Briefwechsel II (1802-1804)

The volume contains Arnim's correspondence during his educational journey (1802-1804) and comprises 117 letters from his own hand (that have either come down to us or can be reconstructed) and 89 letters addressed to him, all provided here with detailed notes. A substantial portion of the edited texts is printed here either for the first time or for the first time in full (29 by Arnim and 28 to him). Arnim corresponded with members of his family and with acquaintances he made during the journey, among them some very striking women (Madame de Staël, Bettina Brentano, etc.). Most of the letters stem from the early exchange with Arnim's friend Clemens Brentano. This correspondence during the travel years was destined to become one of the most extraordinary examples of its kind in the whole history of German literature. Its significance rests largely in the magnificently unconventional nature of the letters, which rank as an unrivaled testimony to the phase of German Romanticism between the decline of the Jena period and the emergence of the Heidelberg period, a testimony that has yet to be fully appreciated for its originality. The letters are mainly literary in character, not merely because they contain poems, but above all in the way they reflect the idea of 'universal poetry' prominent in the aesthetics of early German Romanticism.