New-York tribune., 1912-08-16

but il is also due TO his Overwhelming
personality and achievement that that
familiarity is altogether too much con-
fired to his feminine adorers. and to
the objects of his fieeting fancies. his
philanderings and worse. The measure
and quality Of the "Wahrheit' in his
"Dichtung" the identity and person
ality of his numerous inamoratas. their
influence upon his development ana the
parts they play in his work have pre-
occupied the students Of letters to the
neglect of women intrinsically far
more interesting and significant.
Miss Hargrave has therefore pro
duced an informing as well as read
able book in Some Women Of the Ger
man Salons" Popularity written. easy
light reading, it Yet bears evidence Of
close. serious study Cf the crowded lit
erary period in which these women
lived and exerted their influence. 1t
was the period Of the encyclopedistes,
Of Rousseau and the new humanisn, of
storm and Stress" the classicism VI
Goethe and Schiller. of the roman
ticism led by the brothers SchlegeL
and. ultimately, Of the Young Germany
movement. II was also the period Of
the French Revolution, and of Nap)-
leon. of Nine. de Recamier. and, not
least significant in this literary conno-
tation. of Nine. e Stasl. Finally It
was the period Of elective aftinities.
platonic and otherwise, Of many new
departures in revolt against conven-
tionality.
OF the seven women whose lives are
told, and whose portraits. physical,
emotional and intellectual. are drawn
in these pages. Queen Louise Of Prussia
may be left unnoticed in this review,
as standing somewhat beyond the real
scope of the book She belongs TO Ger
man history. rather than to German
literature the inspiration she gave was
patriotic rather than lyrical, as Is the
worship that keeps alive the flame on
the altaf of her memory. AS for
Goethe's mother. In literary sense she
shines only in the reflected light of the
great son who neglected her in reality,
but idealiZed her in his writings. The
case of Charlotte Stieglitz. finally. is a
purely psychological one. Married to a
man who had the soul but not the voice
If the poet. morbid. inefficient genie
qRanquf, she committed suicide in the
hope that the sacrifice would give him
the voice he lacked. 1t was In vain,
for. although Stiegiitz considered him
seIf consecrated by her voluntary
death, he never rose TO the heights.
Miss Hargrave sees in this case of self
irnmolatlon, not so much romance, as
tine spirit OF ancient Greece, and, still
more, that OF the women OF Japan
one prefers TO consider 1t as a belated
result Of the sickly sentimentality made
fashionable by "Werther." And, OF
course, contemporary Germany took it
sentimentally. romantically.
There remain. then, Henriette Herr,
Rahel Varnhagen. Bettina Won Arnim,
and Caroline Schlegel, the author
grouping the first two together under
the heading OF THE Jewish Salons"
and prefaclng their biographies with a
brief introduction, which shows how
the very ostracism Of the jew in Ger
many almost 10 the eve OF the period
OF the French Revolution prepared him,
his sons and his daughters for the in
tellectual role they were TO play on the
dawning Of their emancipation, brought
about chiefly by the brilliant efforts
Of Moses Mendelssohn. the original Of
I.essing's Nathan der Weise."
These two Berlin Jewesses. like Caro-
line Fon schlegel and Bettina ven