This novel is based on the life of Clara Schumann, the accomplished pianist and devoted wife of celebrated composer Robert Schumann. It's a fascinating and very personal portrayal of society in nineteenth century Germany. I found it passionate yet gentle, beautiful and very moving.
What did he do? Ah! At first he refused to believe it. He got drunk, he languished, he clung to his landlady who gave him a rent cut and a beer. He clung to the prose of Jean-Paul and the poetry of Schiller. He clung to Christel who clung back till both had mild abrasions. Then he found the ink. He wrote. He sent no letters but he wrote a great deal. A sonata, 'To Clara from Florestan and Eusebius' was delivered to the Wieck's front door in May. A sonata made of five notes falling. C-L-A-R-A. Let the pages fall at random, glance even for a moment and there it was - C-L-A-R-A - pulsing through the music like vesicles through meat.
