Frederick the Great post links

[cahn]

More Frederick the Great (henceforth "Fritz") and surrounding spinoffs history! Clearly my purpose in life is now revealed: it is to encourage mildred_of_midgard and selenak to talk to me about Frederick the Great and associated/tangential European history. I am having such a great time here! Collating some links in this post:

* selenak's post on Frederick the Great as a TV show with associated fandom; a great place to start for the general history

* I have given up indexing all posts, here is the tag of discussion posts. Someday when I actually have time maybe I'll do a "best of."


Some links that have come up in the course of this discussion (and which I am putting here partially for my own benefit because in particular I haven't had time to watch the movies because still mainlining Nirvana in Fire):
Fritz' sister Wilhelmine's tell-all tabloidy memoirs (English translation); this is Part I; the text options have been imperfectly OCR'd so be aware of that (NOTE 11-6-19: THIS IS A BOWDLERIZED TEXT, I WILL COME BACK WITH A BETTER LINK)
Part II of Wilhelmine's memoirs (English translation)
A dramatization of Frederick the Great's story, English subtitles
Mein Name ist Bach, Movie of Frederick the Great and J.S. Bach, with subtitles Some discussion of the subtitles in the thread here (also scroll down)
2017 miniseries about Maria Theresia, with subtitles and better translation of one scene in comments

ETA:
Miniseries of Peter the Great, IN ENGLISH, apparently reasonably historically solid
ETA 10-22-19
Website with letters from and to Wilhelmine during her 1754/1755 journey through France and Italy, as well as a few letters about Wilhelmine, in the original French, in a German translation, and in facsimile
University of Trier site where the full works of Friedrich in the original French and German have been transcribed, digitized, and uploaded:
30 volumes of writings and personal correspondence
46 volumes of political correspondence
Fritz and Wilhelmine's correspondence (vol 27_1)
ETA 10-28-19
Der Thronfolger (German, no subtitles; explanation of action in the comment here)
ETA 11-6-19
Memoirs of Stanisław August Poniatowski, dual Polish and French translation
ETA 1-14-20
Our Royal Librarian Mildred has collated some documentation, including google translate versions of the Trier letters above (see the "Correspondence" folder)!

Comments

Re: Fandom promo post

[mildred_of_midgard]

OMG! I'm just going to suggest a few teeeeeny tweaks, but this is amaaaaazing, thank you so much for writing it!

likes to invade various territories for fun

"Fun and profit" is more accurate as well as equally snappy.

his boyfriend is deported when his father caught them

The tense shift from "is" to "caught" feels awkward to me. I would make it "catches." Also, maybe specify "(Peter Keith)" since it seems like you're specifying characters who are getting nominated?

he and his boyfriend

"He and his new boyfriend," juuuust for clarity?

executes Katte

Maybe add "in front of Fritz's very eyes" or some such? EXTRA DOSE OF TRAGEDY.

whose last words may have been

I think "whose last words were some variation on" makes a stronger case for the wonderfulness of the ship while still being historically accurate: the different accounts show only minor variations on the death scene. He clearly said *something* about being happy to die for Fritz. <3 :'-(

"(Well, in French.)"

I would omit this. I think translation from some language can be assumed, and I don't think specifying it contributes anything. If you think people will love the fact that it was French, I'd put "His last words, in French, were..." so we can end on the strong note of Katte proclaiming his love.

Voltaire reports...But he also

"On the one hand...on the other" makes the tension between reformer and expansionist clearer to me. In fact, I might add something to make it slightly more clear that Voltaire is talking about his liberal tendencies in the first part. Otherwise, I read it and try to figure out where the bastardy comes in.

Anti-Machievel

Anti-Machiavel

(Hilariously, he writes the Anti-Machiavel

I would omit the parentheses as well as the dates and phrase as: "Hilariously, he first writes the Anti-Machiavel...then three months later invades..." That way the reader doesn't have to do the math, plus it flows a little better from the preceding.

come up with a historical claim

I see that I put "come up with" in my summary, but I actually think "go look for a historical claim" is probably more accurate as well as, imo, funnier, because I think it's totally hilarious if the one they found was real and they didn't make it up. And I haven't looked into it, but as far as I know, it was a real claim (albeit a weak one and never meant to be anything else). In contrast, I have seen the pretense for the later invasion of Saxony dismissed as a possible fabrication on his part.

Fritz' sister Wilhelmine

I would specify that she was his favorite sister or most beloved sister or something. It heightens the family drama, and it's relevant.

WHERE CAN I FIND IT?(optional):

Missing space after the question mark.

primer on this as a TV show, complete with imagined fanon responses..

This ends in two periods.

A hilarious summary of the War of the Austrian Succession is here.

Did you mean for the link to go to selenak's intro to the Pragmatic Sanction upthread of the War of the Austrian Succession summary? Or directly to the summary? The intro is informative and interesting, but it begins in medias res and might be confusing if you start reading there.

And I haven't even gotten into the Voltaire/Fritz frenemy ship!

I suggest "snarky Voltaire/Fritz frenemy ship." People like snark. :D

It was way easier for me to go through this looking for typos than it would have been to write it, so thank you sooooo much once again for pimping my fandom for me! And it's now after 3 am and I'm half asleep, but I will resume being enthusiastic at you when I wake up, yaaay.

Re: Fandom promo post

[mildred_of_midgard]

the different accounts show only minor variations on the death scene. He clearly said *something* about being happy to die for Fritz. <3 :'-(

Btw, other variations I've seen that are coming to me right now (there may be others):

- "If I had a thousand lives, I'd sacrifice them all for you."
- "It is an honor to die for a sweet prince."
- "I die for you with a thousand joys [in my heart]."

Re: Fandom promo post

[cahn]

Excellent, thank you, this is perfect!

*headdesk* I checked the Anti-Machiavel spelling twice and that WASN'T ENOUGH

Oh man, I really like her intro to the Pragmatic Sanction, maybe I'll change the link and add a parenthetical to parent up twice for that. :)

Re: Fandom promo post

[mildred_of_midgard]

Yeah, I agree! Plus it does explain what the Pragmatic Sanction is, which the later summary assumes you know. It just confused me because it wasn't, strictly speaking, "a hilarious summary of the War of the Austrian Succession." I think your parenthetical idea works well.