M.A. (Afrikaans) / It has already become a generally accepted platitude to assert that the political novel under the influence of French philosophers Jean Paul Sartre and Albert Camus has as its aim to explicitly manipulate the concrete reader towards a "desired" attitude. "Desired" then in the sense that the reader will be persuaded by means of literary strategies to accept that particular ideological viewpoint which is communicated by the text. Research done into the aspects of historicity of Houd-den-Bek by Andre P. Brink and as it is utilized by him in the manuscript and other investigations have revealed drastic deviations from the historical facts concerning the slave rebellion during 1825 in the Koue Bokkeveld. The novel employs this chain of events as the narrative. Deviations from the factual can be related to the abstract author's will to evoke from the reader a sympathetic or antipathetic response towards figures or groups. The investigation undertaken by H.P. van Coller (1988) also mainly covered the story aspects of the text. The discursive structure of the whole work (which has not yet been fully researched), especially in relation to the manipulating role of the abstract author as the supreme text internal force, is investigated as a segment of this research project. The nature of the literary communication, namely manipulation as text strategy, which is typical of the engaged text, has been criptically traced. In this investigation the emphasis has fallen on certain manipulation strategies which is typical of the engaged text and then particularly on the compositional level, the word level and the conceptual level. Both intrinsic and extrinsic characteristics have been noted in order to establish in what way the organizing force has manifested itself in this text. It has been established that a pragmatic maneuvering is present in the manipulative proceeds of this particular novel which is directed in a clearly persuasive way. i, Finally it has been established from the reaction of literary scholars, critics and readers that a communication process did take place, that the reader was confronted with a "new" ideology. The reception investigations of critics have been employed in order to establish if the persuasive proceeds, which have been built into the structure of the text, do fulfil their referential function with the intended reader/critic as reproductive reader. Was this then so effective that the reality in Houd-den-Bek could become an emotional guilt ridden stimulus not only to the intended reader, but also to the critic. In other words: has the abstract author managed to manipulate the critic and in so doing, has he managed to influence his objective jUdgement as well. The conclusion that has been arrived at amongst other things, is that the too obvious manipulation present in the novel adversely affects it. Manipulative techniques that have been used excessively become "automatic" as a result of being over-emphasized and they therefore lose their effect. The reality model in the text has only been able to persuade the reader/critic in a limited way to become critically aware