Peter Brooks in LRB in 1993: ‘Born in 1740 to a rich and aristocratic Dutch family (in which French was the preferred language), Isabella van Tuyll van Serooskerken, known as Belle de Zuylen, lived at ease in Slot Zuylen. A seemingly endless parade of suitors (or imagined suitors) presented themselves, and then disappeared, either deemed unsuitable by her father, or scared off by Belle’s formidable wit and independence.’

And: ‘Belle meanwhile carried on a secret correspondence with Constant’s uncle, Constant d’Hermenches, a well-known libertine.’ Constant d’Hermenches ‘was only permitted to seduce married women, not upper-class maidens.’

Also: ‘In 1764, after a disappointing clandestine meeting with Constant d’Hermenches – a meeting that had none of the intimacy of their correspondence – she wrote to him again: ‘Eh bien,’ she said in the letter, “écrivons” – “Well then, let’s write.”’

Letters are sometimes better than sex. Not only in the 19th century. Not always. Sometimes.

(a sf 2176)