- Paperback: 336 pages
- Publisher: Fourth Estate; Reprint edition (28 Feb 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007156618
- ISBN-13: 978-0007156610
- Product Dimensions: 20.5 x 13.6 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,136,366 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Review
'Gaines has a keen eye for colour, and enjoys himself greatly regaling us with anecdotes… ‘Evening in the Palace of Reason’ is a wonderful work of popular history; intelligent, stylish, wryly witty, serious yet never solemn, and above all passionate in its celebration of a great composer.' John Banville, Guardian
'An intriguing book.' Sunday Times
‘The author presents us with a piece of theatre that is witty, instructive and often bizarre.’ Independent on Sunday
'Gaines' style is readable, crisp and compelling. He is an excellent guide: informed, unpretentious and frank… A story told with wit, knowledge, the odd flight of fancy and love.' Times Literary Supplement
--This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.Review
'Gaines has a keen eye for colour, and enjoys himself greatly regaling us with anecdotes! 'Evening in the Palace of Reason' is a wonderful work of popular history; intelligent, stylish, wryly witty, serious yet never solemn, and above all passionate in its celebration of a great composer.' John Banville, Guardian 'An intriguing book.' Sunday Times 'The author presents us with a piece of theatre that is witty, instructive and often bizarre.' Independent on Sunday 'Gaines' style is readable, crisp and compelling. He is an excellent guide: informed, unpretentious and frank! A story told with wit, knowledge, the odd flight of fancy and love.' Times Literary Supplement
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
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First Sentence
FREDERICK THE GREAT HAD ALWAYS LOVED TO PLAY the flute, which was one of the qualities in him that his father most despised. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
FREDERICK THE GREAT HAD ALWAYS LOVED TO PLAY the flute, which was one of the qualities in him that his father most despised. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
39 of 41 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is a really terrific book about the 18th century, the Enlightenment, Bach, Frederick, and the whole conflict (which seems appropriate right now, at least if you're looking at the States) between Faith and Reason. The author has worked hard to make all the complex subjects involved not only very easy to grasp but actually gripping,and it's one of the most inspiring and educational books I've come across in a long time. Certainly anybody interested in Bach, whose biographies have never really done it for me, should buy this book: It makes him come alive. But more broadly, anybody interested in the history of ideas, music, Europe in the 18th century, or the world we live in today should read this book. I haven't come across a book this good in a very long time.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
A most impressive survey and an exciting story packed with information on the times. This is the most informative and engaging book on the subject I have read to date, and it has a super bibilography and discography to boot.
James Gaines has a style which avoids the dry and lifeless without becoming superficial and lightweight.
I reccommend it to anyone wanting to know more and to fill in gaps which many, more academic, books do not cover
James Gaines has a style which avoids the dry and lifeless without becoming superficial and lightweight.
I reccommend it to anyone wanting to know more and to fill in gaps which many, more academic, books do not cover
25 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
In 1747 there was a famous meeting between Frederick the Great and Bach, at which the king, in a spirit of malice, challenged the composer to write first a three-part and then a six-part a fugue on a theme that seemed an impossible basis for such an exercise. Gaines presents this meeting as a confrontation between the shallow Age of Reason and the profound Age of Faith. It is a promising subject, and there are some fine pages contrasting the philosophies and techniques of the “old-fashioned” music to which Bach was heir with the new galant style which Frederick enjoyed and in which he composed himself. There is also a concluding chapter which discusses the collapse of the faith on Reason and the rise of Romanticism, and how, after many decades of neglect, Bach came into his own again.
It is, however, only in fits and starts that this philosophical theme is pursued. For the rest, the book consists of two separate narrative biographies with little contact between them, chapters on Frederick alternating with chapters on Bach. Both men had strong and interesting personalities; and the accounts of their lives are very readable. Readers who have some technical knowledge of music will find the analysis of Bach’s work most illuminating; those who have no such knowledge will find those pages heavy going - but even they will come away with the realization that Bach set down his notes not only to make brilliantly complex pattern but that they were a remarkably “literal” rendering of the philosophical and theological ideas they expressed. Anyone who can follow this analysis will share Gaines’ worship of Bach. As for Frederick, he is hardly someone whom any sane person can worship; but Gaines brings out very well the devastating effect which a terrible childhood had on crippling Frederick as a human being.
Although, with its three separate parts (philosophy and two biographies), the book lacks real unity, anyone who is interested in the 18th century will find it very rewarding.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
unhappy hybrid
I bought this book having heard one favourable BBC review, and one unfavourable one by Brian Sewell. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Teleny
Great Read: History is Alive and Kicking
Gaines' book is a delight to behold. He has managed to condense hundreds of years of our human history into hundereds of pages. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Mr. N. R. Birkhead
Evening in the Palace of Reason -James Gaines
Absolutely wonderful book - so informative, and giving such a fascinating parallel insight into two types of 18th century life - that at the Prussian court, and on a more 'normal'... Read more
Published 12 months ago by S. Alder
spellbinder
This a well written book which despite its abstruse subject matter grasps the readers attention and keeps you turning pages. Read more
Published 17 months ago by nottned
An un-enlightened book
This book is litttered with typographical,grammatical and factual errors. It also displays a casual disregard for the true nature of bach's accomplishment. Read more
Published on 7 Sep 2008 by J. E. Holmes
Goodies and baddies
I found this book generally irritating and very disappointing. As a fan of Bach, the author seeks to praise him at the expense of others. Read more
Published on 7 April 2005 by L. H. Barker
Enlightenment
Don't know much about history and less about music, but this book had me up late reading about both. Read more
Published on 30 Mar 2005
Truly worth reading....
I have been playing Bach all my life, I have read everything about him, and I have never come across a book that brought him so vividly alive. Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2005
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