Since Koser in his preface to the first edition of Catt's diary went in great detail as to which entries made it into the Memoirs (but with another date), and which parts from the memoirs weren't from the diary at all but from other sources (i.e. other war memoirs, and the Fritz/Fouque correspondence which had fallen into Austrian hands and was subsequently published, and of course Fritz' own writings about the 7 Years War which Catt had access to) and reworked into fictional conversations between Catt and Fritz, Luh might be referring to the published Memoirs - which after all do pretend to be an unvarnished reproduction of Catt's original notes - when talking about Catt's editions? Otoh, saying Catt did his editing in 1762 and 1766 is awfully specific, and I don't recall Koser already being able to narrow it down that much. (Then again, it's been a while since I've read the diary plus the preface.) So perhaps that's a later conclusion/discovery Luh is refering to. (In which case it's even more frustrating that so many other biographies treat the Memoirs as 100% reliable.
I've said this before, but it's worth repeating: a compare and contrast between:
Wilhelmine: the later 19th century realises her Memoirs contain a couple of wrong dates as well as (of course) highly subjective descriptions of the entire cast of characters, and that the time of writing (i.e. her years of enstrangement from Fritz) colors everything as well
=> every single biographer points out Wilhelmine's subjectiveness and the fact the Memoirs aren't always gospel truth, but are worth counter checking against other sources; whether Wilhelmine is additionally described as a loveless/spiteful/hysterical daughter (or sister) or, at best, trying self therapy via autobiographical fiction depends on the biographer
Catt: the later 19th century (all hail Koser!) realises two thirds of the Memoirs are basically self insert fiction and the third that actually hails from the diary sometimes gets significantly rearranged in dates
=> hardly any biographer to this day bothers to point this out, if they are aware at all, but keeps quoting without a question mark, and of course Catt himself isn't accused of being an exaggarating hysteric or someone who works out issues via fiction.
(Sorry, but I was reminded of this again when working my way through the Göse biography of FW, where Wilhelmine is exaggarating or writing fiction when reporting anything bad about FW, but providing unexpected insight and overlooked truth when reporting, say, that her parents loved each other, or that FW did love her and at one point she was his favourite daughter. Though Göse grudgingly admits that "some" of the negative traits she (exaggaratedly) describes have to be accepted as real, since other sources report them as well.)
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timeasmymeasure
Re: FW and the Younglings
Date: 2021-04-15 01:31 pm (UTC)I've said this before, but it's worth repeating: a compare and contrast between:
Wilhelmine: the later 19th century realises her Memoirs contain a couple of wrong dates as well as (of course) highly subjective descriptions of the entire cast of characters, and that the time of writing (i.e. her years of enstrangement from Fritz) colors everything as well
=> every single biographer points out Wilhelmine's subjectiveness and the fact the Memoirs aren't always gospel truth, but are worth counter checking against other sources; whether Wilhelmine is additionally described as a loveless/spiteful/hysterical daughter (or sister) or, at best, trying self therapy via autobiographical fiction depends on the biographer
Catt: the later 19th century (all hail Koser!) realises two thirds of the Memoirs are basically self insert fiction and the third that actually hails from the diary sometimes gets significantly rearranged in dates
=> hardly any biographer to this day bothers to point this out, if they are aware at all, but keeps quoting without a question mark, and of course Catt himself isn't accused of being an exaggarating hysteric or someone who works out issues via fiction.
(Sorry, but I was reminded of this again when working my way through the Göse biography of FW, where Wilhelmine is exaggarating or writing fiction when reporting anything bad about FW, but providing unexpected insight and overlooked truth when reporting, say, that her parents loved each other, or that FW did love her and at one point she was his favourite daughter. Though Göse grudgingly admits that "some" of the negative traits she (exaggaratedly) describes have to be accepted as real, since other sources report them as well.)