Small Souls by Louis Couperus
"Small Souls" is a novel by Louis Couperus, first published in 1901, which explores the intricacies of Dutch bourgeois life in the late 19th century. The story centers around Constance van der Welcke, who returns to The Hague after a twenty-year absence following a scandal involving her marriage to a diplomat. As she attempts to reintegrate into her family and society, Constance faces persistent gossip and the judgments of a community preoccupied with social status and propriety. The narrative delves into her relationships with family members, including her husband Henri and their son Adriaan, highlighting the tensions that arise from societal expectations and personal choices.
Couperus skillfully weaves themes of social criticism, alienation, and the weight of familial legacy throughout the novel. The atmospheric depiction of the Dutch setting—characterized by its bleak climate—mirrors the emotional landscape of the characters, emphasizing their struggles and the oppressive nature of their environment. This work is the first of a four-part series known as "The Books of Small Souls," which collectively examines the lives of a family over generations. "Small Souls" is notable for its realistic portrayal of life and its critique of the petty concerns of a society that values reputation over genuine connection.
Small Souls by Louis Couperus
- FIRST PUBLISHED: De kleine zielen, 1901 (English translation, 1914)
- TYPE OF WORK: Novel
- TYPE OF PLOT: Social criticism
- TIME OF WORK: Nineteenth century
- LOCALE: The Hague
The Story:
Mrs. van Lowe was preparing for her usual Sunday family get-together. On this Sunday, her daughter Constance was returning to Holland after a scandal that had kept her away for twenty years. After several respectable and loveless years with De Staffelaer, the Dutch envoy at Rome, Constance had had an affair with a young diplomat, Henri van der Welcke. When Constance divorced De Staffelaer and married Henri, the marriage proved the ruin of her new husband’s political career, and they were now finally returning to their homeland. Everyone assured Constance that it was good to have her back, but she felt alien to her relatives; in the past twenty years, her father had died, and she had visited her mother only twice, briefly, in Brussels.
Some time later, Constance, Henri, and their son Adriaan, whom they called Addie, went to visit Henri’s parents. This invitation was significant because it was the first time since the scandal that Henri’s parents had paid any attention to Constance or even acknowledged Addie as their grandson. The interview was formal and oppressive. Constance was annoyed to see Henri’s mother treating thirteen-year-old Addie as a child; he was, in fact, very mature and serious for his age, and he always managed to reconcile his parents when they argued.
For the most part, Constance felt happier all the time. She saw her mother daily; she had an intimate talk with her sister Bertha, and she got along well with her brother Gerrit. Also, Constance was determined to like her sister Adolphine, despite her petty enviousness. However, she saw Paul most often, among all her siblings, because he got along well with Henri and Addie.
One day, the van der Welckes gave a quiet but decorous dinner for Paul and van Vreeswijck, a friend of Henri’s who was a chamberlain extraordinary to the queen regent. Adolphine, who knew that Constance was giving a dinner, pretended to be just dropping by, for she wanted to see what the dinner was like. When she saw the candles and flowers, she became very envious. The next day, Adolphine had a visit from Cateau, her brother Karel’s wife, and she belittled Constance’s dinner, saying that they had invited van Vreeswijck to push themselves into higher social circles.
Constance was happy that summer because she thought her family had forgiven her. One day, on Henri’s thirty-ninth birthday, they had an unexpected visit from Henri’s mother. When she arrived, she was surprised to meet Constance’s mother, who also happened to be there. Without resorting to words, the two older women sought each other’s forgiveness for the misdeeds of their children.
In The Hague, the gossip of the old scandal had been revived, although Constance never heard of it. One day, however, Addie had gone bicycling with Adolphine’s children, one of whom, Jaap, called Addie an “Italian” and said that Addie was not Henri’s son. When he got home, Addie told his father, who assured him the rumors were false. Constance, hearing what had happened, wondered whether she had not made a mistake in returning to The Hague. Addie himself began to feel that there must be some reason why people always gossiped about his family. He became so gloomy that his father finally told him the story of the scandal in Rome. Once he knew the truth, Addie began to feel better. Constance and Henri began to see that their son was now no longer a child.
Having received an invitation, Henri and Addie went to visit Henri’s parents for a week. When Henri confessed to his father that he had told Addie about the scandal in Rome, the older man was deeply shocked, for he felt that Henri had corrupted the child. Henri then realized that he and his father were strangers and could not communicate; he realized, too, what a great shock the scandal must have been to the older man and with what grief he must have ordered him, for the sake of propriety, to marry Constance, thus shattering Henri’s promising diplomatic career.
While Henri and Addie were away, Constance had a visit from Adolphine, who proceeded to make slighting remarks about her. Finally, Constance could no longer tolerate it. She told Adolphine what she really thought of her and then dismissed her. After Adolphine left, Constance burst into tears because she had not been able to return quietly to her homeland and live in peace.
