Mr. Beethoven
The Walter Scott Prize for Historical Fiction 2021 Longlist * The Goldsmiths Prize 2020 Shortlist * Republic of Consciousness Prize 2021 Longlist
"A novel of great wit and empathy, one that provides a deep insight into the composition of both classical music and historical literature through playful, inventive prose. Griffiths has written a thought-provoking novel about possibility that pushes us to think hard about what we know and how we know it. He invites readers to join him in confronting the challenges of reimagining the past, and the spirit of spontaneity he offers is irresistible." – Michael Patrick Brady, The Boston Globe
| Weight | 0.410000 |
|---|---|
| ISBN13/Barcode | 9781999797492 |
| ISBN10 | 1999797493 |
| Author | Paul Griffiths |
| Binding | Paperback |
|---|---|
| Date Published | 1st January 2021 |
| Pages | 302 |
| Publisher | Henningham Family Press |
In 1823 Beethoven received a commission to write a biblical oratorio in the United States. How could this have worked?
As Beethoven wrestles with his muse, and his librettist Rev. Ballou, the composer comes to rely on two women. Thankful, who conducts his conversations using Martha's Vineyard sign language, and the widow Mrs. Hill – a kindred spirit. Meanwhile, all Boston waits in anxious expectation of a first performance the composer, and the world, will never hear.
Paul Griffiths records his intensive search for the composer in counterpoint to the story. The former music critic (The New Yorker; The New York Times) and author (let me tell you; Modern Music And After) invents only what is strictly possible, revealing the fragility of the traces that will give Mr. Beethoven seven more years.
Praise for Mr. Beethoven:"
There is a sort of deranged, Borgesian brilliance in Griffiths’s minute descriptions of music that never existed; and, despite the profound learning underpinning it, the book doesn’t at all smell of the lamp. It goes about its metafictional task in an energetic, supple and highly readable way – and it is beautifully produced." – Keith Miller, The TLS
"Mr. Beethoven is a novel about interpretation: about how a writer might go about interpreting the life of one of the most well-known composers who ever lived, but also about the role interpretation plays in creativity of all kinds. It is also, like much of Griffiths’s work, a riddling, playful, and often very funny investigation of literary form, and a demonstration of the unexpected liberation that can emerge from self-imposed constraints." – Jon Day, Music & Literature
"What would Beethoven have done with another seven years of life, and where, in the 1830s, might he have gone? The answer, in this audacious but exacting extension of the composer’s late period, is America, where an oratorio, Job, is completed (and performed) in Boston. Suffering and revelation are the subject-matter, but in Paul Griffiths’ hands, the Biblical sorrow undergoes a lasting modulation into a new key of delight in friendship, communication, and creativity." – Will Eaves, author of Murmur