The Diary of Richard Wagner 1865-1882: The Brown Book [Hardcover]

Richard Wagner (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 221 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1ST edition (June 30, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521233119
• ISBN-13: 978-0521233118
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,036,010 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #97 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > People, A-Z > ( W ) > Wagner, Richard

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Brown Book, February 21, 2006

By 

jerry i h (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Diary of Richard Wagner 1865-1882: The Brown Book (Hardcover)

In 1865, Cosima von Bulow presented Wagner with an elegantly decorated, brown leather book, to record his thoughts to her when they were apart. This volume, which came to be known as the "Brown Book", did not see the light of day for almost a century, and biographers and fans alike came to despair of ever reading it. In 1975, it was finally published, and the English translation came in 1980. This is that book. It has a photo of the original diary, along with half a dozen facsimile pages from the original. It also features rather extensive and informative notes by the editor. The preface has a history of the "brown book".
In the end, this book is not as fascinating as you might expect. If you have already read Cosima's diaries and Wagner's My Life, then view this book as a supplementary volume. The only really interesting part is the Parsifal sketch.
It was used by W as a diary, but only for the second half of 1865; for the remainder, he used it as a sketchbook for various rough drafts. About half of its contents were previously published.
This is a brief synopsis of the contents:
**p.28-86. Diary entries Aug 1865 to Feb 1866. Also has a poem to King Ludwig, and rough drafts to Parsifal.
**89-92. Entries from 1867.
**93-124. Annals for 1846-1867. Autobiographical material of interest to biographers, since it has not been published before.
**125-204. Assorted rough drafts: poem to David Strauss, forward to German Art and Politics, forward to Opera and Drama, TOC for his collected works, Ludwig Schnorr, theme for Romeo and Juliet, The Victors, several poems for King Ludwig, a couple of diary entries, a comedy, poem to Henriche Laube, Annals for 1868, New Year's Eve theme, Beethoven and the German Nation, A Capitulation, To the German Army, What is German, fragments, Male and Female in Culture and Art.