Trying to get to meet Voltaire was a must for European travellers not just in his old age, but pretty much since his thirties. It was easier once he had settled down in exile near Geneva, though. If the would be visitor in question was a young unknown like James Boswell, you got encounters such as this one; if, on the other hand, the other party ( Read more... )

You may or may not have heard about the controversy regarding the the new statue honoring Mary Wollstonecraft. One of the questions I've seen repeatedly raised was: "Which famous male writer and philosopher would be displayed in the nude?" I see your general point, but the answer to this one is obviously Voltaire, in his own life time, no less.

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Taking a break from the siblings in favour of the most notorious monarch/writer relationship of the enlightenment:

Between the hour and the age (10040 words) by Selena
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, 18th Century CE Frederician RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Friedrich II von Preußen | ( Read more... )

It's been 16 years (zomg!) since I wrote this post about how if German universities were like lj world (as it then was), Goethe/Schiller would be an incredibly popular pairing, listing some letter quotes as to why. The fannish world has turned quite a lot since then, and over the weekend, I saw there's now a neat assembly of fanfiction to choose ( Read more... )

mark one month til False Value is out...where do you see the a rivers of London series going?

To be honest, I have no idea. I think I'm already one book behind - the last one I've read was Lies Sleeping (novel) and The October Man (novella). Not that I've given up on the series, but I have so much else to read ( Read more... )

Another thing I aquired on my tour through England and Scotland was yet another volume of James Boswell’s journals. Which gave me all kind of crazy ideas (for example, Boswell meeting the Pirates of the Caribean characters would be a riot, and it might even fit with the very vague hints we get as to when the hell PotC is supposed to take place), ( Read more... )