Jean Paul

Life as Writing

Summary:
Jean Paul created a world of writing. Everything in his life had to serve the act of writing: the hours of day and night, family and romances, food and alcohol. How does the son of a pastor in the provinces become a celebrated author in the salons of Berlin at the turn of the 18th to the 19th century, only to return once again to Franconian Bayreuth? How and from what do his multifaceted works arise, which cannot be classified within either Weimar Classicism or Romanticism? On the occasion of the 250th birthday, Helmut Pfotenhauer, who is intimately familiar with Jean Paul like few others, has written a profound yet enjoyable biography of the great German novelist.

About the Author:
Helmut Pfotenhauer, born in 1946, is a senior professor of German studies at the University of Würzburg. He has authored numerous books, including those on literary anthropology, linguistic imagery, and the literature of the 18th to 20th centuries. For many years, he served as president of the Jean-Paul Society; for two decades, he has been overseeing the publication of Jean Paul's posthumous manuscripts and a new historical-critical edition of his published works.