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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
Ecstasy by Mary Sharratt is a 2018 Houghton Mifflin Harcourt publication.
This story is a fictionalized accounting of composer and pianist Alma Schindler’s life during the period she was married to famed composer Gustav Mahler. As a condition of her marriage, Alma promised her husband, she would give up her own music and channel all her passion for music through his compositions and successes, which eventually takes her down the path of depression and melancholy, and into the arms of another man.
Vienna…
It doesn’t seem to matter what kind of story I’m reading- if Vienna is the location- It immediately puts me into an entirely different mood. There is just something so atmospheric about it, so romantic and steeped in incredible history- especially from an artistic standpoint. This book was no exception. I willingly allowed myself to fall dreamily into the angst ridden, highly dramatic, often tragic life of Alma Schindler Gustuv. Alma was a talented composer, someone who swore she would never succumb to traditional married life, always putting her music first- until she fell in love with Gustuv Mahler.
This story follows the impulsive Alma as she struggles through her teenage years, where she copes with the way her mother demurs to her new husband, and the addition to their family of a younger brother, as well as her sister’s struggle with mental illness. While Alma's often petulant and selfish, she is also a great romantic and feels things deeply.
She falls in and out of love easily enough, but did seem to have a tremendous depth of feeling for Gustuv who was more self -absorbed than Alma ever thought of being. Despite his dismissive attitude towards her, she lives for those periods of great passion between them. It was an amazing journey Alma took, as she suffered from discontent, boredom, and pent up creative power that left her frustrated and badly in need of release.
The story and the marriage between Alma and Gustuv reads like a musical composition at times with staccato and legato, diminuendo, and crescendos, Molto and Sempre, melody and harmony. I enjoyed the high drama, I must say. If this had been a strictly fictional book, I may have rolled my eyes at some of the intense emotional turmoil Alma was always on the verge of, thinking it just a little bit too melodramatic or over the top, but since this story is based on true events, it proves that life often is packed with more high -pitched angst than we want to admit. Artists of all forms seem more prone to those fits of agony and mania, but I’ll keep this in mind the next time I become exasperated by an overwrought heroine.
I also enjoyed Alma journey back to the place where she was able to take charge of her life and music again, was able to express herself musically and artistically, feeling more fulfilled and more independent, perhaps learning that lesson the hard way. In the end, Alma was more of a trailblazer for women than she is credited with, eventually leaving behind her own musical legacy, despite her continual attraction to men driven by their careers.
Many of you, myself included, will want to know more about Alma’s life after reading this book. It is interesting to note, that she often maintained her role as muse, becoming the subject of plays, books, and movies. While there are plenty of resources to choose from, the truth of Alma’s life is often speculative, elusive, and the subject of much debate.
This is quick, fascinating read, I found to be quite interesting and very absorbing.
4 stars
Around The Year in 52 Books: A book related to the arts.
Ecstasy is my first experience with Mary Sharratt's novels, although I have a few others on my shelves, and I was blown away by the beauty and depth of the writing. I'm somewhat embarrassed to say that I wasn't familiar with Alma Mahler before picking up this book so had no preconceptions of how her story would unfold. What I found within the pages was a brilliant and passionate woman who, for years, put her own happiness on hold for a selfish husband until she was finally able to burst free to become the accomplished woman she was always meant to be.
My favorite aspect of the story would have to be the beauty with which it was written. It flows like music and Sharratt brings Alma's world to life with vivid color and dimension, painting this unique and colorful world with detailed strokes. This can be both good and bad as I really came to appreciate Alma's talents and became somewhat frustrated with what she put up with at the hands of her husband, Gustav Mahler, and the lack of support she received from her mother and stepfather.
It's been a while since I've read a work of historical fiction and yearned for the history to be different so a real life character would have a different life, but here we are. Sharratt made me care for Alma in a way that made me feel like I wanted her, and other characters, to make different choices. For example, her parents raised her within this progressive artistic community but then forbade her from finding her own foothold within it, and then supported the notion of her giving up her own ambitions for a man who thought his own genius was more important than his wife's happiness and fulfillment. And Gustav...I apologize to any fans of his talent but, as a man, I found him to be just awful. The way he treated Alma was simply uncaring and cruel and, by the time he seemed to realize that he needed to support her, I personally thought it was too little too late. It made it worse for me that Alma even felt he was being selfish and hurtful but still supported it as a "dutiful wife" because his brilliance was so great. It was just so aggravating to me!
