No kidding. Why am I not surprised McDonogh has it in for the sibs?
You can predict how his take on AW and Heinrich goes.
I had to laugh yesterday at how Fritz "never managed to cure Heinrich of his bile," to which I found myself replying, "Well, no, if you look at the things Fritz tried, those are not usually the things that cure people of bile, it's true."
because "Cyrano de Bergerac" comes to mind. *veg*
Cyrano came to my mind too! But Cyrano could write good French poetry
Gundling: Yikes. Yikes yikes yikes. I can see, though, why all my sources just said "jester/fool"; Wikipedia tells me scholarship on him has gone back and forth in terms of how it presents him.
"In February 1714, he was required to deliver a lecture to assembled guests offering arguments for and against the existence of ghosts, while being made to drink heavily."
Now, where have we heard that before?
It's amazing because the Spartans were supposed to have forced helots to get drunk to discourage their citizens-in-training from excessive alcohol, but FW likes drinking himself and likes making other people get drunk.
If Catt's novel memoirs can be trusted, all those accounts of Fritz tormenting people, usually Guichard, with pranks (the word we're looking for here is "abuse") make him seem like a very watered-down version of his father. As usual.
When I was telling mob boss fic author recently about how George I, FW, and Fritz dealt with people trying to flee with their lovers, and how Fritz only locked people up briefly and didn't kill anyone over it, she said, "Bless his damaged little heart?" and that felt very appropriate. He didn't treat Guichard as badly as FW treated Gundling! It's an improvement!
Therapy for everyone.
So if I were Maupertuis, I'd probably have been way more sceptical before agreeing to work for any son of FW's.
In Maupertuis' defense, Fritz had a good deal of firsthand experience of Gundling's treatment at FW's hands, from being an intellectual himself. He was far from your dream boss, and Wolff was a wise man, but I can see why you would go into it expecting the exact opposite of Gundling's treatment.
How it is possible for anyone doing the slightest bit of research to miss all the insults he slung at her before her death is beyond me.
I was fifteen and I knew he'd had it in for her, and women, personally.
It's weird because MacDonogh is highly critical of Fritz--he's no Preuss--but that doesn't stop him from individual acts of whitewashing. He also just buys into a lot of the longstanding myths, like not wearing anything but a uniform after 1740, except once a year at his mother's birthday or when visiting EC, but to be fair, the reason those are longstanding myths is that everyone bought into them for a long time.
The Fritz/MT relationship, though, there's no excuse for that.
Oh, you know that quote about MT hating whores and having more than one talent? That's from Catt. I can see we're going to have to read the diary.
Re: MacDonogh Reread II
You can predict how his take on AW and Heinrich goes.
I had to laugh yesterday at how Fritz "never managed to cure Heinrich of his bile," to which I found myself replying, "Well, no, if you look at the things Fritz tried, those are not usually the things that cure people of bile, it's true."
because "Cyrano de Bergerac" comes to mind. *veg*
Cyrano came to my mind too!
But Cyrano could write good French poetryGundling: Yikes. Yikes yikes yikes. I can see, though, why all my sources just said "jester/fool"; Wikipedia tells me scholarship on him has gone back and forth in terms of how it presents him.
"In February 1714, he was required to deliver a lecture to assembled guests offering arguments for and against the existence of ghosts, while being made to drink heavily."
Now, where have we heard that before?
It's amazing because the Spartans were supposed to have forced helots to get drunk to discourage their citizens-in-training from excessive alcohol, but FW likes drinking himself and likes making other people get drunk.
If Catt's
novelmemoirs can be trusted, all those accounts of Fritz tormenting people, usually Guichard, with pranks (the word we're looking for here is "abuse") make him seem like a very watered-down version of his father. As usual.When I was telling mob boss fic author recently about how George I, FW, and Fritz dealt with people trying to flee with their lovers, and how Fritz only locked people up briefly and didn't kill anyone over it, she said, "Bless his damaged little heart?" and that felt very appropriate. He didn't treat Guichard as badly as FW treated Gundling! It's an improvement!
Therapy for everyone.
So if I were Maupertuis, I'd probably have been way more sceptical before agreeing to work for any son of FW's.
In Maupertuis' defense, Fritz had a good deal of firsthand experience of Gundling's treatment at FW's hands, from being an intellectual himself. He was far from your dream boss, and Wolff was a wise man, but I can see why you would go into it expecting the exact opposite of Gundling's treatment.
How it is possible for anyone doing the slightest bit of research to miss all the insults he slung at her before her death is beyond me.
I was fifteen and I knew he'd had it in for her, and women, personally.
It's weird because MacDonogh is highly critical of Fritz--he's no Preuss--but that doesn't stop him from individual acts of whitewashing. He also just buys into a lot of the longstanding myths, like not wearing anything but a uniform after 1740, except once a year at his mother's birthday or when visiting EC, but to be fair, the reason those are longstanding myths is that everyone bought into them for a long time.
The Fritz/MT relationship, though, there's no excuse for that.
Oh, you know that quote about MT hating whores and having more than one talent? That's from Catt. I can see we're going to have to read the diary.