Betje Wolff

Elizabeth ("Betje") Wolff-Bekker (24 July 1738 – 5 November 1804) was a Dutch writer.

Betje Bekker was born into a wealthy Calvinist family at Vlissingen. On 18 November 1759, at the age of 21, she married the 52-year-old clergyman Adriaan Wolff. In 1763 she published her first collection Bespiegelingen over het genoegen ('Reflections on Pleasure'). In 1777, after her husband's death, she lived together with Aagje Deken and from then on they published their work together. Among their greatest successes were the epistolary novels Historie van mejuffrouw Sara Burgerhart (1782) and Historie van den heer Willem Leevend (1784-1785).

Because of their patriotic sympathies they moved to Trévoux in Burgundy in 1788. In 1789 they published Wandelingen door Bourgogne. She was exposed to some of the dangers of the French Revolution, and, it is said, escaped the guillotine only by her great presence of mind. In 1795 she returned to the Netherlands, and resided at the Hague till her death there at the age of 66.

Other popular books by Betje Wolff and Aagje Deken were Abraham Blankaart (1787) and Cornelie Wildschut (1793-1796).

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