Antonietta

by John Hersey

Overview

A saga of a magnificent violin, Antonietta, named after a beautiful woman who was the inspiration of Antonio Stradivari's later years. As Hersey brings Mozart, Berlioz, and Stravinsky to life, he offers us a marvelous celebration of the changing character and eternal art and power of music.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679741817
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	07/27/1993
Edition description:	1st Vintage Books Edition
Pages:	324
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.75(d)

About the Author

John Hersey was born in Tientsin, China, in 1914 and lived there until 1925, when his family returned to the United States. He studied at Yale and Cambridge, served for a time as Sinclair Lewis’s secretary, and then worked several years as a journalist. Beginning in 1947, he devoted his time mainly to writing fiction. He won the Pulitzer Prize, taught for two decades at Yale, and was president of the Authors League of America and chancellor of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. John Hersey died in 1993.

Editorial Reviews

Pulitzer Prize winner Hersey's novel (BOMC and QPB alternates) is a delightful tour-de-force--a picaresque novel tracing the peregrinations of a violin created in Cremona by Stradivari in 1699, dubbed the Antonietta. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

In the year 1699, Antonio Stradivari amazes his sons by announcing his intention to build a violin entirely by himself, with no assistance from them, his ne'er-do-well apprentices. The instrument will be of a radical new design, inspired by the old man's infatuation with a beautiful widow named Antonia; he will call it Antonietta. After his death, Antonietta's supernatural tone bewitches a succession of notable composers--Mozart, Berlioz, and Stravinsky--each at a crucial turning point in his career. Hersey follows the instrument as it passes from owner to owner, adapting his narrative style to the time and place. Some of the historical coincidences seem a bit contrived--Stradivari whistles Vivaldi tunes at work, for example, years before they were published. However, good music novels are about as rare as Strads, and this one will charm general readers as well as musicologists. Recommended. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/91; BOMC alternate.-- Edward B. St. John, Loyola Law Sch. Lib., Los Angele s

Library Journal