RICHTER, JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH, better known as " Jean Paul," a German humor ist and sentimentalist of the greatest singularity, hence called by his countrymen Der Einzige (the unique). was b. at Wunsiedel, in Bavaria, Mar. 21. 1763. His father, who was a poor schoolmaster at the period of Richter's birth, subsequently became parish priest at Schwarzenbach, on the Seale; but his circumstances always remained straight ened, and he died burdened with debt, while his son was attending the gymnasium at Hof. Nevertheless, Richter went to the university of Leipsic in 1780 to study theology, which did not prevent him from roving freely over the whole circle of literature. The exact extent of his scholarly acquirements cannot well be ascertained; his studies were never systematic, and it is probable that he was not deeply read in any single branch of learn tile:, but he carried in his head or in his note-books a vast confused miscellany of facts. literary, scientific, philosophical, and theological, and strewed them with oriental pro fusion over the pages of his works, where they do duty as metaphoys. or illustrations after the most grotesque and wonderful fashion. The English satirists, Pope, Swift, and Young, appear to have been special favorites with him; and among his own countrymen, Hamann and Hippel. But the most marvelous thing about his student-life was not the extent or variety of his reading, but the fact that he had the heart to read at all! During the whole time he was plunged in the most miserable poverty. He could hardly get a single private pupil, and passed many a day without tasting food. Hunger was, in truth, Ids constant companion. In desperation he betook himself to literature for a subsistence, but it was long before he won recognition. His first composition, Das Lob der Dummhei4 (Time Praise of Folly), modeled on the .fforice Encondum of Erasmus, could not find a pub lisher; his second, written, he tells us, while he was surrounded by unpaid debts and unsoled boots," Gronkindische Processe (Greenland Lawsuits, 2 vols., Bed. 1783-85), did succeed in getting itself published but not read, and at length the heroic fortitude of Richter gave way. In 1785 lie fled from the city to avoid incarceration for debt, and took refuge with his mother at Hof. here his circumstances were little better; and in 1786 he was glad to accept a tutorship at Topen in the family of Herr von Oerthel. In 1790, at the request of several families of Schwarzenbaeh, lie removed thither to take charge of the education of their children, and lived in this way as a private schoolmaster for some years. Meanwhile, he had not given up authorship. In 1788, appeared at Gera his Ausicald ens des leufels Papieren (Selection from the Devil's Papers), which, how ever, in spite of its captivating title, did not prove more popular its predecessors. Richter seemed destined to failure as a writer. His sarcastic, far-glancing, and gro tesquely sportful humors were so unlike anything else in literature, and so oddly. not to say extravagantly, expressed, that the mass of readers could make nothing of them at all, and perhaps charitably regarded the author as crazy. But in 1793 the turning-point in his fortunes and fame occurred. In that yehr, a work which he had published at Berlin, Dee Unsichtbare Loge (The Invisible Lodge), and which was a sort of romance based on his experience as a schoolmaster, proved unexpectedly successful. and Richter began to grow a little more familiar with the sight of gold. It was followed by Hesperus (4 vols., Berl. 1794). the work by which lie is perhaps best known out of Germany;
Quintus (Baireuth, 1796); Biographische Mustigungen unto. der Gehirnschale einer Riesin (Biographical Recreations under the Cranium of a Giantess. Berl. 1796); Blumen • , Frucht-, mid Dornenstiicke (Flower, Fruit. and Thorn Pieces, 4 vols., Berl. 1796-97), the opening chapter of which contains his magnificent "Dream of the Dead Christ," translated into English by Carlyle; Jubel-senior (The Parson in Jubilee. 1797), and Das Campanerthal (Erfurt, 1798), a work on the immortality of the soul, which attracted the notice and won for its author the friendship of Herder. Richter was now one of the greatest celebrities of Germany; his books had become quite the rage, especially among educated women. lie himself, too, was personally a great favorite; there was some thing in his conversation and manner so winning, joyous, and charmingly tender, that it excited not only friendship but love. We read of one brilliant woman, Charlotte von Kalb, who actually sought to obtain a divorce in order that she might marry Richter; and of another who committed suicide because he would not return her unlawful passion. This last incident affected Richter profoundly. lie was not only perfectly innocent in all his relations with the other sex, but pure and high-minded to a degree, and he had remonstrated with the unhappy maiden in the most wise and delicate manner. In 1801, after he had become famous, he married Caroline Mayer, daughter of prof. Mayer of Berlin, and with his young wife traveled about Germany a good deal, visited Goethe and Schiller, with neither of whom, however, he became intimate, and formed a closer acquaintance with old Gleim, Wieland, etc.; but ultimately settled at Baireuth, us Bavaria, where he devoted his time with the most honorable assiduity to work. His fantastic, many-hued creations—Ids solemn images of and gloom—his riunt humors—his burlesque speculations on life, manners, and, indeed, on the crane seibile h is innumerable descriptions of nature, soft-glittering as with morning dew, flowed from him as from inexhaustible fountains. The productions belonging to his later period of a humorous kind are: Titan (4 vols., Berl. 1800-3), considered by Richter himself his greatest work; Plegel Jahre (happily rendered by Carlyle " Wild Oats," 4 vols., Tfib. 1804-5); Katzenbesyjer's Badereise (2 vols., Heidelb. 1809); Des Feldp•edigers Schmelzle Heise nails ldiitz (vcrib. 1809); and Der Hemet, oder 151colaus Narkgral (3 vols., Berl. 1820 –22). Among works of a professedly reflective or philosophical character (though the elements of humor and poetry are by no means absent), we may mention his Vorschule Aesthetik (3 vols., Hamb. 1804); Lerana oder Erzieicatufslehre (Brunswick, 1807), a treatise on education; and numerous other pieces. Richter died Nov. 14, 1825. In his latest years he was afflicted with a decay of his physical powers, and in his last year with total blindness. The death of his son Max, in 1821—a youth of great promise—inflicted an incurable wound on his heart.—See Wahrheit aus Jean. Paul's Leben (Bresl. 1820 33), a work begun by Richter himself; DOring's Leber and Characteristik, Riehters (2 vols., Leip. 1830); Spazier's Jean Paul Friedrich RkItter ein Biographischer Commentar zu (lessen Werken (5 vols., Leip. 1833). Some of his pieces have been translated into English by Carlyle and others; Carlyle has also given us two admirable essays on the life, writ ings, and genius of the man, to which we refer our readers.