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lissan's review against another edition
4.0
I found this book in the Book festival, and it is quite an interesting topic, of which I had never heard before. Since I love a real life mystery, it was a must for me. It seems that when Beethoven died in March 1827, the fifteen-year-old musical protégé Ferdinand Hiller was in Vienna, visiting the composer together with his instructor Johann Nepomuk Hummel. Hiller later wrote:
"He lay, weak and miserable, sighing deeply at intervals. Not a word fell from his lips; sweat stood out on his forehead. His handkerchief not being conveniently at hand, Hummel's wife took her fine cambric handkerchief and dried his face again and again. Never shall I forget the grateful glance with which his broken eyes looked upon her."
Three days later Beethoven died and a day later they went back to pay their respect.
"The two did not remain for long beside the coffin, but before they left, young Hiller asked his teacher if he could cut a lok of the master composer's hair. …Hummel quietly whispered yes to his student, and the two of them were moved by the deep sadness of the moment. Ferdinand Hiller took the scissors he had brought with him, lifted a small lock of Beethoven's long half-gray hair, pulled it away from his head, and cut it free."
This is the story of how the hair travelled through the Hiller family in Germany, through the Second World War and Denmark and ended up in the United States with two Beethoven enthusiasts, Dr Alfredo "Che" Guevara and Ira Brilliant. Circumstances made them find a note in Sotheby's catalogue about the sale of a lock of Beethoven's hair. They used part of it to make forensic tests to find out what ailed Beethoven.
Now starts an investigation into, not only finding out what medical problems Beethoven had, but also to verify where the hair came from. It is truly a fantastic story of dedication and love for something that belonged to one of our greatest composers. They tracked down the hair from Hiller to his children and grandchildren, it travelled to Denmark during the second world war and ended up with a local doctor in the small town of Gilleleje in Denmark, and through his daughter to an auction in London. It is more exciting than any made-up story.
The outcome of the examination of the hair was surprising. Most of the samples contained the normal elements found in hair, but his hair also contained "an average of forty-two times more lead than the control samples did". Walsh, one of the scientist, believed that Beethoven had been "massively poisoned by lead at the time of his death and may have been for decades before". This could also explain his health problems. Of course, in those days, nobody knew how dangerous lead was.
A well-written, pedagogical, not too long book about a real life mystery. The authors mix the mystery with facts about Beethoven's life and deeds. It is exciting and when you are in the middle of the search for the Hiller family, it is difficult to put the book down.
"He lay, weak and miserable, sighing deeply at intervals. Not a word fell from his lips; sweat stood out on his forehead. His handkerchief not being conveniently at hand, Hummel's wife took her fine cambric handkerchief and dried his face again and again. Never shall I forget the grateful glance with which his broken eyes looked upon her."
Three days later Beethoven died and a day later they went back to pay their respect.
"The two did not remain for long beside the coffin, but before they left, young Hiller asked his teacher if he could cut a lok of the master composer's hair. …Hummel quietly whispered yes to his student, and the two of them were moved by the deep sadness of the moment. Ferdinand Hiller took the scissors he had brought with him, lifted a small lock of Beethoven's long half-gray hair, pulled it away from his head, and cut it free."
This is the story of how the hair travelled through the Hiller family in Germany, through the Second World War and Denmark and ended up in the United States with two Beethoven enthusiasts, Dr Alfredo "Che" Guevara and Ira Brilliant. Circumstances made them find a note in Sotheby's catalogue about the sale of a lock of Beethoven's hair. They used part of it to make forensic tests to find out what ailed Beethoven.
Now starts an investigation into, not only finding out what medical problems Beethoven had, but also to verify where the hair came from. It is truly a fantastic story of dedication and love for something that belonged to one of our greatest composers. They tracked down the hair from Hiller to his children and grandchildren, it travelled to Denmark during the second world war and ended up with a local doctor in the small town of Gilleleje in Denmark, and through his daughter to an auction in London. It is more exciting than any made-up story.
The outcome of the examination of the hair was surprising. Most of the samples contained the normal elements found in hair, but his hair also contained "an average of forty-two times more lead than the control samples did". Walsh, one of the scientist, believed that Beethoven had been "massively poisoned by lead at the time of his death and may have been for decades before". This could also explain his health problems. Of course, in those days, nobody knew how dangerous lead was.
A well-written, pedagogical, not too long book about a real life mystery. The authors mix the mystery with facts about Beethoven's life and deeds. It is exciting and when you are in the middle of the search for the Hiller family, it is difficult to put the book down.
martha_schwalbe's review against another edition
4.0
This is the non-fiction version of Revolution about Beethoven's life instead of the French Revolution. The book covers some of Beethoven's life, though it is mostly about a lock of hair that was cut from his head after he died. The hair traveled through time to the present where it is being tested in order to gain knowledge about Beethoven's life and perhaps death.
The book reads like a mystery at points because the hair "appeared" without the giver being identified.
I'd recommend this book to students who enjoy music and reading, especially at one point, Hiller is hanging around with the likes of Chopin and Mendelsohnn.
The book reads like a mystery at points because the hair "appeared" without the giver being identified.
I'd recommend this book to students who enjoy music and reading, especially at one point, Hiller is hanging around with the likes of Chopin and Mendelsohnn.
albatrossonhalfpointe's review against another edition
2.0
Although this book had an interesting story to tell, I had some issues with the way Martin chose to tell it.
