Couperus grew up in Batavia (now Jakarta) in the Dutch East Indies. After returning to The Netherlands, he settled in Italy. During World War I he returned to The Hague and later traveled through Africa and East Asia, describing his journeys in a series of impressionistic newspaper sketches.

Couperus' novels show a rare versatility of style and genre, ranging from the French-influenced realism of his first and best-known, Eline vere (1889; Eng. trans., 1892), dealing with contemporary life in The Hague, to the fin-de-siècle spirit of luxurious decadence of Extaze (1892; Ecstasy) and De berg van licht (1906; “The Mountain of Light”). Prolonged residence in Italy brought out the romantic and impressionist in him, though his artistic detachment is always evident. Later, he developed an interest in the occult and the Oriental attitude toward fate, which provided themes for several of his novels, in particular, Van oude menschen, de dingen, die voorbijgaan (1906; Old People and the Things That Pass). Couperus made use of new word-formations in evoking atmosphere and displayed a gently ironic humour and an extraordinary narrative skill.