cahn

In the previous post Charles II found AITA:

Look, I, m, believe in live and let live. (And in not going on my travels again. Had enough of that to last a life time.) Why can't everyone else around me be more chill? Instead, my wife refuses to employ my girlfriend, my girlfriend won't budge and accept another office, my brother is set on a course to piss off everyone (he WILL go on his travels again), and my oldest kid shows signs of wanting my job which is just not on, sorry to say. And don't get me started about Mom (thank God she's living abroad). What am I doing wrong? AITA?

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From:

cahn

I must admit I've stopped reading Massie for the time being, because right at this moment I'm sort of very ambivalent about reading about Russian ruthless people in power, even if they were also part of the Enlightenment. I realize that this is actually not a particularly useful reaction on my part (and in fact I feel like I have at least a tiny bit more historical context for current events because of reading Massie) but, well. I imagine my brain will figure it out eventually. (In the meantime maybe I'll start on Zweig instead, and I do have the sample chapter of Stollberg-Rilinger...)

However! Before I stopped reading, I did read the chapter about Voltaire and Catherine and that was hilarious, and I've been meaning to talk a little about that.

[Voltaire was] already a millionaire from his writing

You know, this made me realize that I actually don't know how much he made from his writing, but I was certainly under the impression from Orieux that his millions came mostly from financial ~~shadiness~~ dealings more than best-selling authorship.

At the age of eighty, [Voltaire] rose early on a May morning and climbed a hill with a friend to see the sunrise. At the top, overwhelmed by the magnificent panorama of red and gold, he kneeled and said, "Oh mighty God, I believe." Then, standing up, he said to his friend, "As to Monsieur the son and Madame his mother, that is another matter!"

I find this story really endearing <3

On Calas: eventually, Jean Calas was posthumously exonerated and his reputation rehabilitated.

But! But! You totally buried the lede there (if maybe not so much as with Fritz)!

selenak explained so well why this was important, that before him this wasn't even something that was considered as possible, and you didn't even mention any of that!

On Mme Denis: Voltaire's relationsihp with Mme Denis was straightforward. He concealed nothing; she was his mistress; he called her "my beloved."

Ummmmm idk those Pamela letters are reeeeally written in such a way to emphasize the "niece" part of it and not so much the "mistress" part of it. I'm just saying. (There is no Emilie, which makes sense as this is all after Emilie died, but :( )

That's all in the Voltaire background. Now onto his relationship with Catherine (though Massie doesn't say anything about the Turks or about war chariots, as far as I can tell):

He addressed her as "the Semiramis of the North"

I know I've seen the "Semiramis" bit in salon before, but really? If so, I'm dying :D Fritz isn't the only one to be thrifty!

After Diderot visits Catherine, apparently Voltaire sends her a letter (dated August 9, 1774) that goes like this:

Madame:
I am positively in disgrace at your court. Your Imperial Majesty has jilted me for Diderot, or for Grimm, or for some other favorite. .. I am trying to find crimes I have committed that would justify your indifference. I see that indeed there is no passion that does not end. This thought would cause me to die of chagrin, were I not already so near to dying of old age.

I am dying, you guys. VOLTAIRE.
This letter, alas, isn't on fr.wikisource.org (it's later than what they have) but I did a bit of digging and found it here.
... oh wow, google translate is giving me this other great bit in the part that Massie glossed:

I also accuse myself of having bored you by means of a Frenchman whose name I have forgotten, who boasted of running to Petersburg to be useful to your Majesty and who was doubtless very useless.

(I assume he's talking about Diderot here?? Despite having name-checked him earlier in the letter??)

From:

selenak

I'm sort of very ambivalent about reading about Russian ruthless people in power

I hear and understand you. If it helps: Catherine, I think, would consider the current one a very unworthy Czar, not because she'd object to him wanting Ukraine, of course, but because of the economy-wrecking and the alliances-burning. Say what you want about Catherine, but she was careful not to leave Russia without allies (and I don't mean vassals like Belarus) and set against most of the world. But yeah, best take a break from the Massie for a while (how far did you get with Peter, btw?) and switch to Zweig.

I was certainly under the impression from Orieux that his millions came mostly from financial ~~shadiness~~ dealings more than best-selling authorship.

That would be the right impression. (If you look up my Orieux write-up at

rheinsberg, there's a subsection where Voltaire's money comes from.) Even as a bestselling author, you could never have made the kind of money, or much money at all, at a time where copyright was not really a thing, and there were illegal copy prints and sequels to any bestselling thing all over the place. Voltaire uses the "this was printed without my authorisation" excuse to keep out of prison a couple of times, true, but he really also was reprinted and copied a lot, like all popular authors. (Oh, and just think of all the handwritten Pucelle copies whenever someone got a hold of the manuscript!) So if Massie thinks Voltaire's money came from his writings, he clearly doesn't know much about a) Voltaire and b) the author business in the 18th century.

