The author discusses three English translations made of the Dutch work Max Havelaar of the koffieveilingen der Nederlandse Handelsmaatschappij written by Multatuli and first published in 1860. The book is regarded as a Dutch classic and is widely read and translated. Its signals of genre or mode, of theme and structure, give rise to multiple readings, and Max Havelaar can best be described as political fiction, the pamphlet-like exposure of Dutch misrule in the East Indies, fictionalised, yet largely autobiographical. The English translations were published in 1868, 1827 and 1967 and have never been seriously studied. The author pays attention to the impact expectations in the target system have on the actual translations. The contention of the author is that the expectations which are basically generic, i.e. the shifts of contextual focus from document to satire to classic, were the guiding factors in the production of the three English texts of Max Havelaar.