Louis Couperus

I discovered Louis Couperus in an LT friend's catalogue and immediately dropped a couple of his books into my shopping basket. I had heard the name before, linked with Oscar Wilde's era (I read a lot about the fin de Siecle and OW in my teens and 20s), but hadn't read any of LC's work.

I now have 3 in the pile but began by reading 'Ecstacy' as it is in English. 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 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).

I want to re-read it and will add to these comments when I do.

Here's my review of Couperus's magum Opus 'The Book of Small Souls':

http://www.librarything.com/work/10620159/reviews/66553567

And a net article about one of Couperus's novels being made into a movie:

http://www.collider.com/2010/08/23/paul-verhoeven-the-hidden-force/