Louis Couperus / Jan Toorop - Metamorfoze / Babel / Psyche - 1897/1916

1. Title: Babel. 1st edition. 199 pp. ‘Symbolische vertelling’. Condition: very good. Hardly any discolouration of the front and back cover. A bit more discolouration on the spine, where the reddish-brown colour at top and bottom is somewhat worn away. The book is well bound. Minor foxing on the first and last pages. Edition of 3000 copies, including 1000 hardcovers.

2. Title: Metamorfoze. 1st edition. Roman. 429 pp. Condition: good. Spots on the front cover, back cover and spine. See pictures. The book is well bound. No foxing on the pages. High-quality paper. Details: beautiful, erotic art deco ex-libris on the first page. Issues: small dent at the top right front cover. No photo of Couperus, as mentioned on the title page. Edition of 3500 copies. According to biographer Bastet, this book is partly autobiographical.

3. Title: Psyche. Korte vertelling. 4th edition. 176 pp. Cover in Jugendstil with so-called whiplash line. Black cover stamping. Condition: very good. Front cover, back cover and spine are pristine. No spots and no discolouration. That makes this copy of Psyche special. The book is well bound. Minor foxing on the first and last pages. Ex-libris. The camera distorts the colours of this cover, both in flash and in daylight. They are way too white. The beautiful colour of the cover is between beige and yellow.

Descriptions of these 3 books can be found on Wikipedia and at the National Library of the Netherlands (KB).