WorkBettina von Arnim (Brentano)

Die Günderode [Correspondence of Fräulein Günderode and Bettine von Arnim]

Bettina von Arnim (Brentano) (1785–1859) · 1840

TranslatedExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned

Documented 1840–1850

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Letters • Manuscripts

Selected engagements, in chronological order.

Totals count documented engagements, once at the earliest witness. How we count →

Reprints, Memoirs passages, and repeat notes within a single manuscript are shown but never counted twice. Evidence for this work is selective, not exhaustive. Methodology →

AttestedConfirmed reading1839–1844Evidence ↓

Confirmed reading

Passages where the evidence goes beyond allusion to indicate that Fuller had this work in hand — an explicit statement of reading, sustained excerpting or translation, or a specific reading episode recorded by those who knew her.

Dated
1839(her book, i.e. Goethe's Correspondence with a Child)Attested
“I did not value Bettine so much... I knew Bettine would end in nothing when I read her book.”
Manuscripts (Houghton Library, Margaret Fuller Family Papers) · 1839 (date supplied by merged witness re69, Mem-2 Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (sections))
MERGED 2026-10-11: absorbed duplicate witness(es) re69 (Mem-2 Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli (sections), Mem-2-05, line 10609; tier A; date taken from this witness; same passage) — counted once here. First-person statement 'when I read her book' explicitly describing reading Bettina's book.
1841Die GunderodeDemonstrated
“I meant to have translated for you the best passages of "Die Gunderode" (which I prefer to the correspondence with Goethe.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · 19 February 1841
Engagement_type is Translated, which automatically qualifies for the Demonstrated tier.
1842Die GunderodeDemonstrated
“I finished the 1st no Giinderode last night, it will be out early next week. The two vols are to be translated in four numbers.”
Letters of Margaret Fuller ed. Hudspeth · Boston, March 8th, 1842.
Engagement type Translated automatically qualifies; she is actively translating Die Gunderode.

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist5records

V. New York1record

VI. Europe1record

✦. Memoirs (1852)

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1840—

Letter to William H. Channing

p171

analyzed · read

“I am astonished to see how much Bettine's book is to all these people. This shows how little courage they have had to live out themselves. She really brings them a revelation.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.

Inferred Fuller is commenting at length on the mpact of Bettina's book on her social circle. Fuller was also translating another Arnim work (Goethe's Correspondence with a Child) and knew Arnim's writing well.

1841—

Letter to William H. Channing

p202

analyzed · quoted · read2 selected passages

“I meant to have translated for you the best passages of "Die Gunderode" (which I prefer to the correspondence with Goethe. The two girls are equal natures, and both in earnest.”

“Today in the exquisite calm of this scene I felt as poor Bettine did to Gunderode. "Oh could I bear thee in my arms through the world to a soft mossy place.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. II. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1984.

1841—

Genesis of the Greek Gods

quoted · readManuscript page

“what Bettina says to Gunderode, 'Ah Gunderode there is no religion in the world fit for thee and me, let us found one.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Genesis of the Greek Gods." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1086.

1841—

Reading Notes, 1841

excerpted · analyzed · quoted · read

“Gunderode! thou art always longing to free thyself from the narrow limits of thy being while it is my only happiness that God has made thee in that very individuality thou dost disdain.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Reading Notes, 1841." Houghton Library, Harvard University; bMS Am 1221 (Caroline Sturgis Tappan papers, 1838–1921).

1844—

Letter to Georgiana Bruce

p250

analyzed · read

“I send this number of "Günderode." The remainder I hope to publish if ever I have time and money.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. III. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1986.

1850—

Letter to Charles K. Newcomb

p112

analyzed · read

“I thought you would like a copy of Günderode for yourself specially, please accept this from me.”

Fuller, Margaret. The Letters of Margaret Fuller. Edited by Robert N. Hudspeth. Vol. VI. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988.

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

1840—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p126

analyzed · read2 selected passages

“In 1841, she translated the Letters of Gunderode and Bettine, and published them as far as the sale warranted the work.”

“I meant to have translated the best passages of "Die Gunderode," — which I prefer to Bettine's correspondence with Goethe. The two girls are equal natures, and both in earnest.”

Emerson, Ralph Waldo, William Henry Channing, and James Freeman Clarke, eds. Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli. 2 vols. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, 1852.