All this being said I was very happy to see that, with all the pain and loss she endured during her marriage to Mahler, she was able to eventually share her own talents with the world. The author includes a wonderful author's note at the end that fills the reader in on Alma's life after this story ends and I have to admit that I would love to read a novel about that part of her life (maybe a sequel? Hmm???). Either way I'll be on the hunt for more about Alma Mahler as Ecstasy has stirred me to need to learn more and I'm very excited to read more by Mary Sharratt!
My favorite aspect of the story would have to be the beauty with which it was written. It flows like music and Sharratt brings Alma's world to life with vivid color and dimension, painting this unique and colorful world with detailed strokes. This can be both good and bad as I really came to appreciate Alma's talents and became somewhat frustrated with what she put up with at the hands of her husband, Gustav Mahler, and the lack of support she received from her mother and stepfather.
It's been a while since I've read a work of historical fiction and yearned for the history to be different so a real life character would have a different life, but here we are. Sharratt made me care for Alma in a way that made me feel like I wanted her, and other characters, to make different choices. For example, her parents raised her within this progressive artistic community but then forbade her from finding her own foothold within it, and then supported the notion of her giving up her own ambitions for a man who thought his own genius was more important than his wife's happiness and fulfillment. And Gustav...I apologize to any fans of his talent but, as a man, I found him to be just awful. The way he treated Alma was simply uncaring and cruel and, by the time he seemed to realize that he needed to support her, I personally thought it was too little too late. It made it worse for me that Alma even felt he was being selfish and hurtful but still supported it as a "dutiful wife" because his brilliance was so great. It was just so aggravating to me!
All this being said I was very happy to see that, with all the pain and loss she endured during her marriage to Mahler, she was able to eventually share her own talents with the world. The author includes a wonderful author's note at the end that fills the reader in on Alma's life after this story ends and I have to admit that I would love to read a novel about that part of her life (maybe a sequel? Hmm???). Either way I'll be on the hunt for more about Alma Mahler as Ecstasy has stirred me to need to learn more and I'm very excited to read more by Mary Sharratt!
Oh, to sense the heights. To be a mountain. To be great and expansive, bursting with potentiality.
I signed up for the blog tour of Ecstasy because the synopsis sounded incredible and right up my alley. In the last year I've become really intrigued with books set in the early 20th century, especially if the setting is in Vienna and if the story revolves around a real woman in history like Alma. She definitely wasn't a perfect character. She had her flaws and problems but even so I hadn't expected to fall in love with this brilliant book the way I did. I even read until 2:00 pm to finish the story just because I didn't want to put the book down and stop reading.
The story is about Alma Schindler (later Alma Mahler), who more than anything wants to be a sucessful composer. When she meets the nearly twenty years older and accomplished composer Gustav Mahler, they fall for each other. But for their marriage his condition is that she gives up her music so that there's more room for his own, essentially. This causes Alma to be utterly torn between her passion for composing and her love for Gustav.
I can't quite put my finger on what exactly made this book so good. Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, the complex character of Alma, the artistic men she came in contact with and who all seemed to be enchanted by her, the bittersweet element of the story, the writing... I just loved it all.
It also doesn't happen often but I ended this book with tears in my eyes. This just shows how totally taken I was with it. I'm so glad the author put the spotlight on Alma Mahler the way she did in this amazing story. I want more people to also read this book and hopefully also fall in love with it the way I did.
Ecstasy by Mary Sharratt was one amazing and beautifully written story. I honestly fell in love with it from the very first page and continued being completely hooked throughout the whole novel. It was just phenomenal!
I signed up for the blog tour of Ecstasy because the synopsis sounded incredible and right up my alley. In the last year I've become really intrigued with books set in the early 20th century, especially if the setting is in Vienna and if the story revolves around a real woman in history like Alma. She definitely wasn't a perfect character. She had her flaws and problems but even so I hadn't expected to fall in love with this brilliant book the way I did. I even read until 2:00 pm to finish the story just because I didn't want to put the book down and stop reading.
The story is about Alma Schindler (later Alma Mahler), who more than anything wants to be a sucessful composer. When she meets the nearly twenty years older and accomplished composer Gustav Mahler, they fall for each other. But for their marriage his condition is that she gives up her music so that there's more room for his own, essentially. This causes Alma to be utterly torn between her passion for composing and her love for Gustav.
