Talk:Thaddeus of Warsaw

German edition

There seems to be a discrepancy in the sources given: The article currently says "The German edition was praised by Tadeusz Kościuszko", citing Elizabeth Lee's article from the Dictionary of National Biography. Lee indeed writes "Translated into German, it fell into the hands of Kosciusko, the Polish patriot, who sent Miss Porter expressions of approval". However, the thesis by Maciej Laskowski also cited in the article says "In Germany, the novel came out some time later but in two versions (the first one, Thaddäus Constantin, was described by Constantia v. B., Dresden 1825, the second, entitled Graf Sobieski, by G. Lotz, Braunschweig 1827)". So, the first German-language edition of the novel would have appeared in 1825, several years after Kościuszko's death. Browsing German library catalogues, I also can't find a German edition prior to 1825. I found another one (Dresden 1831) titled Thaddäus Constantin, Graf von Sobiesko. - However, maybe an earlier German edition was published not under Porter's name and with a an altogether different title, so maybe isn't easy to find among often lower-quality converted old catalogue records. Another possibility, I think, is that Kościuszko in fact read not a German, but a French edition, which seems more likely, as French editions apparently were published during Kościuszko's lifetime - and I'm not sure that Kościuszko knew much German at all? Gestumblindi (talk) 20:38, 11 October 2014 (UTC)

Related discussion: see Talk:Tadeusz_Kościuszko#Languages.3F. --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 03:57, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

First historical novel?

Re my recent edit I thought that I had left a comment here -- presumably I forgot to properly save what I wrote. I carefully checked, and, given that the action of this novel takes place in the 1790s, it is clearly not an historical novel. Rwood128 (talk) 17:13, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Well, the content removed by you cites several sources, including György Lukács, describing this book as a historical novel, even the first "true" historical novel (Lukács), although generally accepted definitions of "historical novels" seem to suggest that a novel dealing with events that took place only a few years earlier would indeed not be counted among them. Maybe a viable approach would be to re-phrase - quoting those who treat it as a historical novel in the manner of "so-and-so described it as a groundbreaking work of historical fiction" etc.? Gestumblindi (talk) 18:11, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

Gestumblindi how can a novel set less than ten years before it was published be an historical novel? Also you seem to have misread the reference to Lukacs: "By 1947, the Marxist critic Lukács felt entitled to argue that Scott's was the first "true" historical novel." I'll try and read the article that is cited.Rwood128 (talk) 20:29, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

There does indeed seem to be an alternate definition. I need to research this further – and the main articles on historical fiction and historical romance will also need attention. Rwood128 (talk) 12:39, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

@Rwood128: Thanks for looking into the matter! Even if I misread the Lukács reference, there seem to be scholars considering "Thaddeus of Warsaw" a historical novel, although I agree that it's not typical do describe a novel set a few years before its publication as such... Gestumblindi (talk) 22:30, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Gestumblindi I have started a discussion on the Talk page of Historical fiction: [1]. I'll also do the same for Historical romance. Rwood128 (talk) 13:49, 23 January 2016 (UTC)