Beats me what the category for the Thiébault rewriting was, though...
So I took a look at the editor's intro, and it seems like there are two aspects of the rewriting. One is that our editor thinks five volumes is way too much and, in his opinion, needed to be cut way down for interest. The other is that before the memoirs even reached this editor, they had already gone through four editions. Two at the hands of Thiébault père, one at the hand of another editor, whom our editor disapproves of greatly, saying that he considered the work his property, the author subject to his censorship, and Fritz as brought before his tribunal. Finally, one edition at the hands of Thiébault fils (who btw was a famous French general). Our editor, the condenser into 2 volumes guy, uses the fourth edition, that of Thiébault fils, for his text.
Now, it seems Thiébault fils did a certain amount of research for his edition, and it was observed by various parties that Thiébault père did not always have all the facts correct. So without having editions 2-4 at my disposal, I'm not actually sure *who* rewrote the Katte episode based on Wilhelmine's memoirs as published in 1810, whether it was Thiébault fils or our 1860 editor, or even the rewriting editor. It's not clear to me whether the rewriting editor of the 3rd edition was working before or after 1810. All I can see is that it's after 1807, so Thiébault père is dead, and the Napoleonic wars are on, so Thiébault fils is really really busy and has to delegate.
BTW, because YouTube users claimed the Russian Ekaterina tv series was on Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime in the US has it. I did my no-volume subtitle-watching thing with the first season. I was going to say they made some unhistorical choices, but they seem aware that there is a Holy Roman Empire, so by our new standards, they're doing great! They even manage to distinguish among the Orlovs, Saltykov, and Poniatowski. And I don't recall Fritz hunting, though they did give him hunting dogs. Presumably, borzois were easier to get a hold of in Russia, and they are based on greyhounds, but it was very jarring seeing Fritz walk around with these huge furry beasts instead of his shorthaired lapdogs. The most important thing is that the scriptwriters are aware that you shouldn't interrupt Fritz with trifles like Russia declaring war when he's playing the flute! :P
No wigs, which was weird (but Elizaveta's hair was gorgeous and I hate wigs anyway, so I'm biased in favor of the unhistorical choice), and we could talk Catherine characterization all day, but the most jarring thing for me was the dogs, which I have clearly spent way too much time thinking about for fic.
Because clearly, the British scriptwriters don't recall that Prussia isn't Germany yet, and hey, was there something about the HRE, Austria or that Maria Theresia person? Good grief.
Good grief indeed. He had some territory near the French border, but as we've seen in my recent historico-geographical write-up...there were some gaps! The gaps are politically significant!
Re: Fritzian library
So I took a look at the editor's intro, and it seems like there are two aspects of the rewriting. One is that our editor thinks five volumes is way too much and, in his opinion, needed to be cut way down for interest. The other is that before the memoirs even reached this editor, they had already gone through four editions. Two at the hands of Thiébault père, one at the hand of another editor, whom our editor disapproves of greatly, saying that he considered the work his property, the author subject to his censorship, and Fritz as brought before his tribunal. Finally, one edition at the hands of Thiébault fils (who btw was a famous French general). Our editor, the condenser into 2 volumes guy, uses the fourth edition, that of Thiébault fils, for his text.
Now, it seems Thiébault fils did a certain amount of research for his edition, and it was observed by various parties that Thiébault père did not always have all the facts correct. So without having editions 2-4 at my disposal, I'm not actually sure *who* rewrote the Katte episode based on Wilhelmine's memoirs as published in 1810, whether it was Thiébault fils or our 1860 editor, or even the rewriting editor. It's not clear to me whether the rewriting editor of the 3rd edition was working before or after 1810. All I can see is that it's after 1807, so Thiébault père is dead, and the Napoleonic wars are on, so Thiébault fils is really really busy and has to delegate.
BTW, because YouTube users claimed the Russian Ekaterina tv series was on Amazon Prime
Amazon Prime in the US has it. I did my no-volume subtitle-watching thing with the first season. I was going to say they made some unhistorical choices, but they seem aware that there is a Holy Roman Empire, so by our new standards, they're doing great! They even manage to distinguish among the Orlovs, Saltykov, and Poniatowski. And I don't recall Fritz hunting, though they did give him hunting dogs. Presumably, borzois were easier to get a hold of in Russia, and they are based on greyhounds, but it was very jarring seeing Fritz walk around with these huge furry beasts instead of his shorthaired lapdogs. The most important thing is that the scriptwriters are aware that you shouldn't interrupt Fritz with trifles like Russia declaring war when he's playing the flute! :P
No wigs, which was weird (but Elizaveta's hair was gorgeous and I hate wigs anyway, so I'm biased in favor of the unhistorical choice), and we could talk Catherine characterization all day, but the most jarring thing for me was the dogs, which I have clearly spent way too much time thinking about for fic.
Because clearly, the British scriptwriters don't recall that Prussia isn't Germany yet, and hey, was there something about the HRE, Austria or that Maria Theresia person? Good grief.
Good grief indeed. He had some territory near the French border, but as we've seen in my recent historico-geographical write-up...there were some gaps! The gaps are politically significant!