Music & Silence - Hardcover

Tremain, Rose

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0374199892 ISBN 13: 9780374199890

Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2000

Synopsis

Brought to the Danish court in 1629 to serve in the king's orchestra, English lutenist Peter Claire soon finds himself caught up in royal intrigue when he falls for a young woman who is the companion of the queen. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

Review

Rose Tremain deserves a Hallelujah chorus dedicated just to her: a decade after the appearance of Restoration--and with a range of stunning novels and short story collections before and after it--now comes her glorious and enthralling Music and Silence.

This treasure house of delights, as haunting as it is pleasurable, teems with characters, real and imagined; with intrigues, searches, betrayals, in vivid scene after scene which loop in and out, back and forth, like overlapping and repeated chords.

King Christian IV of Denmark is, in the year of 1630, living in a limbo of fear and rage for his life, his country's ruin, and his wife's not-so-secret adultery. He consoles himself with the weaving of impossible dreams and with music--played by his Royal Orchestra in the freezing cellar at Rosenborg while he listens in his cosy Vinterstue above. Music, he hopes, will create the sublime order he craves. Kirsten, his devious wife, is a continual maker of Beautiful Plans to outwit, avenge, feed her greed. And she detests music.

The awkward duty of assuaging the King's miseries falls to his English lutenist, Peter Claire, his "Angel", whilst Emilia Tilsen must bend to Kirsten's every whim. Yet what Peter and Emilia seek is each other, largely in silence both necessary and cruelly imposed. Other stories, each of them full of fabulous and often joyful and witty invention, intertwine through the Royal Court's machinations: the King's mother who hoards her gold in secret; his boyhood friend, Bror, a tormenting memory; the villagers who suffer and wait in the frozen Numedal; Emilia's mute young brother Marcus. And in Ireland, Johnnie O'Fingal, once a kind father and husband, is driven mad by hearing music of utter divinity in his dreams, but which neither he nor Peter Claire can make earthbound. His devoted but spirited wife has distracted herself with Claire, but now finds herself rejected. Palpable with desire and longing, this extraordinary narrative builds its grand themes in storytelling that is both profound and wonderfully satisfying. --Ruth Petrie

Review

"The best thing from Denmark since Hamlet." (John Julius Norwich)

"A magnificent novel... a brilliant book which will repay many readings" (The Times)

"She is the best historical novelist of her generation. She evokes the past with sensuality, wit and superb sleights of hand... The plot is ingenious...an unforgettable tapestry of Eros and of art" (A. N. Wilson)

"Tremain's achievement in Music & Silence is extraordinary ... A narrative as funny as it is compelling" (Daily Telegraph)

"Tremain weaves her web of stories with great visual flair and emotional acuity: This is a fabulous cacophony of passion and despair" (Metro)

About this edition

• Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0374199892
• ISBN 13: 9780374199890
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 485