Ida Saint-Elme
Ida Saint-Elme , called "la Contemporaine" , actually Elselina Vanayl de Yonghe , (* 1776 in Lith , Netherlands , † 1845 in Brussels , Belgium ) was a writer, adventurer and courtesan from southern France.
She was born as the youngest of two children of Gerrit Versfelt (1735–1781) and his wife Alida de Jongh (1738–1828). Her father had been a preacher in lithograph since 1770. In 1792, when she was 14, she married the merchant Jan Ringeling Claasz in the Nieuwe Kerk in Amsterdam, but pretended to be 17 years old. The couple had two daughters, but divorced after four years, as Elselina had a relationship with the French general Jean-Victor Moreau , who was later succeeded by Michel Ney , also a French general, as a lover.
She described her corresponding experiences in her memoirs Principaux personnages de la république, du consulat, de l'empire, etc. , which she embellished with public appeal. This work, which was often sold as the female counterpart to the memoirs of Giacomo Casanova , namely as "Casanova femelle", made her famous at one stroke. In addition to this work, she published other scandalous pamphlets from London, which were now directed against the House of Orléans .
Works
- 1827: Principaux personnages de la république, du consulat, de l'empire etc. , 8th volumes
Web links
- Literature by and about Ida Saint-Elme in the catalog of the German National Library
- Works by and about Ida Saint-Elme in the German Digital Library
source
- Picture lexicon of eroticism , Vienna, 1928–1931
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Saint-Elme, Ida |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Yonghe, Elselina Vanayl de (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French writer, adventurer and courtesan |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1776 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Lith , Belgium |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1845 |
| Place of death | Brussels |