Raspe, Rudolf Erich
Entry updated 2 October 2023. Tagged: Author.
(1737-1794) German-born propagandist, amateur geologist, cataloguer, flim-flam artist, translator and author, in the UK from 1775. His career was harum-scarum; though he edited the posthumous papers of Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) as Oeuvres philosophiques latines et francoises de feu Mr de Leibniz (1765), and was elected a fellow of the Royal Society in 1769, he was more than once in deep financial trouble (the Royal Society ejected him in 1775) and narrowly escaped imprisonment. One of his earliest publications in English, Tabby in Elysium (1781 chap), was a translation from the German of an 1757 verse narrative by J F W Zacharia describing the eponymous cat's adventures in Hell; he is now remembered almost exclusively for his creation of Baron Munchausen, teller of fabulous tales. The source for this figure was a real person, Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Freiherr von Münchhausen (1720-1797), who was famous for his skill in the German tradition of telling preposterous tales aloud, though never with the intention that these tall tales about exploits in Russia and elsewhere were to be believed. Freiherr von Münchhausen was deeply wounded by the appropriation of his name.
In any case, Raspe transformed these oral anecdotes into a series of seventeen tales (1781 Vade Mecum für lustige Leute number 8, and 1782 Vade Mecum für lustige Leute number 10); all but one of these were used in Baron Munchausen's Narrative of His Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia (1785 chap; vt Singular Travels, Campaigns, Voyages, and Sporting Adventures of Baron Munnikhouson, Commonly Pronounced Munchausen, as he Relates Them over a Bottle when Surrounded by his Friends 1786), published as by Anonymous; the original Club Story frame survives only in subtitles [see Checklist]. In this first version, Munchausen includes among his exploits one element of Proto SF interest: his first trip to the Moon, up a bean stalk. Raspe was not identified as the author of the 1785 volume, or any of its sequels, until 1824.
It is not known how extensively in fact Raspe did contribute to the first expansions of his original (perhaps not at all), though the expanding contents of new editions through 1792 are now treated as comprising the central Baron Munchausen corpus. In Gulliver Revived (1786) – and in similarly titled expansions of this volume [again see Checklist for full titles, and for the several exp vts] – further fabulous hoax-like sf episodes are recounted: Munchausen's second trip to the Moon, a narrative conspicuously influenced by Lucian's The True History (written second century CE), where he meets gigantic Aliens (see Life on Other Worlds); his trip through the crater at Mount Etna into a Hollow Earth where he meets Venus, and emerges in the South Seas; plus Fantastic Voyages to various Islands. A Sequel to the Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Humbly Addressed to Mr Bruce the Abyssinian Traveller (1792) – definitely not by Raspe – initially takes the shape of a Parody of the Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile, In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772 and 1773 (1790 5vols) by James Bruce (1730-1794), an account whose veracity was disputed at the time, but has later been confirmed. In the Sequel Munchausen employs some fantasticated forms of Transportation, including Balloons and a clockwork chariot, in his travels to Africa and elsewhere, during which he discovers a Lost World inhabited by descendants of Lunarians; rescues white men from durance vile on clement Islands at the South Pole; and builds a bridge from Africa to England.
What might be described as Sequels by Other Hands proliferated in the nineteenth century. They are not discussed or listed here. An early adaptation for Cinema is the Russian short The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1929; vt Adventures of Munchausen) directed by D Cherkes. Terry Gilliam's film, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988), captures some of the surreal disjointedness of the eighteenth-century continuations, though it does not convey much of the quick joyfulness of the 1785 original. [JC]
Rudolf Erich Raspe
born Hanover, Germany: March 1737
died Muckross, near Killarney, Donegal, Ireland: November 1794
works
series
Baron Munchausen
Each title listed below is almost certain to differ in some textual respects from every other; we attempt only to register changes when they are significant.
