The name Friedrich Baron de la Motte Fouqué rose like a comet on the literary horizon of the early nineteenth century but faded as suddenly as it had appeared. Beginning in 1810 all segments of German society, from the aristocracy to the working class, were captivated by Fouqué's romantic fantasies. The Austrian dramatist Franz Grillparzer ranked Fouqué next to the "Altmeister Goethe" himself, and the Romantic poet Joseph Freiherr von Eichendorff concluded a long poem, "An Fouqué," with the line, "Wir wollen bei dir bleiben bis zum Tode" (We intend to remain true to you till death).

Friedrich Heinrich Karl Baron de la Motte Fouqué was descended from the family of Folko von Montfaucon, a member of the Huguenot aristocracy who left Normandy with the renewed persecution of the Protestants resulting from the revocation of the Edict of Nantes by King Louis XIV...