Louis Couperus

His grandfather, father and older brothers all had successful careers working for the colonial administration. When the family returned to the Netherlands, they took their place among the Dutch-Indonesian elite in The Hague. This was a recurring theme in the writer’s later work – in contrast to other members of his family Couperus had no ambitions for power. His successful debut novel Eline Vere was released in 1889, and he went on to publish an enormous amount and variety of written work over the course of his career, including novels, poetry, travel diaries, periodical columns and fairy tales. One particularly striking aspect of his work is the fluid identity of some of his characters, a quality that might be classified nowadays as 'queer'. Couperus’s work continues to be read and admired.