Hoge troeven is the third of Louis Couperus three Koningsromans (King's novels), respectively Majesteit (1893) / Wereldvrede (1895) / Hoge troeven (1896), that is two novels and a novella.

After the revolutions overthrowing the monarchy in the late 18th Century in France, and renewed rebellion by the middle of the 19th Century, there was a growing pressure on the monarchy in various European countries to modernize or make place for a republic. Revolutionaries pressed forward with demands for change, pushing absolute monarchs to accept a more modest position in a constitutional monarchy or get lost. This is the political background to these three novels, an atmosphere as could still be felt for a few more decades, including Joseph Conrad's Under Western Eyes.

Such actuality is quite unusual in the novelistic oevre of Louis Couperus, whose novels are often set in dreamlike settings of either the distant past, ancient Greece or Rome, or the distant colony, birthplace of the author, the colonial Dutch Indies (presently Indonesia).

The Koningsromans are situated in the imaginary kingdom of Liparie, ruled by an aged imperial family. The three novels show the succesive demise of the old emperor, and how his son, the new emperor manages the new situation and salvages the empire.

All three novels are written in Couperus high exalted style of decadence, in stunningly beautiful descriptions. The action and the development of the plot is highly credible, and very well done. Highly recommended. ( )