Brentano

Brentano, CLEMENS, romanticist, the brother of Goethe's 'Bettina,' was born at Ehrenbreitstein, 8th September 1778. Save for the six years (1818-24) he passed with the 'Nun of Dülmen,' recording her revelations, he led a restless, unsettled life, and showed plain signs of derangement some years before his death at Aschaffenburg on 28th June 1842. In his earliest poems the peculiarities of the Romantic school of his time are carried to excess. His dramatic productions, the best of which is Die Gründung Prags, are characterised by great dramatic power, amusing though rather far-fetched wit, and a wonderful flow of humour. Brentano was most successful in his smaller novels, particularly in the Geschichte vom braven Kaspar. His collected works fill 9 vols. (1852-55), and there is a good selection by Diel (1873), who has also written his Life (1878). See also ARNIM, LUDWIG VON.