Chopin in Paris: The Life and Times of the Romantic Composer (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "LATE IN THE AFTERNOON of the last Tuesday of September, 1831, Fryderyk Franciszek Chopin, just six months past his twenty-first birthday, entered the great city..." (more)
Key Phrases: four mazurkas, new mazurkas, three mazurkas, George Sand, Marie de Rozières, Charlotte Marliani (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Frederic Chopin was in many ways a contradictory figure: a passionately patriotic Pole, he left his country for good at the age of 21; frail and almost sexless, he was famous for a seven-year love affair with the novelist George Sand; shy, lonely, and retiring, he was inevitably surrounded by friends and admirers. In Chopin in Paris, biographer Tad Szulc has produced a dishy account of Chopin's most creative and tempestuous period, his 18-year sojourn in France. It's also a portrait of a unique time, when musical and artistic luminaries such as Chopin, Balzac, Hugo, Liszt, Berlioz, Delacroix, and Schumann ran in the same heady Parisian circles.

What it's not is a detailed study of Chopin's music. The author of critically praised books about Fidel Castro and Pope John Paul II, Szulc sets out in search of Chopin the man, "the human dimension" he finds missing in other, more musically oriented biographies. What he finds is not always attractive; tortured through much of his life by physical and psychological illness, Chopin emerges as an often fussy, distant, manipulative man, as well as something of a snob. It's a tribute to his genius as a composer, Szulc writes, that he was befriended by some of the greatest minds of his age, including the larger-than-life figure of George Sand: "Fryderyk Chopin gave the world a treasure in music. The world gave Chopin a treasure in human beings." Commendably, Szulc refrains from editorializing about the composer's life and habits, in particular Chopin's break with Sand. Instead, he allows his wealth of primary sources--including diaries, memoirs, letters, and Chopin's own brief journal--to speak for themselves.

From Library Journal

Political reporter and biographer Szulc (Fidel, LJ 1/87) based this biography of Chopin's adult years on correspondence and diaries in Polish and French as well as published sources in several languages. Liberally supplied quotations add liveliness to the portrait, but because of gaps in the record (many letters were lost or destroyed) and because Chopin often shielded himself from intimacy with others, emphasis is on Chopin's public persona and his "times." Szulc concentrates on Chopin's relationships with people, leaving discussions of his music to other writers. He relies heavily on earlier biographies for assessment of Chopin's character but makes some speculative judgments of his own, particularly regarding Chopin's sexuality. A supplement to George Marek and Maria Gordon-Smith's Chopin (LJ 9/15/78), with useful information, journalistically presented for a general audience.?Bonnie Jo Dopp, Univ. of Maryland Lib., College Park
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Scribner; 1ST edition (April 7, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0684824582
• ISBN-13: 978-0684824581
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.8 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #578,735 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars fatuous statements mar a fascinating life-story, March 28, 2000

By	Julian Grant (London, Beijing, New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Chopin In Paris: The Life And Times Of The Romantic Composer (Paperback)

To concentrate on Chopin's time in Paris, and to try and trace his connections and acquaintances in that extraordinarily fertile artistic stamping ground, is a very good idea and focus for a biography of Chopin's short life. It is a fascinating milieu and it says a great deal for the facts uncovered here that the story can survive a verbose and gushing written style, and some factual carelessness. One is confronted time and time again by statements such as these: 'The year 1834 was a good one for Chopin whose life, like the chord spread of an arpeggio, went alternatively from the bottom upwards or from the top downwards'. Or the final sentence in the whole book, a summing-up: 'Frederick Chopin gave the world a treasure in music. The world gave Chopin a treasure in human beings'. This is typicalof the windy flow that so impedes the sense in this book. Don't editors read this stuff before it gets into print?

Factually, the book falls down particularly badly when dealing with matters musical; for example we are told: 'Hector Berlioz made Romanticism's breakthrough in 1825 when he conducted a performance of his requiem at Saint-Roch Church. No performance of such magnitude and venturesome boldness had ever been presented before'. A muddle here - Berlioz's Requiem was written in 1837 and first performed at 'Les Invalides', and yes, did poleaxe the musical world. There was a Berlioz performance at St.Roch Church in 1825 - that was the Mass, an immature and not particularly large scale work (recently rediscovered and performed by John Eliot Gardiner) which Berlioz himself discarded after one performance, and which had no widespread impact. Also, the idea that Romanticism suddenly took everyone by surprise is fatuous. We are told Meyerbeer's opera 'Robert the Devil' deals with 'religious mythology'. It doesn't - it's a gothic penny-dreadful with skating nuns. These examples are indicative of a careless approach to the facts and make one question the primary research done in this book.

