Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made available for future generations to enjoy.

The German poet Mathilde Wesendonck (1828-1902), author of the texts of the Wesendonck Lieder, was the wife of Wagner's patron, the wealthy silk merchant Otto Wesendonck. From 1852 until 1858, the Wagners lived next to the Wesendoncks in Zurich and an intense relationship developed between Wagner and Mathilde, subsequently reflected in the impossible love at the heart of his opera Tristan und Isolde. Prepared by the American musicologist Gustav Kobbe (1857-1918), who provides a helpful connecting narrative, this 1905 translation of a selection of 'the most intimate and striking' of Wagner's impassioned letters to Mathilde charts the course of the opera's creation. Written between 1853 and 1863, the letters show Wagner thinking aloud not only about Tristan but also the planning of Parsifal. As Mathilde's letters to Wagner were destroyed, the exact nature of their relationship and of her inspiration musically will never be fully established.

Kobbe immerses into the love lives of seven great composers and gives us some interesting details about the relationships between Mozart and his wife Constance, Beethoven and Therese Brunswick, Felix and Cecile Mendelssohn, Chopin and the Countess Delphine Potocka, Robert and Clara Schumann, Franz Liszt and his Caroline and Richard and Cosima Wagner. His descriptions are as informative as entertaining and will inspire cultural historians, music critics and romatics in equal measure. Reprint of the original edition from 1905 with various illustrations.