- Baron Munchausen's Narrative of His Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia: Humbly Dedicated and Recommended to Country Gentlemen; And, if they Please, to Be Repeated as Their Own, After a Hunt, at Horse Races, in Watering Places, and Other such Polite Assemblies, Round the Bottle and Fireside (London: M Smith, 1785) [chap: book is dated 1786: Baron Munchausen: binding unknown/]
- Singular Travels, Campaigns, Voyages, and Sporting Adventures of Baron Munnikhouson, Commonly Pronounced Munchausen; as He Relates Them over a Bottle when Surrounded by his Friends (London: M Smith, 1786) [chap: vt of the above: Baron Munchausen: binding unknown/]
- Gulliver Revived; Or, the Singular Travels, Campaigns, Voyages, and Adventures of Baron Munikhouson, Commonly Called Munchausen (London: G Kearsley, 1786) [exp of the above: adding second voyage to the Moon: Baron Munchausen: binding unknown/]
- Gulliver Revived: Containing Singular Travels, Campaigns, Voyages, and Adventures in Russia, Iceland, Turkey, Egypt, Gibraltar, up the Mediterranean, and on the Atlantic Ocean: Also, an Account of a Voyage into the Moon, with many Extraordinary Particulars Relative to the Cooking Animal in that Planet, Which are Here Called the Human Species (London: G Kearsley, 1786) [vt of the above: Baron Munchausen: binding unknown/]
- Gulliver Revived: Containing Singular Travels, Campaigns, Voyages, and Adventures in Russia, the Caspian Sea, Iceland, Turkey, Egypt, Gibraltar, Up the Mediterranean, and on the Atlantic Ocean, and through the Centre of Mount Etna into the South Sea: Also, an Account of a Voyage into the Moon and Dog Star, with many Extraordinary Particulars Relative to the Cooking Animal in those Planets, Which are Here Called the Human Species (London: G Kearsley, 1787) [exp of the above: adding Hollow Earth episode: Baron Munchausen: binding unknown/]
- Gulliver Revived; Or, the Vice of Lying Properly Exposed, Containing Singular Travels, Campaigns, Voyages, and Adventures in Russia, Iceland, Turkey, Egypt, Gibraltar, Up the Mediterranean, and on the Atlantic Ocean, and through the Centre of Mount Etna into the South Sea: Also, an Account of a Voyage into the Moon and Dog-Star, with many Extraordinary Particulars Relative to the Cooking Animal in those Planets, Which are Here Called the Human Species (London: G Kearsley, 1789) [exp vt of the above: Baron Munchausen: binding unknown/]
- Gulliver Revived: Containing Singular Travels, Campaigns, Voyages, and Adventures in Russia, the Caspian Sea, Iceland, Turkey, Egypt, Gibraltar, Up the Mediterranean, and on the Atlantic Ocean, and through the Centre of Mount Etna into the South Sea: Also, an Account of a Voyage into the Moon and Dog Star, with many Extraordinary Particulars Relative to the Cooking Animal in those Planets, Which are Here Called the Human Species (London: G Kearsley, 1787) [exp of the above: adding Hollow Earth episode: Baron Munchausen: binding unknown/]
- Gulliver Revived: Containing Singular Travels, Campaigns, Voyages, and Adventures in Russia, Iceland, Turkey, Egypt, Gibraltar, up the Mediterranean, and on the Atlantic Ocean: Also, an Account of a Voyage into the Moon, with many Extraordinary Particulars Relative to the Cooking Animal in that Planet, Which are Here Called the Human Species (London: G Kearsley, 1786) [vt of the above: Baron Munchausen: binding unknown/]
- A Sequel to the Adventures of Baron Munchausen, Humbly Dedicated to Mr Bruce the Abyssinian Traveller, as the Baron Conceives That it may Be of some Service to him Making Another Expedition into Abyssinia; But if this does not Delight Mr Bruce, the Baron Is Willing to Fight him on any Terms He Pleases: The Seventh Edition, Considerably Enlarged, and Ornamented with Twenty Explanatory Engravings, from Original Designs (London: H D Symonds, 1792) [entirely new material: Raspe not involved: now treated as "book two" of the tales: Baron Munchausen: illus/: binding unknown/]
- The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen (London: William Tegg, 1868) [omni containing unrevised versions of text as taken from all relevant editions above: Baron Munchausen: illus/George Cruikshank and others: hb/]
- The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen: Reprinted from the Earliest Complete Edition with the Original Illustrations (London: The Navarre Society, 1930) [omni containing unrevised versions of text as taken from all relevant editions above, with all later interpolations retained: edited with introduction by F J Harvey Darton: illus/various: hb/]
- The Adventures of Baron Munchausen: A New and Revised Edition (London: Cassell, Petter, Galpin, 1866) [containing versions of above text plus additions by Theophile Gautier: various iterations: introduction by Thomas Teignmouth Shore: illus/hb/Gustave Doré in version circa 1880]
- Singular Travels, Campaigns and Adventures of Baron Munchausen (London: The Cresset Press, 1948) [omni containing first edition texts as taken from all relevant titles above, eliminating all later interpolations: edited with introduction by John Carswell: Baron Munchausen: illus/Leslie Wood: hb/nonpictorial]
about the author
- John Carswell. The Prospector: Being the Life and Times of Rudolf Erich Raspe, 1737-1794 (London: The Cresset Press, 1950) [nonfiction: hb/]
- Maurice Richardson. "Pseudologia Fantastica – Munchausen Syndrome" in Fits & Starts (London: Michael Joseph, 1979) [coll: hb/nonpictorial]
- Everett F Bleiler. Science-Fiction: The Early Years: A Full Description of More Than 3,000 Science-Fiction Stories ... (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1990) [nonfiction: pp613-614: hb/nonpictorial]
- George Locke. Voyages in Space: The Interplanetary Theme in Creative Writing to 1914: A Researcher's Companion (London: Ferret Fantasy, 2011) [nonfiction: pp126-130: pb/nonpictorial]
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