The winner of a 1989 Somerset Maugham Award, "Romantic Affinities" is a kaleidoscopic series of portraits from an era of tumultuous change in Europe as it was experienced and communicated by the writers of the age. These include not only the more familiar Romantic figures, such as Coleridge and Shelley, Byron and Goethe, but also Chenier, H-lderlin, Hoffman, Madame de Sta-l, Pushkin, and many others. Set against the background of the initial liberal dawning the French Revolution seemed to herald, the disillusion that set in after its descent into terror, and the decades of warfare that...

This new edition of leading opera critic Rupert Christiansen's perennially popular Pocket Guide has between extensively revised, and incorporates many more operas from all periods, including recent works by Philip Glass, Mark Anthony Turnage, Thomas Ades and George Benjamin. Whether you are a first-timer at La Boheme or a seasoned Wagnerian, every opera-goer can benefit from a little background information, and this book aims to provide just that. Accessible and easy-to-use, it contains entries for over a hundred works, both familiar and unfamiliar.