A special edition of Peter Härtling’s great Schumann novel, on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of Robert Schumann’s death
Peter Härtling writes about the life and death of the torn and brilliant composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856): of his childhood in Zwickau; studies and work in Leipzig, Heidelberg, Dresden and Düsseldorf; encounters with Heine and Wagner; friendships with Mendelssohn and Brahms; various love affairs and his great love for Clara Wieck, whom he married against all opposition in 1840. Stages in Schumann’s biography alternate with descriptions of his last two years in a sanatorium near Bonn, suffering from syphilis. This account of the life and death of the great composer Robert Schumann unfolds along two different narrative strands. On the one hand, Härtling writes from the point of view of the male nurse who looked after Schumann during the last two years of his life; on the other, he includes the most important events from the composer’s torn, turbulent life, from his marriage to Clara Schumann and his friendships with Brahms and Mendelssohn. Härtling’s book takes an at once literary and biographical approach to this great man.
