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cahnIn 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?
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?
A little more on Zweig
Date: 2022-03-18 05:42 am (UTC)A couple of things:
-boy, I feel like Zweig seems very invested in his narrative that all of MT's kids were just ne'er-do-wells. This seems sort of especially telling when it comes to Joseph -- I mean, he has a lot of critiques of Joseph that I can't argue with (he takes pains to mention that Joseph likes Fritz, lol) but he'll also go off and say things like "Joseph, a man of fickle and restless disposition," and I'm like... well... (That he is "a reformer in a hurry," which he says right afterwards, I suppose I can't argue with :) )
-and then there are things like "Louis [XVI] was not virile enough to love; his heart was too cold." I guess I did say that I wanted more opinionated biographers like Orieux! And, like, I don't even disagree with his actual point, which is that sexual passion was probably lacking in their marriage even after the big issues got fixed, but what a way to phrase it!
-Mildred, I'm really impressed you read this in German! It's very readable and compelling, but the reading level at least of the English translation is rather higher than Orieux -- Zweig uses much longer sentences and much more complex sentences than Orieux ever did. (Said another way, I could see trying to read Orieux in French if I had a lot more time, but I wouldn't even attempt Zweig in French at this point.) As you had thought, I'm coming around to the idea that it might be Orieux being French and Zweig being German, although I also think there is a certain kind of flowery writing that depends on long complex sentences, and a certain kind of writing that is attractive through its simplicity, and different authors do different types.
Re: A little more on Zweig
Date: 2022-03-18 06:42 am (UTC)consider the time of writing here. Zweig was part of a generation that was raised and went to school in the fading Austrian Empire, where nationalism and uncriticial Habsburg worship contributed majorly to WWI (just as uncritical Hohenzollern worship and nationalism did in Germany). Zweig was also one of the very few anti-war literati from the get go in WWI, and a life long pacifist as the result of the WWI horrors. Just like a century plus of Fritz worship plus 20th century history led to a much more critical evaluation in the 20th, there was a corresponding backlash in Austria. Not to mention that Zweig's generation was the first to have unlimited access to the state archives (as opposed to previous times, when historians like Arneth did but not everyone else who wanted it). So when you're raised on a super rosy picture of the Habsburgs, have seen that kind of uncritical glorification lead to hell and then get exposed to the family papers....
Language: Zweig writes beautiful German, that's why I'm very glad Mildred read it in the original. Yes, longer sentences, but believe me, they just flow of the tongue if you read them. How much that's reproducable in English, I don't know, not having read the English translation.
Re: A little more on Zweig
Date: 2022-03-18 07:48 pm (UTC)Pffff, you should see Horowski, and I'd read a thousand pages of him long before I read Zweig! :P I actually found Zweig an easy* read, partly because of the sheer amount of repetition. Partly, yeah, because it's so compelling.
* By the standards of my German proficiency.
Anyway, glad you're finding it readable and compelling too!
Speaking of which, when not reading German, I've been reading the Emma Hamilton bio, and it's Goldstone levels of readability, and since it's recommended by Selena, presumably more accurate!
I just keep reading it and being horrified anew and going, "Emma, you deserved better!"
Re: A little more on Zweig
Date: 2022-03-19 04:49 pm (UTC)https://www.projekt-gutenberg.org/fontane/sommer/somm022.html
(Unsurprisingly, if you know Fontane and his female characters, he‘s defending her in the article. She‘s his type!)
Re: A little more on Zweig
Date: 2022-03-19 05:08 pm (UTC)Re: A little more on Zweig
Date: 2022-03-21 05:04 am (UTC)So when you're raised on a super rosy picture of the Habsburgs, have seen that kind of uncritical glorification lead to hell and then get exposed to the family papers....
Makes sense! I can imagine that seeing those family papers for the first time would have been a bit... something. He's still very uncritical of MT, though :D
Oh, yes, his language is beautiful in the English translation as well! Though in a very different way than Orieux (who has a less flowery but more limpid prose style).
Oh yay, I will put the Emma Hamilton bio on my list, accurate + readable yay!!
Re: A little more on Zweig
Date: 2022-03-21 10:33 pm (UTC)Horowski is worth reading!
and learning German for :P.Oh yay, I will put the Emma Hamilton bio on my list, accurate + readable yay!!
It's on Kindle!