The Memoirs of Hector Berlioz

<p>Possibly the most colourful figure in the history of Western music <b><i>Hector Berlioz (1803&#150;1869)</i></b> was certainly the most eloquent. His autobiography is among the greatest ever written. Larger than life &#150; like his massive works &#150; Berlioz was a seminal figure in the Romantic movement and his book is both a personal testament and an account of his role in that movement. It tells the story of his romance with Harriet Smithson &#150;with whom he fell in love when he saw her playing the part of Ophelia &#150; and his even more passionate affairs with Shakespeare Scott and Byron. <br><br>Familiar with all the great figures of the age &#150; Liszt Wagner Balzac Delacroix Weber Rossini &#150; Berlioz paints brilliant and often mordant portraits of them in a style which is one of the glories of French prose. Above all this is the intimate and detailed self-revelation of a complex and attractive man driven by his creative urges to a position of lonely eminence. <br><br><b>The Memoirs of Hector Berlioz were translated some years ago by <i>David Cairns</i> now famous himself as the composer&#146;s finest biographer. For the Everyman edition he has completely revised the text and the extensive notes which accompany it to take account of the latest research.</b></p>