Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | 811.54 DOV | Searching... Unknown |
Searching... Stillwater Public Library | 811.54 DOV | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
The son of a white woman and an "African Prince," George Polgreen Bridgetower (1780-1860) travels to Vienna to meet "bad-boy" genius Ludwig van Beethoven. The great composer's subsequent sonata is originally dedicated to the young mulatto, but George, exuberant with acclaim, offends Beethoven over a woman. From this crucial encounter evolves a grandiose yet melancholy poetic tale.
Author Notes
Rita Dove is the recipient of many honors, including the Pulitzer Prize and the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, she is a Commonwealth Professor of English at the University of Virginia and lives in Charlottesville.
Reviews (3)
Publisher's Weekly Review
This 12th collection from the former U.S. poet laureate and Pulitzer Prize recipient is her third book-length narrative poem: it follows the real career of the violin prodigy George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower (1780-1860), "a former pupil of Haydn, as well as the grandson/ of an African prince," or so his promoters and teachers in England said. Moving to Vienna during the Napoleonic Wars, the violinist met and befriended the famously moody Beethoven, who was prepared to dedicate his famously difficult "Kreutzer" Sonata to Bridgetower until a rivalry for the same woman drove them apart. Dove tells Bridgetower's story, and some of Beethoven's and Haydn's, in a heterogenous profusion of short poems, some almost prosy, some glittering in their technique. In quatrains, a double villanelle, what looks like found text, short lines splayed all over a page and attractive description, Dove renders Bridgetower's frustrated genius: "Music played for the soul is sheer pleasure;/ to play merely for pleasure is nothing/ but work." Dove does not always achieve such subtleties-those who loved her early work may think this book too long: few, though, will doubt the seriousness of her effort, her interest at once in the history of classical music and the changing meanings of race. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
*Starred Review* If only the violinist hadn't flirted with the pretty wench and enraged his mentor Beethoven, how different the course of history might have been. As it happened, Beethoven tore up the dedication to his brand-new sonata, which George Augustus Polgreen Bridgetower had just premiered in Vienna. The work became known as the Kreutzer Sonata, while gifted and brave violinist George was forgotten. Former poet laureate Dove, a master at dramatic monologues, is in top form here, reclaiming Bridgetower's story in a mischievous, sensuous, and deeply empathic lyrical narrative. Born in 1780 to a Polish German mother and a Caribbean African father, George was a famous prodigy and mulatto subjected to every insult. In scintillating, linked poems that embody the violin's profoundly emotional range, Dove brings the tumultuous world of Napoleonic Europe to life with stunning precision. The sheer pleasure of her crisp descriptions and the propelling suspense of this true tale cannot be overstated. As she writes in the voices of Bridgetower, Beethoven, Haydn, a court lady, and street fiddler Black Billy Waters, Dove delves into the nature of genius and power, class and race, and the consequences of exoticism and lust, creating a unique celebration of art and spirit.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2009 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Pulitzer Prize winner and former U.S. poet laureate Dove (American Smooth) applies her lyrical dexterity to the "lost story" of violin virtuoso George Polgreen Bridgetower (1780-1860), the son of an African father and Polish-German mother whose skills so moved Beethoven that he composed and dedicated to him the Kreutzer Sonata-a tribute retracted after the two quarreled over a woman's affections. As a biracial musician living in London and Vienna, Bridgetower was isolated, and Dove emphasizes the emotional importance of music to his personal identity, articulating the passion ("the world was not as large as the sound/ I sent to it") and physicality ("feel each crescendo/ as a tree feels the spring sap/ surging") he brought to his art. Verdict: Despite its length, this work moves crisply though Bridgetower's unusual life, lending its historical, arguably academic subject an engaging, contemporary ring.-Fred Muratori, Cornell Univ. Lib., Ithaca, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