(Sidenote: otoh, where you could make some money as an author were in the theatre through plays, provided your plays were successful. Because if your plays were hits, and you were a good bargainer, you could have arranged with the theatre in question to get a cut of the cash. That still wasn't money on a Voltaire level - for example, Beaumarchais' plays were doing very well, but he got his main income through his clock making and army supplying.)

I find this story really endearing <3

:) I hadn't heard it before, but it is, and very Voltaire.

But! But! You totally buried the lede there

He did. Mentioning the Calas affair without explaining what a big deal the postumous exonoration was is a bit like summing up "Rosa Parks got thrown out of a bus that time, but eventually, she was able to sit in busses wherevery she wanted".

Madame Denis: "Voltaire concealed nothing"? Rubbish. He concealed it so well that most people didn't catch on and all the 20th century biographies of Voltaire until the 1950s have him as swearing of sex altogether when he stopped having it with Émilie. I mean, you can say he was open about it in his letters to Madame Denis (that weren't the Pamela letters which he had doctored with an eye for posterity reading them), but, for example, I didn't have the impression Fritz ever realised. (You just know that if he had, he'd have brought it up when going on a "Voltaire is the worst!" outburst at some point.) Casanova and Boswell, both of whom loved spicy gossip, don't mention anything about it in their respective write-ups of meeting Voltaire AND Madame Denis. (And Casanova even had a brief fling with her at one point because of course he did.)

As we've discussed, Voltaire presumably was very aware that while uncle/niece was okay with you were a Habsburg or a Hohenzollern and married your niece, for normal citizens (and without a marriage) it was a criminal offense, and he had enough trouble with the law as it was. I seem to recall he once did ask a friend of his discreetly about how one might one go about such a marriage, but he certainly didn't say "btw, I'm thinking about me/Marie-Louise here".

Semiramis of the North - not only was Catherine called that by people other than Voltaire as well as him, Christina of Sweden had been called the same a century earlier. (Also "Minerva of the North". But definitely "Semiramis".) See also "Athens of the North", which at various times was used to compliment Christina for Stockholm, Sophie Charlotte for Berlin and Fritz for Berlin again. There are some obvious comparisons and phrases for literati to use with female monarchs encouraging the arts.

(There are also some obvious insults. See Lehndorff applying MESSALINA to several royal ladies!)

OMG, the Voltaire quotes are golden. The second one does sound like he means Diderot, though then again Catherine was trying to get as many literati and artists as she could, and I don't think Diderot was the only Frenchman of Voltaire's aquaintance to make it to St. Petersburg?

From:

mildred_of_midgard

I must admit I've stopped reading Massie for the time being, because right at this moment I'm sort of very ambivalent about reading about Russian ruthless people in power

I hear and understand you.

Seconding Selena's comment. You can tell from my DW post that I immediately had some ambivalent feelings about invaders myself. (Just because you're my historical fave doesn't mean I could like you if you were alive!)

This is why I went to all the trouble of world-building a universe where this kind of thing is ethical!

the economy-wrecking and the alliances-burning. Say what you want about Catherine, but she was careful not to leave Russia without allies

Whereas my fave... :P

So if Massie thinks Voltaire's money came from his writings, he clearly doesn't know much about a) Voltaire and b) the author business in the 18th century.

Which is why I warned you all about Massie's accuracy! Or rather lack thereof. His strength is preparing you to read drier and more accurate treatments of his subject.

Ummmmm idk those Pamela letters are reeeeally written in such a way to emphasize the "niece" part of it and not so much the "mistress" part of it.

Yeah, like Selena said, he concealed it from other people. His letters to her--the genuine ones, not the ones written for publication like Pamela--though, were full of cunts and penises and breasts. She tried to bowdlerize them for selling to make money, then apparently gave up because there was TOO MUCH. :P

As we've discussed, Voltaire presumably was very aware that while uncle/niece was okay with you were a Habsburg or a Hohenzollern and married your niece, for normal citizens (and without a marriage) it was a criminal offense

I was reminded of him in my recent German reading in which I encountered another uncle/niece marriage: Acton, the naval commander and later prime minister in Naples during the Ferdinand - Maria Carolina - Hamilton - Emma - Nelson days. To quote from Wikipedia:

On 2 February 1800, at the age of 63, he married his 13 year-old niece Mary Ann Acton, the eldest daughter of his younger brother General Joseph Edward Acton (1737-1830). The marriage appears to have been made for dynastic purposes to keep control of the family's wealth and required papal dispensation due to consanguinity. On hearing the news Nelson commented "it is never too late to do well" and following his arrival in Naples threw a party for the newlyweds aboard his flagship.

