ABOUT THE BOOK
Psyche is a modern fairy tale. It is also an adult fairy tale and like most fairy tales unmitigating in its detailing of harsh cruelty. Psyche is a descendant of the original Psyche whom Cupid loved, but this love story is even less straightforward, even more tortured than the archetypal Greek myth from which it derives. Couperus considered this his symbolist masterpiece. The symbolism that it uses is that of luxuriousness, hardness and beauty of precious stones that create the imaginery and reflect the identity of the novel's landscapes and protagonists.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Louis Couperus was born in the Hague in 1863. He was taken by his family to the Dutch East Indies where he remained until his father's death. Couperus settled in Italy after his marriage in 1891. His novel Ecstasy was first published in 1892 and Psyche in 1898. Couperus died of blood poisoning in 1923.
Translated by B. S. Berrington
239 pp
ISBN 9781901185215
