Louis Couperus (1863–1923)

Sixty years ago, Uncle Harold saw something nasty in the pasangrahan...

The central idea of this novel - a family with a very unpleasant secret from the past coming back to haunt it - should be a dreadful cliché (as the afterword in my copy points out, the crime at the centre of the story is lifted directly from Zola), but Couperus is clever and subtle enough to carry it off. He uses the hidden scandal to give a focus to a complicated, multiple point-of-view account of the relationships in show more an extended family. Everyone in the story has their own agenda, and there's a fair amount of deceit and hypocrisy to be dug out from under the bourgeois respectability of The Hague ca. 1900.
Couperus puts the norms and values of society into question in a way that a British or American writer of the same period probably couldn't have got away with. You can see why Arnold Bennett was such a fan. Marriage and parent-child relationships, in particular, take a few hard knocks under this penetrating examination. There's something you could call a "gay subtext" if you wanted to, but you probably need to know something about Couperus to be prompted to look for it; you could also argue plausibly that there's a fairly strong misogynistic element in the book, so it's maybe better not to stress the gender-politics too much.
As the title suggests, old age is an important theme in the book: we see the ways various characters deal with being old, or (especially the quasi-autobiographical character, Lot) with the prospect of getting older. There's not much serenity about: old age for most of them is the time when they finally have to start facing up to the mistakes they've made in life. Those who seek religious consolation are clutching at straws: the rest are as scared of death as they are of staying alive.
Difficulties of communication are also very important to the story: we slowly build up to an absurd situation where almost all the main characters know the "secret", but none of them know which others know it. Couperus is primarily writing in a realist style, but there are strong hints of modernism too.
Although the themes are rather negative, I didn't find this a depressing book to read. There's plenty of wit and irony to help you distance yourself from the characters. I'm not really qualified to judge Dutch literary style, but I found it very elegant, light and easy to read, despite the inevitable difficulties of a text written in a language that has changed quite a lot in the last century. show less

On some levels it seems like quite a light romance, but it is so much more. There were a lot of levels and resonances. And especially at the beginning quite powerfully sensual with description of the rooms and sensations. And then of course the interior world of Cecilie especially.

It put me in mind of work by Virginia Woolf, and I wonder if she had read Couperus. I think she must have. She certainly took what he was doing to the umph degree, but some of his pieces reminded me of her ‘The show more Waves’ and ‘Mrs Dalloway’. LC's work isn’t as dense as her novels, but it’s there in small servings. It is a long while since I have read such a romantic story, but he captures that youthful dizzy sensation of inexplicable feelings of intensity, almost as if one has been imbibing opium (as it might have been in the era). show less

Louis Couperus was the great writer of the Dutch belle epoque. Having grown up in the Dutch Indies (now Indonesia), he never enjoyed living in the Netherlands, which he found cold, both in the sense of the climate, as well as the people. Through his love of art, particularly classical antiquity, he spent as much time as possible in the Mediterranean, preferably in Italy. Beside fiction, Couperus wrote travelogues which were published in weekly installments in Dutch newspapers between 1896 show more and 1915. These travelogues were written in different forms: letters, essays, feuilletons and diaries. At the instigation of the author, from 1912 these feuilletons were also collected in small paper covered editions to be sold at railway stations, a novelty Couperus had observed abroad, namely the publication of the earliest paperbacks. Eventually, they were published in the more prestigious hardcover editions. Many of Couperus books published with Veen, his publisher, have beautiful art deco covers.

Couperus's earliest travel impressions appeared in the slim volume Reis-impressies. These were still largely factual descriptions of various places in Italy. In later collections Couperus mixed his gorgeous descriptive style with his imagination. Instead of describing the ruins before his eyes, he would describe Rome in its full splendor as it appeared in his mind's eye. This resulted in two gorgeous books Uit blanke steden onder blauwe lucht vols 1 and 2. In later works, he introduced a further element of fiction, namely his imaginary friendship with an aristocratic and very rich Italian whom he names Orlando. This person, nor his residence, as they appear in Couperus's work has ever been identified. Feuilletons about Orlando and Couperus in Italy are collected in four volumes of Van en over mijzelf en anderen.

Between 1912 and 1914, Couperus published five volumes of travelogues, in the form of diaries of about 3 pages, in the series Van en over alles en iedereen (five vols.). During the First World War, the Netherlands was neutral. Still, due to the war, Couperus spent the second period in Switzerland. The War is hardly mentioned in these pages.

Van en over alles en iedereen, deel 1. Rome is the first volume, collecting 28 feuilletons in Rome. In these reports from Rome, Couperus appears humorous and very honest, without fear of ridicule or disdain. He describes where to go for tea on a shoestring while appearing to be wealthy. He writes that he has more fun in the cinema (then a novelty) than at the opera house. Sometimes he has a day of ennui and admits that he doesn't know what to write about. Very different from the collections mentioned above, Van en over alles en iedereen, deel 1. Rome is a delightful and light collections of travel writing in Rome. show less

A Dutch 19th century psychological character study of a woman and the society she tries to fit in to? Yes, please! I was so happy to discover this Dutch classic through the 1001 books to read before you die group. It fit right in with some of my favorites: [Anna Karenina], [Madame Bovary], [Middlemarch], and [Age of Innocence].

This book is the story of Eline Vere, a well-to-do but mentally unstable young woman living in The Hague. Her manic-depressive tendencies make her various show more relationships volatile and unfulfilling. Eline and her relationships with her sister, brother-in-law, and various love interests are central to the over-arching flow of the book, but there are plenty of other characters to follow as well.

I loved this book and definitely recommend it to others who love this time period of writing. I think it is "under-known" in English. In fact, the only print copy of it I could find easily in English translation is an Archipelago publication from 2013. It was my first Archipelago book and, as a side note, I love the book quality - very nice cover, binding, paper, etc. show less