1) Anton Schindler wrote one of the earliest Beethoven biographies, published in 1840, but its veracity was soon questioned.
2) Alexander Wheelock Thayer was the next to take up the challenge, with three volumes published from 1866-79.
3) Of the other biographies, Lewis Lockwood’s Beethoven: The Music and the Life remains a classic.
4) As does Maynard Solomon’s Beethoven.
5) More recently, Jan Swafford’s Beethoven: Anguish and Triumph impressed reviewers.
6) Robin Wallace’s Hearing Beethoven: A Story of Musical Loss and Discovery offered revelatory research about the composer’s deafness.
7) Beethoven’s Conversation Books have been translated into English by Theodore Albrecht,
8) Novelist Sanford Friedman also turns to Beethoven’s discussions, this time fictionalised, in his Conversations with Beethoven.
9) Poet Ruth Padel’s Beethoven Variations: Poems on a Life
10) Jessica Duchen’s Immortal looks at Beethoven’s mysterious immortal beloved.
Read our reviews of the latest Beethoven recordings here
Find out more about Beethoven and his works here
Read more reviews of the latest books here
