Biography
Mereau was born as Sophie Friederike Schubart on 27 March 1770 in Altenburg. Mereau learned Spanish, French, English, and Italian at a young age. Her mother died when Mereau was 16, and her father died when she was 20. On 4 April 1793 she married Karl Mereau, moving to Jena where he was a lawyer. Through her husband she met Friedrich Schiller, who considered Mereau to be somewhat of a protégé. By 1794 she took her first lover. In 1795 she traveled with another lover to Berlin, shocking many in Jena high society. Mereau had two children with Karl, Gustav and Hulda. After the death of her first child, Gustav, she divorced Karl Mereau. The summer of 1800 she spent with relatives in Camburg. There she edited three literary journals, published poetry, wrote several stories, and finished her novel, ''Amanda und Eduard''. Parts of ''Amanda und Eduard'' was published in Schiller's ''Die Horen''. On 12 December 1802 she restarted her relationship withWriting and philosophy
Mereau first gained notoriety in 1791, and she was the only female student in Johann Gottlieb Fichte's private seminars. She was critical of some of his ideas on women, and her first novel in 1794 demonstrated his influence as well as the differences in her thinking. She was also a contemporary ofPublications
Sophie Mereau's published works as cited by ''An Encyclopedia of Continental Women Writers''. *''Amanda und Eduard'', 1803. *''Das Blüthenalter der Empfindung'', 1794. *''Gedichte'' 2 volumes, 1800, 1802. *''Kalathiskos'', 2 volumes, 1801–1802. *''"Lebe der Liebe und liebe das Leben." Der Briefwechsel von Clemens Brentano und Sophie Mereau'', ed. Dagmar von Gersdorff, 1981. *''"Meine Seele ist bey euch geblieben." Briefe Sophie Brentanos an Henriette von Arnstein'', ed. Karen Schench zu Schweinsberg, 1985.References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Mereau, Sophie 1770 births 1806 deaths People from Altenburg German women novelists German women writers 18th-century women writers