{"id":4549,"date":"2016-08-17T15:20:01","date_gmt":"2016-08-17T15:20:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/?p=4549"},"modified":"2016-08-17T15:20:01","modified_gmt":"2016-08-17T15:20:01","slug":"book-review-eline-vere-by-couperus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/dutch\/book-review-eline-vere-by-couperus\/","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Eline Vere by Couperus"},"content":{"rendered":"

My latest Dutch read is\u00a0Eline Vere<\/em> by Louis Couperus. The novel was published in the late 1800s in a newspaper before being printed as one novel.<\/p>\n

\"Photo<\/a>

Photo by Dietmut Teijgeman-Hansen found in Flicker.com<\/p><\/div>\n

When I started reading this novel, I had big hopes because the book jacket compared it to Flaubert’s\u00a0Madame Bovary<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

To my surprise,\u00a0Eline Vere<\/em> 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.<\/p>\n

The plot is explained nicely in the following video. SPOILER ALERT!<\/p>\n