Baron Munchausen's Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia is a 1785 novel about a fictional German nobleman written by the German writer Rudolf Erich Raspe.
The lead character Baron Munchausen is loosely based on a real baron, Hieronymus Karl Friedrich, Freiherr von Münchhausen (1720–1797). The fictionalized character was created by Rudolf Erich Raspe.
An eighteenth-century German nobleman, Baron Munchausen, experiences a series of amazing adventures. He arrives at the Turkish royal court, where he meets the Sultan, steals his whole treasury, and sails away from Turkey.
The fictional Baron's exploits, narrated in the first person, focus on his impossible achievements as a sportsman, soldier, and traveller; for instance: riding on a cannonball, fighting a forty-foot crocodile, and travelling to the Moon. Intentionally comedic, the stories play on the absurdity and inconsistency of Munchausen's claims, and contain an undercurrent of social satire. The earliest illustrations of the character, perhaps created by Raspe himself, depict Munchausen as slim and youthful, although later illustrators have depicted him as an older man, and have added the sharply beaked nose and twirled moustache that have become part of the character's definitive visual representation. Raspe's book was a major international success, becoming the core text for numerous English, continental European, and American editions that were expanded and rewritten by other writers. The book in its various revised forms remained widely read throughout the 19th century, especially in editions for young readers.
Versions of the fictional Baron have appeared on stage, screen, radio, and television, as well as in other literary works.