In the last few decades Mulisch has been the symbol of literature, the perfect embodiment of the writer. The author underlines in this essay the cohesion of Mulisch's oeuvre, despite the considerable – mainly stylistic – differences to be found in it: wild and experimental to start with, balanced and classical later on. That oeuvre offers a view of an inalienable individual universe which, wherever you look, is immediately recognisable as Harry Mulisch's universe. The writer died on 30 October 2010. The serious reading can begin.