Selberlebensbeschreibung ; Konjektural-Biographie (Universalbibliothek)

by Jean Paul Friedrich Richter

Die Selberlebensbeschreibung enthält Kindheitserinnerungen, die Jean Paul vom 14. Juli 1818 bis zum 22. Januar 1819 schrieb. Das Fragment gab Christian Otto 1826 bei Joseph Max in Breslau aus dem Nachlass des Dichters im ersten Band der Reihe "Wahrheit aus Jean Pauls Leben" heraus. Eine Kindheit in niederdrückender Armut wird lächelnd offengelegt. "Meine Biographie ist bloß eine Idylle; beschränktes Glück", leitet ein Satz Jean Pauls die Erstausgabe ein. Jean Paul wollte mit seiner Autobiographie dem Leser das Verständnis seiner Romane erleichtern. Da geht es zum Beispiel um jene Sehnsucht, die keinen Namen trägt. So wird auch beschrieben, wie Jean Paul als Junge "nach Tönen lechzete". Er schreibt: "Ach, leichte, dünne, unsichtbare Klänge beherbergen ganze Welten für das Herz." An mehreren Stellen im Text weist Jean Paul auf Koinzidenzen im Leben des kleinen Paul mit Passagen aus dem Leben seiner Romanhelden - zum Beispiel aus dem des Quintus Fixlein - hin. Der vorliegende Text folgt der Kritischen Ausgabe von Eduard Berend, Weimar 1927 ff., ohne die dort angegebenen Varianten.

176 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1826

About the author

Humorous and sentimental novels of German writer Jean Paul Friedrich Richter under pen name Jean Paul include Titan (1800-1803) and Years of Indiscretion (1804-1805).

In the Fichtelgebirge mountains of Bavaria, his father worked as an organist. This fathre served in 1765 as a pastor at Joditz near Hof and in 1767 at Schwarzenbach but died on 25 April 1779, leaving the family in great poverty. After attending the gymnasium at Hof, Jean Paul went in 1781 to the University of Leipzig. His original intention was to enter his father's profession, but theology did not interest him, and he soon devoted himself wholly to the study of literature. Unable to maintain himself at Leipzig, he returned in 1784 to Hof, where he lived with his mother. From 1787 to 1789 he served as a tutor at Töpen, a village near Hof; and from 1790 to 1794 he taught the children of several families in a school he had founded in nearby Schwarzenbach.
Jean Paul began his career as a man of letters with Grönländische Prozesse ("Greenland Lawsuits", published anonymously in Berlin) and Auswahl aus des Teufels Papieren ("Selections from the Devil's Papers", signed J. P. F. Hasus), the former of which was issued in 1783-84, the latter in 1789. These works were not received with much favour, and in later life Richter himself had little sympathy for their satirical tone. A spiritual crisis he suffered on 15 November 1790, in which he had a vision of his own death, altered his outlook profoundly. His next book, Die unsichtbare Loge ("The Invisible Lodge"), a romance published in 1793 under the pen-name Jean Paul (in honour of Jean Jacques Rousseau), had all the qualities that were soon to make him famous, and its power was immediately recognized by some of the best critics of the day.
Encouraged by the reception of Die unsichtbare Loge, Richter composed a number of books in rapid succession: Hesperus (1795), Biographische Belustigungen unter der Gehirnschale einer Riesin (1796), Leben des Quintus Fixlein (1796), Der Jubelsenior (1797), and Das Kampaner Tal (1797). Also among these was the novel Blumen- Frucht- und Dornenstücke, oder Ehestand, Tod und Hochzeit des Armenadvokaten Siebenkäs in 1796-97. The book's slightly supernatural theme, involving a Doppelgänger and pseudocide, stirred some controversy over its interpretation of the Resurrection, but these criticisms served only to draw awareness to the author. This series of writings assured Richter a place in German literature, and during the rest of his life every work he produced was welcomed by a wide circle of admirers.
After his mother's death in 1797, Richter went to Leipzig, and in the following year to Weimar, where he started work on his most ambitious novel, Titan, published between 1801-02. Richter became friends with such Weimar notables as Herder, by whom he was warmly appreciated, but despite their close proximity, Richter never become close to Goethe and Schiller, both of whom found his literary methods repugnant; but in Weimar, as elsewhere, his remarkable conversational powers and his genial manners made him a favorite in general society. In 1801 he married Caroline Meyer, whom he had met in Berlin the year before. They lived first at Meiningen, then at Coburg; and finally, in 1804, they settled at Bayreuth.
Here Richter spent a quiet, simple and happy life, constantly occupied with his work as a writer. In 1808 he was fortunately delivered from anxiety about outward necessities by Prince Primate Karl Theodor von Dalberg, who gave him a pension. Titan was followed by Flegeljahre (1804-5), two works which he himself regarded as his masterpieces. His later imaginative works were Dr Katzenbergers Badereise (1809), Des Feldpredigers Schmelzle Reise nach Flätz (1809), Leben Fibels (1812), and Der Komet, oder Nikolaus Marggraf (1820-22). In Vorschule der Aesthetik (1804) he expounded his ideas on art; he discussed the principles of education i

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I came to this book because it plays an important role in the other book I'm currently reading, and because I was intrigued by its title Selberlebensbeschreibung – a neologism Jean Paul apparently invented as a German translation of the word Autobiographie [autobiography] and which translates to something like selflifedescription in English –, and found that this book, which was the first I read by Jean Paul, is more like a memoir of the author's childhood from age zero to twelve, written (curiously enough) in the form of three so called "historical lectures" he, the "professor", held in front of a fictional audience, and contains not only his memories but also some biting and witty commentary on social life along with a somewhat but not overly romantic notion of the villages and landscapes he lived in as a child and of course his family, first and foremost his father whom he apparently loved very much, and therefore becomes a recommend early 19th century read.


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[bewoelkt.aber.heiter · Rating 2 out of 5]

Die "Selberlebensbeschreibung" war recht interessant, sie bot zwar weniger autobiografische Information hinsichtlich der Autorentätigkeit, als gehofft, war aber aus historisch-pädagogischer Perspektive für mich sehr interessant, da ich mich im Rahmen des Studiums bereits mit der Geschichte des Unterrichts befasst habe und hier Dinge wiedererkannt habe, die ich dadurch vernetzen und anders einordnen konnte. Einige philosophische Gedanken sind sehr zitierwürdig. Insgesamt fehlten mir aber die großen Ereignisse und Erkenntnisse. Die "Konjektural-Biographie" fand ich völlig unnötig. Paul beschreibt hier, wie er sich seine Zukunft vorstellt. Er ergießt sich in völlig unnötigen Sturzbächen zum Beispiel über sein Autorjubiläum - die schlimmsten Seiten im ganzen Buch waren diejenigen, auf denen die sehr schwafelige Jubiläumsrede vorverfasst wird. Einzig das Kapitel zum Hochzeitstag mit seiner Frau fand ich gut lesbar, da hier konkretere Handlungen beschrieben und Naturbeschreibungen mit einigen philosophisch angehauchten Gedanken verbunden werden.
Insgesamt ist der Schreibstil voller verschachtelter Sätze und Semikolons gewöhnungsbedürftig, man findet sich aber nach einigen Seiten mit etwas Mühe und Geduld recht gut hinein.