Richter, Johann Paul Friedrich [key], pseud. Jean Paul, 1763–1825, German novelist. He studied theology at the Univ. of Leipzig and later taught in that city. His novels combine the idealism of Fichte with the romantic sentimentality of Sturm und Drang. Among his romances are Hesperus (1795, tr. 1865); Leben des Quintus Fixlein (1796; tr. by Carlyle, Quintus Fixlein, 1827), a charming prose idyl about a village schoolteacher; and Siebenkäs (1796–97, tr. 1845), in which a sensitive husband ends his unhappy marriage by feigning death and burial. Other works include the novel Titan (1800–1803, tr. 1862) and Levana (1807, tr. 1848), a treatise on education. Richter's writings were extremely popular in his lifetime, and were admired for their idealism and warm portrayals of simple life, as well as for their humor and sentimentality.
See study by D. Berger (1973).
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