Although the German poet and author Clemens Brentano (1778-1842) was one of the most versatile writers of the later romantic period, he is best remembered for his lyric poetry.

Clemens Brentano was born on Sept. 8, 1778, in Ehrenbreitstein, the son of an Italian businessman. He developed an early interest in literature and at the universities of Halle and Jena became acquainted with contemporary writers, especially Friedrich von Schlegel and Ludwig Tieck. In 1803 he married the poet Sophie Mereau, to whom he had dedicated his first important novel, Godwi (1801).

Godwi is an "educational novel" about the passionate adventures of a wealthy young man. It is experimental in form, and the novelist himself enters the plot as one of the characters. The sensationalism of this first work is continued in the suspense drama Ponce de Leon (1801) and in the novel Chronika eines fahrenden Schülers (Chronicle of a Wandering Scholar...