18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 36

[cahn]

Starting a couple of comments earlier than usual to mention there are a couple of new salon fics! These probably both need canon knowledge.

felis ficlets on siblings!

Siblings (541 words) by felisnocturna
Chapters: 2/2
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
Summary:

Three Fills for the 2022 Three Sentence Ficathon.

Chapter One: Protective Action / Babysitting at Rheinsberg (Frederick/Fredersdorf, William+Henry+Ferdinand)
Chapter Two: Here Be Lions (Wilhelmine)

Unsent Letters fic by me:

Letters for a Dead King (1981 words) by raspberryhunter
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen (1726-1802)
Characters: Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
Additional Tags: Epistolary, Love/Hate, Talking To Dead People, Canonical Character Death, Dysfunctional Family
Summary:

Just because one's king and brother is dead doesn't mean one has to stop writing to him.

Comments

Re: Mary Ann Costello

[selenak]

Guy-Dickens: it's a good thing we haven't used him in Frederician fiction yet, so we don't have to edit anything. Also, Melchior! In an age where so many people have the same first name, that's a gift from the writerly heavens.

Btw, George Canning's the moody depressed husband of Mary Ann's father was a very authoritarian control freak, and his children either were rebelling or terrified and cowed by him, so I was wondering whether, depending on how compos mentis he still was, Melchior Guy-Dickens had a sense of deja vu about the family his granddaughter had married into...especially since his own had the reverse dynamics, i.e. his children were taking charge of him. (With the caveat that this is how Mary Ann tells the story decades later when explaining to son George why she had to become an actress and why Gramps didn't leave her enough of his money ot make that unnecessary.

Huguenots: and in freaking Ireland, no less!

I loved the Mary Wollstonecraft detail, too, which is why I included it. Coming across a female contemporary reader's reaction, not something written centuries later, was pretty exciting.

(Not quite the same thing, but years ago when reading Vincent Van Gogh's letters to his brother Theo I was also thrilled to come across his reading Jane Eyre and Villette by "Currer Bell". Vincent had no idea either who Currer Bell really was, or that she was a woman, or that he was reading a future classic, he's just writing to his younger brother about two novels he likes.

Uh, yep, that sounds familiar.

Reminded me of one of my grandmothers, too.

Re: Mary Ann Costello

[mildred_of_midgard]

Guy-Dickens: it's a good thing we haven't used him in Frederician fiction yet, so we don't have to edit anything. Also, Melchior! In an age where so many people have the same first name, that's a gift from the writerly heavens.

Lol and lol! Very true on both counts. Somebody should write more 1730 fic so we can use Melchior. :P

Huguenots: and in freaking Ireland, no less!

Well, Ireland was not a bad place to be a Protestant in this period!

cahn: Ireland in this period consists of an oppressed Catholic majority and a dominant Protestant minority.

In the 17th and 18th centuries, various laws were passed banning Catholics from attending university, holding office, voting in parliamentary elections, serving in the army, practicing law, etc. etc. In Dublin, where the Smiths and little Mary were living, Protestants were even the majority.

What surprises me is that they're still speaking (or at least reading) French in 1990! Translate your primary sources for the rest of us, Huguenots!

Vincent had no idea either who Currer Bell really was, or that she was a woman, or that he was reading a future classic, he's just writing to his younger brother about two novels he likes.

Really! I would not have guessed. The Brontes had already been outed during their lifetimes, and Gaskell's Life was published shortly after Charlotte's death.

Bronte/Van Gogh footnote

[selenak]

Vincent to Theo:

“ I don’t know if you ever read English books. If so, then I can highly recommend Shirley by Currer Bell, the author of another book, Jane Eyre. This is as beautiful as the paintings of Millais or Boughton or Herkomer. I found it at Princenhage6 and read it in three days, even though it’s quite a thick book.”

The whole letter: https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let170/letter.html#translation

He remained a fan. That letter is from relatively early in his painting career. Whereas this is much, much later:

Read in any case L’amour and La femme and, if you can get hold of it, My wife and I and Our neighbours by Beecher Stowe. Or Jane Eyre and Shirley by Currer Bell. Those people can tell you many more things much more clearly than I can.

https://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let187/letter.html

Re: Bronte/Van Gogh footnote

[cahn]

Aww, that's cool! Those are neat letters, especially the second <3

Re: Bronte/Van Gogh footnote

[selenak]

For more on the Van Gogh brothers and fictional depictions of same, see here.