2023-11-16 13:51:39
The epistolary novel The Story of Miss Sara Burgerhart by Elisabeth Wolff and Agatha Deken was published in 1782, the same year as Dangerous Liaisons by Choderlos de Laclos – and also composed of 175 letters. The protagonist, Sara Burgerhart, a young orphaned woman, lively and passionate, in search of happiness, meets several people before agreeing to marry a serious and reasonable man. The novel offers, through exchanges of letters, different points of view on the same event giving it a polyphonic form where each of the characters has a very particular style and tone.
The direct and lively style, with ordinary characters and a typically Dutch setting, the importance of which the preface underlines, immediately ensured the novel great success and numerous reissues. A friend of Voltaire, Henri Rieu, translated it into French, a translation published first in Lausanne in 1787, then in Paris in 1788.
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Elisabeth (“Betje”) Wolff, and Agatha (“Aagje”) Deken are almost always named in a single line, as they work together, although having opposite personalities. Elisabeth insists, particularly in her correspondence, on the differences: one blonde and serious, Agatha Deken, the other, Elisabeth herself, brunette, strong-willed and independent. The Dutch poet Bellamy states that the two friends complement each other wonderfully and uses the image, still often cited, of oil – Agatha Deken – and vinegar – referring to Elisabeth Wolff – together forming “a good sauce”. These images, maintained by the authors themselves, persist in the histories of Dutch literature.
Solid education and great friendship
Elisabeth Wolff, born Bekker on July 24, 1738 in Vlissingen, was an educated young woman with a lively and critical mind. At the age of 17, she was kidnapped by her suitor. This escape lasts only one night, turns bad and prevents the marriage. In Sara Burgerhart, we could find a reference to this event because Sara is kidnapped during one night by an ill-intentioned suitor. Four years later, in 1759, Elisabeth Bekker married a widowed preacher, 31 years her senior, Adriaan Wolff, a union she described as “philosophical”. She leaves Vlissingen, in the province of Zeeland, to settle with her husband in the rectory in Beemster, in North Holland, thus fleeing the gossip that pursues her. She had already written and published several texts, ranging from satirical poems, essays and pamphlets, often virulent towards the Orthodox, to prose and translations, when she met, in 1776, Agatha Deken.
Agatha Deken, born in 1741, orphaned at 4 years old, was raised in an orphanage in Amsterdam where she received a solid education. Working as a lady-in-waiting, she began to write poetry and publish. She established correspondence with other women of letters, then sent, in 1776, a letter to Elisabeth Wolff. Thus begins a great epistolary exchange and a great friendship. In 1778, after the death of Elisabeth Wolff’s husband, the two friends moved in together. Sharing the same critical spirit and literary talent, they began to write most of their works together. Quite rare at the time for women of their social situation, they made a living from their pens. The success of their novel Sara Burgerhart brought them a reputation as writers and income.
The two authors demand more education for women while nevertheless insisting on the importance of being a good wife. As the preface announces, Sara Burgerhart aims to be a guide for young girls: how to grow up, find a husband, protect yourself from bad influences and defend your virtue. Mature women advise and protect them, as do Wolff and Deken themselves.
Political engagement and exile in France
We see that once married, Sara Burgerhart loses her voice and her vivacity, devoting herself mainly to her life as a mother and wife. However, neither Wolff nor Deken themselves conform to these prescriptions. Without a husband and without children, they took part in society’s debates and adhered to the ideas of the Enlightenment. Elisabeth Wolff, known for her satirical and polemical writing which has earned her numerous criticisms, takes a stand in a turbulent period in Dutch history. She spoke in favor of the patriots, who demanded political rights and economic freedom for all citizens (except women), and against the stadtholder William V and the Orange family. After the invasion of the Republic by the army of Frederick William II, King of Prussia and son-in-law of William V, many patriots fled abroad, notably to France.
Fearing reprisals against patriots and unable to remain silent in the face of injustices inflicted by the government, Wolff and Deken left for France, accompanied by Caroline Victoire Ravanel, a governess, in March 1788. They settled in Trévoux, near Lyon, where Ravanel’s brother lives, and continue to write and translate. Wolff notably translated into Dutch a novel by Madame de Genlis and, anonymously, the Cause of Negro Slaves by Frossard, in 1789, a few months after its publication.
In one of the very rare letters preserved from this period, Wolff speaks of the French Revolution, of which they were rather partisan, and of the atrocities they witnessed. They returned to their country, which became the Batavian Republic after the invasion by the French army in September 1797. Withdrawal from political life, they lived mainly from their translations, their novels finding very few readers. On November 5, 1804, Elisabeth Wolff died, followed, 9 days later, by her friend Agatha Deken.
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