Talk:Louis Couperus

Wilde as a subject?

The article mentions Oscar Wilde as a 'homoerotic subject' of his work, along with heliogabaldus and wrestlers. Where in Couperus' oeuvre is Wilde actually a subject of a literary work? Doesn't the link stop between the comparability of the two authors? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.92.117.233 (talk) 13:36, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Couperus corresponded with Wilde and together with his wife translated The Picture of Dorian Gray (in 1893). He once wrote about Wilde in one of his collections of short (newspaper) works, telling about his meeting with a man who said he was the model of Dorian Gray, in Van en over Mijzelf en Anderen II, p. 14-20 (1914). (If you are a book collector, it's a book with an attractive Art Nouveau binding). According to his biographer Fred Bastet Couperus might have met Wilde in London in the winter of 1889-1890. Soczyczi (talk) 16:10, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for the information. I have read the text - it is a very beautiful melancholy piece, with an indeed homoerotic undertone (one wonders what kind of services this Italian servant offers...) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.92.117.233 (talk) 14:28, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Seamy?

I removed a few words that, to me, suggest a point of view. 'Seamy' means something like 'sordid', if I understand it well. De Berg van Licht (not translated into English, only into German, Hungarian and Czech) is a grand, surging novel in which a lot of blood is shed, but not a sordid one. Furthermore, did Couperus have a large library? I think not much is known about it, apart from the question 'How large is large?'. Couperus must have read a vast amount of books, but that is not the same.

His goods being 'endlessly' moved about? The Couperus couple lived in hotels and pensions mostly, but they were the same pensions for many years. They traveled a lot, but I doubt if they took their chairs and desks, or even their library with them all the time when they went to Spain for a month (for instance). Glatisant (talk) 08:20, 26 June 2008 (UTC)

"Furthermore, did Couperus have a large library? " Parts of his library survived: mostly classic authors. Of course he had many more books (stayed in The Hague when they travelled I thought) but these seem to have disappeared.B77 (talk) 15:48, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

Jumping to conclusions?

It seems to me that the fairly recent trend of labelling certain famous authors such as Henry James and Herman Melville and now Louis Couperus as "gay/bisexual writers" should be banned from Wikipedia as decidedly unencyclopedic as long there is no biographical evidence whatsoever to support these claims. Homo-erotic interest is one thing, but leading an actively gay life is quite another. The respective bonfires of both James' and Couperus' private (and possibly homo-erotic) correspondence are intriguing, but one ought not to jump to conclusions. In this light, it's interesting to note that James found Wilde's lifestyle decidedly vulgar (though he rued his imprisonment) and avoided meeting the allegedly decadent entourage of Richard Wagner in Italy (see Fred Kaplan's biography "The Imagination of Genius"). I wish the eminent Wikipedian Professor Casey Abell were still around to shed some light on this matter, but unfortunately, he seems to have retired. Can he be reached by email, perhaps? Frankly speaking (talk) 06:45, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

I removed the phrase: "His wife went to great pains to ensure that all the letters and other insights into Couperus' private life disappeared after his death." as this is simply not true. The consenus btw is, that Couperus very likely was homosexual. If that matters of course. I say this as a [Dutch] Couperus-scholar. B77 (talk) 15:47, 29 October 2009 (UTC)