A Life of Love and Music

First issued in 1870, Berlioz's Mémoires are an autobiographical account of a composer in nineteenth-century France. He describes a childhood in the Isère, abandonment of medical study in Paris, lessons at the Conservatoire, and the Prix de Rome. Central episodes include his passion for the actress Harriet Smithson, the composition and performance of the Symphonie fantastique, concert tours as a conductor, and the struggle to get large works staged, among them Les Troyens. The book mixes chronology with essays on music, musicians, and the institutions that funded or blocked him.

Bound in red cloth with a cover caricature of Berlioz in gold. Grey endleaves. Grey slipcase.