Chopin's Funeral - Hardcover

Eisler, Benita

3.77

316 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0316860212 ISBN 13: 9780316860215

Publisher: Little, Brown, 2003

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Chopin's funeral, bisecting the 19th century, stands as a turning point. Both the life and music of this frail elegant man played out at the crossroads. His decline and death following a series of catastrophes, particularly the breach with his lover Georges Sand; the ebb of his creative energy on the brink of a new style, were at both, final chapters in his often tragic life and reflected larger historical forces. CHOPIN'S FUNERAL is about a death foretold as the sum of other tragedies: the end of a world that fostered his particular genius; the wounds of exile and most fatally, the loss of love. An intimate close-up of the composer's last years, it is also the story of the artist as hero. At the close of his life, with no home or money, his physical powers failing, Chopin grappled with nothing less than a new musical form.
CHOPIN'S FUNERAL is also the larger story of a great nineteenth-century city, Paris, in the grip of revolution.

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Review:

Crisply written, thoroughly researched & enthralling... Eisler shows herself completely in tune with Chopin's genius...the background to the creation of the music is painted so vividly that we feel we are there (SUNDAY TELEGRAPH)

A small miracle (INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY)

She reveals a poetic sensitivity that can slip through the closed doors of some scholarship ...it's probably as true a picture of what passed between Chopin & Sand as we'll get (DAILY TELEGRAPH)

As a cultural chronicle this book is riveting... a wonderfully evocative meding of music and life...a brilliant little book. (FINANCIAL TIMES)

Book Description:

* A vivid, accessible life of one of the most romantic figures of the nineteenth century, written with a fantastic sense of location.

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