Swiss author
Born 1740 Died 1805
Agnes Isabelle Emilie de Charriere was Dutch by birth, her maiden name being van Tuyll van Seeroskerken van Zuylen. She married in 1771 her brother's tutor, M. de Charriere, and settled with him at Colombier, near Lausanne. She made her name by the publication of her Lettres neuchdteloises (Amsterdam, 1784), offering a simple and attractive picture of French manners. This, with Caliste, ou lettres ecrites de Lausanne (2 vols. Geneva, 1785-1788), was analysed and highly praised by Sainte-Beuve in his Portraits de femmes and in vol. iii of his Portraits litteraires. She wrote a number of other novels, and some political tracts; but is perhaps best remembered by her liaison with Benjamin Constant between 1787 and 1796.
Her letters to Constant were printed in the Revue suisse (April 1844), her Lettres-Memoires by E. H. Gaullieur in the same review in 1857, and all the available material is utilized in a monograph on her and her work by P. Godet, Madame de Charriere et ses amis (2 vols., Geneva, 1906).
Being the entry for CCHARRIERE, AGNES ISABELLE EMILIE DE in the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, the text of which lies within the public domain.