THE LIFE OF HAYDN,; in a series of letters written at Vienna. Followed by the life of Mozart, with observations on Metastasio, and on the present state of Music in France and Italy. Translated from the French of L. A. C. Bombet. With notes by the author of the sacred melodies.
London: John Murray, 1817. First English edition. 8vo, pp. (xvi), 496. Bound in contemporary 3/4 roan, rubbed, some minor foxing and soiling, a very good copy. With music examples printed in text. Small stain in inner blank margin of second leaf. Cordier II, 16. Item #31347
This is Stendhal's first book, written before he took his famous pen-name, and a according to his recent biographer it has "remained among Stendhal's least read and respected works, though hindsight enables us to catch, amid the tissue of shameless plagiarisms, an occasional glimpse of the characteristic Stendhalian persona in all its sublimely mendacious authoritativeness."The section on Haydn was largely derived from Carpani's Le Haydine XV, [1], 496 pp.
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