cahn | 18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 35

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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:

mildred_of_midgard

-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.

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!"

From:

selenak

Speaking of Emma, the other day I saw the article Fontane, during his time as a newspaper correspondant in London, wrote about her, which is an interesting demonstration of what was known about her in the 1850s:

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!)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Oh, nice, thank you!

From:

cahn

Heeee. I'd certainly like to read Horowski (in translation! :P ) someday. (I still have that one chapter you sent me -- I have to finish some of these other books first :P )

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!!

From:

mildred_of_midgard

I'd certainly like to read Horowski (in translation! :P )

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!