the enchanter

Guardian Unlimited Books | Review | A virtuoso muse
"She was Beethoven's inspiration, Goethe's companion and caught the eye of Napoleon..."Who," asked Napoleon Bonaparte, "is that fuzzy young person?" She was Elisabeth Brentano, known simply as Bettina. Actually, Napoleon was not among her conquests, nor was he her type. She did not jump into his lap, as she did with Goethe, or croon her name into his ear, as with Beethoven, or go for intimate walks, as with Karl Marx. Napoleon did not dedicate a battle to her, as Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms dedicated songs and the Grimms an edition of their fairy tales. But, even at a distance, Bettina Brentano drew comment...collected famous admirers (Liszt, Schumann, Emerson)...She became a muse to beleaguered progressives; she was branded a communist before the Communist Manifesto; she campaigned against antisemitism. She got away with two extraordinary and dangerous political books entreating the Prussian throne to liberalise because she was a woman, and because the Prussian king was an admirer...In a century rich with extravagant characters, Bettina remained unique. She was everyone's muse, she craved love from every quarter, but she was never other than her own person. To echo what was said of another extravagant Romantic, Walt Whitman: her greatest creation was herself."