Book Review
Oct. 26th, 2024 08:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kenjariBeethoven's Letters
by Ludwig van Beethoven
This volume of letters is fairly illuminating. Beethoven is a very bold and direct letter-writer. Once he becomes an established composer, he is pretty sure of his abilities and his worth. He's thus quite direct and even demanding in his dealings with publishers. He has strong feelings about the people around him. He's generally optimistic.
The selection of letters is strangely lacking much of anything deeply personal or intimate. This is possibly because such letters were destroyed, but it does still leave a bit of a hole. I found it odd that the letters written in French were not translated; my French is good enough that this was not really a problem, but I could see if being very frustrating for those who don't read French. Still, this set of letters is a good introduction to Beethoven as a person, and worthwhile for that.
by Ludwig van Beethoven
This volume of letters is fairly illuminating. Beethoven is a very bold and direct letter-writer. Once he becomes an established composer, he is pretty sure of his abilities and his worth. He's thus quite direct and even demanding in his dealings with publishers. He has strong feelings about the people around him. He's generally optimistic.
The selection of letters is strangely lacking much of anything deeply personal or intimate. This is possibly because such letters were destroyed, but it does still leave a bit of a hole. I found it odd that the letters written in French were not translated; my French is good enough that this was not really a problem, but I could see if being very frustrating for those who don't read French. Still, this set of letters is a good introduction to Beethoven as a person, and worthwhile for that.
