THE SURPRISING ADVENTURES OF BARON MUNCHAUSEN

By Rudolph Erich Raspe


Published in 1895.





INTRODUCTION

It is a curious fact that of that class of literature to which
Munchausen belongs, that namely of _Voyages Imaginaires_, the three
great types should have all been created in England. Utopia, Robinson
Crusoe, and Gulliver, illustrating respectively the philosophical, the
edifying, and the satirical type of fictitious travel, were all written
in England, and at the end of the eighteenth century a fourth type,
the fantastically mendacious, was evolved in this country. Of this type
Munchausen was the modern original, and remains the classical example.
The adaptability of such a species of composition to local and topical
uses might well be considered prejudicial to its chances of obtaining a
permanent place in literature. Yet Munchausen has undoubtedly achieved
such a place. The Baron's notoriety is universal, his character
proverbial, and his name as familiar as that of Mr. Lemuel Gulliver, or
Robinson Crusoe, mariner, of York. Condemned by the learned, like some
other masterpieces, as worthless, Munchausen's travels have obtained
such a world-wide fame, that the story of their origin possesses a
general and historic interest apart from whatever of obscurity or of