Historie van den Heer Willem Leevend - Wolff, Betje 1738-1804; Deken, Aagje 1741-1804 (The Hague van Cleef, 1784)
epistolary novel
Betje Wolff and Aagje Deken wrote books together. They had completely different characters, but their view of the world was about the same: critical and if necessary sarcastic. More importantly, they both had great literary talent. They were ruthless observers, and possessed a pointed, accurate writing style. In a number of multi-volume, successful epistolary novels, they described the Netherlands at the end of the eighteenth century and portrayed the Dutch bourgeoisie. Who wrote what can no longer be traced, but it seems certain that they could not live without each other.
Ex libris A. Le Clercq (manuscript signature and stamp)
Keywords: 18th Century (1701-1800); Novel; Correspondence; Criticism; Society; Female; Moral education; Netherlands