The Life of Jean Paul Frederic Richter, Compiled from various Sources, together with his Autobiography. Translated from the German. Two volumes, duodecimo. Boston, Little & Brown.
The name of Jean Paul has become so familiar to American and English readers, that this work will doubtless supply a great desideratum with many ardent admirers of German literature. Our ideas of Jean Paul do not coincide with those of most critics. We have great respect for his genius, the purity of his thoughts, the extreme delicacy of his sentiments, and his almost universal learning; but we think his style forced and unnatural, and the amount of his wit, sarcasm, humor and hyperbolical refinement, altogether disproportionate to the “littleness” of his subjects. He is the most poetic of prose writers, and his autobiography furnishes many happy illustrations of this assertion. In our opinion, however, he indulges far too much in didacticism, a style which we dislike equally in poetry or prose, and which is seldom chosen by men of great intellect. He is a feminine writer, and much which in his works appears and is applauded as poetry, is in truth only high wrought feminine delicacy. He is accordingly much read and admired by women. But we doubt whether in all his productions there is a well drawn character of a man. When we look upon his heroes we cannot but remember Hotspur—
“I would rather be a cat and cry mew
Than one of those self same ballad mongers.”
The writings of Jean Paul have had a pernicious influence on the minds of the youth of Germany, who are naturally inclined to sojourn in the regions of fancy; but it is a proof of returning reason that among the numerous republications of the works of German authors his have not gone through very large editions.
Schiller and Goethe disliked the muse of Jean Paul; the former because she had not warmth, and the latter because as an artist he was shocked with her morbid taste. Jean Paul was much mortified at the coldness of this Corephæus of German literature, and in giving an account of his visit to Weimer, says—
“On the second day I threw away my foolish prejudices in favor of great authors. They are like other people. Here every one knows that they are like the earth, that looks from a distance, from heaven, like a shining moon, but, when the foot is upon it, is found to be boue de Paris (Paris mud.) An opinion concerning Herder, Wieland, and Goethe is as much contested as any other. Who would believe that the great watch towers of our literature avoid and dislike each other? I will never again bend myself anxiously before any great man, only before the virtuous.”
This sentiment is unworthy the mind of Jean Paul. The best relations existed between Schiller and Goethe through life. Each of them was great enough in his sphere to fear no rival. The jealousies which Jean Paul refers to were those of some women in “the society” of Weimer, but the men whom they maligned were both immeasurably beyond their reach.
Gervinus, in his “History of German Literature,” the most national work lately published, assigns to Jean Paul rather a low rank among the poets of his country. There is much thought and meditation in his works, but that divine spark which kindles enthusiasm and inspires men to sublime action is not in them. Even his female portraits are not drawn after Nature, and his Linda, in “Titan”—perhaps the best of his novels—is, after all the praise it has received, but a transparent shadow.
This memoir contains Jean Paul’s autobiography, reaching to his thirteenth year; a connected narrative of his life, compiled and translated from the best sources, and copious extracts from his correspondence. The translation is generally correct and elegant, but many errors occur in the proper names, especially by the transpositions of the i and e. We have seen mentioned, as the compiler and translator, Miss Lee of Boston, a lady of taste and learning, to whom the public have before been indebted for several pleasing and instructive publications.