Overview

Drawing on previously unpublished sources, this groundbreaking biography of Robert Schumann sheds new light on the great composer’s life and work. With the rigorous research of a scholar and the eloquent prose of a novelist, Judith Chernaik takes us into Schumann’s nineteenth-century Romantic milieu, where he wore many “masks” that gave voice to each corner of his soul. The son of a book publisher, he infused his pieces with literary ideas. He was passionately original but worshipped the past: Bach and Beethoven, Shake­speare and Byron. He believed in artistic freedom but struggled with constraints of form. His courtship and marriage to the brilliant pianist Clara Wieck—against her father’s wishes—is one of the great musical love stories of all time. Chernaik freshly explores his troubled relations with fellow composers Mendelssohn and Chopin, and the full medi­cal diary—long withheld—from the Endenich asylum where he spent his final years enables her to look anew at the mystery of his early death. By turns tragic and transcendent, Schumann shows how this extraordinary artist turned his tumultuous life into music that speaks directly—and timelessly—to the heart.

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Reviews

Chernaik is an enthusiastic student of Schumann's music and a fine chronicler of his turbulent life. Schumann: The Faces and the Masks is a well-proportioned, highly readable biography for general readers that establishes Schumann as a man thoroughly of his time. The book's greatest contribution is to situate Schumann in a remarkable fraternity of 19th-century composers. --Michael O'Donnell, The Wall Street Journal An affecting and moving biography . . . Chernaik pays close attention to the music and summons its inimitable combination of romantic ardour, eccentricity and classical craftsmanship in deft prose. --Ivan Hewett, lead review in The Daily Telegraph Fast-paced and informative . . . Chernaik vividly brings to life German composer Robert Schumann. Using his personal diaries, letters, and other key archival sources, Chernaik puts his life in a new light while providing an overview of Romanticism in 19th-century Europe. --Publishers Weekly (starred review) [An] intimate biography . . . [Chernaik], who betrays a close acquaintance with the composer's oeuvre, offers a very personal take on his life . . . While providing ample discussion of the classical works, [she] eschews technical language and musical notation . . . Highly recommended. --Herbert E. Shapiro, Library Journal Altogether outstanding. . . . [Schumann's] story is oft-told, but Chernaik's version eclipses its predecessors in two, perhaps three, respects. She has accessed newly released documentation of Schumann's final illness . . . She fills the book with descriptions of Schumann's compositions that are more easily followed and more thorough than most recording liner notes and that convincingly relate each piece to Schumann's life circumstances as well as to his other music . . . The third distinction stems from the fact that Chernaik is also a novelist. She doesn't get bogged down in data or scholarly one-upmanship, her vocabulary is direct and strong, and she keeps the line of Schumann's life ever before us. --Ray Olson, Booklist (starred review) A guided tour through the life and work of Robert Schumann (1810-1856), a musical genius who viewed the sublime before a decline into syphilitic madness. . . . A sturdy foundation of research and musical knowledge (and love) underlies this inspiring and wrenching account of a man who pursued, captured, and lost. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

A guided tour through the life and work of Robert Schumann (1810-1856), a musical genius who viewed the sublime before a decline into syphilitic madness. . . . A sturdy foundation of research and musical knowledge (and love) underlies this inspiring and wrenching account of a man who pursued, captured, and lost. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Altogether outstanding. . . . [Schumann's] story is oft-told, but Chernaik's version eclipses its predecessors in two, perhaps three, respects. She has accessed newly released documentation of Schumann's final illness . . . She fills the book with descriptions of Schumann's compositions that are more easily followed and more thorough than most recording liner notes and that convincingly relate each piece to Schumann's life circumstances as well as to his other music . . . The third distinction stems from the fact that Chernaik is also a novelist. She doesn't get bogged down in data or scholarly one-upmanship, her vocabulary is direct and strong, and she keeps the line of Schumann's life ever before us. --Ray Olson, Booklist (starred review) A guided tour through the life and work of Robert Schumann (1810-1856), a musical genius who viewed the sublime before a decline into syphilitic madness. . . . A sturdy foundation of research and musical knowledge (and love) underlies this inspiring and wrenching account of a man who pursued, captured, and lost. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Chernaik is an enthusiastic student of Schumann's music and a fine chronicler of his turbulent life. Schumann: The Faces and the Masks is a well-proportioned, highly readable biography for general readers that establishes Schumann as a man thoroughly of his time. The book's greatest contribution is to situate Schumann in a remarkable fraternity of 19th-century composers. --Michael O'Donnell, The Wall Street Journal An affecting and moving biography . . . Chernaik pays close attention to the music and summons its inimitable combination of romantic ardour, eccentricity and classical craftsmanship in deft prose. --Ivan Hewett, lead review in The Daily Telegraph [An] intimate biography . . . [Chernaik], who betrays a close acquaintance with the composer's oeuvre, offers a very personal take on his life . . . While providing ample discussion of the classical works, [she] eschews technical language and musical notation . . . Highly recommended. --Herbert E. Shapiro, Library Journal Altogether outstanding. . . . [Schumann's] story is oft-told, but Chernaik's version eclipses its predecessors in two, perhaps three, respects. She has accessed newly released documentation of Schumann's final illness . . . She fills the book with descriptions of Schumann's compositions that are more easily followed and more thorough than most recording liner notes and that convincingly relate each piece to Schumann's life circumstances as well as to his other music . . . The third distinction stems from the fact that Chernaik is also a novelist. She doesn't get bogged down in data or scholarly one-upmanship, her vocabulary is direct and strong, and she keeps the line of Schumann's life ever before us. --Ray Olson, Booklist (starred review) A guided tour through the life and work of Robert Schumann (1810-1856), a musical genius who viewed the sublime before a decline into syphilitic madness. . . . A sturdy foundation of research and musical knowledge (and love) underlies this inspiring and wrenching account of a man who pursued, captured, and lost. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Author Information

Judith Chernaik was born and grew up in Brooklyn. She graduated from Cornell University and received a Ph.D. from Yale University. She has taught at Columbia, Tufts, and Queen Mary College in London. Her books include The Lyrics of Shelley and four novels. She has also written a play, and most recently has published essays on Robert Schumann, Clara Schumann, Mendelssohn, and Chopin in the British academic journal The Musical Times. She and her husband, Warren Chernaik, have been living in London for the last forty years, where she founded Poems on the Underground, which under various names, has since spread all over the world.

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