Bettina von Arnim was a multitalented, spirlited woman who participated in the cultural, social, economic, and political revolutions of her lifetime, recorded them in her documentary-style fictional works, and was an outspoken advocate of the disadvantaged. Like her contemporaries Goethe, E. T. A. Hoffmann, and Princess Marie Amalia, she was gifted in several of the arts: she sketched, composed songs, and designed a monument to Goethe. Her personality intrigued many and left none who knew her untouched. She was perceived by some as an enfant terrible, by others as an embodiment of the Undine, Sibyl, Psyche, or Goethe's Mignon figures. She has provided inspiration for many other writers.

Catarina Elisabetha Ludovica Magdalena Brentano, who called herself "Bettine" (but the name is frequently spelled "Bettina"), was one of twenty children of the prosperous Italian-born Frankfurt merchant Peter Anton Brentano and the seventh of his marriage to Maximiliane von...