Born: 16 September 1812, Netherlands
Died: 13 April 1886
Country most active: Netherlands
Also known as: Geertruida Toussaint
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
The daughter of a pharmacist in north Holland. She had a very unhappy youth. She studied for the teaching profession, but was found to be too delicate and nervous. She then lived for some years with a private family as governess, but felt her vocation lay in a different field.
She returned home and began translation work. In vain she sought acceptance of her work. In 1836 she wrote an original story which was published, and her following novels met the approval of exacting critics. Thus she was introduced to the leading literary circle of those days whose object it was to remind Holland of the greatness of its past. At their request she tried her hand at patriotic subjects. She has been called the “Poetess of Protestantism.” A thorough-going study was necessary for her work. She deals with the time of Leicester, the earl who by order of Queen Elizabeth of England came to the rescue of the nearly defeated Netherlands in their struggle against Spain in 1585. Holland’s greatest historian says that it is impossible to write scientifically about that time without having read and digested her romances. She also puts into her novels her own disappointment in love. She had been engaged to a well-known literary man, it turned out that he appreciated her art only, and he broke oS the engagement in 1843. In 1851 she married the well-known painter, Bosbross, which marriage proved happy. Her books followed each other without interruption. The amount this small woman, this mere bundle of nerves, could produce, was astonishing; she left nearly fifty novels and sketches. Her psychological novel Major Francis, which deals with woman’s struggle against herself and her surroundings, is well-known. It was translated into French, English, Russian, and Swedish. Seldom has a book received so much praise. Medals and other honors reached the authoress from Sweden and Greece.
After her death in 1886 women of Holland had memorials erected in honor of Holland’s greatest lady-novelist.