| The Family Letters of Richard Wagner |  | Author: Richard Wagner
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Category: Book
Buy New: $70.00
New (1) Used (5) from $7.46
Avg. Customer Rating:  1 reviews
Sales Rank: 3866009
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 488
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.6
Dimensions (in): 8.8 x 5.8 x 1.5
ISBN: 0472102923
Dewey Decimal Number: 782.1092
EAN: 9780472102921
ASIN: 0472102923
Publication Date: March 15, 1992
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
A new, expanded edition of Richard Wagner's letters to his family.
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| Customer Reviews:
"Abundant leisure for good reading is the single boon for which one cannot strive enough." June 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
First of all, I should make a note about the edition. While the bulk of the letters were translated by William Ashton Ellis, the edition that I have (The University of Michigan Press, 1994) also includes additional letters and notes by John Deathridge. Looking this volume up on Amazon, I was a little bit ashamed of myself as selecting it for summer reading. The new price of the book ($70.00!) makes it clear that this was supposed to be a Very Serious Scholarly Volume for Very Serious Wagner Scholars. I picked it up myself second-hand for five euros at Waterlooplein Market, so I am very clearly *not* a Very Serious Wagner Scholar. So bear in mind that this is going to be a review of the book as something for the mostly casual reader and not as a tool for music studies.
I picked it up because it was available and looked interesting, and also because Wagner was working in a period of music and writing about which I have been increasingly interested. It seemed to me that many of his contemporaries and their issues would likely be people about whom I wanted to hear. I also know little more about Wagner than the cliffnotes biography that is widely known, and as such a controversial figure it seemed to me good to get a view of him straight from the horse's mouth.
As summer reading this volume filled its task admirably. It was very interesting. The first thing that caught my attention were the obvious translator wars going on my edition.
Deathridge on Ellis:
"Ellis' translations of Wagner's letters, including those in the present book, are less annoying probably because the original German is clearer and more spontaneous, though the reader still has to endure the bouts of mad-translator disease to which Ellis was always prone."
I also found it interesting as both Deathridge and Ellis discuss problems that exist in assembling this kind of volume of collected letters. They discuss the issue that many similar letters have been lost because they were sold privately to autograph collectors/dealers who are uninterested in the text and may even destroy the rest of the letter-- keeping only the signature.
Wagner himself seemed like a perfectly unpleasant person, pausing only in his supreme self-absorption to be bombastically encouraging to young relatives. As a reader, I applauded the editor's decision to include a note from another relative to Wagner, letting him know what the family thought of him. (Not very much.) As in many books of letters by artists of every variety, there is a great deal of talk about money panic, money troubles, demands for money, schemes to raise money and irritation that no money is forthcoming. There is also a great deal of what I hope for in this kind of book-- domestic detail, discussion of contemporary arts and letters, and Wagner's thinking about his life and work. After reading this, I would also be interested in a good biography if someone could recommend something considered worth the time.
I do feel badly discussing this book at such a superficial level, but that's the only level that I feel qualified to discuss. You'll need to look elsewhere for more depth, I am afraid.
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