author
Aloys Blumauer
1755–1798
An Austrian writer of the Enlightenment, he is best remembered for witty, satirical verse that took aim at religious and literary pretensions. His best-known work, a comic parody of the Aeneid, made him one of the livelier literary voices of late 18th-century Vienna.
1 Audiobook
Beobachtungen über Oesterreichs Aufklärung und Litteratur
by Aloys Blumauer
About the author
Born in Steyr in December 1755 and dead in Vienna in March 1798, Aloys Blumauer was an Austrian poet and man of letters associated with the Enlightenment. He briefly entered the Jesuit order as a novice, but after the order was dissolved he made his way through teaching and writing.
Blumauer became known for sharp, often irreverent satire. His most famous work, Virgil's Aeneid travestied (Abenteuer des frommen Helden Aeneas), turns the classical epic into comic social commentary, and it helped secure his reputation with contemporary readers.
He was part of Vienna's literary world in the later 18th century and is remembered as a lively, provocative voice rather than a solemn one. For listeners today, he offers a glimpse of Austrian Enlightenment culture at its most playful and biting.