I can't quite put my finger on what exactly made this book so good. Vienna at the turn of the 20th century, the complex character of Alma, the artistic men she came in contact with and who all seemed to be enchanted by her, the bittersweet element of the story, the writing... I just loved it all.
It also doesn't happen often but I ended this book with tears in my eyes. This just shows how totally taken I was with it. I'm so glad the author put the spotlight on Alma Mahler the way she did in this amazing story. I want more people to also read this book and hopefully also fall in love with it the way I did.
Ecstasy by Mary Sharratt was one amazing and beautifully written story. I honestly fell in love with it from the very first page and continued being completely hooked throughout the whole novel. It was just phenomenal!
Most people may have heard of the names Gustav Mahler and Gustav Klimt, but the names Alma Mahler and Alma Maria Schindler probably mean nothing to you. Admittedly they didn’t to me either. However, with Mary Sharratt’s newest novel, I’m glad to have finally had the chance to learn something about one very interesting woman. If you read my review of this book on my blog here, you’ll find out where all these names, and more, come together in one historical fiction novel.
https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2018/07/07/an-eve-or-a-lilith/
https://tcl-bookreviews.com/2018/07/07/an-eve-or-a-lilith/
Ecstasy doesn't reinvent the wheel, but in the genre of 'turn-of-the-century biopics featuring a Strong Female Protagonist battling the standards of her time' it's the strongest entry I've read this year. The writing is as lush as the cover art & Mary Sharratt does an excellent job capturing a woman who's life is frustrating and inspiring in turn.
The book 'Ecstasy' by Mary Sharratt is a historical fiction book set on the life of Alma Maria Schindler, a brilliant Viennese-born composer.
This book captures the essence of Alma Schindler, a larger-than-life woman whom we can only look up to in this day and age. The author of this book wove a brilliant story of love, passion, music and the society of Vienna only by referring to the Diaries of Alma Mahler-Werfel, and the collection of letters that Gustav Mahler wrote to his wife. And indeed, this book is filled with references to Gustav's loving letters to his wife while he organised concerts and symphonies abroad, or while Alma recuperated at the sanatorium at different stages in her life.
Ecstasy is written in a third person POV, but at times it felt like I was sitting in Alma's mind. I felt enraged when Alma felt enraged, loved when Alma felt loved and distraught when Alma felt distraught. The empathetic connection that the reader will have upon reading this book is a mesmerising affair.
The struggles of being a woman in the 19th/20th century are described in excruciating detail. Alma wished to pursue her dreams of being a composer of world-renowned symphonies, and laboured at the piano everyday to achieve her dreams. Her eyes lit up when she saw other girls her age achieve brilliant success in their own fields of art. She was a regular attendee at concerts at the Court Opera. The symphonies performed at those concerts took her to the highest level of nirvana possible.
Her whirlwind romance with Alex Zemlinsky was one part of the book I adored. I was torn apart when Alma had to make a choice between Zemlinsky and Mahler. Because the choice was not only restricted to the people involved. Alma also had to choose between: continuing her studies in the field of composing or giving it up; falling in love with a poor man or a rich man; going against her parents' wishes or accepting them meekly; listening to her heart or listening to her heart, because she loved both of them so dearly.
A 5/5 star read indeed. And a brilliant book that every musician, composer and anyone who dabbles in the art of music can enjoy. It offers a perspective about how music and the experience of listening to music has evolved over the centuries. And yet, music as a medium of self-expression and innovation has remained constant over the centuries.
This book captures the essence of Alma Schindler, a larger-than-life woman whom we can only look up to in this day and age. The author of this book wove a brilliant story of love, passion, music and the society of Vienna only by referring to the Diaries of Alma Mahler-Werfel, and the collection of letters that Gustav Mahler wrote to his wife. And indeed, this book is filled with references to Gustav's loving letters to his wife while he organised concerts and symphonies abroad, or while Alma recuperated at the sanatorium at different stages in her life.
Ecstasy is written in a third person POV, but at times it felt like I was sitting in Alma's mind. I felt enraged when Alma felt enraged, loved when Alma felt loved and distraught when Alma felt distraught. The empathetic connection that the reader will have upon reading this book is a mesmerising affair.
