Mereau-Brentano, Sophie (1770–1806)
Mereau-Brentano, Sophie (1770–1806)
German poet and novelist. Born in 1770; died in childbirth in 1806; married Friedrich Mereau, professor of jurisprudence (divorced 1801); married Clemens Brentano (a poet), in 1803; sister-in-law of Bettine von Arnim (1785–1859).
One of the leaders of the Romantic movement, Sophie Mereau-Brentano was a resident of Jena, one of the most active cultural centers in 18th-century Germany. She established her career at a young age, achieving financial independence by translating major literary texts, notably those of Giovanni Boccaccio (1313–1375) and Germaine de Staël . Mereau-Brentano also published her own poetry in the important literary journals of the day, some of which she edited. One of her most acclaimed works was her appraisal of the 17th-century French intellectual Ninon de Lenclos , whose letters she published. In this work, Mereau-Brentano advocates women's erotic emancipation, a subject she also explored in her novels Das Blüthenalter der Empfindung (The Blossoming of Sensitivity, 1794) and Amanda and Eduard (1803). Mereau-Brentano was married to Friedrich Mereau, a professor of jurisprudence whom she divorced in 1801. She then married the poet Clemens Brentano in 1803. She died in childbirth three years later.