Old People and the Things That Pass is one of Louis Couperus's most penetrating late novels, a sombre family chronicle in which an old crime continues to radiate through generations. Set within the refined yet decaying world of The Hague's upper middle class, the novel combines psychological realism with the fatalistic atmosphere characteristic of fin-de-siècle literature. Its restrained, almost hypnotic prose turns memory, silence, and inherited guilt into the true protagonists of the work. Louis Couperus (1863–1923), among the foremost Dutch novelists of his age, was shaped by cosmopolitan travel, colonial family connections, and intimate knowledge of aristocratic social codes. His fiction often explores the tension between outward decorum and inward dissolution. In this novel, written after his major naturalist and symbolist experiments, Couperus draws on his fascination with heredity, repression, and the fragile theatricality of civilized life. This book is recommended to readers interested in European psychological fiction, family secrets, and the moral afterlife of the past. Admirers of Ibsen, Henry James, or Thomas Mann will find in Couperus a similarly subtle anatomist of social surfaces and buried catastrophe.
This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience.
- Hand‐picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance.
- Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.
