Announcing Rheinsberg: Frederick the Great discussion post 10

[cahn]

So for anyone who is reading this and would like to learn more about Frederick the Great and his contemporaries, but who doesn't want to wade through 500k (600k?) words worth of comments and an increasingly sprawling comment section:

We now have a community, rheinsberg, that has quite a lot of the interesting historical content (and more coming regularly), organized nicely with lots of lovely tags so if there's any subject you are interested in it is easy to find :D

Comments

Re: Jacobites

[mildred_of_midgard]

It sounds like your 15-year-old self had a lot of fun. : D Good for you

SO. MUCH. FUN. \o/

Do you have any especial recs for books relevant to the '45 that I might miss?

I was actually thinking about that before you asked, you know. And I came to the conclusion that while I could name a bunch of books I read, I no longer remember what was in each of them, and even if I did, I definitely don't trust my 15-17 yo's judgment.

For fiction recs, though, if you want to read about 18th century Highlanders, including but not limited to the '45, I can recommend Diana Gabaldon with caveats. If you don't know her, she has an 8-doorstopper series and several novellas, that contain vast amounts of historical research, and also vast amounts of historical error. Even my 16-yo self was spotting errors left and right, and other people have bounced right out of her depiction of post-WWII Scotland in the opening chapters of the first volume. (She later admitted that chapter was entirely inaccurate.)

But I've enjoyed the characterization and writing style greatly, especially in the earlier books. Sequelitis is definitely a thing in this series. Will probably still pick up book 9 when it comes out, though.

There's also a show called Outlander based on the books (how far they've gotten, I don't know), which I have not seen but which a lot of people like. The protagonist is female, the book is sex positive, and the show apparently does female gaze well.

Trigger warnings for all the things, especially torture and graphic rape of main characters. Equal opportunity rape, fwiw: male on male, male on female, female on male...but if you're at all squeamish, don't go near this series.

So if you like audiobooks you could listen to it then. : )

Sadly, audiobooks don't work for me, but good for you! Maybe I'll have a solution to the book disability problems by then (one can hope I eventually do).

Re: Jacobites

[luzula]

Thanks for the recs! : ) I do know about Gabaldon and Outlander, and at some point I will probably read/watch them. But I am still too immersed in Flight of the Heron, I think...