''Eline Vere'' is an 1889 novel by the Dutch writer

Louis Couperus Louis Marie-Anne Couperus (10 June 1863 – 16 July 1923) 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 s ...

. It was adapted into the 1991 film '' Eline Vere'', directed by

Harry Kümel Harry Kümel (born 27 January 1940) is a Belgian film director. His 1971 vampire feature '' Daughters of Darkness'' (''Les lèvres rouges''; Fr, "The Red Lips"), starring Delphine Seyrig became a cult hit in Europe and the United States. He ...

. Couperus wrote ''Eline Vere'' in the house at Surinamestraat 20, The Hague.

Reception

The naturalistic novel, first published in a daily newspaper (1888–1889), instantly established Couperus as a household name in the Netherlands. It has been in print ever since. In Dutch, there have been about thirty editions until 2010, two adaptations for the theatre and one for film. Composer Alexander Voormolen dedicated his ''Nocturne for Eline'' (1957) to the protagonist of the novel. It has been translated into English (twice), into Norwegian and into Urdu. After the publication of the translation by

Ina Rilke Ina Rilke is a translator who specializes in translating Dutch literature and French literature into English. Born in Mozambique, she went to school in Porto in Portugal, attending Oporto British School. She studied translation at the University ...

, the book was reviewed in ''

The Scotsman ''The Scotsman'' is a Scottish compact newspaper and daily news website headquartered in Edinburgh. First established as a radical political paper in 1817, it began daily publication in 1855 and remained a broadsheet until August 2004. Its pare ...

'' in 2010: "Couperus is a fine, driving storyteller even when he's off telling fairy stories in some symbolist landscape as in the rather mimsy ''Psyche''. He wrote ''Eline Vere'' for serialisation, so it has the energy of the great Victorian novels without the melodrama, something astounding spread over 600 careful pages. ... Rediscovered novels usually make you realise why they were lost in the first place, but ''Eline Vere'' is an exception: a pleasure we've missed for far too long."

References

1889 novels Novels by Louis Couperus Novels set in the 1880s Novels set in the Netherlands Dutch novels adapted into films Novels first published in serial form Vere, Eline Vere, Eline Vere, Eline {{1880s-novel-stub

Reception

See also

References