The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen

The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen - By Rudolph Erich Raspe - World Classics. Hieronymus Carl Friedrich Baron von Münchhausen; 11 May 1720 – 22 February 1797, was a German nobleman and a famous recounter of tall tales. He joined the Russian military and took part in two campaigns against the Ottoman Turks. Upon returning home, Münchhausen is said to have told a number of outrageously farfetched stories about his adventures. Munchhausen's reputation as a storyteller has been exaggerated by writers, giving birth to a fully fictionalized literary character usually called simply Baron Munchausen. Munchausen syndrome and the Munchhausen trilemma are named after him. The Baron (in German: Freiherr) was born in Bodenwerder, Electorate of Brunswick-Luneburg, into an aristocratic family of the Hanover region. His father's second cousin, Gerlach Adolph von Munchhausen was prime minister under George III. Munchhausen started as a page to Anthony Ulrich II of Brunswick-Wolfenbuttel, and followed his employer to the Russian Empire during the Russo-Turkish War (1735–1739). In 1739, he was appointed a cornet in the Russian cavalry regiment, the "Brunswick-Cuirassiers". The following year, he was promoted to lieutenant. He was stationed in Riga, but participated in two campaigns against the Turks in 1740 and 1741. In 1744 he married Jacobine von Dunten and in 1750 he was promoted to Rittmeister, a cavalry captain.