For starters, the structure of the book was a little off-putting. He alternated chapters concerning the journey and fate of the hair with chapters about Beethoven's life, and I found that kind of jarring, somehow. I also found that he repeated himself a lot, and went into greater detail about seemingly minor incidents than felt necessary. Frankly, a lot of it felt like filler. This book could easily have been half the length, or perhaps just a feature article in a decent magazine.
One such example is the whole Gilleleje story. Denmark and its people were truly heroic during WWII, I will acknowledge. The story of how, as a country, they accepted Nazi rule up to a point, but when the line was crossed, pretty much unanimously stood up and said "No way. Not cool," and proceeded to help get hundreds of Jews out of the country to safety in Sweden is remarkable and really inspiring. It's the kind of story that helps restore your faith in humanity after so much else in the world shatters it, and I'm glad to have been made more aware of it. However, I think it was given more importance in this story than it really needed. I was particularly vexed by the oft-repeated notion that the lock played some kind of key role in the Gilleleje escape. Yes, it somehow made its way there, and once there, was given to the doctor, but to say that it played a significant role almost implies that Dr. Fremming wouldn't have helped otherwise, or maybe even would have deliberately hindered, and I just don't think that's true. He was there, he was helping, and someone happened to give him this thing. I understand that it's a step in the hair's journey, and that understanding that step would be very interesting to those directly involved with the hair, but I feel like it was given more importance than it really merited, simply because it's a mystery.
And finally, I found his writing style odd. For one thing, he seemed to feel it was necessary in the "history of the hair" chapters to use the pluperfect tense. I don't know why he felt this way, but I think it was a bod choice. For starters, it adds unnecessary complication to all your sentences, and usually renders them less clear, so that's a mark against it. It also leaves you with nowhere to go when you want to refer to something father back than your baseline. And it's one of those tenses that is hard to use consistently when it's your main tense. Some verbs and sentence constructions just sound very weird with that tense, and Martin got around that by simply using the simple past in those cases. Which is inconsistent, and frankly, just plain sloppy writing.
His use of adverbs is also unusual. I understand that there are those who are fanatical supporters of the ideal of no split infinitives, and that's fine. But there's no cause I'm aware of not to split the auxiliary verb from the main one. In fact, the Oxford Online specifically states that the adverb should fall between the auxiliary verb and the main verb. I don't have a US style manual handy (Chicago online requires a subscription), so I don't know what the deal is there, but in any case, my point is simply that Martin's insistence on putting his adverbs before his auxiliary verbs is weird and awkward to read, making me stumble pretty much every time I came to one.
The upshot is that while this book and its subject matter were interesting, I wish they'd been tackled by a better writer.
For starters, the structure of the book was a little off-putting. He alternated chapters concerning the journey and fate of the hair with chapters about Beethoven's life, and I found that kind of jarring, somehow. I also found that he repeated himself a lot, and went into greater detail about seemingly minor incidents than felt necessary. Frankly, a lot of it felt like filler. This book could easily have been half the length, or perhaps just a feature article in a decent magazine.
One such example is the whole Gilleleje story. Denmark and its people were truly heroic during WWII, I will acknowledge. The story of how, as a country, they accepted Nazi rule up to a point, but when the line was crossed, pretty much unanimously stood up and said "No way. Not cool," and proceeded to help get hundreds of Jews out of the country to safety in Sweden is remarkable and really inspiring. It's the kind of story that helps restore your faith in humanity after so much else in the world shatters it, and I'm glad to have been made more aware of it. However, I think it was given more importance in this story than it really needed. I was particularly vexed by the oft-repeated notion that the lock played some kind of key role in the Gilleleje escape. Yes, it somehow made its way there, and once there, was given to the doctor, but to say that it played a significant role almost implies that Dr. Fremming wouldn't have helped otherwise, or maybe even would have deliberately hindered, and I just don't think that's true. He was there, he was helping, and someone happened to give him this thing. I understand that it's a step in the hair's journey, and that understanding that step would be very interesting to those directly involved with the hair, but I feel like it was given more importance than it really merited, simply because it's a mystery.
And finally, I found his writing style odd. For one thing, he seemed to feel it was necessary in the "history of the hair" chapters to use the pluperfect tense. I don't know why he felt this way, but I think it was a bod choice. For starters, it adds unnecessary complication to all your sentences, and usually renders them less clear, so that's a mark against it. It also leaves you with nowhere to go when you want to refer to something father back than your baseline. And it's one of those tenses that is hard to use consistently when it's your main tense. Some verbs and sentence constructions just sound very weird with that tense, and Martin got around that by simply using the simple past in those cases. Which is inconsistent, and frankly, just plain sloppy writing.
His use of adverbs is also unusual. I understand that there are those who are fanatical supporters of the ideal of no split infinitives, and that's fine. But there's no cause I'm aware of not to split the auxiliary verb from the main one. In fact, the Oxford Online specifically states that the adverb should fall between the auxiliary verb and the main verb. I don't have a US style manual handy (Chicago online requires a subscription), so I don't know what the deal is there, but in any case, my point is simply that Martin's insistence on putting his adverbs before his auxiliary verbs is weird and awkward to read, making me stumble pretty much every time I came to one.
The upshot is that while this book and its subject matter were interesting, I wish they'd been tackled by a better writer.
clambook's review
3.0
I'm not sure what to make of this. It's overwritten throughout, under reported in some spots and well reported in others. The passages about Ferdinand Hiller's life and the Danes' remarkable rescue of the Jews in WWII are fascinating clip jobs, but the inquiry into Beethoven's death is more than a little speculative and breathless.
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