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The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolf Erich Raspe
page 16 of 166 (09%)
Lorenz von Lauterbach.

To humorous waifs of this description, without fixed origin or
birthplace, did Raspe give a classical setting amongst embroidered
versions of the baron's sporting jokes. The unscrupulous manner in which
he affixed Munchausen's own name to the completed _jeu d'esprit_ is,
ethically speaking, the least pardonable of his crimes; for when Raspe's
little book was first transformed and enlarged, and then translated into
German, the genial old baron found himself the victim of an unmerciful
caricature, and without a rag of concealment. It is consequently not
surprising to hear that he became soured and reticent before his death
at Bodenwerder in 1797.

Strangers had already begun to come down to the place in the hope of
getting a glimpse of the eccentric nobleman, and foolish stories were
told of his thundering out his lies with apoplectic visage, his eyes
starting out of his head, and perspiration beading his forehead. The
fountain of his reminiscences was in reality quite dried up, and it
must be admitted that this excellent old man had only too good reason to
consider himself an injured person.

In this way, then, came to be written the first delightful chapters of
Baron Munchausen's "Narrative of his Travels and Campaigns in Russia."
It was not primarily intended as a satire, nor was it specially designed
to take of the extravagant flights of contemporary travellers. It
was rather a literary frivolity, thrown off at one effort by a
tatterdemalion genius in sore need of a few guineas.

The remainder of the book is a melancholy example of the fallacy
of enlargements and of sequels. Neither Raspe nor the baron can be
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