Psyche is a modern, adult fairy tale, drenched in powerful imagery, and one of the most fascinating works to come from the pen of Louis Couperus, the Dutch Oscar Wilde and among the greatest writers ever to be born in The Netherlands.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world\'s literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

Cornélie de Retz Van Loo, a 23-year-old recently divorced socialite, tries to begin a new life in Italy, with mixed feelings. After spending time in Rome, however, she discovers that Italy itself can never bring her the consolation she seeks, and writes a pamphlet on ‘The Social Position of the Divorced Woman’. Flouting convention, she moves in with the Dutch painter Duco van der Staal, with only two acquaintances – an amorous Italian prince and the American heiress whom he has married for her money – for company. In desperate financial straits, Cornélie is forced to take a position as companion to an elderly American lady in Nice, where she unexpectedly runs into her ex-husband. Will she be able to resist his continuing power over her?

Louis Couperus was catapulted to prominence in 1889 with Eline Vere, a psychological masterpiece inspired by Flaubert and Tolstoy. Eline Vere is a young heiress: dreamy, impulsive, and subject to bleak moods. Though beloved among her large coterie of friends and relations, there are whispers that she is an eccentric: she has been known to wander alone in the park as well indulge in long, lazy philosophical conversations with her vagabond cousin. When she accepts the marriage proposal of a family friend, she is thrust into a life that looks beyond the confines of The Hague, and her overpowering, ever-fluctuating desires grow increasingly blurred and desperate. Only Couperus—as much a member of the elite socialite circle of fin-de-siècle The Hague as he was a virulent critic of its oppressive confines—could have filled this "Novel of The Hague" with so many superbly rendered and vividly imagined characters from a milieu now long forgotten. Award-winning translator Ina Rilke’s new translation of this Madame Bovary of The Netherlands will reintroduce to the English-speaking world the greatest Dutch novelist of his generation.

A withering indictment of Dutch colonialism, Louis Couperus's The Hidden Force is a vivid portrait of fin-de-siècle moral and social decay.A mystical Javan prince and a promiscuous wife are twin challenges to Dutch Commissioner Van Oudijck's seemingly impregnable authority. As he struggles to maintain control of his district and his family, ancient local traditions reassert their influence and colonial power begins to disintegrate. Set at the height of Dutch colonial rule in the East Indies, this classic of Dutch literature portrays the clash between Western rationalism and indigenous mysticism through an evocative and sensual narrative.Translated from the Dutch by Paul Vincent, Louis Couperus's The Hidden Force is published by Pushkin Press.**

Cecile, a beautiful young window, falls in love with a notorious womanizer, and for that reason must endure intense suffering and pain in the midst of polite society. Ecstasy’s tranquil setting in late 19th-century Holland belies the stormy waters in which Cecile finds herself, as she abandons herself to love – to thwarted and unspoken passion.