The struggles of being a woman in the 19th/20th century are described in excruciating detail. Alma wished to pursue her dreams of being a composer of world-renowned symphonies, and laboured at the piano everyday to achieve her dreams. Her eyes lit up when she saw other girls her age achieve brilliant success in their own fields of art. She was a regular attendee at concerts at the Court Opera. The symphonies performed at those concerts took her to the highest level of nirvana possible.
Her whirlwind romance with Alex Zemlinsky was one part of the book I adored. I was torn apart when Alma had to make a choice between Zemlinsky and Mahler. Because the choice was not only restricted to the people involved. Alma also had to choose between: continuing her studies in the field of composing or giving it up; falling in love with a poor man or a rich man; going against her parents' wishes or accepting them meekly; listening to her heart or listening to her heart, because she loved both of them so dearly.
A 5/5 star read indeed. And a brilliant book that every musician, composer and anyone who dabbles in the art of music can enjoy. It offers a perspective about how music and the experience of listening to music has evolved over the centuries. And yet, music as a medium of self-expression and innovation has remained constant over the centuries.
“Don’t you know that another person can also be a paradise?” Our protagonist Alma asks us in reference to her relationships with men. This book relates the story of Alma Maria Schindler-Mahler, admired by Gustav Klimt and Gustav Mahler. She is a strong female lead in an era of not very strong female characters. I greatly enjoyed the insight into the mind of a working composer and could tell that this novel was very closely researched in depth.
The descriptions were rich and transporting, and as in many of her books previously, Sharratt leads us to a place rife with imagery and color. I found myself googling reform dresses and the art of Klimt as well as listening to Mahler's symphonies while reading. I was not familiar with Schindler's work before, having only hear some Mahler and seen the work of Klimt, but I was glad that this book brought a focus to a wonderful composer that I would never have been familiar with otherwise.
A truly enchanting book for a wonderful story.
This book was provided in exchange for an honest review.
The descriptions were rich and transporting, and as in many of her books previously, Sharratt leads us to a place rife with imagery and color. I found myself googling reform dresses and the art of Klimt as well as listening to Mahler's symphonies while reading. I was not familiar with Schindler's work before, having only hear some Mahler and seen the work of Klimt, but I was glad that this book brought a focus to a wonderful composer that I would never have been familiar with otherwise.
A truly enchanting book for a wonderful story.
This book was provided in exchange for an honest review.
"Ecstasy" is the story of Alma who has played muse to many men that you may have heard of: Walter Gropius, Gustav Klimt, Gustav Mahler, among others. Although her story has often been in the liner notes of the lives of these great creators, Alma was fascinating in her own right as the author shows. This is a fascinating story that sucked me in!
You may have heard me say this before but one of the things that I like about historical fiction the most is that it often looks at people and their lives that you wouldn't find in a history book. For so much of our past, what makes it into the history books has been largely limited to what men do, specifically white men. I think we are beginning to fix this (very, very slowly) but we are getting better at representing others in history. There is a lot of historical fiction that has the power to keep pushing us that way, including this book. Even though Alma played a role in history, I had never heard of her before. I'm glad this book changed that!
Alma is a fascinating character in her own right! She dreams of being a great composer and although that world had largely been closed off for women but Alma really believes that the world is changing. Unfortunately as she finds, it hasn't changed enough to let her truly fulfill her dreams. I loved how Sharratt wrote her character. She really made her come to life!
I loved the historical detail that the author included! Since I wasn't familiar with Alma, I really appreciated the details of what her world would have been like and what she might have been like. This was great!
You may have heard me say this before but one of the things that I like about historical fiction the most is that it often looks at people and their lives that you wouldn't find in a history book. For so much of our past, what makes it into the history books has been largely limited to what men do, specifically white men. I think we are beginning to fix this (very, very slowly) but we are getting better at representing others in history. There is a lot of historical fiction that has the power to keep pushing us that way, including this book. Even though Alma played a role in history, I had never heard of her before. I'm glad this book changed that!
Alma is a fascinating character in her own right! She dreams of being a great composer and although that world had largely been closed off for women but Alma really believes that the world is changing. Unfortunately as she finds, it hasn't changed enough to let her truly fulfill her dreams. I loved how Sharratt wrote her character. She really made her come to life!
I loved the historical detail that the author included! Since I wasn't familiar with Alma, I really appreciated the details of what her world would have been like and what she might have been like. This was great!
Often frustrating story of a woman suppressed by the male geniuses around here.