| Contents |
The Spaniard: in which a momentous life begins -- The right teacher: this boy could become 'a second Mozart' -- Meeting Mozart: watch out for that boy -- Word spreads: young Beethoven as kitchen scullion -- Impressing the Viennese: but Haydn feels the wrath of an angry young man -- My poor hearing haunts me: but there is 'a dear charming girl who loves me' -- Only my art held me back: in which Beethoven considers suicide -- Egyptian hieroglyphics: Napoleon is no more than 'a common tyrant' -- O, beloved J!: musical failure, but will Beethoven succeed in love? -- A deeply immoral woman: Beethoven holds the most important concert of his life, and is offered a job -- Under cannon fire: in which Beethoven once again tries his luck at love -- Immortal beloved: 'my angel, my all, my very self' -- An utterly untamed personality: Beethoven turns again to his 'poor shipwrecked opera' -- Into the witness box: how the single letter 'o' ruined Beethoven's life -- A musical gift from London: how Rossini found Beethoven 'disorderly and dirty' -- 'I want to be a soldier': in which Beethoven gets drunk with friends -- Two pistols and gunpowder: an invitation to get away from it all -- Frightening the oxen: 'The greatest composer of the century, and you treated him like a servant!' -- Terminally ill: 'His face was damp, he spat blood' -- The last master: 'He was an artist, but a man as well.' |
| Abstract |
Illuminates Beethoven's difficult childhood, his struggle to find a wife, his ungovernable temper, his emotional volatility, his tendency to push away those trying to help him, and in middle age his obsessive compulsion to control his nephew's life. |
| General note | This edition is adapted from Beethoven : the man revealed published in 2012 in England by Elliott & Thompson. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN | 0802122795 |
| ISBN | 9780802122797 |
