Reinhold Koser! Yes, that does make sense, and for all my griping about his attitudes, he's superb in what he does. Spotting Catt was ripping off the military analysis from a 1780s publication which I bet even in the 1880s most historians weren't that familiar anymore being but one case in point.
Now I also wish Koser had felt the need to comment on the Katte conversation along with the military education in Catt. Gossipy sensationalist priorities, like you said. ;)
Also, don't Forget, Katte is "der schwache Mann", the weak man who lets Fritz talk him into things against his better judgment. (Something that's not in Koser is all the stuff Kloosterhuis unearthed about young Hans Herrmann's escapedes and toying with the idea to stay in England before his intimacy with the Crown Prince. I do suspect that has something to do with GB as an alternate destination to Paris for Fritz the Francophile.
Speaking of Kloosterhuis, him not putting a question mark on Catt if he's using the 1884 edition is odd, but it might really be because it's not his focus, and whether or not Fritz reallly talked to Catt about Katte isn't relevant to his central narrative.
I know, I had built *so much* superstructure in terms of Fritz's character on Catt's work, and I'm having such a hard time letting it go.
Well, the diary does confirm some pretty important stuff, and there's still the possibility Catt was drawing on a later post Silesian War conversation with Fritz for others. Curse his vanity for not saying so, if that's the case, of course. I must say that I am less inclined to buy young Henri de Catt as a naive innocent in fanfiction, which is probably unfair of me since it was much older Catt who put together the memoirs, the man who'd gone through a lot, including loss of wife and ignominous dismissal after a life time of service. Not to mention impending blindness. It's entirely possible his younger self was really a human Bambi.
Re: Catt's reliability
Now I also wish Koser had felt the need to comment on the Katte conversation along with the military education in Catt. Gossipy sensationalist priorities, like you said. ;)
Also, don't Forget, Katte is "der schwache Mann", the weak man who lets Fritz talk him into things against his better judgment. (Something that's not in Koser is all the stuff Kloosterhuis unearthed about young Hans Herrmann's escapedes and toying with the idea to stay in England before his intimacy with the Crown Prince. I do suspect that has something to do with GB as an alternate destination to Paris for Fritz the Francophile.
Speaking of Kloosterhuis, him not putting a question mark on Catt if he's using the 1884 edition is odd, but it might really be because it's not his focus, and whether or not Fritz reallly talked to Catt about Katte isn't relevant to his central narrative.
I know, I had built *so much* superstructure in terms of Fritz's character on Catt's work, and I'm having such a hard time letting it go.
Well, the diary does confirm some pretty important stuff, and there's still the possibility Catt was drawing on a later post Silesian War conversation with Fritz for others. Curse his vanity for not saying so, if that's the case, of course. I must say that I am less inclined to buy young Henri de Catt as a naive innocent in fanfiction, which is probably unfair of me since it was much older Catt who put together the memoirs, the man who'd gone through a lot, including loss of wife and ignominous dismissal after a life time of service. Not to mention impending blindness. It's entirely possible his younger self was really a human Bambi.