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Belle Van Zuylen/Isabelle De Charriere (1740-1805) Tradition and Defiance

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Belle Van Zuylen/Isabelle De Charriere (1740-1805) Tradition and Defiance BELLE VAN ZUYLEN/ISABELLE DE CHARRIERE (1740-1805) TRADITION AND DEFIANCE Margriet Bruyn Lacy North Dakota State University Fargo (NO), USA Belle van Zuylen was born on October 20,1740 in the Netherlands, and she resided in that country until her marriage in 1771. She then lived mostly in Switzerland, until her death on December 27, 1805. She wrote several novels, essays, plays, short stories, and pamphlets, but is be~t known for her extensive correspondence. Belle van Zuylen, or more precisely, on her ability to reason, which accounts to Isabella Agneta Elisabeth van Tuyll van a large extent for her skepticism towards Serooskerken (1740-1805), belonged to a religion, in particular towards revelation. prominent, aristocratic, Protestant family in Thus, she wrote to Boswell: the Netherlands, the country where she lived until she moved to Switzerland in Everything tells me that there is a God, an 1771. One might say that she was a "black eternal, perfect, and all-powerful being .... sheep" in her family and in her society, Revelation has qualities of grandeur, because she was quite independent goodness, and mercy which are infinitely intellectually and did not hesitate to express entitled to our respect; if I understood it her often original ideas on any number of better, I should perhaps recognize the marks of divinity in it throughout; but I am held subjects, such as religion, marriage, the back by much that is obscure, and by what relationship between parents and children, appear to me contradictions. I doubt, and I and education, to name just a few. These keep my doubts to myself; I should think it topics were important to her because of the a crime to destroy the belief of others when role they each played in her own life, but I can replace it only by an anxious doubt. she discussed them at the same time in a But I am incapable of forcing my mind to more theoretical or philosophical manner, believe what it does not understand, or of which makes her insights as meaningful to compelling my heart to subscribe to a us, today, as they were to her. She religion which I can never love so long as I expressed her ideas and opinions in novels, find it denies its promised happiness to part of God's creatures. I cannot separate my lot in essays and plays, but above all in her from that of others (June 19, 1764).1 extensive correspondence with men such as David Constant d'Hermenches, his nephew As especially the last sentences of this the well known French author Benjamin quotation already suggest, Belle van Zuylen, Constant, and the equally well known in spite of her privileged position, was well James Boswell. aware of the many hardships afflicting "the masses," and so one might have expected Throughout her life she was tempted to her to be a stronger supporter of the French transgress the norms and values of her revolution in 1789 than was actually the society, yet she often ended up complying case. She was suspicious of the impact of with tradition, not so much because she was any radical change and feared, correctly so, a conformist after all, but rather because she that many were too easily carried away by considered it ultimately futile to promote their enthusiasm, without seeing the strong sweeping changes. Thus, as this short possibility of new forms of fanaticism and overview will illustrate, her life and works intolerance. Thus, she warned her readers were full of paradoxes. in her novel Trois Femmes (Three Women, 1798): In many respects Belle van Zuylen was a representative of what we have come to call The philosophical clergy is just as much a the Enlightenment. She put great emphasis clergy as any other, and it was not really 34 Margriet Bruyn Lacy necessary to get rid of the priest at Saint­ man, a faithful and virtuous wife; but, for Sulpice, if we are going to have new priests that, I must love and must be loved. at the Pantheon (Oeuvres 9:106, my When I ask myself whether I would not love translation). another man, if I did not love my husband, whether the very notion of duty, the memory Her skepticism with regard to the benefits of my marriage vows would defend me of the ideas of the "philosophers" and the against love, against the opportunity on a summer night . ., I blush because of my revolution should not be seen as a desire to answer. But if we love each other, if my maintain the status quo. She believed, husband doos,riot disdain to please me, if he however, that it was naive, even foolish, to attaches a gyeat price to my affection, if he see new ideas and new socio-political says to me: '1 shall not kill you if you are systems as a panacea that would eliminate unfaithful, but I shall be the more unhappy existing inequities, in any aspect of society, not to be able to esteem you anymore as I on a large scale. She considered it more shall perhaps still love you," in that case, I likely and feasible to bring about change in say, I think, I hope, I believe firmly that I a few individuals, rather than in entire would avoid everything that might seduce groups. This emphasis on the individual me, that I would never fail to observe the also manifested itself in her own life, in the laws of virtue Guly 25, 1764; Oeuvres 1:217, way in which she, instead of adhering my translation). automatically to the norms of her class, D'Hermenches knew how to "handle" sought to develop a personal ethical system, Belle's observations, questions, and fears, which was a mixture of teleology and and he understood them, which could not deontology. Numerous examples could be be said of her other correspondent, James cited, especially from her clandestine Boswell. Boswell was strongly inclined to correspondence with d'Hermenches (a give her moral lessons, such as: married man, seventeen years her senior, who had the well deserved reputation of Fie, my zelide [Le., Belle], what fancies are being a Don Juan, but who turned out to be these? Is a mistress half so agreeable a name a trustworthy confidant). Particularly as a wife? Is a connection of love merely, amazing is the fact that they maintained equal to a connection strengthened by a this correspondence for some twenty years, variety of circumstances which have a confided to each other their most intimate pleasing influence on a sound mind? I thoughts and feelings, yet actually saw each beseech you, never indulge in such ideas. other only a few times. In several of these Respect mankind. Respect the institutions of letters, Belle expressed her fear of marriage society (Pottle 313). and announced, in an honest and Boswell was constantly both shocked and straightforward manner, that she might well intrigued by Belle, and that became become unfaithful to a husband she did not particularly evident when he finally asked love: for her hand (which was amazing in itselO If I had neither father nor mother, I would be in a long letter to her father. He listed a Ninon [de Lendos] perhaps, but a more many requirements, from which it became delicate and more constant Ninon; I would obvious that what he was looking for in a not have so many lovers; if the first one were wife, that is to say submission to his norms, lovable, I think I would not change and, in could never be given to him by Belle. That that case, I don't know if I would be very the marriage never took place was most guilty; at least, I could redeem through likely a blessing for both parties. virtuous actions the insult that I would do to society by rejecting the yoke of a wisely It is hard to tell whether Belle herself was established rule. I have a father and a able to draw the line between her fantasies mother, I don't want to cause their death nor (as expressed, for example, in the letter to poison their life, I shall not be a Ninon; I d'Hermenches quoted above) and her "real would like to be the wife of an honorable Belle van Zuylen/Isabelle de Charriere 35 life" situation. At any rate, the expression profit by her unhappiness. Her existence of these "libertine" ideas seems to have ought not to be useless; and the less it helped her to face a life in which there was appears a good to her, the more she wishes not much room for non-traditional behavior. to make it a good for them (Pottle 185-187). When she was already thirty years old, she did marry Charles-Emmanuel de Charriere, During her marriage, Belle van Zuylen a Swiss private tutor of her brothers, and (then of course Madame de Charriere) moved to Colombier, a small village near turned more and more to writing fiction, Neuchatel. She had much esteem for her without giving / up her letter-writing. husband, but was certainly not passionately Although these works of fiction in love with him. In another long letter to undoubtedly have literary merits, it is not d'Hermenches she explained how she had through them that their author deserves to weighed the pros and cons of this match be remembered today. Instead, her claim to and why she finally accepted it. She fame lies primarily in her letters, in which indicated that she saw especially practical she displayed her outstanding intellectual advantages in a marriage with de Charriere: and artistic qualities much more brilliantly.
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