A. L. G. Bosboom-Toussaint

Anna Louisa Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint (September 16, 1812 – April 14, 1886) was a Dutch novelist.

Life and career

Geertruida Toussaint was born in Alkmaar, Netherlands, on 16 September 1812. Her father, a pharmacist of Huguenot descent, gave her a fair education, and at an early period of her career she developed a taste for historical research, fostered by a forced indoor life as a result of weak health.

Her first romance, Almagro, appeared in 1837, followed by De graaf van Devonshire ("The Earl of Devonshire") in 1838; De Engelschen te Rome ("The English at Rome") in 1840, and Het Huis Lauernesse ("The House of Lauernesse") in 1841, an episode of the Reformation that was translated into many European languages. These stories, mainly founded upon some of the most interesting epochs of Dutch history, betrayed a remarkable grasp of facts and situations, combined with an undoubted mastery over her mother tongue, although her style is sometimes involved and not always faultless.

Toussaint spent 1840 to 1850 carrying out further studies, resulting in an 1851-1854 series of three novels dealing with the first Earl of Leicester's adventures in the Low Countries: Leycester in Nederland (3 vols.), Vrouwen van het Leycestersche Tydperk (Women of Leicester's Epoch, 3 vols.), and Gideon Florensz (3 vols.). In 1851 she married the Dutch painter, Johannes Bosboom (1817–1891), after which she was known as Mrs Bosboom-Toussaint.

After 1870 Geertruida Bosboom-Toussaint abandoned historical romance for the modern society novel, but her Delftsche Wonderdokter ("The Necromancer of Delft", 1871) and Majoor Frans ("Major Frank", 1875) did not achieve the success of her earlier works. Majoor Frans was translated into English (1885). Her novels were published in a collected edition (1885–1888, 25 vols.). She died in The Hague on 14 April 1886.