Major
Writing and Rhetoric
Second Major
Biological Sciences
Advisor
Jones, Madison
Advisor Department
Writing & Rhetoric
Date
4-2023
Keywords
history; fiction; novel
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Abstract
I am an avid fan of historical fiction books such as The Royal Diaries. But given the recent popularity of more adult royal drama series like The Great, as well as impostor true crime shows like Inventing Anna, on this project I set out to create a historical fiction drama of my own. While searching for a real-life figure to base my story on, I happened to see a quick footnote at the bottom of an article on Catherine the Great that intrigued me. At the turn of the 18th century, an ordinary young Polish woman named Eva Frank managed to pass herself off as Catherine the Great’s illegitimate child to the Viennese court of Empress Maria Theresa, Marie Antoinette’s mother. Not only that, but Eva’s father Jacob helped her in this con in order to boost the popularity of the Frankists, his cultish religious movement based on his teachings. This story shocked me not only because of how seemingly well their scheme worked, but also because of how little attention their story got from the history books. Compared to Catherine the Great or Marie Antoinette, there are hardly any books, films, or shows based off the Franks’ lives. This is why I decided to write a short story of my own based on Eva’s life. This project allowed me to practice the important skills of outlining, drafting, and revising fiction that I will need in a future dream career as a published novelist.
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