The Invisible Lodge
Transcriber's Note: 1. Page scan source: http://www.archive.org/details/invisiblelodge00paulgoog
This work was the forerunner (and, according to its Author's nephew and biographer, the cradle ), of some of his principal subsequent Romances, especially Hesperus and Titan. The Invisible Lodge , says Spazier, is, in more than one sense, the Genesis of Jean Paul's poetic world and its inhabitants--the birth history of his first Romances. It is peculiarly interesting as containing, both in spirit and in incident, a good deal of Richter's own biography. It was written in 1792, when the Author was 29 years old, and is the work which decided, if not his reputation, at least his determination to make his countrymen appreciate his work and his worth. It was the first of his productions which, he felt, was somewhat munificently paid for, as it gave him the joy of bursting in upon his poor old mother and pouring some 250 dollars into her lap.
The date of this work is the transition period in the Author's life, when (in his own words) he came out of the vinegar manufactory, where he had concocted his Greenland Law-suits, and Papers of the Devil, and passed through the honey-sour interval which gave birth to the Idyl of the Contented Little Schoolmaster, Wutz, into the happier and more harmonious period which began with the Invisible Lodge.
In this Romance, says Mrs. Lee, the different epochs in the history of his soul are embodied. To Ottomar he has given his dreams and aspirations; to Fenk his satire and comic humor; and in Gustavus the events of his autobiography are clothed in a poetic garment.
A few weeks before his death, which took place in November 1825, (and of which he seems to have had a singular presentiment not long before this book was written), referring to its abrupt ending he says: What life in the world do we see that is not interrupted and incomplete? And if we complain that a Romance is left unfinished--that it does not even inform us what came of Kunz's second courtship and Elsie's despair on the occasion--how Hans escaped the claws of the sheriff, and Faust those of Mephistopheles--still let us console ourselves with the reflection that man, in his present existence, sees nothing on any side but knots, that only beyond his grave lie the solutions, and that all History is to him an unfinished Romance.
Jean Paul
---
THE
INVISIBLE LODGE
JEAN PAUL FRIEDRICH RICHTER
CHARLES T. BROOKS
NEW YORK
UNITED STATES BOOK COMPANY
JOHN W. LOVELL COMPANY
142 TO 150 WORTH STREET
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
FIRST SECTION.
Courting by Chess.--Graduated Recruit.--Copulative Cat
SECOND SECTION.
Price-Current of the Wholesale Pedigree-Merchant.--The Stallion and the Patent of Nobility
FIRST EXTRA LEAF.
Manifestations of Honor Which Were Made to me by my County on my Return Home from the Grand Tour.
THIRD SECTION.
Underground Education.--The Best of Moravians and the Best of Poodles
FOURTH SECTION.
Lilies--Mountain Bugles--and an Outlook--are Signs of Death
FIFTH SECTION.
Resurrection.
SIXTH SECTION.
Forcible Abduction of the Fair Face.--Important Portrait
SECOND EXTRA LEAF.
Straw Wreath Discourse of a Consistorial Secretary, Wherein he and it prove that Adultery and Divorce are Allowable
SEVENTH SECTION.
Robisch.--The Starling.--A Lamb in the Place of the Above-Mentioned Cat
EIGHTH SECTION.
Departure for the City.--Woman's Whims.--Gashed Eyes
EXTRA-LEAF.
Are Women Female Popes?
CONTINUATION OF THE FOREGOING SECTION.
NINTH SECTION.
Viscera Without Body.--Scheerau.
TENTH SECTION.
Upper-Lower-Scheerau.--Hoppedizel.--Herbarium.--Visitors' Croup.--Prince's Feathers.
Extra Lines on the Quinsy which Attacks all the Ladies in Scheerau at the Sight Of a Stranger of their own Sex.
Extra-Thoughts Upon Regents' Thumbs.
ELEVENTH SECTION.
Amandus's Eyes.--Blindman's Buff.
TWELFTH SECTION.
Concert.--The Hero Gets a Fashionable Tutor.
THIRTEENTH SECTION.
Public Mourning of the Knaves.--Prince of Scheerau.-- Princely Debts.
FOURTEENTH SECTION.
Connubial Ordeals.--Five Biters Bit.
FIFTEENTH SECTION.
The Fifteenth Section.
SIXTEENTH SECTION.
Educational Programme.
EXTRA-LEAF.
Why I Allow My Gustavus Wit and Corrupt Authors and Forbid Him The Classics, I Mean Greek and Roman.
SEVENTEENTH SECTION.
Holy Supper.--Succeeding Love-feast and Kiss of Love.
EIGHTEENTH SECTION.
The Moluccas of Scheehau.--Röper.--Beata.--Medical Female Attire.--Oefel.
