Prefaces

"Two long Prefaces follow on the heels of this third,—the first that of the second edition, and the next that of the first. Now, if I make this third again a long one—and perhaps also, in fact, the many remaining ones of future editions,—I do not see how a reader of these latter can get through the lane of antechambers to the historical picture-gallery: he will die on his way to the book."
—Jean Paul, Preface to the Third Edition of Hesperus, 1819. Trans. Charles T. Brooks

The present volume makes available an ample swath of pref­­aces spanning the long career of their inventive and witty author, who once lamented the fact that to every preface he wrote, he was “obliged to append a book”. Here at last: an ideal book “consisting of nothing but pre-existent prefaces”, translated by over a dozen translators, many of them newly com­missioned for this project, and never before published in English.

Known to readers as Jean Paul, Johann Paul Friedrich Richter (March 21, 1763–Nov. 14, 1825) was a German writer of long novels noted for their digression, warmth, and humor. His major works include The Invisible Lodge (1793), Hesperus (1795), Siebenkäs (1797), Titan (1803), Flegeljahre (1805), and The Comet (1822).