“This is not only a new translation of one of the most exciting and enigmatic works created in the USSR in the 1920s;Michael Comenetz's extensive philological and philosophical commentary to Krizhanovsky's novel reveals in the Baron's new adventures a true encyclopedia of references to European cultural heritage, ranging from ancient Greek and Roman thinkers to Kant, Fichte, Hegel, Marx, and Einstein. Thanks to this deeply-layered commentary, Krizhizhanovsky's slim novel, with its witty puns and cerebral paradoxes, opens up as an all-encompassing philosophical critique of modernity. It is a critique of a legacy seemingly obliterated by the ‘theory of improbability,’ or a new kind of history (time) detected by the wandering Baron in Soviet Russia. Seen through Michael Comenetz's commentary, Krizhizhanovsky's Munchausen emerges as a version of Benjamin's angel, blown by the hurricane of history, moving from the future. Munchausen's (or rather, Krizhizhanovsky's!) philosophic critique of modernity becomes an ironic monument to what is doomed to be eradicated. This astonishing book not only reconstructs the cultural affluence of the Soviet 1920s, but also profoundly resonates with the current moment and our new sense of destructive history.”

—Dr. Mark Lipovetsky, Columbia University, author of Charms of Cynical Reason

“In his shrewd, meticulously annotated new translation of Krzhizhanovsky’s 1927 Munchausen tale, with commentary twice as long as the fictive text, the mathematician and polyglot Michael Comenetz treats us to erudite backstories and sidestories that would delight the Baron himself. But this edition is more than a Nabokovian conceit. Roughing up the English to reflect Krzhizhanovsky’s angular, cubist prose, Comenetz offers brilliant etymologies and insights into Kant, Hegel, Quixote, Gulliver, Gogol, Kafkaesque structure, hyperbole subordinated to science—and his hero’s ‘ultimate failure to out-fantasticate Soviet reality.’ A tour-de-force tribute to phantasms and the fertility of the printed word.”

—Dr. Caryl Emerson, Princeton University

“Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky is one of the most interesting Soviet-era authors to be rediscovered after 1991. This intriguing short novel, The Return of Munchausen, mixes the fantastic elements with then-contemporary Soviet reality in ways that might remind the reader of Mikhail Bulgakov’s classic Master and Margarita. Translator and scholar Michael Comenetz strives to render the author’s spiky writing style in English, and the abundant commentary will be useful both for teaching the original alongside the translation and for unlocking all the mysteries of the text.”

—Dr. Sibelan Forrester, Swarthmore College

“This new translation and intriguing commentary by Michael Comenetz enable both Munchausen and Krzhizhanovsky to leap off the page and become three-dimensional figures once more. Comenetz’ meticulous research reveals the warp and woof of the complex tapestry of philosophical theories, literary references and linguistic play out of which Krzhizhanovsky wove his novella about the legendary master of prevarication. Filled with unexpected associations and discoveries, this book will both provide a guide for students of Russian to decode the quirks of Krzhizhanovsky’s prose and allow the casual reader to understand why Munchausen’s tale captivated Krzhizhanovsky and continues to inspire our imaginations.”

—Dr. Karen Rosenflanz, The College of St. Scholastica

Michael Comenetz is on the faculty of St. John’s College in Annapolis, where he has taught mathematics, philosophy, and literature, among other things. He is the author of Calculus: The Elements, and a co-author of Valéry’s Graveyard: “Le Cimetière marin” Translated, Described, and Peopled, and has published an edition of Homer’s Iliad 22.

PREFACE

READER’S GUIDE

THE RETURN OF MUNCHAUSEN

Chapter I:  Every Baron Has His Fantasy

Chapter II:  Smoke Makes Noise

Chapter III:  Kant’s Contemporary

Chapter IV:  In partes infidelium

Chapter V:  Devil in a Droshky

Introduction

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Section 9

Section 10

Section 11

Section 12

Section 13

Chapter VI:  The Theory of Improbability

Chapter VII:  The Recluse of Bodenwerder

Chapter VIII:  The Truth That Dodged the Man

COMMENTARY

PART I:  GENERALITIES

Chapter 1:  Characters

1.1  Main characters 

1.1.1  Munchausen

1.1.2  Unding

1.1.3  Narrator and others

1.2  The Names Munchausen and Unding

1.2.1  Munchausen

1.2.2  Unding

1.2.3  Initials, together

1.3  The two together

1.3.1  Couples

1.3.2.  Affinities

1.3.3  You and Me

Chapter 2:  Form

2.1  Reality

2.1.1  Provocation and smoke

2.1.2  Confession

2.1.3  Prophecy

2.2  Structure  

2.2.1.  Structural features

2.2.2  Plot

2.2.3  Stories

2.3  Genre and style

2.3.1  Literature

2.3.2  Shape and style

2.3.3  Theater

2.3.4  The travelogue

2.3.5  Realism: hyperbole and experiment

Chapter 3:  Themes

3.1  Elements

3.1.1  The four elements

3.1.2  Unding: earth and water

3.1.3  Undine

3.1.4  Munchausen: air and fire

3.1.5  Prophetic heart

3.2  Time

3.2.1  The times

3.2.2  Keeping time

3.2.3  Aspects of time

3.2.4  Against time

3.3  Thought

3.3.1  Science pure and applied

3.3.2  Philosophy

3.3.3  Religion and prophecy

3.4  Being

3.4.1  Freedom

3.4.2  Work

3.4.3  States of being

3.4.4  The human condition

3.5  Fantastication

3.5.1  Schein

3.5.2  Making

3.5.3  Otherness

PART II:  PARTICULARS

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Introduction

Section 1

Section 2

Section 3

Section 4

Section 5

Section 6

Section 7

Section 8

Section 9

Section 10

Section 11

Section 12

Section 13

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Chapter VIII

APPENDICES

Appendix A:  Timeline

Appendix B:  Munchausen books

Appendix C:  Recurring roots and words

BIBLIOGRAPHY

INDEX