Chopin was obviously a complex, contradictory character - he comes across as self-obsessed, cold, intellectually rather narrow and rather snobbish (I would have much rather had dinner with Georges Sand),a self professed ardent Polish patriot who never went back to Poland, or showed much desire to do so - there is meat here for a good probing biography. Instead this book is capsized by pseudo-Hollywood puffery and rank journalese.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best of numerous Chopin biograpies that I have read., February 24, 1999

By A Customer

After reading most of the Chopin biographies, I wasn't sure that there was more I could learn. Tad Szulc offers a more personal and intimate view of this enigmatic master than any others. This is because he brings into play a great deal of material from Chopin's contempories. So much more of the relationship between George Sand is available with a much more sympathetic portrayal of Chopin's third and last great paramour. We also learn about Chopin's personal views on Beethoven, other musicians and artists, on piano pedagogy, based on discussions with his friend and the artist, Delacroix. Chopin's relationship with the Marquis de Custine, who above all others seemed able to understand the inner soul of Chopin and his music. The fact that the marquis was homosexual and perhaps adds to the empathy of one man for the expression of another does not go unnoticed though the author cautions against any inferences that Chopin may have had an intimate affair with another man. Chopin, the sensitive thinker amidst the rich turbulence of the times is portrayed through letters, correspondences and recalled conversations. Chopin is probably the most personal of all the great masters, yet he was aloof from the artistic excesses of his times, played Bach's well Tempered daily, meticulous in his composing habits and yet, a little appreciated fact emphasized by Tad Szulc that Chopin was an innovator and creator of new and important musical forms. Certainly all popular music and jazz harmonies of the 20th century are direcly derived and based on Chopin. If you love Chopin the musician, his music and fascinated with the rich artistic and political times of the early 19th century, you will treasure this book. Michael Tierra

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Major Biography, April 3, 2000

By	Bruce Loveitt (Ogdensburg, NY USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Chopin In Paris: The Life And Times Of The Romantic Composer (Paperback)

There are a lot of things to say about this book, most of them good. You come away from the book with the feeling that you have a pretty good understanding of Chopin's personality and also of what his day to day existence was like. For example, I always had a picture of him being a very serious and uptight person. And while he could be very stiff and formal in public, Mr. Szulc shows that in private he could be quite different. Chopin did not like to give public concerts and you could pretty much count on your fingers and toes how many such concerts he gave in his whole career. But he did enjoy going out at night to the homes of friends for little "get togethers" and he would play the piano for hours at a time and would get people laughing with his imitations of acquaintances. He apparently had a great gift for mimicry. One of the best features of the book is that it quotes extensively from the letters, journals, etc. of Chopin and George Sand and also of friends such as the artist Eugene Delacroix. Chopin's personality really comes through in his letters. You can see his charm and his sense of humor but also his snobbery and nastiness. It also seems pretty clear that he was an anti-semite, although Mr.Szulc tries rather desperately to rescue him from that charge by saying that Chopin really just didn't like the Jews in the music publishing business, because he felt they were trying to cheat him! He really didn't mind "other" Jews. Unfortunately, Chopin is quoted about 4-5 times making anti-semitic remarks but no examples are given of him having anything nice to say so I don't know why Mr. Szulc even tried to come to his defense in this particular area...I also learned from this book how highly regarded Chopin was as a pianist. I knew he was a great composer but he was also considered to be a great virtuoso, on the same level as Liszt. When playing at those private parties I mentioned above he would improvise for hours and it was said by knowledgeable people at the time that it was a great shame that the public never got to hear these remarkable improvisations. I also never knew that Chopin spent a great deal of his time giving piano lessons. He was apparently a very good teacher and the money he made teaching was a large part of his total income. There is a very touching section of the book that deals with the death at age 15 of Chopin's favorite (and most gifted) student, Carl Filtsch. Chopin felt that this boy had a unique and innate understanding of his music and this created a special bond between the two of them.Mr. Szulc explains early on that he is not a musician and therefore the book does not provide any musical insights. Mr. Szulc is forced into relying on and quoting the opinions of others when he makes brief forays into the technical aspects of the music. Professional musicians will probably find the book disappointing unless they only read the book to get a feel for the personalities involved. One last note of interest: The picture on the cover is an enlargement of the only known photograph of Chopin and is so revealing of his nature that it alone is almost worth the purchase price!