Isabelle de Montolieu

Isabelle de Montolieu , née Elisabeth Jeanne Pauline Polier de Bottens, (born May 7, 1751 in Lausanne , † December 29, 1832 ) was a Swiss writer from the canton of Vaud .

Life

Isabelle de Montolieu was the daughter of the Reformed theology professor and Lausanne pastor Antoine-Noé de Polier de Bottens (1713–1783) and Elisabeth Antoinette Susanne de Lagier-Pluvianes (1722–1769); she was born in Lausanne and had four sisters and four brothers, including the Vaud revolutionary politician Etienne Henri Georges Polier (1754–1821). In her youth she met Jean-Jacques Rousseau . In 1769 she married Benjamin Adolphe de Crousaz (1743–1775) from Prilly , who died of an illness at the age of 32. She was on friendly terms with Félicité de Genlis and Claude François de Lezay-Marnésia. After eleven years of widowhood, she married the southern French baron Louis de Montolieu († 1800) in 1786 and continued to live with him in Lausanne. The author and encyclopedist Claude-François de Lezay-Marnésia, who fled to Switzerland after the French Revolution, and the Englishman Edward Gibbon , who like many others visited the city on Lake Geneva, were among her circle of friends. Isabelle de Montolieu had a correspondence with Gibbon.

After the death of her second husband, Isabelle de Montolieu became increasingly active as a writer. She wrote novels and historical stories, including the three-volume, illustrated and later repeatedly reissued collection Les Châteaux Suisses , and she translated novels from English, especially works by Jane Austen , and from German; she quickly became known in Europe with her works.

Isabelle de Montolieu lived at times in the Villa Montolieu in Bussigny . After her death in Vennes near Lausanne, the writer was buried in the former Lausanne cemetery Pierre-du-Plan , which was next to the road to Bern .

Works

Caroline de Liechtfield, or Mémoires extraits des papiers d'une famille prussienne. Roman, Lausanne 1786; Second edition in Paris in 1786 ; the work was translated into English after a short time.
Le Mystère ou Mémoires de Madame Melvin. Paris 1795.
La princesse de Wolfenbuttel. (based on a story about the life of Charlotte Christine Wolfenbüttel ) 1806.
Le Serin de J.-J. Rousseau. Geneva and Paris 1815.
Les Châteaux Suisses, anciennes anecdotes et chroniques. Paris 1816.
Les Chevaliers de la Cuillère , Château des Clées , Lisély , Anecdotes suisses. Paris 1823.
Le Robinson suisse, ou Journal d'un père de famille naufragé avec ses enfans. Paris 1824 (translation of a work by Johann David Wyss ).

literature

Daniel Maggetti: Isabelle de Montolieu. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .

Web links

Commons : Isabelle de Montolieu - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Isabelle de Montolieu in Gallica .

Individual evidence

↑ The Pierre-du-Plan cemetery was closed after 1950 and the modern La Sallaz primary school, designed by architects Robert Loup (1907–1994) and Louis Roux, was built on the site in 1955 .

personal data
SURNAME	Montolieu, Isabelle de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Bottens, Elisabeth Jeanne Pauline Polier de (maiden name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Swiss author
DATE OF BIRTH	May 7, 1751
PLACE OF BIRTH	Lausanne
DATE OF DEATH	December 29, 1832

[1] The Pierre-du-Plan cemetery was closed after 1950 and the modern La Sallaz primary school, designed by architects Robert Loup (1907–1994) and Louis Roux, was built on the site in 1955 .