Marrying Mozart and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more

Buy New

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
or
Amazon Prime Free Trial required. Sign up when you check out. Learn More
Buy Used
Used - Good See details
$3.00 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

or
Sign in to turn on 1-Click ordering.
 
   
Kindle Edition
 
   
More Buying Choices
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
Marrying Mozart
 
 
Start reading Marrying Mozart on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Marrying Mozart [Paperback]

Stephanie Cowell (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)

List Price: $14.00
Price: $11.20 & eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details
You Save: $2.80 (20%)
o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o
In Stock.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com. Gift-wrap available.
Only 8 left in stock--order soon (more on the way).
Want it delivered Monday, January 30? Choose One-Day Shipping at checkout. Details

Formats

Amazon Price New from Used from
Kindle Edition --  
Library Binding $23.00  
Paperback $11.20  
Unknown Binding --  

Book Description

December 28, 2004
Amadeus meets Little Women in this irresistibly delightful historical novel by award- winning author Stephanie Cowell. The year is 1777 and the four Weber sisters, daughters of a musical family, share a crowded, artistic life in a ramshackle house. While their father scrapes by as a music copyist and their mother secretly draws up a list of prospective suitors in the kitchen, the sisters struggle with their futures, both marital and musical—until twenty-one-year-old Wolfgang Mozart walks into their lives. Bringing eighteenth-century Europe to life with unforgiving winters, yawning princes, scheming parents, and the enduring passions of young talent, Stephanie Cowell’s richly textured tale captures a remarkable historical figure—and the four young women who engage his passion, his music, and his heart.

Frequently Bought Together

Customers buy this book with Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet $10.08

Marrying Mozart + Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet
  • This item: Marrying Mozart

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details

  • Claude & Camille: A Novel of Monet

    In Stock.
    Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
    Eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping on orders over $25. Details



Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Former opera singer Cowell, whose previous novel (1997's The Players) explored the apprenticeship years of a callow Shakespeare, turns her eye to the women in the life of a young Mozart in her fourth graceful and entertaining historical. Music copyist Fridolin Weber and his socially ambitious wife, Marie Caecilia, have four daughters—bookish and devout Sophie; quiet Constanze; beautiful, silver-voiced Aloysia; and headstrong Josefa—whom they struggle to keep in hats and hose. Though the freethinking girls may wonder about the benefits of marrying well vs. marrying for love, Caecilia, whose family once had money, is terrified of growing old a pauper. Pinning her hopes on her prettiest daughter, 16-year-old Aloysia, Caecilia aims for a Swedish baron as suitor (though she keeps a list of backups in a notebook). Aloysia falls in love with the young Mozart, however, who happily returns her affections, though he, too, wonders about marrying better to support his father and beloved mother. But when the Webers move to Munich from Mannheim, Caecilia's hopes for good matches begin to dim, as Josefa takes a married lover and a pregnant Aloysia runs away with a painter who, along with Mozart, had been boarding with the family. As Mozart progresses in his career, he has relationships with the other Weber sisters, too, and falls alternately in and out of favor with their bitter old mother. Told through the recollections of an aging Sophie, the tale is as rich and unhurried as 18th-century court life.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Cowell's novel portrays Mozart as a passionate, determined young man and focuses on his relationships with the four Weber sisters. Mozart first meets Fridolin Weber, a music copyist, and his four daughters when he and his mother arrive in Mannheim. The second eldest girl, Aloysia, captivates Mozart, who finds her singing talent is matched by her beauty. Against the wishes of his mother, Mozart proposes to Aloysia, but he can't marry her until he makes his fortune. His dream is to be able to compose operas for a living, but when Idomeneo closes after just a few performances, Mozart is forced to beg the arrogant archbishop of Salzburg for a position. Aloysia, who dreams of fame and fortune as an opera singer, elopes with a portraitist. Mozart is heartbroken, but little does he know that true love lies with another Weber sister. As much about the four Weber sisters as it is about Mozart, Cowell's novel is an engaging look at Mozart's colorful world and his struggles during his early twenties. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 368 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (Non-Classics); First Printing edition (December 28, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 014303457X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0143034575
  • Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (48 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,866 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

My fifth novel CLAUDE & CAMILLE: A NOVEL OF CLAUDE MONET was published April 6th 2010. It was a work of tremendous passion for me to create Claude in his days of struggle to make a name for himself and to bring to life his great love for the elusive Camille whom he went on loving for as long as he lived though he lost her young. He wasn't always the old bearded man among his water lilies; he was handsome and desperately poor and she was beautiful; he wanted to succeed for himself and for her.

