“ In 1813, the year of the rising against Napoleon, he again fought with the Prussian army, and the new patriotism awakened in the German people left its mark upon his writings.
Between 1810 and 1815 Fouqué’s popularity was at its height; the many romances and novels, plays and epics, which he turned out with extraordinary rapidity, appealed exactly to the mood of the hour. The earliest of these are the best—Undine, which appeared in 1811, being, indeed, one of the most charming of all German Märchen and the only work by which Fouqué’s memory still lives to-day. ”

“ A more comprehensive idea of his powers may, however, be obtained from the two romances Der Zauberring (1813) and Die Fahrten Thiodulfs des Isländers (1815) . From 1820 onwards the quality of Fouqué’s work rapidly degenerated, partly owing to the fatal ease with which he wrote, partly to his inability to keep pace with the changes in German taste. He remained the belated romanticist, who, as the reading world turned to new interests, clung the more tenaciously to the paraphernalia of romanticism ”