The Comedians
Tags
Summary
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- University teachers, students, and researchers in Dutch or comparative literature
- Readers interested in late nineteenth-century European fiction and psychological writing
- Advanced language learners with some Dutch who wish to read the original
- Teachers who need a public-domain electronic text for course materials or thematic excerpts
Not a good fit for
- Casual readers with no Dutch who do not plan to use a translation
- Readers expecting fast-paced plots or popular genre fiction
- Beginners in foreign literature who need detailed notes and introductions
Reading tips
- First read a representative work by Couperus in Chinese or English translation to become familiar with his narrative style before tackling this book.
- As you read, note differences between characters' behavior on stage and in private, to grasp the theme of performance.
- Use a history of Dutch literature or background on turn-of-the-century European literature, and make thematic excerpts chapter by chapter.
- If the language is difficult, read Dutch and English in parallel: read a passage through first, then return to key words and sentences in the original.
About the publisher
Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.
Contents
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
- 20
- 21
- 22
- 23
- 24
- 25
- 26
- 27
- 28
- 29
- 30
- 31
- 32
- 33
- 34
- 35
- 36
- 37
- 38
- 39
- 40
- 41
- 42
- 43
- 44
- 45
- 46
- 47
- 48
- 49
- 50
- 51
- 52
- 53
- 54
- 55
- 56
- 57
- 58
FAQ
Is this book in English or Dutch?
Is the Gutenberg edition suitable for academic citation?
Can I read it without any Dutch?
Comments
Find this book
This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.
About the author
Louis Couperus (1863–1923) was a Dutch novelist whose life is little documented in the Chinese-speaking world, and public information about him is limited. He was a prolific writer, and this site holds more than twenty-three of his works, many of which deal with personal growth and life transitions and are commonly classified under inspirational growth. His representative works include The Hidden Force: A Story of Modern Java, Eline Vere, Small Souls, The Later Life, Old People and the Things That Pass, The Twilight of the Souls, Noodlot, and Travel Impressions. His writing often reveals human fate through delicate psychological portrayal and an ironic tone, combining realism with aestheticism, and has had a lasting influence on Dutch literature.
