An intoxicating novel about love, art, and life. Just as Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” moves one from tears to hope, so does Patricia Morrisroe’s story of the woman who inspired the sonata.
To the well-honed investigative skills on display in her acclaimed biography of the Dionysian Robert Mapplethorpe, Patricia Morrisroe now adds the art of intuitive invention. Her first novel gives us the intractable genius of Ludwig (or as his Francophile contemporaries preferred, Louis) van Beethoven through the eyes of Countess Julie (or, as he preferred, Giulietta) Guicciardi, the dedicatee of his Piano Sonata No. 14, popularly as the “Moonlight” Sonata. The supporting cast listed at the outs… Read more
Matthew GurewitschBeyond Criticism