Fiction, Novel