41 pages total today! 17 Wives, 24 Sons. (I'm trying to go slowly with Wives, although Sons is giving me more than I expected to comment on. But at least it'll help cahn keep up while also reading about the Brontes.)
So when Grandpa F1 voted for Charles VI as HRE in 1711, i.e. a few months before Fritz was born, he was promised the Silesian territory his family had claims to? This is the first I've heard of this. All I'd heard was that the Hohenzollerns had given it up back in the 17th century.
Not that this justifies invading! Nor was it Fritz's reason: Invade first, find excuses later. Or better yet, publish the Anti-Machiavel first, then invade, eventually tell someone else to go look for an excuse, then reprint the Anti-Machiavel with a foreword. :P
But it is a much more recent claim than I had ever encountered before.
Well, I'm glad! I spent some of yesterday's reading time on rereading Miller (rereading is easier for me than reading, and all my brain cells are currently going toward German). I agree that Quartet is super interesting, and it's one of my all-time favorite books.
I'm also liking this reading of things you're not reading to practice my German, and going more slowly through the thing we're reading together and chatting about. I can beef up my German while not constantly feeling behind on comments.
I'm going to try to finish Sons today, and then start on Wilhelmine's memoirs, while continuing to work slowly through Wives with you.
Well, I've finished Quartet, which I really liked although that last bit was just super painful, and I've caught up with you in Wives reading but now I'm the one who is perennially behind in comments (I won't catch up tonight -- hopefully this weekend).
I do think that Wives must be easier than Heinrich and AW, as I didn't have nearly the sense of pushing through that I usually did with those books. I'm not convinced it's syntactically that much easier (I still couldn't figure out the German very easily), but it might be somewhat easier. Also, it's not politically dense, which was a large part of what made me slower with the Heinrich and AW books.
That'll do it! I can handle politics, but the technical terms of architecture and gardening are killing me. Though through sheer necessity, I'm slowly acquiring more and more.
I can tell you that night before list, when I was able to finish Sons in a hurry right before bed, when tired, it was because I already knew what was going on, so as soon as I recognized the words in a sentence, I didn't have to parse the sentence; I already knew who had done what to whom.
But I'm starting to recognize more words and recognize them faster!
Well, I've finished Quartet, which I really liked although that last bit was just super painful
Yay! and also, oh, yes, it is. (That's why it's my favorite part. :P)
If you're planning on reading any Bronte nonfiction, I recommend prepping by reading the Dark Quartet sequel, Path to the Silent Country, which, although less awesome than Quartet (because everybody is dead), will at least make people like George Smith and Harriet Martineau, who don't show up in Quartet, memorable, and give you a sense of what Charlotte's life was like after she became famous.
But also German reading group! Wilhelmine and Lehndorff await us.
I am inconsistently extremely cheap (see also: really annoyed about spending more than $100 on a cell phone) and amazon prime says I can borrow it in October for free: so, I will definitely be reading the sequel in October :D
I think the most painful part, actually, was watching Branwell go downhill. Because it was all "if you just weren't so awful!" But Banks was pretty great about showing us his thought process so I could understand why he thought the things he did (even if he was being a total jerk about it).
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Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - young FW
Date: 2020-09-10 01:28 am (UTC)So when Grandpa F1 voted for Charles VI as HRE in 1711, i.e. a few months before Fritz was born, he was promised the Silesian territory his family had claims to? This is the first I've heard of this. All I'd heard was that the Hohenzollerns had given it up back in the 17th century.
Not that this justifies invading! Nor was it Fritz's reason: Invade first, find excuses later. Or better yet, publish the Anti-Machiavel first, then invade, eventually tell someone else to go look for an excuse, then reprint the Anti-Machiavel with a foreword. :P
But it is a much more recent claim than I had ever encountered before.
Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - young FW
Date: 2020-09-10 04:00 am (UTC)Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - young FW
Date: 2020-09-10 02:12 pm (UTC)I'm also liking this reading of things you're not reading to practice my German, and going more slowly through the thing we're reading together and chatting about. I can beef up my German while not constantly feeling behind on comments.
I'm going to try to finish Sons today, and then start on Wilhelmine's memoirs, while continuing to work slowly through Wives with you.
Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - young FW
Date: 2020-09-11 05:13 am (UTC)I do think that Wives must be easier than Heinrich and AW, as I didn't have nearly the sense of pushing through that I usually did with those books. I'm not convinced it's syntactically that much easier (I still couldn't figure out the German very easily), but it might be somewhat easier. Also, it's not politically dense, which was a large part of what made me slower with the Heinrich and AW books.
Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - young FW
Date: 2020-09-11 06:50 am (UTC)Re: No Pity for the Sons readthrough - young FW
Date: 2020-09-12 05:01 pm (UTC)I can tell you that night before list, when I was able to finish Sons in a hurry right before bed, when tired, it was because I already knew what was going on, so as soon as I recognized the words in a sentence, I didn't have to parse the sentence; I already knew who had done what to whom.
But I'm starting to recognize more words and recognize them faster!
Brontes
Date: 2020-09-13 02:29 pm (UTC)Yay! and also, oh, yes, it is. (That's why it's my favorite part. :P)
If you're planning on reading any Bronte nonfiction, I recommend prepping by reading the Dark Quartet sequel, Path to the Silent Country, which, although less awesome than Quartet (because everybody is dead), will at least make people like George Smith and Harriet Martineau, who don't show up in Quartet, memorable, and give you a sense of what Charlotte's life was like after she became famous.
But also German reading group! Wilhelmine and Lehndorff await us.
Re: Brontes
Date: 2020-09-13 08:59 pm (UTC)I think the most painful part, actually, was watching Branwell go downhill. Because it was all "if you just weren't so awful!" But Banks was pretty great about showing us his thought process so I could understand why he thought the things he did (even if he was being a total jerk about it).