One day, Constance found a copy of the Inspector, a privately printed newspaper devoted to publishing scandal, in her mailbox. She was startled to find a defamatory article directed against Bertha’s husband. The article also promised that the paper's next issue would give the full details about an older scandal. Henri grew furious when he heard about the article, and a quarrel ensued. Henri childishly claimed that by providing food for scandal, Constance was ruining Addie’s chances for a diplomatic career. Constance declared that she would at once try, for Addie’s sake, to become accepted in higher circles, mainly through the influence of her socially prominent sister Bertha.
To make good on her resolve, Constance went to Bertha’s at-home day, an important social function in which the van Lowe family did not usually participate. Bertha’s husband had been disturbed by the article in the Inspector. Now, Bertha herself was uncomfortable because the guests at her at-home day included friends and relatives of De Staffelaer, Constance’s first husband.
On the following Sunday, when Constance went to her mother’s weekly family get-together, she noticed an air of tenseness everywhere. She then learned that the next edition of the Inspector had appeared. Henri, who was reading a copy of it, had already become furious. Then Adolphine came in and said that the revived scandal was Henri’s fault. A quarrel ensued, in which Henri challenged Adolphine’s husband to a duel. Everyone tried to hush up the whole disturbance, but Bertha and her husband, van Naghel, arrived just then. Van Naghel, who had obviously seen the new article in the Inspector, greeted Constance coldly.
Bertha told Constance that van Naghel was very put out by her visit to Bertha’s at-home day. Constance said that for Addie’s sake, she was determined to rehabilitate herself in society and wanted Bertha and van Naghel to help her.
Constance then got van Naghel and Henri together. She apologized to van Naghel for going to Bertha’s but also asked him to help her in society and to invite her to their social functions. Van Naghel protested that he could not possibly invite her to their dinners, saying that she would be bored by them. Henri became furious at van Naghel, who in turn said that he wanted nothing to do with the van der Welckes. After exchanging insults with Henri, van Naghel left. Constance fainted into Paul’s arms. Addie, who witnessed the scene, scornfully said that this fuss was over nothing.
Critical Evaluation:
Small Souls, written by one of the foremost modern Dutch novelists, is the first of a series of four novels known as The Books of Small Souls (1901-1903). Constance, who divorced her prominent husband and married for love, is unable, even after twenty years, to escape the condemnation of a society, comprised of small souls who are very tender to criticism and are engaged in schemes of attaining status by the use of gossip, rumor, scandal, and fear. This theme is conveyed through a realistic interplay of characters. The deft presentation of the dark, chill, and damp Dutch climate also furthers the theme.
In The Books of Small Souls, the romantic and the realistic are synthesized in family novels that trace the history of a bourgeois family throughout generations. The van Lowes are little people living out the life of a family whose innovative impulse has passed away. Through them, however, the reader feels the essential things in Dutch life and culture not historically through the development of an epoch of political orientation, but statically, as befits a nation retired from business and living in the suburbs of the world, intent on well-being. Occasionally, there comes a whisper from across the seas, from the Indies, reminiscent of the days when Grandpapa van Lowe was Governor-General in his palaces at Batavia and Buitenzorg. This, however, only emphasizes by contrast the dull monotony of the world in which they live. The reader feels the ease and well-bred indolence, the triviality and mechanical precision of life, the lack of creative ambition, and the dull fatigue that takes possession of their consciousness.
Small Souls displays a close connection between the characters in the novel and their environment, and a mysterious oppressive force permeates the whole. As the human background of Dutch life and interests is understood, without detailed description, the landscape is present everywhere. Its flatness and humility are physically congruent with the beings who walk upon it. The weather is also a constant reminder of the melancholy of the Northland.
Louis Couperus has written a family novel of small souls clinging pitifully together. At the same time, he has written a national novel in which the condition of a country is mirrored in a gallery of family portraits. Couperus followed the steps of the great sixteenth-century Dutch painters who depicted man, nature, and society as having a sympathetic relationship. This has resulted in an unusually successful portrayal of Dutch mores and of the Dutch landscape, which is a valuable means for the foreign reader to understand the Dutch national character.
Principal Characters:
- Constance van der Welckea daughter of the once prominent van Lowe family
- Henri van der Welckeher husband
- Van Naghel van Addie (Adriaan)their son
- Berthaand
- Adolphineher sisters
- VoordeBertha’s husband
Bibliography
Flaxman, Seymour L. "Couperus, Louis Marie Anne." Columbia Dictionary of Modern European Literature, Feb. 1980, pp. 172–73. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=24750132&site=ehost-live. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.
"Louis Couperus." Cyclopedia of World Authors, Fourth Revised Edition, Jan. 2003, p. 1. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=164520802&site=ehost-live. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.
"Small Souls." Cyclopedia of Literary Characters, 4th Edition, May 2015, pp. 2246–47. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=102944105&site=ehost-live. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.
"Small Souls, The Book of The." Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Oct. 1996, p. 957. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=lkh&AN=25840011&site=ehost-live. Accessed 24 Oct. 2024.