Living in the religious commune for the past twelve years has slowly drained seventeen-year-old Mary Snippet of life. She can no longer endure the cruelty of her husband, Zachariah Snippet, and she makes the biggest decision of her young life: she must escape. Along with her small son and daughter, Mary packs what few belongings they have and flees the commune one chilly evening. She has only a faded photo to guide her back to her real home: a picture of a beautiful white mansion with a few illegible words on the back. Relying on the kindness of strangers, Mary struggles to care for her children and fights the terror that, at times, threatens to overwhelm her. When she finds a temporary home in an abandoned cottage, it starts a chain reaction of events that may very well lead her to her lost family. But Zachariah Snippet isn't about to let this impudent girl outsmart him, and Mary knows he is hot on her trail. As the net begins to tighten, Mary must draw on all her inner strength-and her faith-to survive.

This absorbing and award-winning biography tells the story of the tragedies and triumphs of Clara Wieck Schumann (1819 1896), a musician of remarkable achievements. At once artist, composer, editor, teacher, wife, and mother of eight children, she was an important force in the musical world of her time. To show how Schumann surmounted the obstacles facing female artists in the nineteenth century, Nancy B. Reich has drawn on previously unexplored primary sources: unpublished diaries, letters, and family papers, as well as concert programs. Going beyond the familiar legends of the Schumann literature, she applies the tools of musicological scholarship and the insights of psychology to provide a new, full-scale portrait.

The book is divided into two parts. In Part One, Reich follows Clara Schumann's life from her early years as a child prodigy through her marriage to Robert Schumann and into the forty years after his death, when she established and maintained an extraordinary European career while supporting and supervising a household and seven children. Part Two covers four major themes in Schumann's life: her relationship with Johannes Brahms and other friends and contemporaries; her creative work; her life on the concert stage; and her success as a teacher.

Throughout, excerpts from diaries and letters in Reich's own translations clear up misconceptions about her life and achievements and her partnership with Robert Schumann. Highlighting aspects of Clara Schumann's personality and character that have been neglected by earlier biographers, this candid and eminently readable account adds appreciably to our understanding of a fascinating artist and woman.

For this revised edition, Reich has added several photographs and updated the text to include recent discoveries. She has also prepared a Catalogue of Works that includes all of Clara Schumann's known published and unpublished compositions and works she edited, as well as descriptions of the autographs, the first editions, the modern editions, and recent literature on each piece. The Catalogue also notes Schumann's performances of her own music and provides pertinent quotations from letters, diaries, and contemporary reviews."

Living in the religious commune for the past twelve years has slowly drained seventeen-year-old Mary Snippet of life. She can no longer endure the cruelty of her husband, Zachariah Snippet, and she makes the biggest decision of her young life: she must escape. Along with her small son and daughter, Mary packs what few belongings they have and flees the commune one chilly evening. She has only a faded photo to guide her back to her real home: a picture of a beautiful white mansion with a few illegible words on the back. Relying on the kindness of strangers, Mary struggles to care for her children and fights the terror that, at times, threatens to overwhelm her. When she finds a temporary home in an abandoned cottage, it starts a chain reaction of events that may very well lead her to her lost family. But Zachariah Snippet isn't about to let this impudent girl outsmart him, and Mary knows he is hot on her trail. As the net begins to tighten, Mary must draw on all her inner strength-and her faith-to survive.

This absorbing and award-winning biography tells the story of the tragedies and triumphs of Clara Wieck Schumann (1819 1896), a musician of remarkable achievements. At once artist, composer, editor, teacher, wife, and mother of eight children, she was an important force in the musical world of her time. To show how Schumann surmounted the obstacles facing female artists in the nineteenth century, Nancy B. Reich has drawn on previously unexplored primary sources: unpublished diaries, letters, and family papers, as well as concert programs. Going beyond the familiar legends of the Schumann literature, she applies the tools of musicological scholarship and the insights of psychology to provide a new, full-scale portrait.

The book is divided into two parts. In Part One, Reich follows Clara Schumann's life from her early years as a child prodigy through her marriage to Robert Schumann and into the forty years after his death, when she established and maintained an extraordinary European career while supporting and supervising a household and seven children. Part Two covers four major themes in Schumann's life: her relationship with Johannes Brahms and other friends and contemporaries; her creative work; her life on the concert stage; and her success as a teacher.

Throughout, excerpts from diaries and letters in Reich's own translations clear up misconceptions about her life and achievements and her partnership with Robert Schumann. Highlighting aspects of Clara Schumann's personality and character that have been neglected by earlier biographers, this candid and eminently readable account adds appreciably to our understanding of a fascinating artist and woman.

For this revised edition, Reich has added several photographs and updated the text to include recent discoveries. She has also prepared a Catalogue of Works that includes all of Clara Schumann's known published and unpublished compositions and works she edited, as well as descriptions of the autographs, the first editions, the modern editions, and recent literature on each piece. The Catalogue also notes Schumann's performances of her own music and provides pertinent quotations from letters, diaries, and contemporary reviews."