Publisher's Synopsis
Louis Couperus, widely considered one of the greatest Dutch novelists, gained prominence in 1889 with this psychological novel inspired mile Zola, Gustave Flaubert, and Leo Tolstoy. Eline, withdrawn and subject to depression, accepts the marriage proposal of a family friend, only to break off the engagement, convinced that her sickly but charismatic cousin Vincent is in love with her. Vincent drifts in other directions. She travels, dreams, and deteriorates. Moving back to the Hague, she lives alone in a hotel, where, during a nervous crisis, she takes what may or may not be an accidental overdose. Award-winning translator Ina Rilke's new translation of this masterpiece will be a literary event.
