Eline Vere

Eline Vere is the debut novel by Louis Couperus . The novel is written in the period 1887-1888, published between 17/18 June 1888 and 4 December 1888 as a serial in the daily newspaper The Fatherland and was released in book form in March 1889. Eline Vere can be seen as a typical exponent of the literary naturalism, a style that characterizes the work of virtually all Couperus.

Content

 * 1 Content of the book
 * 2nd Place in the history of literature
 * 3 Motives and writing style
 * 4 Film and theater
 * 5 External links

Content of the book
Eline Vere is about Eline, a girl of twenty-three from a wealthy family that her sister Betsy and her brother Henk van Raat indwelling. Although there are often people on the floor come for soirees and dinners and Betsy and they often go out, Eline feels lonely and unhappy. Then she falls in love, first on the baritone singer Fabrice they during a performance of Le tribut de Zamora has seen action. If Eline at the next Sinterklaas a range gets, she thinks that having received first Fabrice. Then, however, that Otto Erlevoort, an acquaintance with whose family Betsy and Eline pretty much deal, the real giver. Eline this is a love affair with Otto and feel happy for a while, but that is not of long duration; she knows her feelings no advice and breaks - after some time have hesitated - her engagement again.

After this act comes Eline in a long period of unhappiness justified. The relationship with her sister Betsy is getting worse and Eline flight finally away from her sister.Ultimately decide her uncle and former tutor Daniel along with Betsy that it is better for Eline to get away from The Hague. Therefore Eline goes with Daniel back to Brussels and travels a lot with her uncle and his wife Elize. Yet these trips and distractions still does not bring more happiness. Upon her return to The Hague Eline still as unhappy as when she left. After a while Mrs. van Raat, Henk's mother, having lived with, she decides to go back to Daniel and Elize in Brussels. There she meets Lawrence St. Clare, an American friend of her nephew Vincent. He is trying to make her happy and asks Eline in marriage. However, they do not know what they should expect answers to this and asks St. Clare on her answer.

Back in The Hague Eline went again into a downward spiral of drudgery, loneliness and melancholy, and eventually she loses her mind. One night she takes too much morphineand die after she has repeated once for himself that Otto is the only true for her.

Place in literary history [ edit ]
Eline Vere first came out in 1889, so in the 19th century . The last part of this century was some literature concerning the theme of naturalism. This movement is characterized bydeterminism (your life would be determined by heredity, education and environment), fatalism (believe in fate), pessimism (depression) and pathological persons (persons who behave deviant or abnormal). Louis Couperus has Eline Vere wrote a naturalistic novel. All features of the flow coming namely forward in the person of Eline. Eline is after all a nervous girl who strongly believes in fate and a bleak outlook on life. Especially fatalism comes recurs throughout the book, not only with Eline but also in other characters.Furthermore Eline is a pathological person: she behaves far from normal for her deviant thoughts. So Eline began every morning by the weather to take a walk when she had created passionate feelings for an opera singer. This yielded Eline quite some strange looks from her friends. Furthermore Eline is also very nervous nature, which is also a characteristic of naturalism. Eventually she succumbs to that nervousness. The determinism comes into Eline reflected: she does not feel free to go wherever they want because of the well-off environment in which she grew up.

Naturalistic books from this period often had a psychological point of view and are therefore to be regarded as the forerunners of the psychological novels. Eline Vere is therefore a psychological novel .

Louis Couperus addition to Eline Vere more work written in which fatalism central. So he published the short story The Binocle, a nervous, fatalistic man with vertigo. In many of Couperus' other long novels, such as Doom, plays - as the title indicates - fatalism an important role.

[Motives and writing style edit ]
The story is set in the circles of the wealthy bourgeoisie Hague. Besides the story of the protagonist Eline there are other story lines. These games are all on the same bourgeoisie as those in which Eline moves.

A very important recurring motif in the story is fate. Eline believes that fate makes sure her life is as it is, thanks to her cousin Vincent, who also believes in fate. In the other storylines fate is frequently brought up.Another motive is melancholy. Eline finds almost constant melancholy mood and sometimes it says not wanting to live, because life its still only brings misfortune. Other characters get off and making increases with melancholic moods. Love is also a common motif in Eline Vere. Eline, but also other members of the bourgeoisie and friends of Eline, as Frédérique, Lili and George, have to do with love. With most of the characters walk the amorous adventures eventually end well, but not with Eline. This motif is therefore again in relation to the motif of melancholia. Two other things that can be attributed to the character of Eline, his nervousness and hypersensitivity. These two features of Eline come in the book clearly. All motifs together form the theme of the book: a nervous and sensitive girl struggles with her feelings and feels lonely and unhappy.

The style in which the book is written literary seen modern. It parallels with the style of contemporary European writers like Guy de Mauppassant , Gabriele d'Annunzio or Catulle Mendes . [1]

There will be many French words and phrases in the book; the bourgeoisie formerly operated by the French to distinguish themselves from the lower classes.

[Film and stage edit ]
On October 10, 1918 Eline Vere went as play first premiered. Elisabeth Couperus-Baud, the wife of the writer, had edited the novel for the stage and it was the Hofstad Theatre staged, with Else Mauhs starring. On December 22, 2007 the play Eline Vere went again premiere. Herein Maria Kraakman played the role of Eline.

The book was also made ​​into a film by Belgian director Harry Kümel, including with Monique van de Ven , Dresselhuys , Marianne Basler , Michael York , Nelly Frijda and Thom Hoffman . The film came out on March 1, 1991 and attracted about 110,000 visitors. Louis Couperus wrote Eline Vere at the home of his parents at the Suriname Street 20 in The Hague.