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| + | == Belle de Zuylen: Reality and Fiction == | ||
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| + | The private life of a female author has often been felt as intriguing and has given way to not always discreet comments and to fictionalization. This also happened to Isabelle de Charrière / Belle de Zuylen. Although she was a great letter writer herself and, in fact, "documented" her own life, several authors have felt inspired by it and produced narratives, in text, film or theatre play, based more or less on this very correspondence. <br> | ||
| + | Most recently Dutch novelist and philosopher Joke Hermsen published a novel about an episode of Belle de Zuylen’s life: ''De liefde dus'' (Love, actually). This is not only a re-writing of the author's life, but also the filling of a "gap". Indeed it is well known that Charrière herself has destroyed important parts of her correspondence, and that later - during the nineteenth century - members of her family continued the destruction, in particular of letters which had been seen by the French critic Sainte-Beuve.<br> | ||
| + | In particular the relationship between Isabelle de Charrière and the young Charles Dapples (1758-1854) remains mysterious by the loss of all the letters exchanged between them, except one, and by some intriguing remarks in other letters by Charrière and by Benjamin Constant. In his biography, Cecil P. Courtney wonders:<br><br> | ||
| + | Why should the mention of the name of Charles Dapples by her husband have had such an effect on Isabelle de Charrière? [..] One possible explanation is that Dapples was none other than the young man to whom she had formed a romantic attachement in 1784 or earlier and who, according to Benjamin Constant, abandoned her to marry another woman. [...] (Courtney ''Biography'', 484)<br><br> | ||
| + | This "romantic attachement" has been taken by Joke Hermsen as the subject of her novel - which is in part epistolary, like most of Charrière's own novels, and integrates some of the questions which have been asked by Charriéristes during the last decades, such as the possible contact between Dutch novelist Betje Wolff and Charrière. <br> | ||
| + | The "Genootschap Belle van Zuylen" is organising, together with the NEWW project a meeting where this fictionalization will be discussed, and where comparisons are to be made between Belle de Zuylen's "reality" and her letters, and Joke Hermsen's fiction in her novel. Most of the interventions and discussions will be in Dutch. <br><br> | ||
| - | *Conferences > Study days > Belle van Zuylen <br><br> | + | '''Program''' |
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| + | *Conferences > Study days > Belle de Zuylen <br><br> | ||
Revision as of 15:34, 12 September 2008
Belle de Zuylen: Reality and Fiction
The private life of a female author has often been felt as intriguing and has given way to not always discreet comments and to fictionalization. This also happened to Isabelle de Charrière / Belle de Zuylen. Although she was a great letter writer herself and, in fact, "documented" her own life, several authors have felt inspired by it and produced narratives, in text, film or theatre play, based more or less on this very correspondence.
Most recently Dutch novelist and philosopher Joke Hermsen published a novel about an episode of Belle de Zuylen’s life: De liefde dus (Love, actually). This is not only a re-writing of the author's life, but also the filling of a "gap". Indeed it is well known that Charrière herself has destroyed important parts of her correspondence, and that later - during the nineteenth century - members of her family continued the destruction, in particular of letters which had been seen by the French critic Sainte-Beuve.
In particular the relationship between Isabelle de Charrière and the young Charles Dapples (1758-1854) remains mysterious by the loss of all the letters exchanged between them, except one, and by some intriguing remarks in other letters by Charrière and by Benjamin Constant. In his biography, Cecil P. Courtney wonders:
Why should the mention of the name of Charles Dapples by her husband have had such an effect on Isabelle de Charrière? [..] One possible explanation is that Dapples was none other than the young man to whom she had formed a romantic attachement in 1784 or earlier and who, according to Benjamin Constant, abandoned her to marry another woman. [...] (Courtney Biography, 484)
This "romantic attachement" has been taken by Joke Hermsen as the subject of her novel - which is in part epistolary, like most of Charrière's own novels, and integrates some of the questions which have been asked by Charriéristes during the last decades, such as the possible contact between Dutch novelist Betje Wolff and Charrière.
The "Genootschap Belle van Zuylen" is organising, together with the NEWW project a meeting where this fictionalization will be discussed, and where comparisons are to be made between Belle de Zuylen's "reality" and her letters, and Joke Hermsen's fiction in her novel. Most of the interventions and discussions will be in Dutch.
Program
- Conferences > Study days > Belle de Zuylen