The adventure of Baron Munchausen continues

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Fate is perverse. The expert on coins and antiques, the creator of one of the first chivalric novels, Professor Eric Raspe, could not achieve world fame. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, this frivolous shilling book, published by him impromptu, worked a miracle. It was created quickly, by some unexpected intuition for a pundit, and published abroad - in England. Moreover, the professor even hesitated to put his signature under this work. But it was it that brought Raspe laurels, however, posthumously, thirty years later … Exactly so many years after his death it took to establish authorship.

"What is the merit of this writer?" - you ask. Eric Raspe managed to give a literary luster to the humorous stories typical of his time. Their hero was, as a rule, a nobleman, a landowner, in the past - a military man.

Baron von Munchausen, whose name can be continued as Karl Friedrich Jerome, is a real person. The longest adventure of Baron Munchausen is associated with military service abroad. Accompanying the Duke of Brunswick, he is a young manarrived in Russia in pursuit of a career. However, the service did not bring any ranks or pensions to the captain of the Russian service with a noticeable German accent. Perhaps fate intervened, because it prepared for this man a different glory. The prospect of adjutant Duke Ulrich's promotion was suddenly destroyed by a palace coup. Power passed from the overlords of Munchausen to Elizaveta Petrovna. During his service in Russia, the baron matured, saw the world, got married, managed to take part in two Turkish wars, and showed personal courage in battles. The brightest adventure of Baron Munchausen once brought him together with the future Empress Catherine the Great. When she first arrived in Russia, the gallant captain commanded a guard of honor at the meeting. However, Munchausen had no inclination to maneuver in palace intrigues. He missed his homeland. Taking a year off to resolve the issue with the inheritance, he left for Germany. Then he extended it several times.

He was drawn into the way of life of the landowner: farming, hunting. He did not even arrive in St. Petersburg to apply for a pension, confining himself to a letter of petition, and was fired for leaving the unit without permission. But that didn't bother him much.

At home, the baron was a hospitable host, he liked to tell his neighbors about his exploits in Russia, about incredible hunting successes, about evidence of his amazing strength, dexterity, accuracy. When Eric Raspe published his book of incredible witty stories referring to Baron Munchausen, he sued him, but then resigned.

Readers were impressedthe non-triviality of fantasy embedded in The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. The main characters encountered by the baron are unusual. Among them - a deer with a cherry tree between the horns, a harnessed wolf, a fur coat furious. Today, the baron's hometown, Bodenwerder, where the museum of "the most truthful man on earth" is located, has become a place of real pilgrimage.

Baron Munchausen - a literary hero and a real person - has become his brand. The hallmark of the museum's house is a fountain-monument - half a horse that drinks water. It is noteworthy that Moscow also has a corresponding museum and a monument to the most honest man in the world.

Cinematography also did not stand aside. Screenshots are plentiful. Let me tell you about one of the best. Absolutely original, in his own way, the genius Oleg Yankovsky realized and conveyed to the viewer the adventure of Baron Munchausen in the famous film by Mark Zakharov. Oleg Ivanovich played this role with such devotion, as they play Hamlet. He put so much wisdom and irony into the image that the film caused a real sensation. Yankovsky's catchphrase: "Smile, gentlemen!" became recognizable and famous. The viewer invariably sees a special, wise baron who, with his radiant joke, is able to help people, destroying the viscous and life-threatening stupidity created by themselves with an impenetrably serious facial expression. It is noteworthy that the actor himself is above all the brilliant ones he played roles loved and appreciated this particular image - Munchausen.

We wish you, dear readers, that you periodically rememberadventure of Baron Munchausen, and, like him, they pulled themselves out of the swamp of everyday life by the hair, bringing bright, ringing notes into their lives!