Cornelie De Retz Van Loo, a twenty-three-year-old divorcee from an upper-class Hague milieu, tries with mixed feelings to begin a new life in Italy. After some time in Rome, she discovers that Italy itself can never bring her the consolation she seeks, and writes a pamphlet on "The Social Position of the Divorced Woman". She meets the Dutch painter Duco van der Staal, and they move in together, flouting convention. Almost their only acquaintances are an amorous Italian prince and the American heiress he has married for her money. Duco and Cornelie are happy but poor, and their financial position goes from bad to worse. In desperation, Cornelie takes a position as a companion to an elderly American lady in Nice, where she encounters her ex-husband, and despite initial resistance she finally succumbs to his continuing power over her...
"The portrait of their unfolding affair is a masterful observation of the beauty and illogic of romantic love... Only the ending,which the title foreshadows, strikes an unhappy note; Cornélie's abrupt and arbitrary fate unbalances a finely shadowed novel." - Clare Clark, Times Literary Supplement
"There are many chapters in Inevitable, aside from the concluding one, which mark the book as an exquisite example of the fictionists art. The author's touch is always delicate and sure in handling the lights and shades of thought and emotion... There is not a poorly drawn character among the score or so in the book." - The New York Times Book Review Review of Books
Louis Couperus was born in the Hague in 1863. Following his family's move to the the Dutch East Indies, he was educated in Jakarta. In 1878 the family returned to The Hague, where Couperus continued his studies. He was married in 1891. His novel Ecstasy was first published a year later and Psyche followed in 1898; both available from Pushkin Press. Couperus and his wife eventually settled in Nice until 1910, when they travelled extensively in Italy. A renowned wit, raconteur and commentator, Couperus continued to publish critically and commercially successful work until his death from blood poisoning in 1923.
Cornelie De Retz Van Loo, a twenty-three-year-old divorcee from an upper-class Hague milieu, tries with mixed feelings to begin a new life in Italy. After some time in Rome, she discovers that Italy itself can never bring her the consolation she seeks, and writes a pamphlet on "The Social Position of the Divorced Woman". She meets the Dutch painter Duco van der Staal, and they move in together, flouting convention. Almost their only acquaintances are an amorous Italian prince and the American heiress he has married for her money. Duco and Cornelie are happy but poor, and their financial position goes from bad to worse. In desperation, Cornelie takes a position as a companion to an elderly American lady in Nice, where she encounters her ex-husband, and despite initial resistance she finally succumbs to his continuing power over her...
Reviews
"The portrait of their unfolding affair is a masterful observation of the beauty and illogic of romantic love... Only the ending,which the title foreshadows, strikes an unhappy note; Cornélie's abrupt and arbitrary fate unbalances a finely shadowed novel." - Clare Clark, Times Literary Supplement
"There are many chapters in Inevitable, aside from the concluding one, which mark the book as an exquisite example of the fictionists art. The author's touch is always delicate and sure in handling the lights and shades of thought and emotion... There is not a poorly drawn character among the score or so in the book." - The New York Times Book Review Review of Books
Author
Louis Couperus was born in the Hague in 1863. Following his family's move to the the Dutch East Indies, he was educated in Jakarta. In 1878 the family returned to The Hague, where Couperus continued his studies. He was married in 1891. His novel Ecstasy was first published a year later and Psyche followed in 1898; both available from Pushkin Press. Couperus and his wife eventually settled in Nice until 1910, when they travelled extensively in Italy. A renowned wit, raconteur and commentator, Couperus continued to publish critically and commercially successful work until his death from blood poisoning in 1923.
