ABSTRACT
A parallel tendency is apparent in Jean Paul Friedrich Richter's style. He writes well at times, but always in an elaborate and deliberately cultivated manner which makes the author a tangible presence in his own work to a greater extent even than is the case with the most 'ironic' of the romantics. The Romantic has a tendency towards the Märchen; Jean Paul's novels, make an impression of calculation, of fantasy dependent on a device. Jean Paul's willingness to enter into the territory, going further along the path taken by Moritz's Tobias Hartknopf, is a clear indication of at least an affinity to the romantic mentality. The dualism at the heart of his view of life remains unresolved and the resulting manner is one characterised by shimmering light and constant movement: the mixture of high and low, serious and comic, romantic and unromantic of the middle-period work.
