My latest Dutch read is Eline Vere by Louis Couperus. The novel was published in the late 1800s in a newspaper before being printed as one novel.

Photo by Dietmut Teijgeman-Hansen found in Flicker.com

When I started reading this novel, I had big hopes because the book jacket compared it to Flaubert’s Madame Bovary and Couperus was compared to the great masters of the 19th century. I approached the novel with hope but with respect. I didn’t know if it would be an easy read or those books you love, but require great care.

To my surprise, Eline Vere is a novel that reads itself. I found myself reading and reading, I was captivated by Eline and her sister Betsy. Their problems seemed so silly and obvious, yet so dramatic and impossible to resolve in their eyes. Eline is definitely a character that will stick with him, like Madame Bovary did many years ago.

The plot is explained nicely in the following video. SPOILER ALERT!

But behind the love story and Eline’s depression and anxiety, Couperus is compared to Tolstoy and Zola because the story is much more than just about love. What Couperus does in this novel is a very clear and thorough criticism of the high society of The Hague. With every page and every social gathering, Couperus is giving us a time-machine that allows us to observe and judge for ourselves what life was like.

For those interested in the novel AND practicing listening comprehension or pronunciation, I found video recordings of each chapter of the novel. You can listen to chapter 1 in this video:

Which Dutch or Belgian novels would you recommend?