It is basically a diary kept by Anne Frank while she was hiding in a’ secret annexure’ with her family for 2 years during the Nazi invasion of the Netherlands. The name of the original title is, ‘Het Achterhuis’, Yes it’s Dutch. It was first published on 25 June 1947.
This is a diary of a teenage girl who has torn apart between her own emotions and her understanding of the world. She writes,’ a person can be lonely even if he is loved by many people because he is still not the “one and only” to anyone’. This shows her loneliness as a teenager. She grew up in war-affected times and this made her more mature in understanding things. She had written somewhere in her diary,’ There’s in people simply an urge to destroy, an urge to kill, to murder and rape, and until all mankind, without exception, undergoes a great change, wars will be waged, everything that has been built up, cultivated, and grown will be destroyed and disfigured, after which mankind will have to begin all over again’. This truly shows her understanding and maturity.
The journal also tells us about her relationship with other people with whom she is living with. She loves her father but there is a lack of daughterly love for her mother. She admires her sister’s intelligence. Another person she describes vividly in her journal is Peter. At first, she didn’t like, ‘quite Peter’, but gradually as time passed she began to fall in love with him. Many of her journals are about describing her love and feelings about Peter.
After it’s publication, 30 million copies of this novel have been sold and it has been translated in over 67 languages. This speaks for itself how remarkable this novel is and why everyone should read it. Another important reason why you should read this novel because it’s a journey into the II world war. The description is vivid and at the same time heartbreaking.