The Diderot biographer definitely seems to have gotten the wrong end of the stick there! And both LOL and aw at Voltaire's statements.
Again, sounds like he's saying not to go to Prussia (but is giving Fritz membership in the pack of scorned Enlightenment proponents, aww).
Not to mention: if he's given up on Fritz like he's given up on Paris, that means he's not given up at all. :) Not just because he'll return to Paris at the end of his life, but because, as Orieux notes, Voltaire had a habit of writing "we in Paris" years and years after he had left it, and at the time with no prospect of seeing it again. Orieux: "He is both the most cosmopolitan and the most Parisian" of French enlightenment writers, and his hometown formed part of who he was.
Re: Diderot and Catherine
Again, sounds like he's saying not to go to Prussia (but is giving Fritz membership in the pack of scorned Enlightenment proponents, aww).
Not to mention: if he's given up on Fritz like he's given up on Paris, that means he's not given up at all. :) Not just because he'll return to Paris at the end of his life, but because, as Orieux notes, Voltaire had a habit of writing "we in Paris" years and years after he had left it, and at the time with no prospect of seeing it again. Orieux: "He is both the most cosmopolitan and the most Parisian" of French enlightenment writers, and his hometown formed part of who he was.