NUMBER SIXTEEN.
NUMBER TWENTY-ONE.
NINETEENTH SECTION.
Oath of Allegiance.--I, Beata, Oefel.
TWENTIETH SECTION.
The Second Decade of Life.--Ghost Story.--Night-Scene.--Rules of Life.
TWENTY-FIRST, OR MICHAELMAS, SECTION.
New Contract Between the Reader and the Biographer.--Gustavus's Letter.
TWENTY-SECOND, OR XVII TRINITY, SECTION.
The Genuine Criminal Prosecutor.--My Magistracy.--A Birthday and a Smuggling of Grain.
TWENTY-THIRD, OR XVIII TRINITY, SECTION.
Other Quarreling.--The Still Land.--Beata's Letter.--The Reconciliation.--The Portrait of Guido.
TWENTY-FOURTH, OR XIX TRINITY, SECTION.
Oefel's Intrigues.--The Degradation.--The Departure.
TWENTY-FIFTH, OR XX TRINITY, SECTION.
Ottomar's Letter.
EXTRA-LEAF.
Concerning Lofty Men, and Evidence that the Passions belong to the Next Life, and Stoicism to this.
TWENTY-SIXTH, OR XXI TRINITATIS, SECTION.
TWENTY-SEVENTH, OR XXII TRINITATIS, SECTION.
Gustavus's Letter.--The Prince and his Dressing-Comb.
TWENTY-EIGHTH, OR SIMON AND JUDAS, SECTION.
Paintings.--Resident Lady.
TWENTY-NINTH, OR XXIII TRINITATIS, SECTION.
The Minister's Lady and her Fainting-fits--and so forth.
THIRTIETH, OR XXIV TRINITATIS, SECTION.
Souper and Cow-Bells.
THIRTY-FIRST, OR XXV TRINITATIS, SECTION.
The Sick Bed.--Eclipse of the Moon.--The Pyramid.
THIRTY-SECOND, OR SIXTEENTH OF NOVEMBER, SECTION.
Consumption.--Funeral Sermon in the Church of the Still Land.--Ottomar.
THIRTY-THIRD, OR XXVI TRINITATIS, SECTION.
THIRTY-FOURTH, OR FIRST ADVENT, SECTION.
Ottomar.--Church.--Organ.
THIRTY-FIFTH, OR ST. ANDREW'S, SECTION.
Days of Love.--Oefel's Love.--Ottomar's Palace and the Wax-figures.
THIRTY-SIXTH, OR II ADVENT, SECTION.
Conic Sections of the Bodies of Eminent Persons.--Birthday-Drama.-- Rendezvous (or, as Campe Expresses it, "Make Your Appearance") in the Looking-glass.
THIRTY-SEVENTH, OR CHRISTMAS-EVE, SECTION.
Love-Letter.--Comedie.--Bal Paké.--Two Dangerous Midnight Scenes.--Practical Application.
The Word upon Dolls.
THIRTY-EIGHTH, OR NEW YEAR'S, SECTION.
Night Music.--Farewell Letter.--My Groans and Grievances.
THIRTY-NINTH, OR 1st EPIPHANY, SECTION.
FORTIETH, OR 2d EPIPHANY, SECTION.
FORTY-FIRST, OR 3d EPIPHANY, SECTION.
FORTY-SECOND, OR 4th EPIPHANY, SECTION.
FORTY-THIRD, OR 5th AND 6th EPIPHANY, SECTION.
FORTY-FOURTH, OR SEPTUAGESIMA, SECTION.
FORTY-FIFTH, OR SEXAGESIMA, SECTION.
FORTY-SIXTH, OR ESTO-MIHI, SECTION.
FORTY-SEVENTH, OR INVOCAVIT, SECTION.
FORTY-EIGHTH, OR MAY, SECTION.
The Pounding Cousin.--Cure.--Bathing.--Caravan.
FORTY-NINTH SECTION, OR FIRST SECTION OF JOY.
The Fog.--Lilienbad.
FIFTIETH, OR SECOND JOY, SECTION.
The Springs.--The Wail of Love.
FIFTY-FIRST, OR THIRD JOY, SECTION.
Sunday Morning.--Open Table.--Tempest.--Love.
FOURTH JOY SECTION.
The Dream of Heaven.---Hoppedizel's Letter.
FIFTY-THIRD, OR GREATEST, SECTION OF JOY, OR BIRTHDAY OR TEIDOR-SECTION.
The Morning.--The Evening.--The Night.
FIFTY-FOURTH, OR SIXTH JOY, SECTION.
Day After This Night.--Beata's Leaf.--Something Memorable
LAST SECTION.
FOOTNOTES:
The End.