Longing - Hardcover

Landis, J. D.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0151004536 ISBN 13: 9780151004539

Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2000

Synopsis

Rich in historical detail and period characters, this multi-layered novel set against the backdrop of the Romantic era captures the lives and love affair of composer Robert Schumann and his pianist wife, Clara, and their relationships with the artists and musicians of their time, in a lively and sensuous tale of music, madness, genius, and passion. 35,000 first printing.

About this title

From the Back Cover

"Richly conveys both the joy and the sorrow of [an] extraordinary love story . . . In a lush, sinuous style . . . Landis draws us into a world at once turbulent and dazzling."
--Los Angeles Times

"YOU DON'T HAVE TO LIKE CLASSICAL MUSIC TO SAVOR THIS EXQUISITE NOVEL. . . . LANDIS MAKES MUSIC SPEAK AND WORDS SING IN THIS WINNING OPUS."
--Glamour

"[A] PENETRATING FICTIONAL BIOGRAPHY . . . Landis tells us that [the Schumanns'] marriage was vivid, full of humor, vitality, and a great hunger for music. . . . Landis has seamlessly interwoven his text with ideas (about language and music, genius, imagination and the nature of human devotion) that are very much his own. . . . It is almost as if Landis himself were conducting a score, with the two characters his human instruments."
--The New York Times Book Review

"[LANDIS] BRINGS THESE FASCINATING GENIUSES TO VIVID LIFE. . . . It's hard to know what is more admirable, Mr. Landis's erudition or the liveliness of his imagination. . . . Part of the pleasure in reading the novel is seeing artists and writers such as Goethe, Chopin, Heine, Paganini, and Brahms inhabiting the Schumanns' world as men, not as names in a syllabus. . . . Landis's novel is pervaded with vitality."
--The Wall Street Journal

"[A] CAREFULLY RESEARCHED, WONDERFULLY ENJOYABLE, AND DELECTABLY OLD-FASHIONED BIOGRAPHICAL NOVEL that is as passionate and flamboyant as the main characters. . . . This evocative recreation of the Romantic era is not just a novel for music lovers but for lovers, plain and simple."
--Chicago Tribune

"J. D. Landis has produced a book as haunting and complex as the music of his subjects. . . . I know no book that marries art and life so seamlessly; 'If music be the food of love, here we have a feast.' "
--NICHOLAS DELBANCO
Author of The Lost Suitcase

"Charged with the drama of passion, unrecognized genius, madness, and early death."
--Newsday

"A magnificent novel--brilliant, stylish, passionate, and rich with wit and wisdom. J. D. Landis knows these complex people, artists and scoundrels alike, by heart; and he summons up the world they lived in with firm authority and authenticity. Longing is a triumph of imagination and intelligence."
--GEORGE GARRETT
Author of The King of Babylon Shall Not Come Against You

"Witty, precise, rich in historical detail . . . No couple better sums up the brilliance and intensity of the Romantic Age than Robert and Clara Schumann. . . . Landis has a wonderful capacity for writing dialogue that sounds as if it's coming off the top of the characters' heads."
--The Philadelphia Inquirer

"The themes of music, desire, and melancholy dominate this compelling novel . . . A nuanced examination of lives marked by tenderness, lost innocence, and longing."
--Library Journal

"Glorious fiction . . . Finely crafted . . . [A] riveting tale of romantic longing . . . Rather than strive for literary or stylistic effect, Landis relies on the truths of Schumann and Wieck's passion, writing with earnestness, playfulness, and fervor characteristic of the era he chronicles. Expansive and engrossing, this is historical fiction at its best, true to its subjects and steeped in the past."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"A gripping real-life story full of love, music, madness, and intrigue. Brought to life through a fictive lens, this tale is utterly realistic in its history and wonderful in its sentiment."
--Booklist

From the Inside Flap

Robert Schumann and Clara Wieck. These brilliant and complex people enrich this sweeping story of a love that could not be denied. Set amid an enthralling rich era with creative genius, Longing explores the nature and danger of passion with precision, sympathy, and wisdom. J. D. Landis has encompassed madness, genius, and passion that propelled characters, and he re-creates their lives with surpassing depth, wit, and intelligence. . . .

About this edition

• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0151004536
• ISBN 13: 9780151004539
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 464