Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 30

[cahn]

In which, despite the title, I would like to be told about the English Revolution, which is yet another casualty of my extremely poor history education :P :)

Also, this is probably the place to say that RMSE opened with three Fritz-fics, all of which I think are readable with minimum canon knowledge:

The Boy Who Lived - if you knew about the doomed escape-from-Prussia-that-didn't happen and tragic death of Fritz's boyfriend Hans Hermann von Katte, you may not have known about Peter Keith, the third young man who conspired to escape Prussia -- and the only one who actually did. This is his story. I think readable without canon knowledge except what I just said here.

Challenge Yourself to Relax - My gift, I posted about this before! Corporate AU with my problematic fave, Fritz' brother Heinrich, who's still Fritz's l'autre moi-meme even in corporate AU. Readable without canon knowledge if one has familiarity with the corporate world and the dysfunctions thereof.

The Rise and Fall of the RendezvousWithFame Exchange - Fandom AU with BNF fanfic writer Voltaire, exchange mod Fritz, and the inevitable meltdown. (I wrote this one and am quite proud of the terrible physics-adjacent pun contained within.) Readable without canon knowledge if one has familiarity with fandom and the dysfunctions thereof :P

Comments

Re: Catherine the Great: Misc

[selenak]

Did Catherine also write terrible no good condolence letters?

cahn, wiki tells me that Natalya's lover was the same Prince Rasumowski who later became a big patron of Beethoven, who dedicated the Rasumowski-quartets op. 59 Nr. 1, Nr. 2 and Nr. 3, as well as the 5. Symphony c-minor op. 67 and the 6. symphony F-major op. 68. to him. In the wake of Natalya's death, he was first made ambassador to Naples and later to Vienna, where he settled down for good (and supported Beethoven).

Another reminder for cahn: Grimm is the Melchior (von) Grimm, among many other things Catherine's agent and correspondent for artistic things in Paris. (For example, he's the one who bought Voltaire's library for her.) He was also Heinrich's go to guy when Heinrich finally visited Paris for the first time. Both circumstances came to be because Grimm (born in Ratisbon as the son of a Lutheran pastor, studies in Leipzig where he is one of old Manteuffel's protegés and holds the 50 years anniversary of graduation laudatory speech on him, leaves Germany for Paris in 1747 as a nobleman's sidekick) was the editor and headwriter of the Correspondance Litteraire, THE most exclusive literary magazine of Europe at the time. Not sold in France itself (hence Grimm was available to avoid censorship), and distributed to mostly German royals (with some ex Germans like Catherine thrown in) who had to promise not to make copies. Heinrich, AW and Ferdinand were among the early subscribers. Fritz got it for free for some years in the hopes he'd subscribe, but he corresponded privately with Grimm instead and so eventually there was no more Correspondance Litteraire for him. This is the same magazine Mildred called "Diderot's magazine" in her write up of Diderot's biography, which confused me a bit because when I read up on Grimm (which I had to for another project), he was called the editor and chief writer throughout. Diderot, it's true, was one of the journalists writing for it, as did Grimm's life partner Louise D'Epinay. But Diderot wasn't the editor, Then I figured the Diderot biographer probably did that thing where the more famous guy is made the central figure.

Anyway: Musically speaking, Grimm is the guy whose detailed description of the concert the Mozarts (Wolfgang and Nannerl as children, plus Leopold) gave on their first big European tour for the Correspondance Litteraire gets quoted in every Mozart biography. He befriended the Mozarts then, so when Wolfgang as a young man was sent to Paris by Leopold, naturally the expectation was that Grimm would help with the promotion again. But adult Wolfgang and Grimm irritated each other immensely, though Grimm hosted him for a while after the death of his mother, which was also at the same time that Joseph Boulougne, aka the Chevalier de St. George, legendary mixed race composer and duelist was staying in the same house as well, and it's one of those tantalizing things where we know they must have met and talked but no one ever recorded what happened. (Including Grimm who just found adult Mozart exhausting and wished he'd have less talent and more manners.)

Re: Catherine the Great: Misc

[mildred_of_midgard]

Did Catherine also write terrible no good condolence letters?

Perhaps! Can't tell from this episode, because she and her son were in the same place, and those quotes are from letters to her friends.

Re: Catherine the Great: Misc

[cahn]

and it's one of those tantalizing things where we know they must have met and talked but no one ever recorded what happened.

Why wasn't everyone thinking of what gossipy sensationalists would want to have recorded hundreds of years later, I say!