The German humorist and prose writer Johann Paul Friedrich Richter (1763-1825), usually referred to as Jean Paul, achieved his greatest fame as a novelist.

On March 21, 1763, J. P. Richter was born at Wunsiedel, Fichtel Gebirge. As a boy, he went to school at the small town of Hof; then he moved to the University of Leipzig (1781-1784) to study theology. Financial difficulties forced him to become a tutor to various families. When he was 29, he called himself Jean Paul (after Jean Jacques Rousseau). Having given up the idea of entering the Church, he decided to become a writer. He was essentially a Platonist; Herder also had a profound influence on him, and they opposed Kant's speculative philosophy.

Jean Paul's early works were collections of satires about courtiers, society, and ladies: the Grönländische Prozesse (1783) and Auswahl aus des Teufels Papieren (1789). The first work that made...