HEINRICH HEINE - Repositories

CHAPTER III
CONTINUATOR OF GOETHE
GEORGE ELIOT'S essay on Heine appeared
in the Westminster Review of January, 1856,
about a month before the German poet's death. She
had completed it in November of the preceding
year, shortly after her return from the Continent.
At Berlin she had been in frequent contact during
several months with Varnhagen von Ense, the husband
of Rahel and a lifelong friend of Heine.
Varnhagen had placed at the disposal of his English
visitor his excellent library and his inexhaustible
store of memories. From this Prussian diplomat she
could obtain intimate glimpses of young Heine,
who had come under the spell of Rahel during his
student days and who had dedicated his lyric collection
Die Heimkehr to this inspiring woman.
Varnhagen had remained in touch with Heine
throughout the latter's quarter of a century in exile
and George Eliot could have found no source of
information more sympathetic to the much ma-
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