18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 38

[cahn]

Gonna go ahead and make this post even though Yuletide is coming...

But in the meantime, there has been some fic in the fandom posted!

Holding His Space (2503 words) by felisnocturna
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, 18th Century CE Frederician RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf/Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Characters: Michael Gabriel Fredersdorf, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Additional Tags: Protectiveness, Domestic, Character Study
Summary:

Five times Fredersdorf has to stay behind - and one time Friedrich doesn't leave.

Using People (3392 words) by prinzsorgenfrei
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great/Hans Hermann von Katte
Characters: Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great, Hans Hermann von Katte
Additional Tags: Fluff, Idiots in Love, reading plays aloud while gazing into each others eyes
Summary:

Friedrich had started to talk to him because he had thought of him as a bit of a ditz.
And now here he was. Here he was months later, bundled up in this very same man’s blankets with a cup of hot coffee in front of him, its scent mixing with that of Katte’s French perfume.
_
Fluffy One Shot about one traitorous Crown Prince and the sycophant he accidentally fell for.

Comments

Re: Replies From the last post

[selenak]

Speaking of which, if you were going to recommend a German-language source to someone who wanted to learn about Fritz, what would it be?

As with any reading tip, it depends on the person, but for beginners or semi-beginners, I feel these are good:

1) Christian Graf von Krockow: Die preußischen Brüder. Has the advantage of being short, and while centred on the Fritz/Heinrich relationship, does provide, I feel, a balanced portrait of Fritz, and even includes Fredersdorf.

2) The Katte trial chapter in Fontane's "Wanderungen". Contains a succinct account of Katte's life and death ably narrated by Fontane, is online for free. Not for nothing was this sold as an extra audio book as well. Note: the other Katte/Wust chapter, the one of Wust with the novelesque episode of Hans Heinrich returning from the wars to meet toddler!Hans Herrmann is not as self contained or dramatic and thus isn't suitable for beginners, but may be read once the potential reader has gotten into the subject. Same with the chapter on Rheinsberg, which contains lots of Heinrich stuff and thus can be only read after "Die preußischen Brüder" in order to be comprehensible, and the chapter on Zernikow (poignant only if you know who Fredersdorf was).

Wilhelmine's memoirs, whether complete or abridged, is not something I'd give to a first timer, but later on of course (especially if said person knows already a bit about the who is who) at least the first half is good. Voltaire>'s Fritz-centric memoirs, otoh, are hilarious to read at any point, but you get more out of them if you know more about the Voltaire/Fritz relationship. Instead, I would reccommend this Radio Brandenburg feature on Fritz and Voltaire: "Dass ein Mann, der so viel Geist hat, so voller Bosheit sein kann" - Geschichte der Freundschaft zwischen Voltaire und Friedrich II." which is available both as a CD and on Audible. (Gotta love the title, because really, both of them could have said it about the other). It manages to provide a good overview of the relationship within one hour, and has lots of the best quotes from letters and memoirs alike.