Aagje Deken (Amstelveen, 1741 – The Hague, 1804), born Agatha Deken, was a Dutch writer of the late Enlightenment in the Dutch Republic. She is best known for her long literary partnership with Betje Wolff, with whom she shared both home and pen. She is regarded as an important figure in the emergence of the modern Dutch novel.
Orphaned as a child, she spent years in an Amsterdam orphanage, then worked for several families and ran a small coffee and tea business. Around 1769 she joined the Baptist community in Amsterdam. After the death of her friend Maria Bosch, with whom she had written the poetry collection Stichtelijke gedichten, she began a correspondence with Wolff in 1776 and met her in person that same year. The two later settled in Beverwijk and published De Historie van mejuffrouw Sara Burgerhart, a didactic novel promoting Enlightenment ideas and a new bourgeois morality.
When the Patriot movement lost power, they moved to Trévoux in Burgundy, and in 1797 returned to the Netherlands because of money troubles. Deken died nine days after Wolff, and both are buried in Scheveningen. Her legacy lies chiefly in helping to shape the modern Dutch novel.
Key works
- Stichtelijke gedichten (1775), written with Maria Bosch
- De Historie van mejuffrouw Sara Burgerhart (1782), written with Betje Wolff
- Historie van den heer Willem Leevend (1784–1785), written with Betje Wolff
- Wandelingen door Bourgogne (1789), written with Betje Wolff
- Liederen voor den boerenstand (1804)
Curiosities
An orphan's life
Orphaned in 1745, she spent much of her youth in the De Oranje Appel orphanage in Amsterdam, where she stayed until 1767.
Nine days apart
She died nine days after Betje Wolff, and both were buried in Scheveningen.
Original Filopedia text based on Wikipedia (es) and Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.