About Longing

Against a backcloth of early 19th century Europe in cultural and political turmoil, this vivid account of the love of the composer Robert Schumann for pianist Clara Wieck unfolds. Drawing on his protagonists' letters and journals, JD Landis spins a compelling tale of Robert and Clara's passion, enforced separation, marriage and the eventual love triangle created by the devotion to Clara of Schumann's pupil Johannes Brahms. With a supporting cast that includes Chopin, Liszt, Goethe, Mendelssohn, Kierkegaard, Paganini and Hans Christian Andersen, he builds a rich narrative of musical genius, desire, obsession and madness. Longing is a powerful romantic tale played out amidst the flowering of German romanticism, combining the anatomy of a lifelong love affair with a journey through one of Europe's most vital periods of artistic creativity.

About J D Landis

J. D. Landis is the critically acclaimed author of Longing, a New York Times Notable Book, and Lying in Bed, winner of the Morton Dauwen Zabel Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in New Hampshire. more

Praise

[A] carefully researched, wonderfully enjoyable, and delectably old-fashioned biographical novel that is as passionate and flamboyant as the main characters. . . . This evocative recreation of the Romantic era is not just a novel for music lovers but for lovers, plain and simple -- The Chicago Tribune

[A] penetrating fictional biography . . . Landis tells us that [the Schumanns'] marriage was vivid, full of humor, vitality, and a great hunger for music. . . . Landis has seamlessly interwoven his text with ideas (about language and music, genius, imagination and the nature of human devotion) that are very much his own. . . . It is almost as if Landis himself were conducting a score, with the two characters his human instruments. -- New York Times