Clara : A Novel [Hardcover]

Janice Galloway's novel, "Clara" (2002), introduces the reader to a remarkable woman and to her times. Clara was the daughter of Frederick Wieck, a notable piano teacher, and of a woman who left Wieck to marry another man when Clara was young. Clara Wieck was a child prodigy with virtuosic ability at the piano. At the time, the role of piano virtuoso was just coming into its own.

Clara fell in love with the great romantic composer Robert Schumann (1810-1856), ten years her senior, when Schumann was a student of Wieck. Her father bitterly opposed the marriage, but the couple persevered and were married with permission from the German courts. The marriage was difficult, as Robert needed absolute quiet in order to compose and was moody and tempramental to say the least. The couple had eight children, and Clara proved determined to pursue her calling as a concert artist. Schumann's instability gradually lead to insanity and he was institutionalized for the last years of his life following a failed suicide attempt. The novel covers Clara's life up through the death of Robert Schumann with only brief allusions to her life as a concert pianist following his death. Clara outlived Robert by 40 years.

This book presents a complelling picture of lives filed with the love of music. Robert was a highly gifted composer while Clara devoted her great talents to the art of interpretation. Ms. Galloway shows well the vicissitudes of the creative life, both for the composer and the interpreter. The book is love story, rarer than might be supposed in today's world, presenting a picture of a gifted couple's devotion to each other. In particular, it presents a compelling portrait of Clara Schumann with her devotion to a difficult individual through his descent into psychosis.

Ms. Galloway stays close to the facts of her story, gets inside her characters, and avoids the temptation to judge or to editorialize based upon the values of another age. She presents balanced portraits of the characters in her story and allows the reader to see the nuances and ambiguities inherent in all human conduct. For example, Ms. Galloway lets the reader see that Wieck had a point, after all, in his doubts about the marriage and about Robert's mental instability which was surely visible over the years. Ms. Galloway also points out Clara's growing devotion to what she was born to do -- play the piano -- and how her independence sometimes rested uneasily with her love and commitment to Robert. Her love for Robert was surely the most important force in her life.

The novel moves slowly at times, but it builds as it progresses in both writing style and in depth of understanding. The novel does an outstanding job in linking the events of Clara and Robert's lives into their music. I enjoyed the treatment of Robert Schumann's "Carnaval", a great work for the solo piano and a favorite of mine, his song cycles, piano concerto, symphonies, and other compositions which receive thoughtful attention in the book.

The paperback edition of this book includes some good questions suitable for book groups together with a revealing interview with Ms. Galloway. The book shows how music and creativity enable people to reach the best of what is in them and to transcend the pain of sorrow and suffering and the banalities of the everyday. I found this book a moving presentation of the love of a woman and a man for each other and of the love of both for music. I was both inspired by the story of Clara's life and also moved to revisit Clara's music and the music of her tormented but gifted husband.

During all this time Clara's life was bound up with her husband's and they were separated only by the exigencies of her profession. She devoted herself not only to his society, but also the to bringing out of his music much of which owed its reputation to her. The story gives us a powerful overview of her life from her time as a child and a musical protégée under the tutelage of her strict and authoritarian father. Then we move onto her meeting, strained courtship and eventual marriage to Schumann. The novel is also notable for introducing us to many of the other composers of the period - Chopin, Brahms and Mendelssohn - all friends and respected colleagues of Clara and Robert Schumann.

Clara is a beautifully and passionately written love story, and Galloway writes in a style that blasts us with images of their profound and very deep love. Her work is extremely ambitious in its scope - using threads from their music, letters, diaries, and itineraries, and also incorporating a type of "stream of consciousness" where we are see into the minds of the main protagonists. Galloway creates piece of work that is absolutely breathtaking in scope and complexity, and a real challenge to read.

But the novel is so much more than a love story. The reader constantly is bombarded with images from the Victorian era: the musical community of the 1800.s; the sites of Leipzig, Vienna and the other cities if the area; the sounds of the performances; the smells of the cities; the sexual attitudes, childbirth, and the domestic and household life of the period. Galloway's research is indeed meticulous and I'm sure the reader will find a lot to appreciate in this fine piece of work. Clara isn't an easy novel to read, but I'm sure that if the average reader sticks with it, they will be richly rewarded and they will finish having an interesting insight into the life of the wife of one of the world's greatest composers.

Michael