Svetlana's Reads and Views

Name of Book: Ecstasy Author: Mary Sharratt ISBN: 978-0-544-80089-2 Publisher: HMH Books Type of book: Gustav Mahler, Alma Schindler-Mahler, affairs, passion, ecstasy, music, composing, motherhood, marriage, older male/younger female pairing, 1899-1900s, denying talent and gifts, travel, genius husband, survival Year it was published: 2018 Summary: In the glittering hotbed of turn-of-the-twentieth-century Vienna, one woman’s life would define and defy an era Gustav Klimt gave Alma her first kiss. Gustav Mahler fell in love with her at first sight and proposed only a few weeks later. Bauhaus founder Walter Gropius abandoned all reason to pursue her. Poet and novelist Franz Werfel described her as “one of the very few magical women that exist.” But who was this woman who brought these most eminent of men to their knees? In Ecstasy, Mary Sharratt finally gives one of the most controversial and complex women of her time the center stage. Coming of age in the midst...

Name of Book : The Dark Lady's Mask Author: Mary Sharratt ISBN: 978-0-544-30076-7 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Type of book: William Shakespeare, England, Italy, 1576-1600s, friendships, relationships, muse, secrets, ambition, hidden Jews, home, love, Queen Elizabeth, King James and Queen Anne, poetry, money, travel, cross-dressing Year it was published: 2016 Summary: Shakespeare in Love meets Shakespeare’s Sister in this novel of England’s first professional woman poet and her collaboration and love affair with William Shakespeare. London, 1593. Aemilia Bassano Lanier is beautiful and accomplished, but her societal conformity ends there. She frequently cross-dresses to escape her loveless marriage and to gain freedoms only men enjoy, but a chance encounter with a ragged, little-known poet named Shakespeare changes everything. Aemilia grabs at the chance to pursue her long-held dream of writing and the two outsiders strike up a literary bargain. They leave pla...