Talk:Louis Couperus

Wilde as a subject?
The article mentions Oscar Wilde as a 'homoerotic subject' of his work, along with heliogabaldus and wrestlers. Where in Couperus' oeuvre is Wilde actually a subject of a literary work? Doesn't the link stop between the comparability of the two authors? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.92.117.233 (talk) 13:36, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Couperus corresponded with Wilde and together with his wife translated The Picture of Dorian Gray (in 1893). He once wrote about Wilde in one of his collections of short (newspaper) works, telling about his meeting with a man who said he was the model of Dorian Gray, in Van en over Mijzelf en Anderen II, p. 14-20 (1914). (If you are a book collector, it's a book with an attractive Art Nouveau binding). According to his biographer Fred Bastet Couperus might have met Wilde in London in the winter of 1889-1890. Soczyczi (talk) 16:10, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Thank you for the information. I have read the text - it is a very beautiful melancholy piece, with an indeed homoerotic undertone (one wonders what kind of services this Italian servant offers...) —Preceding unsigned comment added by 86.92.117.233 (talk) 14:28, 18 June 2008 (UTC)

Jumping to conclusions?
It seems to me that the fairly recent trend of labelling certain famous authors such as Henry James and Herman Melville and now Louis Couperus as "gay/bisexual writers" should be banned from Wikipedia as decidedly unencyclopedic as long there is no biographical evidence whatsoever to support these claims. Homo-erotic interest is one thing, but leading an actively gay life is quite another. The respective bonfires of both James' and Couperus' private (and possibly homo-erotic) correspondence are intriguing, but one ought not to jump to conclusions. In this light, it's interesting to note that James found Wilde's lifestyle decidedly vulgar (though he rued his imprisonment) and avoided meeting the allegedly decadent entourage of Richard Wagner in Italy (see Fred Kaplan's biography "The Imagination of Genius"). I wish the eminent Wikipedian Professor Casey Abell were still around to shed some light on this matter, but unfortunately, he seems to have retired. Can he be reached by email, perhaps? Frankly speaking (talk) 06:45, 15 September 2009 (UTC)

I removed the phrase: "His wife went to great pains to ensure that all the letters and other insights into Couperus' private life disappeared after his death." as this is simply not true. The consenus btw is, that Couperus very likely was homosexual. If that matters of course. I say this as a [Dutch] Couperus-scholar. B77 (talk) 15:47, 29 October 2009 (UTC)

To do list

 * Rewrite "Biography" section to correct English
 * Add new "Legacy" section
 * Add new "Writing style" section
 * Expand lead section
 * Expand "External links" section
 * Improve "Bibliography" section
 * Find more (English) translations of Couperus' books

Michael! (talk) 19:25, 25 March 2013 (UTC)

Split bibliography
I believe the current bibliography is too long for inclusion in this article. I suggest to split the list into the seperate article Louis Couperus bibliography and include a much shorter list of works based on the Complete Works subsection, properly formatted following Manual of Style/Lists of works. – Editør (talk) 10:28, 27 August 2013 (UTC)

Steamship rather that steamboat?
The current text mentions "steamboat Prins Hendrik". I am not knowledgeable in ship denominations, but I noticed differences in definitions for "steamboat" and "steamship", and I noticed that a note for 11 November 1872 on https://www.marhisdata.nl/zoeken&s=kronieken&year=1880 mentions "stoomschip" in its reference to "Prins Hendrik". Redav (talk) 16:20, 2 March 2023 (UTC)

A reference to (apparently) the same ship can be seen on https://www.marhisdata.nl/zoeken&s=kronieken&year=1880 under 3 January 1873 ("januari" in Dutch).Redav (talk) 16:23, 2 March 2023 (UTC)