WorkBettina von Arnim (Brentano)

Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde [Goethe's Correspondence with a Child]

Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde [Goethe's Correspondence with a Child] (German orig. 1835; English trans. 1839)

Bettina von Arnim (Brentano) (1785–1859) · 1835

TranslatedExcerptedAnalyzedQuotedReadMentioned

Documented 1839–1846

Additional passages preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

Letters • Books • Journals • 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 reading1839Evidence ↓

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.

When Fuller engaged with this work

I. Childhood

II. Adolescence

III. Self-Directed

IV. Transcendentalist6records

V. New York1record

VI. Europe1record

✦. Memoirs (1852)1record

1810

1820

1832

1836

1844

1846

1850

1839—

Letter to Elizabeth Hoar

p84

read

“it occurred to me that I had better write by post and ask you to tell him that it shall be found as well as the Brentano vols. at Mr Adams Thursday by 10, morning.”

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

Inferred Hudspeth identified "the Brentano vols." refers to Bettina von Arnim's Goethes Briefwechsel mit einem Kinde, which Fuller is sending to Emerson through Adams; the volumes are identified by Arnim's maiden name Brentano, though she married Joachim von Arnim in 1811.

1839—

Notes on Balzac, George Sand, De Vigny, and Béranger

p12

analyzed · readManuscript page

“I did not value Bettina so much, she had not pride enough for me, only now when I am sure of myself, could I pour out my soul at the feet of another [...] I knew Bettina would end in nothing when I read her book.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Notes on Balzac, George Sand, De Vigny, and Béranger." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

1841—

Letter to William H. Channing

p202

analyzed · read

“which I prefer to the correspondence with Goethe. The two girls are equal natures, and both in earnest.”

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

1841—

The Dial

“Menzel's View of Goethe” · Vol. 1, No. 3, January 1841

excerpted · analyzed · quoted · read4 selected passages

“Such denials of the crown can only fix it more firmly on the head of the 'Old Heathen.' To such the best answer may be given in the words of Bettina Brentan: 'The others criticise thy works; I only know that they lead us on and on till we live in them.”

This work is also quoted in Fuller's essay on Goethe (B-1-02).

“Of Goethe's childhood. ?”

Fuller explicitly attributes these anecdotes of Goethe’s childhood to "his mother to Bettina" (line 574), drawing from Bettina von Arnim's Goethe's Correspondence with a Child.

“To appreciate any man, learn first what object he proposed to himself; next, what degree of earnestness he showed with regard to attaining that object.”

Fuller attributes this maxim explicitly to Goethe, stating, "Now, Goethe has given us both his own standard and the way to apply it." The sentiment aligns with Goethe's reflections as recorded in works such as Eckermann's Conversations with Goethe or his Maxims and Reflections. A precise verbatim source for this phrase has not been identified.

“Extract from a letter of Beethoven to Bettina Brentano, Toplitz, 1812.”

Fuller, Margaret. Life Without and Life Within; or, Reviews, Narratives, Essays, and Poems. Edited by Arthur B. Fuller. Boston: Brown, Taggard and Chase, 1860.

1843—

On Beethoven

p6, p13

analyzed · readManuscript page

“Bettina's dramatic sketches [...] Of Bettina's visit.”

Fuller, Margaret. "On Beethoven." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

1844—

Letter to Georgiana Bruce

p250

analyzed · read

“I will get you, if any friend has it here, Goethe's "Correspondence with a Child" (more properly it should be named, "A Child's Correspondence with Herself).”

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

1846—

Papers on Literature and Art

p94

analyzed · read

“Schindler, as well as others, devoted ... and Bettina Brentano. ... As for Bettina, it was evident to every discerning reader that ... Yet "the good Bettina" gives us the soul of the”

Fuller, Margaret. Papers on Literature and Art. New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846.

Inferred Fuller refers to 'Bettina' and 'Bettina Brentano' as a source of knowledge about Beethoven — likely the Beethoven letters published in Goethe's Correspondence with a Child (1835) or in Ilius Pamphilius (1848); the specific source available to Fuller in the 1840s was the Goethe correspondence. Fuller discusses 'Bettina' as a biographical source for Beethoven, alongside Ries and Schindler.

Undated

Pieces with no legible date. They are part of the record but cannot be placed on the lifeline.

n.d.—

Journal Fragments

pp. 75, 76

excerpted · analyzed · quoted · readManuscript page

“Disse Goethe a Bettine, “Love / me for ever.” Ed ella rispose / “Sì” Ecco il segreto - lui / ebbe bisogno del di lei / amore...”

Fuller, Margaret. "Journal Fragments." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

n.d.—

Notes toward The Life of Goethe

readManuscript page

“p2: 'For the youth & childhood I have used D. and W. / Bettina and the brief journals / with the works that spring from his period.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Notes toward The Life of Goethe." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

n.d.—

Plan for a Life of Goethe

p1, p5, p10

analyzed · readManuscript page

“Anecdotes from Bettina's book [...] Youthful elegance of Goethe in the article of dress described by Bettine from G's mother [...] Bettina mentions from the Frau Aja his great love for beauty [...] Vide Bettina vol 2d p 270.”

Fuller, Margaret. "Plan for a Life of Goethe." Houghton Library, Harvard University.

Preserved in the Memoirs (1852)

1835—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p21

analyzed · read2 selected passages

“When I first knew George Sand, I thought I found tried the experiment I wanted.”

“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.”

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

1852—

Memoirs of Margaret Fuller Ossoli

p140

analyzed · read

“The full, free expression of feeling must be rare, for this book of Bettina Brentano's to produce such an effect.”

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