CHARRIERE, ISABELLE DE Swiss author, was Dutch by birth, her maiden name being van Tuyll van Seeroskerken van Zuylen. She married in 1771 her brother's tutor, Saint-Hyacinth de Charriere, and settled with him at Colombier, near Lausanne. Her Lei ires neuchateloises (Amster dam, 1784) offer a simple and attractive picture of French man ners. This, with Caliste, ou lettres ecrites de Lausanne (2 vols. Geneva, 1785-88), was analysed and highly praised by Sainte Beuve in his Portraits de femmes and in vol. iii. of his Portraits litteraires. She wrote a number of other novels, and some political tracts ; but is perhaps best remembered by her liaison with Ben jamin Constant (q.v.) between 1787 and 1796.
Her letters to Constant were printed in the Revue suisse (April 1844), her Lettres-Memoires by E H. Gaullieur in the same re view in 18S7, and all the available material is utilized in a mono graph on her and her work by P. Godet, the editor of her Oeuvres completes (3 vols. 1907-09), in his Madame de Charriere et ses amis (2 vols., Geneva, 1906) .