THE WOMAN IN THE MOONLIGHT

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.