More Fantasia than Appassionata.
Julie Guicciardi, a young, pretty countess in early-19th-century Vienna, meets a magnetic, mercurial genius and begins the relationship that will set the mood music of her life.
Twenty-eight and single, short and stocky with no title or money but a piano virtuoso and one of the world’s most brilliant composers, Ludwig van Beethoven is not obvious marriage material. But 17-year-old Julie finds his charisma irresistible, and soon his piano lessons lead to a mutual declaration of love. The relationship, however, is unlikely to meet the approval of Julie’s society-conscious mother and remains secret, as does Julie’s pregnancy, which ends in a miscarriage that Beethoven commemorates in a piano composition to become known as the Moonlight Sonata, which he dedicates to Julie. The couple’s plans to marry are thwarted by unscrupulous Prince Lichnowsky (Julie’s mother’s lover) with threats of financial ruin and scandal, and Julie abandons Beethoven without explaining that she is saving him. Then she makes a disastrous marriage to Count Wenzel Robert von Gallenberg, who may be titled but is also poor, impotent, and, worse, has invited Lichnowsky to be his stand-in on their honeymoon, to provide the couple with a child. Later, Julie has children with another, more appealing substitute, Count Friedrich von der Schulenburg, and later still she becomes the mistress of the king of Naples. Morrisroe’s fiction debut, a long, gossipy, frictionless romp through European history during the Napoleonic era, recounts Julie’s relationships without conveying much character or emotional depth. Similarly, personal tragedies, historic events, wars, gilded social gatherings, and poetic moments twirl by with minimal impact. Beethoven's and Julie’s paths cross periodically through the years. He becomes a success, though deaf, unkempt, and alone. She eventually finds happiness thanks to a Beethoven coda.
More Fantasia than Appassionata.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-5039-0375-3
Page Count: 380
Publisher: Little A
Review Posted Online: July 13, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2020
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.
A lifetime’s worth of letters combine to portray a singular character.
Sybil Van Antwerp, a cantankerous but exceedingly well-mannered septuagenarian, is the titular correspondent in Evans’ debut novel. Sybil has retired from a beloved job as chief clerk to a judge with whom she had previously been in private legal practice. She is the divorced mother of two living adult children and one who died when he was 8. She is a reader of novels, a gardener, and a keen observer of human nature. But the most distinguishing thing about Sybil is her lifelong practice of letter writing. As advancing vision problems threaten Sybil’s carefully constructed way of life—in which letters take the place of personal contact and engagement—she must reckon with unaddressed issues from her past that threaten the house of cards (letters, really) she has built around herself. Sybil’s relationships are gradually revealed in the series of letters sent to and received from, among others, her brother, sister-in-law, children, former work associates, and, intriguingly, literary icons including Joan Didion and Larry McMurtry. Perhaps most affecting is the series of missives Sybil writes but never mails to a shadowy figure from her past. Thoughtful musings on the value and immortal quality of letters and the written word populate one of Sybil’s notes to a young correspondent while other messages are laugh-out-loud funny, tinged with her characteristic blunt tartness. Evans has created a brusque and quirky yet endearing main character with no shortage of opinions and advice for others but who fails to excavate the knotty difficulties of her own life. As Sybil grows into a delayed self-awareness, her letters serve as a chronicle of fitful growth.
An affecting portrait of a prickly woman.Pub Date: May 6, 2025
ISBN: 9780593798430
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.
A French art historian’s English-language fiction debut combines the story of a loving relationship between a grandfather and granddaughter with an enlightening discussion of art.
One day, when 10-year-old Mona removes the necklace given to her by her now-dead grandmother, she experiences a frightening, hour-long bout of blindness. Her parents take her to the doctor, who gives her a variety of tests and also advises that she see a psychiatrist. Her grandfather Henry tells her parents that he will take care of that assignment, but instead, he takes Mona on weekly visits to either the Louvre, the Musée d’Orsay, or the Centre Pompidou, where each week they study a single work of art, gazing at it deeply and then discussing its impact and history and the biography of its maker. For the reader’s benefit, Schlesser also describes each of the works in scrupulous detail. As the year goes on, Mona faces the usual challenges of elementary school life and the experiences of being an only child, and slowly begins to understand the causes of her temporary blindness. Primarily an amble through a few dozen of Schlesser’s favorite works of art—some well known and others less so, from Botticelli and da Vinci through Basquiat and Bourgeois—the novel would probably benefit from being read at a leisurely pace. While the dialogue between Henry and the preternaturally patient and precocious Mona sometimes strains credulity, readers who don’t have easy access to the museums of Paris may enjoy this vicarious trip in the company of a guide who focuses equally on that which can be seen and the context that can’t be. Come for the novel, stay for the introductory art history course.
A pleasant if not entirely convincing tribute to the power of art.Pub Date: Aug. 26, 2025
ISBN: 9798889661115
Page Count: 432
Publisher: Europa Editions
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2025
SEEN & HEARD
SEEN & HEARD
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