RICHTER, JOHANN PAUL FRIED RICH, known by his pen-name of JEAN PAUL, a German humorist; born in Wun siedel, North Bavaria, March 21, 1763. He was brought up in the mountain vil lages in which his father was pastor, went to school at the town of Hof, and in 1781 was sent to Leipsic University to study theology. But Rousseau and Vol taire, Swift and Sterne, Pope and Young, had much stronger attractions for him, and he too resolved to write books. He asserted his independence of custom by discarding the periwig, wore his hair long and his shirt and vest open at the throat. Being poor, he got into debt all round, and in November, 1784, fled se cretly from Leipsic to the poverty-stricken home of his mother at Hof. His first writings were satires; but he could get no publisher to introduce them to the world, till in 1783 Voss of Berlin gave him 40 louis d'or for "The Greenland Lawsuits." The book was a failure.
For three years Jean Paul struggled on at home, his mother spinning hard for bread. He read enormously and made excerpts from the books he devoured— a practice he kept up to old age. These many folios of closely-written pages were the storehouses on which he drew for materials when he came to write his ro mances. He took long rambles among the hills and forests. In the beginning of 1787 he began to teach the children of different families in the district. Dur ing his nine years of tutorship, he pro duced among other things, the satirical "Extracts from the Devil's Papers" (1789), "Falbel's Journey" (1796), and "Freudel's Complaint" (1796), the last two among the best examples of his sa tirico-humorous writings; the beautiful idylls "Dominie Wuz" (1793), "Quintus Fixlein" (1796; Eng. trans. by Carlyle, 1827), the "Parson's Jubilee" (1797), the first two perhaps the most finished things Jean Paul ever wrote; the grand romances "The Invisible Lodge" (1793), "Hesperus" (1795; Eng. trans. 1865), and "Flower, Fruit, and Thorn Pieces," or "Siebenkas" (1796-1797; Eng. trans. by Noel 1844 and 1871, by Ewing, 1877) ; "Companerthal" (1798; Eng. trans. 1857), a series of re flections on the immortality of the soul, and the prose lyrical idyll, "My Pros pective Autobiography" (1799). "The Invisible Lodge" was his first literary success; "Hesperus" made him famous. In 1796 Charlotte von Kalb, perhaps the most remarkable woman of her age in Germany, wrote to express her admira tion of the book; and at her invitation, Jean Paul visited Weimar. There Goethe received him politely, but with cool re serve; that, too, was Schiller's attitude, when Jean Paul went on to Jena to see him. The antagonism between them was
deep and fundamental, and lasted till death. Herder and his wife, on the other hand, greeted the young romance-writer with overflowing admiration, and gave him their friendship, which also endured till death. As for Charlotte von Kalb; in spite of having a husband already, she exercised her sex's fabled privilege of leap-year and gave him unasked the love of her vehement heart.
From this time for a few years Jean Paul's life was rich in incident and full of excitement. He was the object of ex travagant idolatry on the part of the women of Germany, especially of those who dabbled in literature. He found all women charming, he was a delightful talker and a good listener, and had a sweet and sympathetic smile qualities that explain a good deal. In 1801 he married a Berlin lady, and three years later settled down at Bayreuth. There he spent the rest of his days, leading a simple, busy life, writing his books, play ing with his children, tending his pet animals, and taking short summer jour neys to different towns of Germany. His last years were clouded by the death of his only son, a promising student, in 1821, and by his own blindness. From 1799 he enjoyed a pension from the Prince primate Dalberg, and then from the King of Bavaria. He died Nov. 14, 1825.
The principal works of his married life were the two grand romances, "Titan" (1800-1803; Eng. trans. 1862) and "Wild Oats" (1804-1805; Eng. trans. as "Walt and Vult," 1849), the former accounted by himself and by most German critics his masterpiece, though Englishmen would generally prefer the latter, as they would certainly prefer "Siebenkas" to "Hesperus"; "Schmeltzle's Journey to Flatz" (1809; Eng. trans. by Carlyle, 1827) and "Dr. Katzenberger's Trip to the Spa" (1809), the best two of his satirico-humorous writings; the idyll "Fibel's Life" (1811) ; the fragment of another grand romance, "Nicholas Mark graf, or The Comet" (1820-1822) ; a se ries of reflections on "Literature" ("Vors schule der ..7Esthetik"; improved ed. 1812), containing many excellent things about poetry, humor, wit, style; another series on "Education" ("Levana," 1807; Eng. trans. 1848, 1876, and 1887), a book that ranks with Rousseau's "Emile" as a stand ard work on training the young, and is full of evergreen wisdom; various patri otic writings (1808-1812) ; and an unfin ished "Autobiography" (1826), the finest of all his idylls.
Jean Paul stands apart entirely by himself in German literature, a humorist of the first water, a Titan. As a master of pathos he is put by De Quincey above Sterne.