They have arrived! I haven't magically acquired the ability to read German since I ordered it, but it's a nice thick hardcover book, and that alone sparks joy.
Observations so far:
There are 305 letters, most of which are extremely short, some as short as a couple lines, not many as long as a page. My impression is 2/3 of the book is commentary. That would be just as awesome, if I could read German, or even spend more than 5 minutes poring through a physical book looking for the interesting parts. One day.
No letters after the start of the Seven Years' War. April 18, 1756 is the last one. That means nothing on the final year of Fredersdorf's life after he retired. I have not been able to spot any references to the retirement or any purported estrangement or wrongdoing, but I will have to sift through 50 some pages of introduction and conclusion looking, as health permits.
Haven't even looked for the marriage letter(s) yet, since there are so many letters from that period and a ton of commentary.
One thing I did find was this absolutely endearing anecdote from the dog episode at Soor.
Oh! That reminds me. The editor agrees that Annemarie and Champion in "Meine ganze Equipage zum Teufela, Annemarie ist todt gehauen, der Champion muss auch todt sein; Eichel, Müller, der Dechiffreur und Lesser sind noch nicht ausgefunden" are animals, but says, "presumably horses." That hadn't occurred to me, especially since he usually had multiple greyhounds at any given time. (It's not hard when they're small and have their own staff.)
I don't care, nobody knows, I'm sticking with greyhounds for the fic. :P
Anyway. The editor doesn't give a source for this anecdote, but says Biche was returned after "repeated requests" (that part's new to me), and adds that someone quietly let Biche into the room where Fritz was writing a letter. She jumped up onto the table and put her paws on his neck, at which point, Rococo man that he was, he was so happy that tears came to his eyes. (I'm not certain if the editor felt the need to explain this in the intro.)
...Now I kind of want to rewrite the ending of my fic to include this. <3 (I have it being a surprise and him crying, but not her jumping up on the desk when he's not looking and putting her paws on his neck, omg.)
Fredersdorf letters
Observations so far:
There are 305 letters, most of which are extremely short, some as short as a couple lines, not many as long as a page. My impression is 2/3 of the book is commentary. That would be just as awesome, if I could read German, or even spend more than 5 minutes poring through a physical book looking for the interesting parts. One day.
No letters after the start of the Seven Years' War. April 18, 1756 is the last one. That means nothing on the final year of Fredersdorf's life after he retired. I have not been able to spot any references to the retirement or any purported estrangement or wrongdoing, but I will have to sift through 50 some pages of introduction and conclusion looking, as health permits.
Haven't even looked for the marriage letter(s) yet, since there are so many letters from that period and a ton of commentary.
One thing I did find was this absolutely endearing anecdote from the dog episode at Soor.
Oh! That reminds me. The editor agrees that Annemarie and Champion in "Meine ganze Equipage zum Teufela, Annemarie ist todt gehauen, der Champion muss auch todt sein; Eichel, Müller, der Dechiffreur und Lesser sind noch nicht ausgefunden" are animals, but says, "presumably horses." That hadn't occurred to me, especially since he usually had multiple greyhounds at any given time. (It's not hard when they're small and have their own staff.)
I don't care, nobody knows, I'm sticking with greyhounds for the fic. :P
Anyway. The editor doesn't give a source for this anecdote, but says Biche was returned after "repeated requests" (that part's new to me), and adds that someone quietly let Biche into the room where Fritz was writing a letter. She jumped up onto the table and put her paws on his neck, at which point, Rococo man that he was, he was so happy that tears came to his eyes. (I'm not certain if the editor felt the need to explain this in the intro.)
...Now I kind of want to rewrite the ending of my fic to include this. <3 (I have it being a surprise and him crying, but not her jumping up on the desk when he's not looking and putting her paws on his neck, omg.)
Will report more if I manage to extract more.