Brentano, Clemens [key], 1778–1842, German poet of the romantic school; brother of Bettina von Arnim (see under Arnim, Achim von). While studying at Halle and Jena he met Wieland, Herder, and Goethe, but his sympathies were with the younger German romantics. With Achim von Arnim he collaborated on Des Knaben Wunderhorn [the boy's magic horn] (1806–8), a folk-song collection that influenced Eichendorff, Heine, the brothers Grimm and several composers, notably Mahler. Brentano wrote plays, lyric poems, fairy tales, and such novellas as Geschichte vom braven Kasperl und dem schönen Annerl (1817, tr. The Story of the Just Casper and Fair Annie, 1927).
See study by J. F. Fetzer (1974).
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