Rhijnvis Feith (1753-1824)

Dutch romantic writer and lawyer, became mayor of Zwolle in 1780. On his estate Boschwijk, near Zwolle, he led a secluded life writing novels and poetry. He is pre-eminently known as a writer of sentimental romances, such as the epistolary novels Julia (1783) and Ferdinand and Constantia. In Letters on Various Subjects (6 volumes, 1784-1793), Feith upheld the principles of sentimentalism. An eminent man of letters, he was influenced, among others, by Edward Young, Friedrich Gottlieb Klopstock, and Baculard d'Arnaud.