Like a fish story...it grows and grows...
Baron Munchausen, a nutty old chap with peerage and a bushel
full of wild tales...this is the character I was introduced to with the 1988 motion
picture. It's a fun
story, set in the romance of the late 18th century. The story is so entertaining that the Nazis made a
full color version in 1943 and billed it as Hitler's "Wizard of
Oz". It's hard to believe the
Germans had that much time and money on their hands, what with losing the War
and all, not to mention the expense of systematically murdering a significant
portion of Europe's population. But
hey...what are details when it comes to "masterpieces" such as this. I didn't really think about the book behind all this madness...
It's not a classic work of literature...it's a weird little
story that smacks of a rip off, and it
smells a lot like Gulliver's Travels, only without the political and social
undercurrent. Later editions didn’t even try to hide it...sporting the title Gulliver Revived, or the Singular Travels, Campaigns, Voyages, and Adventures of Baron Munikhouson, Commonly Called Munchausen.
The author, Rudolf Erich Raspe, was a shady character in his own right. He probably qualifies for his own book of tales. Sometime scientist, part time thief with a little con-artist thrown in for good measure, Raspe was living in England when the book was published, having fled the Continent on account of his "not so above board" professions. The work was authored "anonymously" of course, and was very short. From there, it grew in length and took on a life of its own, turning into a full-blown novel, very similar in nature to The Swiss Family Robinson. There was even an Americanized version, showing up in the United States in 1805, complete with its own set of relevant satire.
Raspe's book continued to
be translated, published, lampooned and read.
Even the real Baron Munchhausen, who
was know to spin a yarn himself, perused its pages and was extremely upset that he being used as the model for such a
fictional loon...
Here is the original "short" first edition:
Followed by a later English edition which entails a bit more
"heft":