Oh, the "can't live without you, can't live with you" letter, that was from Voltaire to Fritz and is still authentic as far as we know, right?
Yep, because it's from the Prussian State Archive. How's this for irony: both Fritz and Voltaire didn't hesitate to falsify evidence about each other, but with their correspondance, they couldn't do that because the other party kept the receipts, so to speak. Also reply letters will mention things in the previous letter etc. (For example, the letter where Voltaire makes the rat/lion comparison for himself and Fritz (complete with signing off "the rat kisses your paws"), which I also love, has a reply letter from Fritz where he picks up the metaphor and runs with it. You can bet that if Voltaire had altered or rewritten any letters there, Preuss et all would have pounced.
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Re: Voltaire's Fabricated Letters
Date: 2020-08-01 06:51 am (UTC)Yep, because it's from the Prussian State Archive. How's this for irony: both Fritz and Voltaire didn't hesitate to falsify evidence about each other, but with their correspondance, they couldn't do that because the other party kept the receipts, so to speak. Also reply letters will mention things in the previous letter etc. (For example, the letter where Voltaire makes the rat/lion comparison for himself and Fritz (complete with signing off "the rat kisses your paws"), which I also love, has a reply letter from Fritz where he picks up the metaphor and runs with it. You can bet that if Voltaire had altered or rewritten any letters there, Preuss et all would have pounced.