'She was branded a communist before the Communist Manifesto'

From A virtuoso muse:

She was Beethoven's inspiration, Goethe's companion and caught the eye of Napoleon. But many still regard Bettina Brentano as a fraud, says Jan Swafford (The Guardian - 23 Aug, 2003)

"Who," asked Napoleon Bonaparte, "is that fuzzy young person?" She was Elisabeth Brentano, known simply as Bettina. Actually, Napoleon was not among her conquests, nor was he her type.

She did not jump into his lap, as she did with Goethe, or croon her name into his ear, as with Beethoven, or go for intimate walks, as with Karl Marx. Napoleon did not dedicate a battle to her, as Beethoven, Schumann and Brahms dedicated songs and the Grimms an edition of their fairy tales. But, even at a distance, Bettina Brentano drew comment.

She was sister to one famous poet, wife to another and inspiration to others, but declined to write poetry. What she did write has outraged and fascinated people ever since. She was a supreme muse, a one-woman literary movement, at once among the singular and most representative figures of the Romantic century.

[ ... ]

She became a muse to beleaguered progressives; she was branded a communist before the Communist Manifesto; she campaigned against antisemitism. She got away with two extraordinary and dangerous political books entreating the Prussian throne to liberalise because she was a woman, and because the Prussian king was an admirer.

In her strange last book, Conversations with Demons, she imagines herself as a spirit whispering of reform to the king as he sleeps. She nearly went bankrupt publishing it and nobody read it.

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Editorial Preface to the English translation of Goethe's correspondence with a child by Bettina von Arnim - 1837 by Bruce G. Charlton

Goethe's Correspondence with a Child – English Translation – e-text edition by Bettine von Arnim