ABSTRACT
determined to be passionate (erotic), the woman was depicted as the virtuous being (par excellence). Richardson, aristocratic Danish women literatae, and Charlotte Baden considered women the essence of honor and virtue against more primitive male passions and instincts; as such, women were expected to improve family morals, to hone their natural virtues, and to serve as positive social (and socializing) influences over and against more base, always threatening, male passions. The exemplary, didactic novels of Richardson led the way to a réévaluation of women's roles; Richardson's works gained enthusiastic, eager response among the female reading public in Denmark, leading to letters and correspondence among literate women, to discussion and debate in the reform aristocratic circles, and to a totally new self-awareness of significance for women's (growing) literary engagement. The new engagement and interest in Richardson's intentionally didactic novels gave initial impetus to the extensive prose works of Charlotte Dorothea Biehl and to the direct dramatization of Richardson's novels by Frederikke (Munster) Brun; both of Baden's immediate Danish predecessors considered Richardson's works a model for life. Baden followed on Biehl's and Brun's heels, publishing Den fortsatte Grandison, a great many letters defending women's keen sensitivity in reading and reading choices, and sketches such as "Billeder af en Kobenhavnsk Dukke" for prominent literary journals. Charlotte Baden added new psychological dimension (and insights) to Richardson's earlier novel while building the essential conflict between love, the heart's domain, and duty to family, to peers, and to society
