The daughter of Leipzig's best-known music master, pianist Clara Wieck was already an infant prodigy when the great composer, Robert Schumann, began to study music with her father. For several years he was a welcome and frequent guest in the Wieck household, but his visits ended abruptly when he proposed marriage to Clara—Herr Wieck had no intention of letting marriage spoil his selfish plans for his daughter's career.

For Clara this was the beginning of a long, unhappy struggle. Always hoping her father would relent, Clara obediently continued to give concerts and recitals for four years before finally realizing that only complete and open defiance of her father would make marriage possible.

As in Girl With a Pen: Charlotte Bronte (an A.L.A. Notable Book), The Swedish Nightingale: Jenny Lind, and her other fine biographical novels, Elisabeth Kyle presents a most absorbing portrait of the difficulties and joys in the life of a dedicated artist and, at the same time, offers a vivid picture of the times in which Clara and Robert Schumann lived, the famous musicians they met, and the places they visited, in a fascinating, meticulously researched story sure to strike responsive chords in all readers.

From the dust jacket