Mozart's Wife

By: Juliet Waldron

Narrated by: Celeste Lawson

Mozart's wife aroused strong feelings among her contemporaries. Her in-laws loathed her. Mozart's friends, more than 40 after his death, remained eager to gossip about her "failures" as wife to the world's first superstar. Maturing from child to wife to hard-headed widow, Konstanze paid her husband's debts, provided for their children, and relentlessly marketed and mythologized her brilliant husband.

Mozart's letters attest to his affection for Konstanze as well as to their powerful sexual bond. Yet the question remains: why did she never mark his grave?

©2001 Juliet V. Waldron (P)2003 Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Celeste Lawson's narration bridges this novel, which crosses historical fiction and romance....Lawson presents distinct and nuanced characters who avoid playing to the soap opera quality of the events in Mozart's life." (AudioFile)

Mozart's Wife a powerful story

I really enjoyed this book. Very seldom do we get a good look into the lives of the famous and infamous. While this was historical fiction given the known history of this couple (from their letters), the mood and activities of the rich and priviledged from this period, the morals of the times etc this story feels real. I loved some of the day to day stuff about servants, bills, parties, friends,family and the struggles of marriage. You get a great sense of the power and passion that Mozart had for his wife, music and women in general. I was surprised by some of the passionate descriptions. Overall this story made you care about its characters and the sadness of unappreciated genius and wasted love.

An interesting look at a genius' life

This book provides an interesting interpretation of what Mozart's wife may have thought about her genius husband. The historical facts are all accurate, making it interesting from a historical point of view. The author does a good job at taking those facts and putting a fictional look on them. The narrator's pronounciation of the Italian is not very good. Perhaps, this is intentionally done, since Constanze was Austrian and may not have had complete authority over how to pronounce the language - we can only guess! This book is okay, certainly better than the movie Amadeus, which contains a number of historical inaccuracies and takes too much liberty in interpreting some of the facts.

Fascinating and well researched

This book held my attention for the entire time--I also found myself researching items presented on the internet-- to learn more about the time period. This was my first historical fiction and I will be looking for more to listen to.

Boring romance novel

I've never actually read a "bodice-ripper" but I think this might be one. I quit listening after 4 hours but in that time there was nothing about living with Mozart's genius, how an artist works, what actions a composer takes to play and write music, etc. Surely she must have had hours and hours of listening to him play, etc. but nothing is mentioned about that--he might as well have been a plumber. Instead it's all about their sex life and her sister's sex life, their clothes (Mozart loved red jackets), and their household furnishings. You'd think with all the sex and the characters talking about sex all the time, it wouldn't be so boring, but I enjoy books for character development, plot, and learning about other ways of life and I wasn't hearing any of that in this one. True, I only listened to 4 hours of 14 and maybe it gets better, but I just couldn't take another smarmy moment. Girl With a Pearl Earring it's not!

Boring boring boring

Awful, dry and boring. I am highly disappointed in this book.

I don't remember why I bought it, but I wasn't able to finish the story!! So many other good books, don't waste your money on this!!