Maurice Guest
by Henry Handel Richardson
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Description
Maurice Guest comes to Leipzig, the music capital of Europe, to realize his dream of becoming a great pianist. However, in its bohemian and heady atmosphere, he encounters not exaltation and inspiration but coarseness, greed, and ambition. For his muse, he turns to Louise Dufraryer, an exotic and languid pianist. Louise has recently been deserted by her own obsessive love, the resident composer and reigning genius, Schilsky. Now her capricious demands on Maurice's time and energy destroy show more whatever slight chance he may have had at distinguishing himself. The more he slides in failure, the more striking the contrast between him and the absent Schilsky, who still holds first place in Louise's thoughts and feelings. The degradation of their relationship runs its full course until jealousy and hatred are its only vital forms. Maurice Guest was first published in 1908. Antonia White called it "one of the greatest novels of the twentieth century." As a study of the tragic power of desperate love, it ranks in the great tradition of the European naturalist novel. Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction--novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Quite extraordinary! Yes, it's all about obsession, as just about any well-publicised review will tell you. But it's the sheer intensity that most struck me. I'd rate it up there with "Wuthering Heights". It's also a remarkable examination of the male psyche (don't be fooled by the name; Henry Handel Richardson's real name was Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson!).
Just don't expect a tale of the Australian outback. Richardson was born in Melbourne, but the entire novel takes place in Leipzig in the early 1900s, and most of the characters are European.
Definitely a novel that deserves to be more widely read.
Just don't expect a tale of the Australian outback. Richardson was born in Melbourne, but the entire novel takes place in Leipzig in the early 1900s, and most of the characters are European.
Definitely a novel that deserves to be more widely read.
Today we went to see the film, or to be precise a reading of a screen play. The fact that it was 3 hours long, with over one hundred scene changes described by narration and remained gripping is testament to the possibilities of this story. The acting was fantastic and that too must reflect strength of the script.
There is a nice discussion of the book and author here.
There is a nice discussion of the book and author here.
Couldn’t get into this. Slow and boring.
A fascinating study of obsession, set in 1890s Leipzig. To see my review, visit
http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/maurice-guest-by-henry-handel-richa...
http://anzlitlovers.wordpress.com/2009/10/20/maurice-guest-by-henry-handel-richa...
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Lists
The Guardian's 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read
1,005 works; 547 members
Lamont's Hundred Best Novels (1947)
100 works; 4 members
Trinity College Booklist (1951): Class Ten, English Literature
358 works; 5 members
Fiction with Men's Given Names in the Title
302 works; 11 members
Author Information
28+ Works 1,559 Members
Henry Handel Richardson: January 3, 1870 - March 20, 1946 An expatriate writer, Henry Handel Richardson wrote one of Australia's classic works, The Fortunes of Richard Mahony (1917--1929). This was a pen name used by Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson. The three novels that make up her trilogy, Australia Felix (1917), The Way Home (1925), and show more Ultima Thule (1929), unfold the saga of Richard Mahony, a character loosely based on Richardson's physician-father. The trilogy is often labeled---not always in a complimentary manner---as "naturalistic," a literary form not currently popular. In recent years, however, readers have begun to approach it in different ways. For example, feminist critics have called attention to the novels' strong women, who provide the strength for the new nation. The trilogy has also been examined as an incisive psychological study of failure revealed through the complex character of Mahony. The novels are so rich in texture that they can also be read as late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century social history, depicting as they do day-to-day life in the goldmining town of Balaraat and the colonial city of Melbourne. Richardson was born in Melbourne on January 3, 1870. At the age of 13, she became a boarder at the Presbyterian Ladies' College in Melbourne. The experiences there she later used as the basis for The Getting of Wisdom (1910), which was turned into a highly successful film that helped to revive interest in Richardson's work. After graduating from this preparatory school, she received a musical scholarship to provide for further training in Leipzig. Later Richardson would use her experiences in Germany as the basis of her first novel, Maurice Guest (1908). Richardson married a Scottish professor of German and settled in London, remaining there and in the English countryside until her death. She returned to Australia only once or twice after her departure as a young girl; but in her imagination she must have gone back many times. In recognition of her literary achievements, Richardson was awarded the Australian Gold Medal and the King George Jubilee Medal. Richardson died of cancer on 20 March 1946 in Hastings, East Sussex, England. Her cremated remains were scattered by her wish with her husband's at sea. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 1908
- People/Characters
- Maurice Guest; Louise Dufrayer
- Related movies
- Rhapsody (1954 | IMDb)
- Dedication
- TO LOUISE
- First words
- Among the many aspiring music students who converged on Leipzig in the eighteen-eighties and eighteen-nineties was a young Australian, Ethel Florence Richardson, whose talents as a schoolgirl pianist in Melbourne had persuade... (show all)d her widowed mother to bring her and her younger sister to Europe in order to find out if she had the ability to become a concert performer. (Introduction)
One noon in 189-, a young man stood in front of the new Gewandhaus in Leipzig, and watched the neat grass-laid square, until then white and silent in the sunshine, grow dark with many figures. - Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)She is a writer of major stature or nothing at all, and Maurice Guest, extravagant, obsessive, original and disturbingly truthful, is a major work, her early masterpiece. (Introduction)
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)The group of loiterers at the door dispersed. - Blurbers
- White, Antonia
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 256
- Popularity
- 126,521
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.27)
- Languages
- Czech, English, German
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 42
- ASINs
- 5
