he's the biographer equivalent of the slash writer who hates on the canon love interest because she comes between the OTP
That's *exactly* what he is! It makes Bodanis' shameless romanticization of his two favorites almost refreshing. The whitewashing gave me doubts about his scholarship, but I at least enjoyed reading it.
Seriously though, "she held him back intellectually" is a stunner I had not expected even from an Émilie hater.
Nobody could have expected this! She's keeping him from his destiny, which is to be break up epically with Fritz.
the relative calm and solitude of Frederick’s court
*snort* Do tell how he handles the big breakup.
Will do. Remember when Fritz made Voltaire promise to stop satirizing people and "behave in a manner which is suitable for a man of letters who has the honour of being a chamberlain to His Majesty, and who lives among honest men"? This reminded me of that. (As I did this write-up, I kept rereading that line to see if maybe I'd hallucinated it.)
Thank you for your excellent-as-always scholarship on the letters! If you'd been a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1752, I'm sure you would have voted against the Leibniz fragment being a forgery. ;)
Madame Denis was as vehemently against Voltaire going to Potsdam as Émilie had ever been, so dies Richardson mention this?
Not that I remember, but I admit I'm skimming, mostly looking for material for the chronology (once I'm capable of typing it up). I'll keep an eye out for it, though.
Oh, and re Fritz being annoyed at Bentinck/Heinrich, remember when Pangels devotee MacDonogh said Fritz wrote that one poem because he was annoyed at Voltaire for hitting on Ulrike? And some scholar wrote a whole article arguing the contrary? And you and I went and read the poem and concluded that Fritz didn't take Voltaire/Ulrike seriously enough to get annoyed, but what he really wanted was Voltaire to hit on him, and the whole poem was nothing but a broad hint best translated, "But what about meeee??"
Given that Davidson reports Voltaire desperately trying to get Bentinck as a mistress during the Potsdam years, I wonder if Fritz, if he did express annoyance at Bentinck (we still lack a source on this), actually meant, "Why does Voltaire keep chasing women when he could have meeeee??? Freaking Émilie."
Fritz to biographers: My priorities are not what you think my priorities are.
Re: Voltaire and Émilie
That's *exactly* what he is! It makes Bodanis' shameless romanticization of his two favorites almost refreshing. The whitewashing gave me doubts about his scholarship, but I at least enjoyed reading it.
Seriously though, "she held him back intellectually" is a stunner I had not expected even from an Émilie hater.
Nobody could have expected this! She's keeping him from his destiny, which is to
bebreak up epically with Fritz.the relative calm and solitude of Frederick’s court
*snort* Do tell how he handles the big breakup.
Will do. Remember when Fritz made Voltaire promise to stop satirizing people and "behave in a manner which is suitable for a man of letters who has the honour of being a chamberlain to His Majesty, and who lives among honest men"? This reminded me of that. (As I did this write-up, I kept rereading that line to see if maybe I'd hallucinated it.)
Thank you for your excellent-as-always scholarship on the letters! If you'd been a member of the Academy of Sciences in 1752, I'm sure you would have voted against the Leibniz fragment being a forgery. ;)
Madame Denis was as vehemently against Voltaire going to Potsdam as Émilie had ever been, so dies Richardson mention this?
Not that I remember, but I admit I'm skimming, mostly looking for material for the chronology (once I'm capable of typing it up). I'll keep an eye out for it, though.
Oh, and re Fritz being annoyed at Bentinck/Heinrich, remember when Pangels devotee MacDonogh said Fritz wrote that one poem because he was annoyed at Voltaire for hitting on Ulrike? And some scholar wrote a whole article arguing the contrary? And you and I went and read the poem and concluded that Fritz didn't take Voltaire/Ulrike seriously enough to get annoyed, but what he really wanted was Voltaire to hit on him, and the whole poem was nothing but a broad hint best translated, "But what about meeee??"
Given that Davidson reports Voltaire desperately trying to get Bentinck as a mistress during the Potsdam years, I wonder if Fritz, if he did express annoyance at Bentinck (we still lack a source on this), actually meant, "Why does Voltaire keep chasing women when he could have meeeee??? Freaking Émilie."
Fritz to biographers: My priorities are not what you think my priorities are.