While Orieux at some point just throws up his hands and admits the whole Fritz/Voltaire thing going on and on and on despite all the awful things they keep saying about each other is not explainable by anything but love
Ahh, those two. Baffling contemporaries and generations of posterity alike. <3
And frankly, in an age where royal wives, if they don't die in childbirth, are sometimes locked up for life, ignored at best, mistreated in body and mind at worst, and no one does anything to protest, I find it hard to qualify Catherine having Peter killed as the crime of the century.
*nod* Kein mitleid mit den frauen, as Ziebura would say.
One can forget Voltaire's flaws, but only after knowing them first. We have uncovered them with the same dedication as his virtues, and will leave the reader the satisfaction to either forget them or, according to their taste, to enjoy them.
Ha! That is really an amazing and perceptive remark. I choose to enjoy. Props to Orieux for acknowledging that as an option. :D
Re: Jean Orieux: The Life of Voltaire - II
Ahh, those two. Baffling contemporaries and generations of posterity alike. <3
And frankly, in an age where royal wives, if they don't die in childbirth, are sometimes locked up for life, ignored at best, mistreated in body and mind at worst, and no one does anything to protest, I find it hard to qualify Catherine having Peter killed as the crime of the century.
*nod* Kein mitleid mit den frauen, as Ziebura would say.
One can forget Voltaire's flaws, but only after knowing them first. We have uncovered them with the same dedication as his virtues, and will leave the reader the satisfaction to either forget them or, according to their taste, to enjoy them.
Ha! That is really an amazing and perceptive remark. I choose to enjoy. Props to Orieux for acknowledging that as an option. :D