In his critical account of the Romantic movement (1836) Heinrich Heine calls Achim von Arnim a great poet and one of the most original minds of German Romanticism; he concedes, however, that Arnim has remained relatively unknown to the general public, and that even the praise of men of letters is reserved. As far as the latter are concerned, Heine suspects that Arnim was too much of a Protestant for his Catholic friends, while the Protestants thought that he was a clandestine Catholic. But why did the German public neglect an author whose writings were primarily directed toward their concerns? Heine suggests that the one thing that this poet lacks is precisely what the public looks for in books: life. The public demands that a writer sympathize with their everyday passions and that he excite their emotions, either pleasantly or painfully. Arnim fails to satisfy this need, and therefore...