Louis Couperus
Louis Marie-Anne Couperus was a Dutch novelist and poet. His oeuvre contains a wide variety of genres: lyric poetry, psychological and historical novels, novellas, short stories, fairy tales, feuilletons and sketches. Couperus is considered to be one of the foremost figures in Dutch literature. In 1923, he was awarded the Tollensprijs.
Couperus and his wife travelled extensively in Europe and Asia, and he later wrote several related travelogues which were published weekly.
Youth
Louis Marie-Anne Couperus was born on 10 June 1863 at Mauritskade 11 in The Hague, Netherlands, into a long-established, Indo family of the colonial landed gentry of the Dutch East Indies. He was the eleventh and youngest child of John Ricus Couperus, a prominent colonial administrator, lawyer and landheer or lord of the private domain of Tjikopo in Java, and Catharina Geertruida Reynst. Through his father, he was a great-grandson of Abraham Couperus, Governor of Malacca, and Willem Jacob Cranssen, Governor of Ambon with a female-line, Eurasian lineage that goes back even earlier to the mid-eighteenth century.Four of the ten siblings had died before Louis was born. Couperus was baptized on 19 July 1863 in the Eglise wallonne in The Hague. When Louis reached the age of five, his youngest sister, Trudy, was twelve years old and his youngest brother, Frans, eleven. In The Hague he followed lessons at the boarding school of Mr. Wyers, where he first met his later friend Henri van Booven. On 6 November 1872 the Couperus family left home, travelled by train to Den Helder and embarked on the steamboat Prins Hendrik, which would bring them back to the Dutch East Indies. They arrived on 31 December 1872 in Batavia, where they spent the night at the then famous Hotel des Indes. The family settled in a house in Batavia, located on the Koningsplein and the mother of Couperus and his brother Frans returned to the Netherlands in December 1873; his mother returned to the Dutch East Indies in April 1874. So Couperus spent part of his youth in the Dutch East Indies, going to school in Batavia.
Here he met his cousin, Elisabeth Couperus-Baud, for the first time. In his novel De zwaluwen neergestreken, he wrote about his youth:
In the Dutch East Indies, Couperus also met his future brother-in-law for the first time, Gerard de la Valette, who wrote in 1913 about his relationship with Couperus:
After he finished primary school, Couperus attended the Gymnasium Willem III in Batavia. In the summer of 1878 Couperus and his family returned to the Netherlands, where they went to live in a house at the Nassaukade 4. In The Hague Couperus was sent to the H.B.S. school; during this period of his life, he spent a lot of time at the Vlielander-Hein family ; later their son, François Emile Vlielander Hein, was his favourite nephew, who helped him with his literary work. At the HBS Couperus met his later friend Frans Netscher; during this period of his life, he read the novels written by Émile Zola and Ouida. When Couperus' school results did not improve, his father send him to a school where he was trained to be a teacher in the Dutch language. In 1883 he attended the opera written by Charles Gounod Le tribut de Zamora; he later used elements of this opera in his novel Eline Vere.
Start of Couperus' career as a writer
In 1885 plans were made to compose an operetta for children. Virginie la Chapelle wrote the music, and Couperus provided the lyrics for De schoone slaapster in het bosch. The opera was staged by a hundred children at the Koninklijke Schouwburg in The Hague. In January 1885 Couperus had already written one of his early poems, called Kleopatra. Other writings from this period include the sonnet Een portret and Uw glimlach of uw bloemen. In 1882, Couperus started reading Petrarch and had the intention to write a novel about him, which was never realized, although he did publish the novella In het huis bij den dom, loosely inspired by Plutarch. When Couperus just had finished his novella Een middag bij Vespaziano, he visited Johannes Bosboom and his wife Anna Louisa Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint, whose works Couperus greatly admired. Couperus let Mrs. Bosboom-Toussaint read his novella, which she found very good. In 1883 Couperus started writing Laura; this novella was published in parts in De Gids in 1883 and 1884. In 1885 Couperus' debut in book form, Een lent van vaerzen was published. In these days a person Couperus greatly admired for his sense of beauty and intelligence was writer Carel Vosmaer, whom he frequently met while walking in the center of The Hague.In 1883 Couperus saw Sarah Bernhardt performing in The Hague, but was more impressed by her dresses than her performance itself. The next year, John Ricus Couperus, father of Louis Couperus, sold his family estate "Tjicoppo", located in the Dutch East Indies and gave order to build a house at the Surinamestraat 20, The Hague. Here Couperus continued writing poetry and his study of Dutch literature. In June 1885 he was appointed member of the very prestigious Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde, two years after he published Orchideeën. Een bundel poëzie en proza, which had received mixed reviews. Journalist Willem Gerard van Nouhuys wrote that Orchideeën lacked quality, Jacob Nicolaas van Hall was positive, and Willem Kloos called it "literary crap". Couperus passed his exam on 6 December 1886 and received his certificate, which allowed him to teach at secondary schools. However, he did not aspire to a teaching career and decided to continue writing literature instead. At the end of 1887 he started to write what was to become his most-famous novel, Eline Vere.
