Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel's Messiah

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Product Details
Price
$32.00  $29.76
Publisher
Doubleday Books
Publish Date
Pages
352
Dimensions
6.47 X 9.39 X 1.29 inches | 1.49 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9780385548267

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About the Author
CHARLES KING is the author of eight books, most recently Gods of the Upper Air, a New York Times bestseller, a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle award, and winner of the Francis Parkman Prize. His Odessa won a National Jewish Book Award. He is a professor of international affairs and government at Georgetown University
Reviews
A New York Times Notable Book

"A work of vivid social and cultural commentary, it functions also as an in-depth study of artistic creation, how 'Messiah' came to be, but also of the unstoppable spigot that was Handel's musical imagination." -- John Adams, The New York Times Book Review

"[C]ompelling. King transforms Handel's world into a place we can all recognize and understand as the foundation for our own." -- The Washington Post

"Smartly written . . . In explaining the social and biographical background of the story of Messiah, King brings the masterpiece to life -- and keeps it alive." -- The Washington Examiner

"King takes his cue from the oratorio's ability to convey, era after era, 'a transporting sense that something cosmic and profound was at stake, '" -- The Atlantic

"A ringing history of George Frideric Handel's Messiah and its turbulent birth. . . King writes winningly of the history surrounding Handel's life and times . . . A swiftly moving, constantly engaging portrait of a beloved masterpiece." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred)

"[T]his work of popular history by Charles King reveals a movie-worthy backstory." -- Parade

"Ecstatic, affecting, entirely weird, Handel's Messiah indeed seems -- as a listener wrote after its 1742 Dublin debut -- 'a species of music different from any other.' With brio, Charles King pulls aside the curtain behind the work, to reveal the scandal and intrigue, opportunists and thugs, deep pain and soaring optimism, that Handel transmuted, in less than a month, into a sublime 130 pages. A book of power and glory, brimming with emotion and dazzling in its reach."--Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra and The Revolutionary

"A delicious history of music, power, love, genius, royalty and adventure. A study of creativity and humanism, beautifully told, filled with charm and worldliness, deeply researched and as compelling as a symphony with a full choir of amazing characters who sing their songs around the central figure of Handel himself. Unforgettable."--Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The World: A Family History of Humanity

"A lovely story, beautifully told--and featuring a veritable Who's Who of the Georgian era. An absolute delight."--Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads

"In Every Valley, Charles King shows in exquisite detail how George Frideric Handel's epic work, the Messiah, sprang not from one solitary composer's genius but out of the dramatic interplay of eighteenth-century lives and their times. Note by note, page by page, King takes us beyond an imagined Enlightenment to the sobering realities of a world that included the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade. Every Valley is a fascinating book, of interest to scholars and accessible to all readers."--Henry Louis Gates Jr., author of Stony the Road

"Vividly depicting life in Britain during the turbulence of the 1700's, Charles King celebrates Handel's Messiah as a glorious beacon of hope."--Elaine Pagels, National Book Award-winning author of The Gnostic Gospels

"Charles King takes his readers on a mesmerizing journey of musical genius. There is only one Handel, and only one Messiah, and to understand how each was created is to become immersed in one of the most fascinating and creative moments in human history. King's lyrical writing resonates long after the final note fades away."--Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire

"Charles King's erudition is remarkable but never obtrusive, for he is a wonderful story-teller. Every Valley is eighteenth century history as page-turner, evoking both tears and laughter."--Archie Brown, Emeritus Professor of Politics at Oxford University