Jean Paul
pseudonym of Johann Paul Friedrich
Richter
born March 21, 1763, Wunsiedel,
Principality of Bayreuth [Germany]
died Nov. 14, 1825, Bayreuth, Bavaria
German novelist and humorist whose works
were immensely popular in the first 20
years of the 19th century. His pen name,
Jean Paul, reflected his admiration for
the French writer Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
Jean Paul’s writing bridged the shift in
literature from the formal ideals of
Weimar Classicism to the intuitive
transcendentalism of early Romanticism.
Jean Paul, the son of a poor teacher
and pastor, studied theology at Leipzig
but soon gave up his studies for
freelance writing. He published two
collections of satiric essays in the
style of Jonathan Swift, Grönländische
Prozesse (1783; The Greenland Lawsuits)
and Auswahl aus des Teufels Papieren
(1789; “Selection from the Devil’s
Papers”), but these were unsuccessful,
and he was forced to support himself as
a private tutor (1787–90) and
schoolmaster (1790–94). About 1790 a
personal crisis prompted him to forsake
bitter satire for sentimental humour in
his writings, and Laurence Sterne
replaced Swift as his model. His
reputation began with the sentimental
novel Die unsichtbare Loge, 2 parts
(1793; The Invisible Lodge), and was
established by Hesperus (1795). He
became a celebrity and was lionized by
the critic Johann Herder and by a
patron, Frau von Kalb, who brought him
to Weimar. In 1801 he married Karoline
Mayer and in 1804 settled in Bayreuth,
his home for the rest of his life.
The second period in Jean Paul’s work
is marked by his attempts to reconcile
the comic satirist and the sentimental
enthusiast in himself. The novels of
this period include Blumen-, Frucht-,
und Dornenstücke, 3 vol. (1796; Flower,
Fruit and Thorn Pieces), commonly known
as Siebenkäs, for its hero; Leben des
Quintus Fixlein (1796; “Life of Quintus
Fixlein”); Titan, 4 vol. (1800–03),
which he considered his classical
masterpiece; and the unfinished
Flegeljahre, 4 vol. (1804–05;
“Adolescence,” Eng. trans. Walt and Vult).
The novels of his third period mirror
his disillusionment with both Classicism
and Romanticism. But his idyllic novels,
always marked by humour, treat his
predicament in a comic style. The forced
figurative style of his earliest books
had become second nature by this time;
he thought, talked, and wrote wittily.
Dr. Katzenbergers Badereise, 2 vol.
(1809; “Dr. Katzenberger’s Journey to
the Spa”), and Des Feldpredigers
Schmelzle Reise nach Flätz (1809; Army
Chaplain Schmelzle’s Journey to Flätz)
were the last of his extremely popular
novels. In 1808 he received a pension
from Prince Karl Theodore von Dalberg,
later paid by the Bavarian government,
which guaranteed him financial security.
He continued to write novels and
treatises on education and aesthetics.
Jean Paul’s novels are peculiar
combinations of sentiment, irony, and
humour expressed in a highly subjective
and involuted prose style that is marked
by rapid transitions of mood. His books
are formless, lacking in action, and
studded with whimsical digressions, but
to some extent they are redeemed by the
author’s profuse imagination and equal
capacity for realistic detail and
dreamlike fantasy. One favourite theme
is the tragicomic clash between the
soul’s infinite aspirations and the
trivial restrictions of everyday life.
Jean Paul greatly influenced his
contemporaries by his simple piety,
humanity and warmth, his religious
attitude toward nature, and his
beguiling mixture of sentimentality,
fantasy, and humour. After the mid-19th
century the unevenness and undisciplined
form of his novels began to detract
rather than add to his reputation, but
the deep humanity of his finest works
has preserved them from oblivion.
