The Intimate Mozart
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4.5 • 4 Ratings
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- $2.99
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- $2.99
Publisher Description
Giddy sugarplum or calculating bitch?
Pretty Konstanze aroused strong feelings among her contemporaries. Her in-law's loathed her. Mozart's friends, more than forty years after his death, remained eager to gossip about her "failures" as wife to the world's first superstar. Maturing from child, to wife, to hard-headed widow, Konstanze would pay Mozart's debts, provide for their children, and relentlessly market and mythologize her brilliant husband. Mozart's letters attest to his affection for Konstanze as well as to their powerful sexual bond. Nevertheless, prominent among the many mysteries surrounding the composer's untimely death: why did his much beloved Konstanze never mark his grave?
Adapted and updated from the original Mozart's Wife.
Customer Reviews
Entertaining perspective
Waldron has done a fine job at immersing the reader in the late 18th C. Austria. A fascinating look at the famous composer from the perspective of his wife, while also being her own tale. Waldron chose to use some of the more scandalous, unproven rumors as her part of the plot, which is certainly the difference between novels and biography.
Constanze is a strong woman who loves Mozart deeply but must learn to deal with his flirtatious nature (is he faithful?), his drinking and partying, and his constant overspending. The novel deals with the reality of a woman's life - talented and intelligent in her own right - where the double standard was exacerbated by the Mozart's choices.
Both characters are complex - I found myself admiring them, yet annoyed with them at time. The life of the Mozarts as a couple and the complex society they lived in was well presented with a good balance between the exposition necessary to render the world well and the action that moved the story. My favorite parts were the dialog between Mozart and Constanze because they were so different, yet loved each other despite all they faced.