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The Siege Of Venice
The siege of Venice in 1848 is one of history's most thrilling and tragic episodes. After half a century of Habsburg imperial rule, the Venetians drove out the occupying army and established their own republic. Led by the Jewish lawyer Daniele Manin, a man of immense courage and personal integrity, they embraced the lofty values of the Risorgimento, Italy's struggle for national unity, freedom and justice. When the Austrians returned with a massive army, intent on recapturing Venice, Manin rejected their surrender demands. The city braced itself for a siege lasting more than a year, ending only when bombardment, cholera and starvation made further resistance impossible. This epic story, in J...
Italian Journeys
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Handel
Jonathan Keates original biography of Handel was hailed as a masterpiece on its publication in 1985. This fully revised and updated new edition - published to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the composers death - charts in detail Handel's life, from his youth in Germany, through his brilliantly successful Italian sojourn, to the opulence and squalor of Georgian London where he made his permanent home. For over two decades Handel was absorbed in London's heady but precarious operatic world. But even his phenomenal energy and determination could not overcome the public's growing indifference to Italian opera in the 1730s, and he turned finally to oratorio, a genre which he made peculiarly...
Smile Please
This is a comedy of jaded lives, sex and secrets, of the urge to end the game, to dodge the Millennium and flee to the country. With his unerring satirist's eye, softened by a wry indulgence towards human weakness, Jonathan Keates mixes irony and compassion in a stylish, poignant and entertaining novel of post-Cool Britannia. "From the Trade Paperback edition.
Stendhal
On the evening of 22 March 1842, Henri Marie Beyle collapsed on a Parisian pavement and died a few hours later. In death, as in his life, the writer we now know as Stendhal remained ignored and underestimated by his contemporaries. Why this should be is explored by the award-winning writer, Jonathan Keates, in this major biography. Taking us from Stendhal's childhood in Grenoble through his varied careers to his death at fifty-nine, Keates examines the author's personal life, his many friendships and his work. 'Exact and illuminating ... Keates, like his subject, loves Italy and music and he loves Stendhal wisely and not too well. He is clear-eyed in appraising his faults.' Sunday Times Jonathan Keates manages to transmit both his own enthusiasm for his subject, and Stendhal's own enthusiasm for varied experience.' Independent 'Keates proves to be an alarmingly erudite guide.' Sunday Telegraph 'Keates has captured the historical sweep of his career and has a sure feel for the social milieux in which Stendhal lived ... A biography of admirable pace and geniality.' Evening Standard
Purcell
Henry Purcell (1659-1695) is the greatest of all English composers and a pivotal figure in European musical history. In this rich and colorful biography, Jonathan Keates deftly traces Purcell's life and artistry against the backdrop of the turbulent political, religious, theatrical, and social movements of his time. Purcell's musical genius both embraced and transcended the variable moods and tensions of Restoration England, and gave the period and the culture an unforgettable voice. With great skill and historical understanding, Keates follows Purcell through his extraordinarily prolific career, from chorister at the Chapel Royal, to composer for the theater and the court, to writer of sacred music, chamber music, and the triumphant Dido and Aeneas, the first British opera. Keates considers Purcell's musical studies with Pelham Humfrey and John Blow as well as his adaptation of Matthew Locke's innovative and colorful style. He provides a superb critical appreciation of Purcell's music in all its forms. Keates also discusses the musical history of the period, including the influence of French and Italian composers, whose music blended with and modified native traditions.
The Strangers' Gallery
In 1847, Italy is on the brink of revolution. In Jonathan Keates' highly acclaimed first novel, a young Englishman, Edward Rivers, arrives in the small town of Villafranca and an intriguing tale of passion, jealousy and betrayal unfolds. 'An unusual historical novel of love and death in nineteenth century Italy ... Jonathan Keates' analysis of conflicting passions is so graciously wrought, and with so careful an attention to psychology, that it is hard to believe The Strangers' Gallery is a first novel; a comparison with Stendhal's Scarlet and Black would not go amiss.' "Independent" "" ""This is a rich novel ... an extraordinary feat of imaginative transference into another age and culture.' "Financial Times" "" ""'It is surely close to another nineteenth century novel written in the twentieth century - Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard.' "Spectator" "" ""'Italy before a revolution is described in exquisite miniature with every detail of place and mannerism picked out and placed under glass... perfect and faultless' "Sunday Times"
Messiah
In 1741, in just 24 days, the German-born, British-naturalized composer George Frideric Handel wrote an oratorio rich in tuneful arias and choruses of robust grandeur. Coolly received in London at first, after Handel's death Messiah enjoyed an extraordinary surge in popularity: it was performed at festivals across England; other composers rushed to rearrange it; it would be commercially recorded on more than 100 occasions. Jonathan Keates tells the story of the composition and musical afterlife of Handel's masterpiece: he considers the first performances and its place in Handel's output; he looks at the oratorio itself and its relationship with spirituality in the age of the Enlightenment; and he examines why Messiah became such an essential element in the national culture of Britain. Illustrated with beautiful images, including the original score of the work, Messiah is a richly informative and affectionate celebration of a high-point of Britain's Georgian golden age.
Canterbury Cathedral
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Venice Stories
A gorgeously jacketed hardcover anthology of classic stories set in Venice, by an international array of brilliant writers. The sublime city of Venice has long offered inspiration to the world's storytellers. This anthology gathers a dazzling variety of stories with Venetian settings, including Daphne du Maurier's haunting "Don't Look Now," Anthony Trollope's wartime romance "The Last Austrian Who Left Venice," Vernon Lee's spine-chilling "A Wicked Voice," and a scene from The Wings of the Dove, Henry James's tale of passion and betrayal in a Gothic palazzo on the Grand Canal. The famed Venetian adventurer Giacomo Casanova weighs in with escapades from his notorious Memoirs, alongside enthralling selections by Baron Corvo, Marcel Proust, Camillo Boito, and Jeanette Winterson. In its multifaceted portrait of La Serenissima, Venice Stories showcases a lineup of literary classics worthy of the magnificent city they celebrate.