63 and 13 is definitely waaaay skeevier than Ferdinand and his wife/niece. To the point where I hope it *was* dynastic, but still not cool either way.

See also "Athens of the North", which at various times was used to compliment Christina for Stockholm, Sophie Charlotte for Berlin and Fritz for Berlin again.

And Solomon of the North for Fritz. One of the most hilarious things Voltaire ever wrote, imo, was, "As Solomon said--the other Solomon, the one not from the North," which makes me collapse into giggling whenever I remember it. :D

The second one does sound like he means Diderot, though then again Catherine was trying to get as many literati and artists as she could, and I don't think Diderot was the only Frenchman of Voltaire's aquaintance to make it to St. Petersburg?

I too guess Diderot, but Grimm comes to mind as another qualifying Frenchman, and I see that he's also name-checked in this letter. Remember this passage from one of the books I was reading:

As his homesickness deepened, Diderot had begun to make plans for his return to Paris. Determined to make the trip with Grimm, he was no less determined to avoid a layover in Berlin. Torn by his devotion to Diderot and his debt to Frederick, Grimm’s predicament seemed without issue. “I am more than a bit embarrassed over Denis’s intentions,” he confided to Nesselrode at year’s end. “As you can imagine, the last thing in the world I want is to cancel Berlin, but the last thing Denis wants is to place his foot there.”

And my summary: "Grimm and Diderot ended up traveling separately, so they could respectively go to, and avoid the hell out of, Berlin."

From:

selenak

But would Voltaire refer to Grimm as a Frenchman? I‘ll remind you the guy was a German pastor‘s son (and studied at Leipzig where he held the 50 years graduation anniversary speech for Manteuffel), not moving to France until he was an adult. Yes, he remained there and was everyone‘s go to French culture correspondent, but look, this is the century where Marie Antoinette, who leaves Austria as a teen, still gets referred to as „The Austrian“ for the rest of her life by the French. Francophilia and decades of living in France does not a Frenchman make in the eyes of another Frenchman, is what I‘m saying.

63 and 13 is incredibly skeevy, no matter the motive. Suddenly, the Judge‘s intentions re: Johanna in „Sweeney Todd“ look like hardcore realism. Btw, the guy -Karl Thedor - who was married to the erotic letters writing Elisabeth Augusta and who couldn‘t trade Bavaria for Belgium to Joseph because everyone else among the German princes was WTF? About it and started to root for protector-against-invasions Fritz, married again after her death since they didn‘t have a surviving son. He married a teenage Habsburg. Who retaliated against her family for marrying her off to a 70 years old (she was 17, I think, which is at least well past puberty) by successfully refusing to have sex with him till he died, so Bavaria went to another branch of the Wittelsbachs who were profoundly grateful. In Nymphenburg, the text that goes with her portrait says „heroine of Bavarian independence“ since otherwise Bavaria would have ended up swallowed by Austria after all.

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Francophilia and decades of living in France does not a Frenchman make in the eyes of another Frenchman, is what I‘m saying.

Fair! I just think of him as the French culture correspondent guy, but yes, you're right about how Voltaire would see it. So yeah, it's got to be Diderot even if there are other qualifying Frenchmen hanging out with Catherine.

Who retaliated against her family for marrying her off to a 70 years old (she was 17, I think, which is at least well past puberty) by successfully refusing to have sex with him till he died

Ha! Good for her.

I forgot to mention that this Acton is the grandfather of "absolute power corrupts" Lord Acton, and the brother of Harold Acton's ancestor. Harold Acton being the author of the Last of the Medici, and a friend of Norman Douglas, who was no stranger to age-skeevy relationships himself.

(Srsly, Fritz being 24+ and crown prince and having a strong personality negates any squickiness for me surrounding any possible power differential based on the age gap with Suhm. Especially since I don't think they had sex when he was in his 20s, much less his teens. Hand-kissing and emo letters is my ship. I am not okay with Acton and Douglas!)

From:

cahn

Mentioning the Calas affair without explaining what a big deal the postumous exonoration was is a bit like summing up "Rosa Parks got thrown out of a bus that time, but eventually, she was able to sit in busses wherevery she wanted".

Heh, I laughed, because it's, yeah, a good analogy. (Also, hilariously on-point for US-ian education, because of course I understood that with no problem.)

(You just know that if he had, he'd have brought it up when going on a "Voltaire is the worst!" outburst at some point.)

OMG, he so would have!

Casanova and Boswell, both of whom loved spicy gossip, don't mention anything about it in their respective write-ups of meeting Voltaire AND Madame Denis.

~~well it's obviously because it SHOCKED them too much to write about it, see~~

(And Casanova even had a brief fling with her at one point because of course he did.)

LOLOLOL okay I missed that. That's awesome.

Edited Date: 2022-03-09 03:30 am (UTC)