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The Memoirs of Hector Berlioz: Introduced by David Cairns (Everyman's Library Classics Series) Hardcover – March 19, 2002

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 51 ratings

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Hector Berlioz' (1803-69) autobiography is both an account of his important place in the rise of the Romantic movement and a personal testament. He tells the story of his liaison with Harriet Smithson, and his even more passionate affairs of the mind with Shakespeare, Scott, and Byron. Familiar with all the great figures of the age, Berlioz paints brilliant portraits of Liszt, Wagner, Balzac, Weber, and Rossini, among others. And through Berlioz's intimate and detailed self-revelation, there emerges a profoundly sympathetic and attractive man, driven, finally, by his overwhelming creative urges to a position of lonely eminence.

For this new Everyman's edition of The Memoirs, the translator--the composer's most admired biographer--has completely revised the text and the extensive notes to take into account the latest research.

(Book Jacket Status: Not Jacketed)

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Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

moirs of Hector Berlioz has long been considered to be among the best of musical autobiographies.

Like his massive compositions, Berlioz (1803-69) was colorful, eloquent, larger than life. His book is both an account of his important place in the rise of the Romantic movement and a personal testament. He tells the story of his liaison with Harriet Smithson, and his even more passionate affairs of the mind with Shakespeare, Scott, and Byron. Familiar with all the great figures of the age, Berlioz paints brilliant portraits of Liszt, Wagner, Balzac, Weber, and Rossini, among others. And through Berlioz's intimate and detailed self-revelation, there emerges a profoundly sympathetic and attractive man, driven, finally, by his overwhelming creative urges to a position of lonely eminence.

For this new Everyman's edition of
The Memoirs, the translator--the composer's most admired biographer--has completely revised the text and the extensive notes to take into ac

From the Back Cover

The Memoirs of Hector Berlioz has long been considered to be among the best of musical autobiographies.
Like his massive compositions, Berlioz (1803-69) was colorful, eloquent, larger than life. His book is both an account of his important place in the rise of the Romantic movement and a personal testament. He tells the story of his liaison with Harriet Smithson, and his even more passionate affairs of the mind with Shakespeare, Scott, and Byron. Familiar with all the great figures of the age, Berlioz paints brilliant portraits of Liszt, Wagner, Balzac, Weber, and Rossini, among others. And through Berlioz's intimate and detailed self-revelation, there emerges a profoundly sympathetic and attractive man, driven, finally, by his overwhelming creative urges to a position of lonely eminence.
For this new Everyman's edition of The Memoirs, the translator--the composer's most admired biographer--has completely revised the text and the extensive notes to take into account the latest research.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Everyman's Library; Illustrated edition (March 19, 2002)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 744 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 037541391X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0375413919
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.65 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.33 x 1.61 x 8.4 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 51 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
51 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers find the book engaging and fun to read. They describe the author as a great composer and writer with an original personality and genius in music. The narrative quality is described as cinematic and theatrical, bringing out a full range of emotions. It's a good choice for moderately priced hardbound books. Readers appreciate the writing style as hilarious and easy to read, like a novel.

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9 customers mention "Reading quality"9 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's reading quality. They find the author's engaging style draws them in and makes it a fun read. The binding is described as classy and gives reading an extra touch. Readers appreciate the lucid firsthand account of one of history's most influential figures.

"...both are books about a composer and the Memoirs is so utterly superior a reading experience...." Read more

"...So captivating, so rapturous is his narration of his life and love, so cinematic and theatrical is the scope and scan of his travels and trevails..." Read more

"...easy to read, he writes as if it's a novel and it was a truly a fun time reading about his crazy composition and love life...." Read more

"...The details of his journeys, and trials, really draw you in. This is one of the few books that can bring out the full range of emotions in me...." Read more

5 customers mention "Music composer"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book valuable for those interested in classical music and period history. They describe the composer as a great writer, eloquent, and literate. The book provides essential brilliance in practical matters of making music.

"...brilliance in all practical matters of making, producing, conducting music; more than a fair amount of failing plans, intrigues and disappointing..." Read more

"In addition to being a great composer, Berlioz is a fantastic writer. His accounts of his adventures are hilarious and entertaining...." Read more

"...account of the life of one of the most influential and innovative composers in history...." Read more

"Great book - best composer, conductor and critic memoir I've ever read. Book handsome and in good condition. VERY HAPPY." Read more

5 customers mention "Narrative quality"5 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the author's narrative style. They find it engaging and cinematic, with a firsthand account of the author's life. The accounts of his adventures are hilarious and entertaining, evoking a full range of emotions.

