Moritz August von Thummel
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Moritz August von Thummel (1738-1817), German humorist and satirical author, was born on May 27, 1738 at Schonefeld near Leipzig. Educated at Rossleben and the University of Leipzig, where he studied law, he held from 1761 until 1783 various offices in the ducal court of Saxe-Coburg, where he became privy councillor and minister of state.
He retired in 1783 and died at Coburg on the 26th of October 1817. He wrote a comic prose epic, Wilhelmine, oder dervermahlte Pedant (1764); and Die Inoculation der Liebe (1771), a tale in verse. His most famous work is his Reise in die mittdglichen Provinzen van Frankreich im Jahre 1785-1786 (1791-1805), a "sentimental journey" in ten volumes, in which the influence of Wieland is unmistakable. Schiller, who found this work wanting in aesthetic dignity, yet allowed that the keen knowledge of men and things it displays makes it a valuable contribution to literature. Thummel's other writings are not as well known.
His collected works were published at Leipzig in six volumes (1812), and again in 1820 (7 vols.), with a biography by J. E. von Gruner. The most recent edition is that of 1855 (8 vols.). See also F. Bobertag, Erzahlende Prosa der klassischen Periode vol. i. (Kürschner's Deutsche Nationaltiteratur, vol. cxxxvi., 1886). Wilhelmine has also been edited by R. Rosenbaum (1894).
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