Art has been in my life since my first memories; both my parents were artists and I grew up with the smell of oil paints and was taken to art galleries; the stories of the impressionists' lives and works are among my earliest memories.

I was born in New York City and fell in love with history, music, Shakespeare and art almost at once. I loved all things English and European.

I started to write stories very young, and by the age of twenty had won prizes twice in a national story contest. In my early twenties, I left writing and began to train my voice for opera, and as a lyric coloratura soprano sang many roles, including a great deal of Mozart. I also became a balladeer with a specialty in English folk songs, a lecturer on English social history, formed a classical singing ensemble and an opera group called Strawberry, for which I translated Mozart's "La Clemenza di Tito." This led to my return to writing.

"Nicholas Cooke: Actor, Soldier, Physician, Priest" was published by W.W. Norton in the fall of 1993; it was followed by "The Physician of London" in 1995 and "The Players: A novel of the young Shakespeare" in 1997. "The Physician of London" won an American Book Award. "Marrying Mozart" was published in 2004, and has been translated into several languages: French, German, Italian, Polish, and Portuguese.

I am married to the poet and spiritual director Russell Clay. We make our home on the Upper West Side of New York City where we live in an apartment with thousands of books.

To me, being an historical novelist is one of the best things in the world!

 

Customer Reviews

48 Reviews
5 star:
 (27)
4 star:
 (11)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (3)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.2 out of 5 stars (48 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Superb historical novel, April 21, 2004
By 
Stephanie Cowell's superbly evocative, wonderful novel takes the reader from Salzburg in 1842, where an English biographer is interviewing the last surviving Weber sister, back to the Weber home in Mannheim in the 18th century and the era of Mozart, when their relationships with him all began. It tells the riveting, moving stories of all three sisters and the era itself is evoked in a fascinating wealth of detail, so that we are truly back in it. Ms. Cowell's writing is so exquisite, so romantic and so realistic at the same time that we can even feel the weather and the cold winter snow, so perfectly does Ms. Cowell bring it to life with telling detail. Her characters are living, breathing human beings, and we have a highly credible, complicated, real, completely believable Mozart. Here at last is the little man who wrote the great music, and we can feel his genius and his sensitivity in all its complexity. The Weber family, all of them, including the extended family of in-laws, is a powerful, sensitive evocation of the life of the century with all its differences in customs, and the life of Vienna and the court and the world of music are all engrossingly, lovingly, and magnificently depicted. There are startlingly beautiful scenes and a story that is compelling from beginning to end. You must buy and read and reread this magnificent recreation of a long-gone time and of the brilliant people who inhabit it!
Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Liberties aside, it wasn't long enough for me!, September 9, 2005
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
I'd like to begin by saying that I thoroughly enjoyed this book & was sorry to come to the end. If I could have, I would have given it 4-1/2*s. So why didn't I give it 5? In the end of the book the author mentions that she took certain liberties with the order of events for the sake of the story. I have studied Mozart for 23 years & wrote 40 pp on the inaccuracies of the movie, Amadeus, & there are liberties that I didn't think were necessary. Mozart & Constanze were married on August 4, 1782, not October. I see no reason to change this. She has Leopold Mozart visiting Vienna & meeting Constanze before her marriage to his son. Leopold did no such thing. He visited only once in 1785 after Wolfgang & Constanze had been married nearly three years. Aloysia shunned Mozart personally when he stopped to see her on his return trip from Paris. I don't recall her having run away to marry Joseph Lange. There were many other little "time shifts", yet this book brought me into the lives of the Weber sisters & life in working class Vienna in a way I won't easily forget. At least one reviewer mentioned that the language did not fit the time. I believe the author mixed a more 18th c tone with dialogue out of a later period. But never did the dialogue strike me as contemporary with all of today's slang expressions. So to me it was never jarring. There are several subplots which add drama to the story but I don't know if they are true. I'm referring to Frau Weber's "secret" regarding her eldest daughter, Josepha; the music store owner & Constanze. Once again, they didn't really bother me or detract from the story for me.

