RARE 1880S BARON MUNCHAUSEN FANTASY SCIENCE FICTION NR

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RARE 1880S BARON MUNCHAUSEN FANTASY SCIENCE FICTION NR Description: ON AUCTION is a nice Victorian edition of The Travels and Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, published by Worthington Co., New York. No date, but approximately 1880s, bound in vivid brown Victorian cloth decorated in gilt and black. 283 pages. 8x5 inches. A very good copy with a frontispiece print. Famous for a movie never completed, Terry Gilliam's doomed fantasy version of Baron Munchausen. A film exists about this movie, but the movie itself was abandoned.Karl Friedrich Hieronymus, Freiherr von Münchhausen (11 May 1720 – 22 February 1797) (often spelled Munchausen in English) was a German baron born in Bodenwerder, who in his youth was sent to serve as page to Anthony Ulrich II of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, and later joined the Russian military. He served until 1750, in particular taking part in two campaigns against the Ottoman Turks. Returning home, Münchhausen supposedly told a number of outrageous tall tales about his adventures. He died in his birthplace of Bodenwerder.According to the stories, as retold by others, the Baron's astounding feats included riding cannonballs, travelling to the Moon, and escaping from a swamp by pulling himself up by his own hair (or bootstraps, depending on who tells the story).The stories about Münchhausen were first collected and published by an anonymous author in 1781. An English version was published in London in 1785, by Rudolf Erich Raspe, as Baron Munchhausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia, also called The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchhausen. However, much of the humorous material in them is borrowed from other sources. Indeed, the Baron himself was not notable for immodesty within his profession and relative to his accomplishments, and Raspe's publication rather damaged his reputation. Most historians agree that Munchhausen disapproved of some of the more outrageous of the tall tales that Raspe's book attributed to him.In 1786, Gottfried August Bürger translated Raspe's stories back into German, and extended them. He published them under the title of Wunderbare Reisen zu Wasser und zu Lande: Feldzüge und lustige Abenteuer des Freiherrn von Münchhausen ("Marvellous Travels on Water and Land: Campaigns and Comical Adventures of the Baron of Münchhausen"). Bürger's version is the one best known to German readers today.In the 19th century, the story had undergone expansions and transformations by many notable authors and had been translated into numerous languages, totalling over 100 various editions. Baron Munchhausen's adventures have also been published in Russia, w they are quite commonly known, especially the versions adapted for children. In 2005 a statue of Munchhausen was erected in the city of Kaliningrad (Königsberg).It is not clear how much of the story material derives from the Baron himself; however, it is known that the majority of the stories are based on folktales that have been in circulation for many centuries before Münchhausen's birth.FilmsIn 1943 Raspe's book was adapted into a German language film Münchhausen directed by Josef von Báky, with Hans Albers in the title role and Brigitte Horney as the empress Katherine the Great, written by Erich Kästner. This was Germany's fourth full-color motion picture, lushly filmed with amazing effects for the time, and produced at UFA studios.In 1961, the Czech director Karel Zeman made an 83 minute film "Baron Prášil" (Baron Munchhausen), using his unique combination of animation and live actors, starring Miloš Kopecký as the Baron. (T had been an earlier Baron Prášil film in 1940 too.)In 1979 Mark Zakharov shot the Russian film, based on the play written by Grigori Gorin, The Very Same Munchhausen, relaying the story of the baron's life after the adventures portrayed in the book, particularly his struggle to prove himself sane. In the movie, baron Munchausen is portrayed as multi-dimensional, colorful, non-co... read more

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