ahhhhh I'm so happy to talk about this with you, the whole second half of the book I was like "oh gosh THIS is what selenak was talking about!" (I mean the first half was good too, but the second half was really compelling.)
re: the style, in German there are touches of expressionism (not surprising for an early 1920s written novel) as well as period appropriate Rokoko language.
Ah, that makes sense. This is probably what is meant in English as well, and I just didn't know how to describe it :)
Indeed, it's incredibly chilling and efficient that way - and, I found, far more powerful than if only people immediately signalled to be villains do this.
Yes! Part of the reason it's so hard to read is that you can see how people can so easily fall into this trap, if they aren't careful.
Thank you for connecting it to Fritz, which I always need reminders of!
BTW, of course the novel's events explain why Fritz is at one point writing to Wilhelmine he's heard a rumor that her daughter is going to convert to Catholilicsm and she really really must not do that, under no circumstances, her sole protection in her miserable marriage (this is before she moves back to Bayreuth) is that the people like her which they won't if she becomes a Catholic.
OH. YEAH. After reading about "the Catholic plot" in this novel, I really get it! (This is why I like historical fiction so much :D )
Dead kids: not in Proud Destiny, though?
That's the one with the dead proxy-kid -- I think his name was Paul? Okay, not as young as the kids in the other novels, but I felt like you could make a case that Beaumarchais had a quasi-parental kind of relationship with him. Not quite the same as Naomi, to be sure (and Beaumarchais is hardly Jewish), but I felt like it came from kind of the same place.
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Date: 2024-09-23 03:07 am (UTC)re: the style, in German there are touches of expressionism (not surprising for an early 1920s written novel) as well as period appropriate Rokoko language.
Ah, that makes sense. This is probably what is meant in English as well, and I just didn't know how to describe it :)
Indeed, it's incredibly chilling and efficient that way - and, I found, far more powerful than if only people immediately signalled to be villains do this.
Yes! Part of the reason it's so hard to read is that you can see how people can so easily fall into this trap, if they aren't careful.
Thank you for connecting it to Fritz, which I always need reminders of!
BTW, of course the novel's events explain why Fritz is at one point writing to Wilhelmine he's heard a rumor that her daughter is going to convert to Catholilicsm and she really really must not do that, under no circumstances, her sole protection in her miserable marriage (this is before she moves back to Bayreuth) is that the people like her which they won't if she becomes a Catholic.
OH. YEAH. After reading about "the Catholic plot" in this novel, I really get it!
(This is why I like historical fiction so much :D )
Dead kids: not in Proud Destiny, though?
That's the one with the dead proxy-kid -- I think his name was Paul? Okay, not as young as the kids in the other novels, but I felt like you could make a case that Beaumarchais had a quasi-parental kind of relationship with him. Not quite the same as Naomi, to be sure (and Beaumarchais is hardly Jewish), but I felt like it came from kind of the same place.
Lastly: perhaps a little clarifying sentence
Done!