True, and her mother-in-law was first locked up and then in Scandinavia, instead of around and loudly doubting her husband could sire children at all.
As to the bowlderization: honestly? I suspect the non-prudery cuts were because some editor at the English publisher's said: Nobody knows who these people are anymore anyway, these memoirs are getting read because of the Fritz related stuff, so cut down the rest where you can.
I did know some of the 1810 French version was cut. Keep in mind it got still accused of being a an evil anti Hohenzollern forgery until people could check out the manuscript. This wasn't as far fetched as it sounds; in the 18th century, faked memoirs of Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV's mistress and morganatic wife, were published, and it took a while until they were identified as false. Voltaire said so from the start, but Voltaire was biased since he'd just published his "Age of Louis XIV", and this would have been a major source to have missed, had they been the real deal. Also, there was the famous Ossian fraud. So you could forgive people reacting to "check out the memoirs of Frederick the Great's favourite sister, making her entire family sound nuts!" with "aha, forgers strike again!". And that's before we get to the part where Prussian spirits were really low ever since Napoleon had defeated Prussia at Jena and Auerstedt, thus shattering the leftover nimbus of "The army of Frederick the Great".
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Re: Wilhelmine bowdlerization
Date: 2020-10-11 11:15 am (UTC)As to the bowlderization: honestly? I suspect the non-prudery cuts were because some editor at the English publisher's said: Nobody knows who these people are anymore anyway, these memoirs are getting read because of the Fritz related stuff, so cut down the rest where you can.
I did know some of the 1810 French version was cut. Keep in mind it got still accused of being a an evil anti Hohenzollern forgery until people could check out the manuscript. This wasn't as far fetched as it sounds; in the 18th century, faked memoirs of Madame de Maintenon, Louis XIV's mistress and morganatic wife, were published, and it took a while until they were identified as false. Voltaire said so from the start, but Voltaire was biased since he'd just published his "Age of Louis XIV", and this would have been a major source to have missed, had they been the real deal. Also, there was the famous Ossian fraud. So you could forgive people reacting to "check out the memoirs of Frederick the Great's favourite sister, making her entire family sound nuts!" with "aha, forgers strike again!". And that's before we get to the part where Prussian spirits were really low ever since Napoleon had defeated Prussia at Jena and Auerstedt, thus shattering the leftover nimbus of "The army of Frederick the Great".