Eline Vere, the beginning of success
Shortly before Couperus wrote Eline Vere, he had read War and Peace and Anna Karenina, written by Leo Tolstoy. The structure of Couperus' book Eline Vere was similar to that of Anna Karenina. He had also just read Ghosts, a play written by Henrik Ibsen; reference to the leading character of Ghosts is made when Eline Vere is delirious with fever and cries: "Oh god, the ghosts, approaching grinning" – also the suicide by the main characters in Eline Vere and in Ghosts by taking an overdose of morphine is the same. Between 17 June until 4 December 1888, the novel Eline Vere was published in the Dutch newspaper Het Vaderland; a reviewer in the Algemeen Handelsblad wrote: "The writer has talent".Meanwhile, Couperus wrote a novella called Een ster, which was published in "Nederland" and made a journey to Sweden. In this period of his life, Couperus was an active member of the drama club of writer Marcel Emants, and here he met a new friend, Johan Hendrik Ram, a captain of the grenadiers, who would later commit suicide. In April 1890 the Nieuwe Gids published a review of Eline Vere, written by Lodewijk van Deyssel, in which he wrote "the novel of Mr. Couperus is a good and a literary work". Couperus also met a new friend, writer Maurits Wagenvoort, who invited Couperus and painter George Hendrik Breitner to his home.
A second edition of Eline Vere was published within a year. Couperus finished his next novel, Noodlot in May 1890; this novel was then published in De Gids. It is possible that the leading character of Noodlot, Frank, was inspired by the character of Couperus' friend, Johan Hendrik Ram, a strong and healthy military person. Couperus now started reading Paul Bourget's novel Un coeur de femme, which inspired him during the writing of his novella Extaze. In July 1890 he completed Eene illuzie and on 12 August 1890 received the prestigious D.A. Thiemeprijs. In October that same year, he travelled to Paris, where he received a letter from his publisher-to-be, L.J. Veen, asking permission to publish Noodlot, which offer Couperus rejected because this book was supposed to be published by Elsevier. When his uncle Guillaume Louis Baud died, Couperus went back to The Hague to attend the funeral. Here Couperus decided to marry his cousin Elisabeth Couperus-Baud. The marriage took place on 9 September 1891 in The Hague.
More successes as a writer
On 21 September 1891, Couperus and his wife settled in a small villa at the Roeltjesweg in Hilversum; after Couperus finished his new book Extaze in October 1891 he wrote Uitzichten and started with his new romantic and spiritual novella Epiloog. Extaze was published in 1892 in The Gids, and Couperus asked publisher L.J. Veen to publish it as a novel, but refused the offer Veen made him. In 1891 an English translation of Noodlot, Footsteps of Fate and in 1892 an English translation of Eline Vere were released. Meanwhile, L.J. Veen made Couperus a better offer, which he accepted, and Couperus received from Oscar Wilde his novel The Picture of Dorian Gray; Wilde had read the translation of Couperus' Footsteps of Fate. and wrote to Couperus to compliment him with his book. Elisabeth Couperus-Baud translated Wilde's novel into Dutch: Het portret van Dorian Gray. Dutch critics wrote divergent reviews about Extaze: writer and journalist Henri Borel said that, the book was something like a young boy messing with an egg, while Lodewijk van Deyssel found it great. Frederik van Eeden wrote that he had a specific aversion against the book. Couperus and his wife moved to The Hague, where Couperus wrote Majesteit, after he had read an article in The Illustrated London News about Nicholas II of Russia. Gerrit Jäger, a play writer, wrote a theatre performance of Noodlot; it was performed in 1892 by the Rotterdam theatre company, and the then-famous Dutch actor, who was an acquaintance of Couperus, played one of the leading characters. On 1 February 1893 Couperus and his wife left for Florence, but they had to return because of the death of Couperus' mother. He wrote about how she rested on her deathbed in his novel Metamorfoze. During this time Elisabeth Couperus-Baud was translating George Moore's novel Vain Fortune, while Majesteit was published in The Gids.In 1894 Couperus joined the editorial board of De Gids; other members were Geertrudus Cornelis Willem Byvanck, Jacob Nicolaas van Hall, Anton Gerard van Hamel, Ambrosius Hubrecht and Pieter Cort van der Linden. In September 1893 Couperus and his wife left for Italy for the second time. In Florence they stayed in a pension close to the Santa Maria Novella; here Couperus wrote in November 1893 a sketch, Annonciatie, a literary description of the painting of the same name by Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi in the Uffizi gallery. In December Couperus and his wife visited Rome, where Couperus wrote San Pietro, Pincio, Michelangelo's cupola, Via Appia and Brief uit Rome. In these works, Couperus gave references to the works he had read about Rome: Ariadne by Ouida, Rienzi by Bulwer, Transformation by Hawthorne, Voyage en Italie by Taine and Cosmopolotis by Bourget. In February 1894 Couperus travelled to Naples and Athens, and then returned to Florence, where he visited Ouida. Couperus and his wife returned to the Netherlands, where Elisabeth Couperus-Baud made a translation of George Moore's Vain Fortune; they went to live in the house at the Jacob van der Doesstraat 123. During this time Gerrit Jäger committed suicide by drowning. Couperus now started working on what was to become Wereldvrede and wrote a translation of Flaubert's La Tentation de Saint Antoine.