"...So captivating, so rapturous is his narration of his life and love, so cinematic and theatrical is the scope and scan of his travels and trevails..." Read more

"...Berlioz has a very engaging style that brings you into his head. The details of his journeys, and trials, really draw you in...." Read more

"...His accounts of his adventures are hilarious and entertaining. A must-read for any music history buff." Read more

"This is a rare, surprisingly lucid, firsthand account of the life of one of the most influential and innovative composers in history...." Read more

5 customers mention "Value for money"5 positive0 negative

Customers find the book a good value for money. They say it's a wonderful buy and a good choice for moderately priced hardbound books.

"...informative — and Everyman's Library is always a good choice for moderately priced hardbound books." Read more

"A very good book. A conversation from the mid 19th century about the times and the music, Hector Berlioz's struggles to succeed, and his place in it...." Read more

"Great book - best composer, conductor and critic memoir I've ever read. Book handsome and in good condition. VERY HAPPY." Read more

"I was extremely pleased with the quality and value of this book...." Read more

4 customers mention "Writing style"4 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the writing style. They find it easy to read and humorous, like a novel.

"...It is extremely easy to read, he writes as if it's a novel and it was a truly a fun time reading about his crazy composition and love life...." Read more

"...or French musical culture at the time, or just some outright humorous remark, often in Berlioz's characteristic hyperbole...." Read more

"In addition to being a great composer, Berlioz is a fantastic writer. His accounts of his adventures are hilarious and entertaining...." Read more

