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Mr. Beethoven

Mr. Beethoven

Mr. Beethoven
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Mr. Beethoven Paperback - 2021

by Griffiths, Paul

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Description

New York Review of Books, 2021. Paperback. Good. Former library book; Pages can have notes/highlighting. Spine may show signs of wear. ~ ThriftBooks: Read More, Spend Less.Dust jacket quality is not guaranteed.
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Details

  • Title Mr. Beethoven
  • Author Griffiths, Paul
  • Binding Paperback
  • Condition Used - Good
  • Pages 312
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher New York Review of Books
  • Publication date 2021
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Illustrated
  • Bookseller's Inventory # G168137580XI3N10
  • ISBN 9781681375809 / 168137580X
  • Weight 0.7 lbs (0.32 kg)
  • Dimensions 6.9 x 5 x 1 in (17.53 x 12.70 x 2.54 cm)
  • Category Fiction - General
  • Library of Congress subjects Historical fiction, Biographical fiction
  • Library of Congress Catalogue Number 2020058343
  • Dewey Decimal Code 823.92
  • Quantity available 1

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From the publisher

Shortlisted for the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize

Based on the German composer's own correspondence, this inventive, counterfactual work of historical fiction imagines Beethoven traveling to America to write an oratorio based on the Book of Job.

It is a matter of historical record that in 1823 the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston (active to this day) sought to commission Beethoven to write an oratorio. The premise of Paul Griffiths's ingenious novel is that Beethoven accepted the commission and traveled to the United States to oversee its first performance.

Griffiths grants the composer a few extra years of life and, starting with his voyage across the Atlantic and entry into Boston Harbor, chronicles his adventures and misadventures in a new world in which, great man though he is, he finds himself a new man.

Relying entirely on historically attested possibilities to develop the plot, Griffiths shows Beethoven learning a form of sign language, struggling to rein in the uncertain inspiration of Reverend Ballou (his designated librettist), and finding a kindred spirit in the widowed Mrs. Hill, all the while keeping his hosts guessing as to whether he will come through with his promised composition. (And just what, the reader also wonders, will this new piece by Beethoven turn out to be?)

The book that emerges is an improvisation, as virtuosic as it is delicate, on a historical theme.

Media reviews

Citations

  • Kirkus Reviews, 08/01/2021, Page 0
  • Publishers Weekly, 08/23/2021, Page 0
  • Shelf Awareness, 10/26/2021, Page 0

About the author

Paul Griffiths is a Welsh novelist, librettist, and music critic. Admired especially for his writings on classical music, he has worked as a critic for major publications such as The Times (London), The New York Times, and The New Yorker. His first novel, Myself and Marco Polo, was published in the UK in 1989 and won the 1990 Commonwealth Writers' Prize. He has published two other novels, The Lay of Sir Tristram and let me tell you, and a collection of short stories, The Tilted Cup, along with books of music history and criticism and several librettos. He lives in the village of Manorbier, Wales.

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