I'm still listening to All the Devils Are Here by Louise Penney, and am in the middle of the ebook version of
The Woman in the Moonlight by Patricia Morrisroe, published September 1, 2020, Little A; Kindle Unlimited
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Genre: historical fiction featuring the composing life of Beethoven and the Moonlight Sonata
Setting: Vienna, Naples, early 1800s
This is a novel about Beethoven and one of his first loves, Countess Julie Guicciardi, to whom he dedicated his Midnight Sonata. The two did not marry, but she continued to watch his progress as a famed composer over the years while she was married with several children of her own.
Beethoven was a driven, compulsive, but gifted artist, rough looking. Maybe because of his temperament, he never married. He had many lovers and women fell in love with him. Though the character of the composer may be based on fact and research, The Woman in the Moonlight is described as a "fantasia" by the author, a fleshed out story, her imagination filling in the bare facts known regarding the composer and the woman for whom he wrote the Midnight Sonata.
In any case, I am a bit scandalized by the goings on of men and women in the early 19th century in Europe, in particular the nobility and the artists and musicians they sponsored and supported. Mistresses were commonplace, and in the novel, Countess Julie is even propositioned by the wife of a count to have Julie bear her husband a child. There is more, but I won't go into it.
What are you reading this week?
