Ecstasy

The sexual tension is electric and, in the sudden, exquisite flaming of love, Couperus binds both irony and spiritual redemption.” – Max Davidson, Daily Telegraph

‘Couperus sympathy for the hybrid, the impure and the ambiguous gave him a peculiarly modern voice. It is extraordinary that this Dutch dandy, writing in the flowery language of fin-de-siecle decadence, should still sound so fresh.” – Ian Buruma, The New York Times Review of Books