Louis Marie-Anne Couperus was a Dutch novelist and poet of the late 19th and early 20th Century. He is usually considered one of the foremost figures in Dutch literature.

Born in the Netherlands in 1863, Couperus grew up in a wealthy patrician family, spending part of his youth in the Dutch East Indies and going to school in Batavia (now Jakarta, Indonesia). Couperus was the grandson of a wealthy Governor General of the Dutch East Indies and many of his relatives were employed in the local govenment. After returning to The Hague in the Netherlands in 1878, he published some early volumes of poetry and prose which garnered little success or critical attention. Couperus came to fame with the publication of his novel Eline Vere (1888), a naturalist work influenced by French novelists like Emile Zola and Gustave Flaubert. Couperus' 1891 novel Noodlot (Footsteps of Fate) was much admired by Oscar Wilde, and many have noted stylistic similarities between Noodlot and Wilde's 1890 novel The Picture of Dorian Gray.

Couperus' later works include De Stille Kracht (The Hidden Force, 1900) and De Berg van Licht (The Mountain of Light, 1906), a decadent and seamy novel set at the height of the Roman Empire. His psychological novels, such as "De Boeken der Kleine Zielen" (1901-1902; translated as "The Books of the Small Souls") en "Van Oude Menschen, de Dingen, die Voorbij gaan..." (1906: translated as "Of old people and the Things that Pass") enjoyed much success in the English speaking countries after the First World War. His historical novels were very popular in Germany . Couperus' books sold better abroad than in the narrow-minded calvinistic Netherlands of his days.... More • http://en.wikipedia. ... s_Couperus View • Books • Images • Videos • Search Related • Poets • 1900s • Colonialism • Gemini • Indonesia • Industrial Revolution • June 10 • Literature • Netherlands • Writers • People