Anna Louisa Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint

A portrait of Bosboom-Toussaint by J.A. Ehnle and D.J. Sluyter
A statue of Bosboom-Toussaint by August Falise

Anna Louisa Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint (September 16, 1812 – April 13, 1886) was a Dutch novelist.

Life and career

Geertruida Toussaint was born in Alkmaar, Netherlands; her father, a chemist of Huguenot descent, gave her a fair education, and at an early period of her career she developed a taste for historical research, fostered by a forced indoor life as a result of weak health.

Her first romance, Almagro, appeared in 1837, followed by De graaf van Devonshire ("The Earl of Devonshire") in 1838; De Engelschen te Rome ("The English at Rome") in 1840, and Het Huis Lauernesse ("The House of Lauernesse") in 1841, an episode of the Reformation that has been translated into many European languages. These stories, mainly founded upon some of the most interesting epochs of Dutch history, betrayed a remarkable grasp of facts and situations, combined with an undoubted mastery over her mother tongue, although her style is sometimes involved and not always faultless.

Ten years (1840–1850) were mainly devoted to further studies, the result of which was revealed in 1851–1854, when she published a series of three novels dealing with the first Earl of Leicester's adventures in the Low Countries. In 1851 she married the Dutch painter, Johannes Bosboom (1817–1891), and thereafter was known as Mrs Bosboom-Toussaint.

After 1870 Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint abandoned historical romance for the modern society novel, but her Delftsche Wonderdokter ("The Necromancer of Delft", 1871) and Majoor Frans ("Major Frank", 1875) did not command the success of her earlier works. Majoor Frans has been translated into English (1885). Mrs Bosboom-Toussaint's novels have been published in a collected edition (1885–1888). She died in The Hague.

Works

Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint as drawn by her husband Johannes Bosboom.

Note: until 1851, when Geertruida Toussaint married Johannes Bosboom, her works were published under her maiden name (A.L.G. Toussaint). Later works and reprints of her earlier works carried her married name (A.L.G. Bosboom-Toussaint).


References

     This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bosboom-Toussaint, Anna Louisa Geertruida". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

    External links

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