Jump to content

Susette Gontard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Koavf (talk | contribs) at 06:05, 2 September 2017 (Cat-a-lot: Copying from Category:18th-century German women writers to Category:18th-century German women). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Gontard by Elisabeth Sömmering.

Susette Gontard (née Borkenstein; 1769 – 1802), dubbed Diotima by the German poet Friedrich Hölderlin after Diotima of Mantinea, was the inspiration for Hölderlin's novel Hyperion, published in 1797–1799. She was the wife of Hölderlin's employer, the Frankfurt banker Jakob Friedrich Gontard. It is generally believed that the poet's fatal passion for her contributed to his descent into insanity and ultimate death. Hölderlin and Gontard exchanged a large body of letters, which was preserved and has been published in many editions.[1]

References

  1. ^ Gontard; Susette Borkenstein Gontard; Douglas F. Kenney; Sabine Menner-Bettscheid (2000). The recalcitrant art: Diotima's letters to Hölderlin and related missives. SUNY Press. p. 257. ISBN 0-7914-4602-6.