Why Did Munchausen Not Make It Into Children’s Textbooks?: The Adventures of Baron Munchausen in Pedagogical Critique of the End of the 19th-Beginning of the 20thCentury

Abstract

“The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” by Rudolf Erich Raspe is a well-recognized classic of children’s literature. This book is usually considered to be in the same category as Daniel Defoe’s “Robinson Crusoe”, Miguel de Servantes’ “Don Quixote”, and Jonathan Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels”. However, in contrast to the above-mentioned stories, it was much more difficult for Raspe’s story to reach its children’s audience. This article investigates the response of educators to the children’s editions of this story that were published from the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century.   Keywords: history and criticism of children literature