≫ Libro Free Ecstasy A Novel Mary Sharratt Books

Ecstasy A Novel Mary Sharratt Books

Download As PDF : Ecstasy A Novel Mary Sharratt Books

Ecstasy A Novel Mary Sharratt Books

Ecstasy sparkles like the turn-of-the-century Vienna it depicts. A city that pulsed with energy, artistic innovation, and a passion for beauty seems the only possible setting for the story of Alma Schindler Mahler, a complex and fascinating woman unfortunately better known today for her unconventional life than for her talent and passion for music.

Yet Alma's gifts often threaten to be her undoing, and this Vienna harbors a pervasive misogyny as well as a disturbing shadow of antisemitism never far from the surface. It's no wonder Alma's life was turbulent. The reader feels the frustrations and the can't-get-there-from-here quality of her quest for art and for love, and we find ourselves admiring her stubborn unwillingness to choose between them.

In addition to telling the story of a creative woman ahead of her time, the novel depicts a flawed marriage that was nevertheless enduring and intense.

Alma is an unforgettable character, but the secondary characters are also deftly drawn. My personal favorite was Natalie Curtis, the delightfully independent American musicologist whose breeze directness is refreshing. She reminds us that Vienna, despite its rich artistic climate, might not have been quite as modern as its denizens thought.

For all her sufferings, there is something ultimately triumphant about Alma's determination to remain true to herself.


Tags : Amazon.com: Ecstasy: A Novel (9780544800892): Mary Sharratt: Books,Mary Sharratt,Ecstasy: A Novel,Houghton Mifflin Harcourt,0544800893,Biographical,Historical,Literary,Biographical fiction,Composers,Composers' spouses,Composers' spouses;Fiction.,Composers;Fiction.,FICTION Historical,Historical fiction,Mahler, Alma,Mahler, Gustav,Vienna (Austria),Vienna (Austria);Fiction.,Austria,FICTION Biographical,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Literary,Fiction,Fiction-Historical,FictionLiterary,GENERAL,General Adult,Gustav Klimt; Walter Gropius; Franz Werfel; Oskar Kokoschka; Alexander von Zemlinsky; Art Nouveau; Secession Art Movement; Tom Lehrer; Bauhaus; New Woman; The Alma Problem; Mahler's Fifth Symphony; Paula McLain; Allison Pataki; Lynn Cullen; Vienna Secession; Wiener Werkstätte; Metropolitan Opera; New York Philharmonic; Gilded Age,Gustav Klimt;Walter Gropius;Franz Werfel;Oskar Kokoschka;Alexander von Zemlinsky;Art Nouveau;Secession Art Movement;Tom Lehrer;Bauhaus;New Woman;The Alma Problem;Mahler's Fifth Symphony;Paula McLain;Allison Pataki;Lynn Cullen;Vienna Secession;Wiener Werkstätte;Metropolitan Opera;New York Philharmonic;Gilded Age,HISTORICAL FICTION,Historical,Literary,Mahler, Alma,Mahler, Gustav,United States,Vienna (Austria),Vienna (Austria);Fiction.,FICTION Biographical,FICTION Historical General,FICTION Literary,FictionLiterary,Fiction

Ecstasy A Novel Mary Sharratt Books Reviews

Great read
How many people reading this review of Mary Sharratt's novel, "Ecstasy". remember the work of a singer-songwriter popular in the 1960's named Tom Leher? He wrote satirical songs about famous people and events, one of whom was a Viennese temptress named Alma Schindler Mahler Gropius Werfel. His song about ASMGW became one of his best known because the woman behind the song led such an interesting life - full of music, art, and writing...and sex. Now Mary Sharratt's novel dishes on Alma-of-the-many-names-and-husbands.

Sharratt's novel covers much of Alma's life, from her beginning as a young Viennese woman - considered local talent by the local swains - to her death in 1964 at the age of 85 in New York City. She was associated either as a wife or lover of many of the most important men in Central Europe.(I think that line is from the Leher song; I can't get it out of my mind). Sharratt does a good job at telling of Alma's life with a great amount of romantic language that can only be used in a work of fiction. I might have enjoyed it a bit better had the book been written as non-fiction but then maybe a woman like Alma NEEDS flowery prose to describe her. In any case, Sharratt's book is quite enjoyable.
Alma deserves a lot better than this wooden account.
Very enjoyable read. Characters were well developed. Well written.
Mary brings to life a complex person. I loved Alma, but wanted to strangle her at the same time. Her privileged life, her self absorption, but her genius. Mary brings her to life
Utterly delightful. Sharratt is gifted at creating characters that jump off the page and hook the reader immediately, and her incarnation of the fascinating Alma Mahler is the first one to finally do justice to a brilliant, compelling and complicated woman. An irresistible and wonderfully-written novel that readers won't be able to put down.
The perfectly gorgeous cover of Ecstasy is almost the best thing about this book. It had been on my wishlist for a few months, so when it went on sale, I snatched it up.  I'm a sucker for books about the fin de siecle, Vienna Secession, etc., and this fictional biography of Alma Mahler seemed exactly the sort of thing I'd gobble up like popcorn.  Eh, not so much as it turns out.  Though I've never subscribed to Alma as bitch-goddess, I felt that Sharratt went overboard trying turn her into a long-suffering near saint, who cleaves to her self-involved genius of a husband to the detriment of her own creative drives.  

Alma was no saint. But I think I could have forgiven the attempts at rehabilitating Alma's reputation if the narrative hadn't been so wildly over-wrought, reading in some places like a really bad romance novel.  Klimt's kiss awakens her, losing her virginity to Mahler makes her a woman at last. (It's actually unlikely that Mahler was the first. She probably took Alexander von Zemlinsky as a lover well before she met Mahler.) Sex is always a transcendent, earth-shattering experience in this novel, and I found myself muttering, "Oh God, not again!" every time Alma experiences another spiritual awakening.

The portrayal of young Alma very nearly made me stop reading.  She comes across as an idiot teen. While this may be accurate, it's not all that interesting.  And even later, as an adult, her bouts of introspection which seem to make up the bulk of the narrative are annoying and repetitive. By the time she met Walter Gropius I was skimming the book, and while I found it odd that it effectively ended with Mahler's death (implying, I thought, that the only truly interesting thing about her was her relationship with him) I have to say that I don't think I could have tolerated fifty more years of transcendent sex, and hand-wringing about her music.
Ecstasy sparkles like the turn-of-the-century Vienna it depicts. A city that pulsed with energy, artistic innovation, and a passion for beauty seems the only possible setting for the story of Alma Schindler Mahler, a complex and fascinating woman unfortunately better known today for her unconventional life than for her talent and passion for music.

Yet Alma's gifts often threaten to be her undoing, and this Vienna harbors a pervasive misogyny as well as a disturbing shadow of antisemitism never far from the surface. It's no wonder Alma's life was turbulent. The reader feels the frustrations and the can't-get-there-from-here quality of her quest for art and for love, and we find ourselves admiring her stubborn unwillingness to choose between them.

In addition to telling the story of a creative woman ahead of her time, the novel depicts a flawed marriage that was nevertheless enduring and intense.

Alma is an unforgettable character, but the secondary characters are also deftly drawn. My personal favorite was Natalie Curtis, the delightfully independent American musicologist whose breeze directness is refreshing. She reminds us that Vienna, despite its rich artistic climate, might not have been quite as modern as its denizens thought.

For all her sufferings, there is something ultimately triumphant about Alma's determination to remain true to herself.