Marah Roesli began his literary career with Sitti Nurbaya (Unrequited Love), written in 1922. Up to 1990, the novel has since been reprinted more than 20 times and was once presented in a TV play directed by Dedi Setiadi. A year after Marah Roesli's death, the government declared Siti Nurbaya Indonesia's paramount work of literature.

Literary critic H.B. Jassin called Roesli the Father of the Modern Indonesian Novel, a trailblazer who opened the w