Lucretia van Merken Nut der Tegenspoeden tweede druk 1786

Van Merken, L. W.

Female literature 1786 | Het Nut der Tegenspoeden, Brieven, en andere Gedichten, tweede druk, Amsterdam, Pieter Meijer, 1768, [6]+344+[5] pp.

Name: Female literature 1786 | Het Nut der Tegenspoeden, Brieven, en andere Gedichten, tweede druk, Amsterdam, Pieter Meijer, 1768, [6]+344+[5] pp.
SKU: 110820
Availability: InStock

Second edition of Lucretia van Merken’s Het nut der tegenspoeden. Influential didactic poem that views life’s hardships as spiritually purifying and essential to understanding true happiness. The most famous female writer in the 18th century.

Contemporary full leather binding with some wear. Leather vignet on spine with the text torn but still attractive, text: L.W. v. Merken Het nut der tegenspoeden, brieven en gedickt. With engraved frontispiece by Jakob van der Schley after Cornelis Ploos van Amstel and a title vignette by Schley. Large quarto edition, 24 x 19 cm.

Lucretia van Merken acquired immediate fame after the publication of her almost 900-verse didactic poem “Het nut der tegenspoeden”. In this poem, Van Merken argues that life’s inevitable setbacks or hardship are extremely useful to a person. Her principal message was that religion is able to provide relief from suffering and sadness. She presented her ideas in a truly optimistic and delicate way, describing misfortune almost as a purifying gift. According to Van Merken, how could one know true happiness when one had never experienced or lived through a period of unhappiness?

Van Merken was praised by her contemporaries and dubbed “the Sappho of our century”. Somewhat ten years later Van Merken’s poem was mentioned in Nicolaas Beets’s Camera Obscura (1839), and it appears her works were still read by then.

Lucretia van Merken – Dutch poetry – women’s poetry – first edition – Dutch female authors – Gerard Hasselaar – Johanna Muhl – Nicolaas van Winter – religion – collected works

SKU: 110820

€ 119,90 (€ 110,00 ex. btw)

In stock