The "Hidden Force" is a 1900 novel by the Dutch writer Louis Couperus. The story is set at the end of the nineteenth century and concerns the cultural gap between East and West, between the Netherlands and their colony on Java. The Dutch colonists, who rule Java, realize that the island maintains its own natural order by way of a hidden force, "goena goena", a term denoting magic as well as depths of eastern cultures. Louis Marie-Anne Couperus (10 June 1863 ? 16 July 1923) was a Dutch novelist and poet during the Belle Epoque. His oeuvre contains a wide variety of genres: poetry, fairy tales, psychological novels, and historical novels. Couperus is considered to be one of the foremost figures in Dutch literature.