cahn

When he meets him post war, it's just "and then I met the King's reader, Henri de Catt", without saying much of anything else about him.

Which would be totally consistent with "dry" and "insipid"!

I think Thiebault is also sympathetic

I don't remember, but he's on my list for when I get to French. But this is what you said when we discovered his original (unabridged, unrewritten) memoirs:

Quite. It also, in combination with his diss of Catt's voice, makes me wonder whether it wasn't actually Heinrich so much who disliked Catt but Thièbault, for competitive reasons? Because Heinrich is dead when Thièbault is writing this, and so is Catt, so it's not like either of them could comment on this, and it makes Thièbault look better if he says he was cool with Catt of the bad voice, totally not envious, it was the Prince who had something against him.

But this is all speculation; maybe his sympathy was genuine (except for the snark about his voice).

Wait! Zimmermann praises him.(And has heard the VERY VERY SECRET story of Fritz' suicide pills box from him, which only Catt knows, etc.)

So Zimmermann as a character witness just reinforces my opinion of Catt... ;)