Elizabeth ("Betje") Wolff-Bekker (24 July 17385 November 1804) was a Dutch novelist who, with
Agatha "Aagje" Deken, wrote several popular
epistolary novel
An epistolary novel () is a novel written as a series of letters between the fictional characters of a narrative. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse other kinds of fictional document with the letters, most commonly di ...
s such as ''Sara Burgerhart'' (1782) and ''Willem Levend'' (1784).
Biography
Betje Bekker was born into a wealthy
Calvinist
Reformed Christianity, also called Calvinism, is a major branch of Protestantism that began during the 16th-century Protestant Reformation. In the modern day, it is largely represented by the Continental Reformed Protestantism, Continenta ...
family at
Vlissingen
Vlissingen (; ) is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southwestern Netherlands on the island of Walcheren. With its strategic location between the Scheldt river and the North Sea, Vlissingen has been an importan ...
. On 18 November 1759, at the age of 21, she married the 52-year-old clergyman Adriaan Wolff. In 1763 she published her first collection ''Bespiegelingen over het genoegen'' ('Reflections on Pleasure'). After her husband's death in 1777, she lived for a time with
Aagje Deken in France.
From then on the two women published their work together; it is somewhat difficult to determine the exact qualities contributed by each though many believe that Betje Wolff was the main author due to her wider acclaim before their pairing.
They specialized in
epistolary novel
An epistolary novel () is a novel written as a series of letters between the fictional characters of a narrative. The term is often extended to cover novels that intersperse other kinds of fictional document with the letters, most commonly di ...
s in the mold of
Samuel Richardson
Samuel Richardson (baptised 19 August 1689 – 4 July 1761) was an English writer and printer known for three epistolary novels: '' Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded'' (1740), '' Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady'' (1748) and '' The Histo ...
.
Because of their
patriotic
Patriotism is the feeling of love, devotion, and a sense of attachment to one's country or state. This attachment can be a combination of different feelings for things such as the language of one's homeland, and its ethnic, cultural, politic ...
sympathies they moved to
Trévoux
Trévoux (; ) is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. The inhabitants are known as Trévoltiens.
It is a popular destination outside of Lyon, built on the steeply sloping left bank of the river Saône and is known for its for ...
in
Burgundy
Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...
in 1788. In
1789
Events
January–March
* January – Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès publishes the pamphlet '' What Is the Third Estate?'' ('), influential on the French Revolution.
* January 7 – The 1788-89 United States presidential election ...
they published ''Wandelingen door Bourgogne''. She was exposed to some of the dangers of the
French Revolution, and, it is said, escaped the
guillotine
A guillotine ( ) is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by Decapitation, beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secur ...
only by her great presence of mind. More important though was her translation of the Swiss abolitionist Benjamin Sigismond Frossard in 1790. In 1795 she returned to the Netherlands, and resided at
the Hague
The Hague ( ) is the capital city of the South Holland province of the Netherlands. With a population of over half a million, it is the third-largest city in the Netherlands. Situated on the west coast facing the North Sea, The Hague is the c ...
till her death there at the age of 66.
Works
* ''Historie van Mejuffrouw Sara Burgerhart'' (1782)
* ''Historie van den heer Willem Leevend'' (1784–1785)
* ''Abraham Blankaart'' (1787)
* ''Wandelingen door Bourgogne'' (1789)
* ''Cornelia Wildschut'' (1793–1796)
See also
*
Museum Betje Wolff
References
[This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: ]
External links
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1738 births
1804 deaths
Dutch women novelists
People from Vlissingen
18th-century Dutch women writers
18th-century Dutch novelists
{{Netherlands-writer-stub