The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen

Description

The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen by Rudolf Erich Raspe is a collection of satirical tales criticizing human vanity and other character faults as well as the world of politics. The implausible adventures of the main character, a truly Quixotic hero, are recounted in a rich and imaginative manner, making the stories just as hilariously funny for readers today as they were for readers in the 18th century. Raspe was a polymath of many talents – he had a number of different occupations during his life, he was a librarian, a university professor, a translator, a copper mine manager; he was interested in geology, chemistry and many other areas of natural science. In The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, he makes the best use of the vast knowledge he has accumulated and adds wild creativity and imagination to create hilarious stories.

The first part of the book is a collection of brilliantly written, highly implausible stories. The adventures the Baron goes through include travelling by balloon, fighting against lions and crocodiles (eventually using the crocodile to choke the lion), going to the moon and coming back from there and getting involved with beautiful ladies all the time. Munchausen boasts about his heroism and his resourcefulness all the time – he even pulls himself out of a hole by grabbing his own hair once. The second half of the book recounts the Baron’s journey to Africa – an almost completely uncharted territory at the time the book was written and the perfect place to explore for a hero.

The Baron’s stories are just as entertaining for adults as they are for kids of all ages. Most of them are of the length that makes them perfect bed-time stories, enjoyable for the grown-up person reading it out loud, as well as for the children who have the story read to them.
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