"The inimitable Hector Berlioz was a prolific writer (perhaps he missed his true calling)...." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • Reviewed in the United States on October 31, 2010
    No doubt, those who are passionate and knowledgeable about music will inhale the Memoirs as soon as they can get their hands on it. It is a precious gift for that select group. I want to make the point that this book will fully reward anyone who is generally interested in many things and who loves great literature. Reading it, I am frequently reminded of Mann's Doctor Faustus but only in that both are books about a composer and the Memoirs is so utterly superior a reading experience. I am nearly at the end now and have found the actual reading to go slower than I would have expected for, say, a work of fiction. This is good. The book has become a part of my life. I'll be sorry to see it go.
    5 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2018
    Even in my nightly communion performing my own amended version of Franz Liszt's arrangement (his own Opus One in his voluminous catalogue of piano transcriptions/arrangements) of Symphonie Fantastique for Basil Twist's visionary production (now extended through September2), I had in all my time studying the piece never ventured as so many, Basil prominent among them, had in discovering the wonders of The Memoirs of Hector Berlioz.
    i cannot name, outside of perhaps the late Glenn Gould, a more eloquent, literate and canny thinker in music. So captivating, so rapturous is his narration of his life and love, so cinematic and theatrical is the scope and scan of his travels and trevails that I find it tragic that his life story hasn't made it onto the big screen with any integrity or advocacy. Even the one thread of his pre-teen infatuation of the slightly older Estelle hanging over his life like an unresolved cadence until his visiting her in their mutual declinings, 47 years after, would be worthy cinematic source material.
    There's plenty of essential brilliance in all practical matters of making, producing, conducting music; more than a fair amount of failing plans, intrigues and disappointing receipts for concerts from which he had to sustain two households, those of his wife, the briefly brilliant-careered Irish Shakespearean, Harriet Smithson for whom he obsessively created the hallucinatory Symphonie, a marriage of short-lived happiness, and that of Marie Recio, a soprano of limited talent but limpetlike professional parasitism.
    What I hadn't at all bargained for was the fellow feeling I would encounter with this Frenchman of two centuries past: better known, though not necessarily better respected as a media personality than as a performer/composer, beset by professional jealousies and calumnies, met with only sporadic appreciation (I loved one fan's exclamation that Berlioz made the orchestra speak, referring to his natural ineffable talent of making dramatic though wordless narrative complete and compelling), dealing with a public largely and surprisingly indifferent to his orchestral works in particular, and preferring the facile vapidities of the light opera stars of the time, and of such an intrinsically romantic spirit though misdirected to run the gamut of the Unattainable to the Eminently Ill-Advised. In the end, I feel a brother-like connection with him, perhaps mistakenly being in love with Love, though music plays an important role. As Berlioz ends his Memoirs: "Which of the two powers, Love or Music, can elevate man to the sublimest heights?...It is a great problem, and yet it seems to me that this is the answer: 'Love can give no idea of music; music can give an idea of love.'...Why separate them? They are the two wings of the soul."
    Ever upwards.
    Roll it, Hector. ❤️
    6 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 16, 2014
    If you like Berlioz's music you should sample his memoirs — sparkling and informative — and Everyman's Library is always a good choice for moderately priced hardbound books.
    One person found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on June 17, 2017
    A very good book. A conversation from the mid 19th century about the times and the music, Hector Berlioz's struggles to succeed, and his place in it. The varied reactions at the time to Beethoven and Mozart. The difficulties Berlioz faced in performing his works which required massive orchestras and choirs.
  • Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2013
    Well first of all, having a nice cloth binding with an attached ribbon book mark is just nice to have. I miss these kind of "old school" binding and it really does give reading the book class! I love Hector Berlioz, his writing is hilarious, mainly because he is extremely pompous about himself and is NOT shy about it! It is extremely easy to read, he writes as if it's a novel and it was a truly a fun time reading about his crazy composition and love life. I would recommend this to any classical music fanatic or even anyone who is into reading into the drama filled back lives of composers!
    3 people found this helpful
    Report
  • Reviewed in the United States on May 4, 2010
    As soon as I first started reading this book I knew it was one of my favorites. Berlioz has a very engaging style that brings you into his head. The details of his journeys, and trials, really draw you in. This is one of the few books that can bring out the full range of emotions in me. The ongoing feud with Cherubini is hilarious while his reflections on the loss of his family is very moving. The only negative about this book is the insertion of the letters from Germany in the middle of the book. It really disrupts the flow of the narrative. It does have some interesting things though. The book flows better if you skim over that part.
    4 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on December 14, 2015
    I find this translation of Berlioz's memoirs to be highly entertaining. If you are serious about scholarship then yes, you probably want to check another English version for comparison. But for pure musico-literary enjoyment, I don't think you can go wrong with this choice. Nearly every page has either some insight into Berlioz himself, his music, or French musical culture at the time, or just some outright humorous remark, often in Berlioz's characteristic hyperbole.
    I may be ambivalent about Berlioz's actual musical output from time to time, but this edition is a hands-down favorite of mine.
    3 people found this helpful
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  • Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2016
    In addition to being a great composer, Berlioz is a fantastic writer. His accounts of his adventures are hilarious and entertaining. A must-read for any music history buff.
    One person found this helpful
    Report

Top reviews from other countries

  • Anon
    5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read.
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 26, 2023
    One of the best documented account of a great Composers life . Basically this is the Composers own memoirs so all the events are in chronological order which make his story very accessible and highly engageing. I believe that the reader will come away from this story with a much more rounded picture of a Very interesting man . A really Great Read . Very Highly Recommended.
    Great Stuff....
  • jivadas
    5.0 out of 5 stars a perfect bedside (or bathside) book
    Reviewed in Canada on April 2, 2017
    I have not much to add to the reviews below except to mention the format:
    the main text is divided into 58 short chapters, a perfect bedside (or bathside) book.
  • Truant
    5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent service
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 25, 2019
    This work is famous and needs no further qualifications. It is served by a really wonderful translation by David Cairns.
    This particular printing (hard back) by Everyman is a joy to hold and read. I bought a used copy because I had temporarily mislaid my own earlier copy by another publisher. It was in very good condition and arrived very quickly and well packed. It does not contain pictures which my other version did. I doubt that that would have worried Berlioz! All musicians need to know it.
  • De Pijper
    5.0 out of 5 stars the care with which the book has been produced rank it amongst the best in a music lover's library
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 1, 2015
    The quality of the translation and the notes (not available to my knowledge in the French versions), the care with which the book has been produced rank it amongst the best in a music lover's library. Cairn's editing and love of his subject makes it an all-time reference book for all interested in romantic literature (and indeed in society). Most enjoyable and enlightening - and a timely reminder in many ways of the impoverishment brought upon us by internet.
  • Fifth P
    5.0 out of 5 stars Superb
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 16, 2024
    Superb