I would say that Mozart was almost portrayed a little too mild in places. He tended to be overly sensitive because of his personal insecurity. In places, such as his interaction with Frau Weber, he almost seemed fully in control of his temper. I can't quite see that. This didn't really bother me-not as much as the butchering of his character in the movie.

I particularly delighted in Fridolin Weber's Thursday night music evenings which Cowell brought to life so well. In the absence of TV or radio these types of evenings were common in 18th c musical homes, & Mozart wrote for, played in as well as hosted them, often. After the death of Fridolin the mother's down-hill slide is very believable. It was mentioned that she "drank more than a woman should." (I guess it was okay for a man.) I liked the way the author began & ended with Novello's visit to Sophia, the last remaining Weber daughter. I have read the book of Mary & Vincent Novello's journey to Salzburg, & it is believable also that she would have told the story of the family to him-although I doubt very much that she would have included the spicier parts.

Any negative comments aside, I would have loved it if this book went on further into Mozart's life as there is so much more to be brought to life there. I would recommend the book to Mozart lovers of course or anyone interested in 18th c Vienna. Those who know the details of Mozart's life may be bothered by the liberties taken & those who aren't will enjoy the story as historical fiction.


Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No


19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "Our beloved Mozart was not quite suited to this world.", May 1, 2004
Through the four daughters of Fridolin Weber, a poor, but talented, musician who knew just about everyone in the music world of Mannheim, author Stephanie Cowell reveals the rich, musical life of the inhabitants. Every Thursday evening, Weber opens his house to performers, composers, and singers, who entertain an always-enthusiastic audience and an occasional music patron. It is at one of these soirees in 1777, that the 21-year-old Mozart and his mother, visitors from Salzburg, Austria, first meet the Webers. This meeting is the first of many over the next three years, as Mozart falls desperately in love with one sister, lives with the family for a time in Vienna, and eventually marries another sister. So close is he to the family that he writes compositions for the voices of two of the sisters and even creates parts in his operas for them.

Author Cowell portrays the domestic life of late eighteenth century Germany in careful detail, revealing the customs, the lifestyle, and the intellectual life of Mannheim, then Munich, and eventually Vienna. Every homely detail, from the type of stockings the girls wore, to the rags they used to curl their hair contributes to the realism, while on-going, personal insights into the tenuous and highly competitive life of a budding composer, like Mozart, and the role of the prince-bishop as a patron make the music world come alive. The Mozart we see here is very different from the Mozart in Amadeus. Young and in many ways naïve, he is not the petulant and sissified dandy we see in the film. He is, however, somewhat clumsy in his personal relationships and unsure how to obtain the kind of support he needs for his prodigious talent to flourish, and he often has few choices open to him.

Lovers of romance will find plenty to admire here, as the Weber girls individually explore their own world, their potential futures, and their sexuality, while Mozart tries to find an outlet for the music in his soul. This is a love story--showing the passionate love between men and women, and the quiet devotion of parent and child, in a long ago time and in an exotic, often rarified atmosphere. Filled with sensuous descriptions, it is more a study of the four sisters than it is of Mozart, providing their woman's-eye views of music, the place of music in their lives, and the sacrifices they and their spouses must make for art. Mary Whipple

Help other customers find the most helpful reviews 
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews











Only search this product's reviews



Inside This Book (learn more)
First Sentence:
I FOUND MY SISTER'S WEDDING HAT TODAY IN A ROUND box of thin wood at the bottom of my wardrobe. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
fortepiano maker, opera commission, silver locket
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Maria Caecilia, Herr Mozart, Fridolin Weber, Monsieur Novello, Johann Schantz, Sophie Weber, Caecilia Weber, Frau Weber, Mademoiselle Weber, Constanze Weber, Padre Martini, Father Paul, Frau Mozart, Joseph Haydn, Leopold Mozart, Mon Dieu, Uncle Joseph, Count Arco, Mademoiselle Aloysia, Baroness von Waldstätten, Gottlieb Stephanie, Josefa Weber, Joseph Lange, Frau Alfonso, Herr Kapellmeister
New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats
Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Search Inside This Book:

Citations (learn more)



What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?


Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
 

Your tags: Add your first tag
 

Customer Discussions

This product's forum
Discussion Replies Latest Post
No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
 


Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
Search all Amazon discussions
   
Related forums





Look for Similar Items by Category


Look for Similar Items by Subject