Isabelle de Charrière, (20 October 1740 - 27 December 1805) known as
Belle van Zuylen in the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
and
Madame de Charrière elsewhere, is a Dutch-born writer of the
EnlightenmentThe Age of Enlightenment, or simply The Enlightenment, is a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life, centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority....
who lived the latter half of her life in
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
. She is now best known for her letters although she also wrote novels, pamphlets and plays. She took a keen interest in the society and politics and her work around the time of the French Revolution is regarded as being of particular interest.
Isabella Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken was born in Castle Zuylen near
UtrechtUtrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern end of the Randstad, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands, with a population of 300,030 in 2007...
in the Netherlands, to Diederik Jacob van
TuyllTuyll is the name of an noble Dutch family, with familial and historical links to England, whose full name is van Tuyll van Serooskerken. Several knights, members of various courts, literary figures, generals, ambassadors, statesmen and explorers carried the family name.-Early and High Middle...
van Serooskerken (1707 - 1776), and Helena Jacoba de Vicq (1724 - 1768).
Isabelle de Charrière, (20 October 1740 - 27 December 1805) known as
Belle van Zuylen in the
NetherlandsThe Netherlands is a country in Northwestern Europe, constituting the major portion of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a parliamentary democratic constitutional monarchy. The Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east...
and
Madame de Charrière elsewhere, is a Dutch-born writer of the
EnlightenmentThe Age of Enlightenment, or simply The Enlightenment, is a term used to describe a time in Western philosophy and cultural life, centered upon the eighteenth century, in which reason was advocated as the primary source and legitimacy for authority....
who lived the latter half of her life in
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
. She is now best known for her letters although she also wrote novels, pamphlets and plays. She took a keen interest in the society and politics and her work around the time of the French Revolution is regarded as being of particular interest.
Early life
Isabella Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll van Serooskerken was born in Castle Zuylen near
UtrechtUtrecht city and municipality is the capital and most populous city of the Dutch province of Utrecht. It is located in the eastern end of the Randstad, and is the fourth largest city of the Netherlands, with a population of 300,030 in 2007...
in the Netherlands, to Diederik Jacob van
TuyllTuyll is the name of an noble Dutch family, with familial and historical links to England, whose full name is van Tuyll van Serooskerken. Several knights, members of various courts, literary figures, generals, ambassadors, statesmen and explorers carried the family name.-Early and High Middle...
van Serooskerken (1707 - 1776), and Helena Jacoba de Vicq (1724 - 1768). Her parents were described by the British author
James BoswellJames Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for his biography of Samuel Johnson...
as "one of the most ancient noblemen in the Seven Provinces" and "an Amsterdam lady, with a great deal of money". Isabelle was the eldest of seven children.
In 1750, Isabelle was sent to
GenevaGeneva, is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie...
and travelled through
SwitzerlandSwitzerland , officially the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 states named cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities...
and
FranceFrance , officially the French Republic , is a country located in Western Europe, with several overseas islands and territories located on other continents. Metropolitan France extends from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea, and from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean...
. Having spoken only French for a year, she had to relearn Dutch on returning home to the Netherlands. However, French would remain her preferred language for the rest of her life, which helps to explain why, for a long time, her work was not as well known in her country of birth as it otherwise might have been.
Isabelle enjoyed a much broader education than was usual for girls at that time, thanks to the liberal views of her parents who also let her study subjects like mathematics. By all accounts, she was a gifted student.
As she grew older, various suitors appeared on the scene only to be rejected. She saw marriage as a way to gain freedom but she also wanted to marry for love. Eventually, in 1771, she married Charles-Emmanuel de Charrière de Penthaz, her brothers' former tutor. They settled at Le Pontet in Colombier (near
NeuchâtelNeuchâtel is the capital of the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel.The city has approximately 32,600 inhabitants , by and large French-speaking, although the city is sometimes referred to historically by the German name , which has the same meaning, since Prussia ruled the area until...
) in Switzerland. They also spent significant amounts of time in Neuchâtel, Geneva and Paris.
Correspondence
Isabelle de Charrière kept up an extensive correspondence with numerous people, including intellectuals like
James BoswellJames Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for his biography of Samuel Johnson...
and
Benjamin ConstantHenri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque was a Swiss-born, nobleman, thinker, writer and French politician.-Biography:...
.
In 1760, Isabelle met David Louis de Constant d'Hermenches (1722 - 1785), a married Swiss officer who society regarded as a Don Juan. After much hesitation, Isabelle's need for self-expression overwon her scrupules and she started an intimate and secret correspondence with him after a second meeting with him two years later. Constant d'Hermenches would be one of, if not her most, important correspondents.
The Scottish writer
James BoswellJames Boswell, 9th Laird of Auchinleck was a lawyer, diarist, and author born in Edinburgh, Scotland; he is best known for his biography of Samuel Johnson...
was a frequent visitor to Castle Zuylen in 1762 and became a regular correspondent after leaving the Netherlands. He proposed to her and she refused, saying she had "no talent for subordination".
In 1786, Mme de Charrière met Constant d'Hermenches' nephew, the writer
Benjamin ConstantHenri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque was a Swiss-born, nobleman, thinker, writer and French politician.-Biography:...
. They began an exchange of letters that would last until the end of her life.
Works
Isabelle de Charrière wrote novels, pamphlets, plays and composed music. Her most productive period came only after she'd been living in Colombier for a number of years. Themes included her religious doubts, the nobility and the upbringing of women.
Her first novel, Le Noble, was published in 1762. It was a satire against the nobility and although it was published anonymously, her identity was soon discovered and her parents withdrew the work from sale.
In 1784, she published two novels,
Lettres neuchâteloises and
Lettres de Mistriss Henley publiée par son amie. Both were epistolaries, a form she continued to favour. In 1788, she published her first pamphlets about the political situation in the Netherlands.
As a great admirer of the philosopher
Jean-Jacques RousseauJean Jacques Rousseau was a major philosopher, writer, and composer of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment, whose political philosophy influenced the French Revolution and the development of modern political and educational thought.His novel, Emile: or, On Education, which he considered his most...
, she assisted in the posthumous publication of his work, Confessions, in 1789. She also wrote her own pamphlets on Rousseau around this time.
The
French RevolutionThe French Revolution was a period of political and social upheaval and radical change in the history of France, during which the French governmental structure, previously an absolute monarchy with feudal privileges for the aristocracy and Catholic clergy, underwent radical change to forms based...
caused a number of nobles to flee to
NeuchâtelNeuchâtel is the capital of the Swiss canton of Neuchâtel on Lake Neuchâtel.The city has approximately 32,600 inhabitants , by and large French-speaking, although the city is sometimes referred to historically by the German name , which has the same meaning, since Prussia ruled the area until...
and Mme de Charrière befriended some of them. But she also published works criticising the attitudes of the noble refugees, most of whom she felt had learned nothing from the Revolution. However, she wasn't an outright democrat either, looking with dismay on the violence of the revolutionary mobs.
External links