by RoseTremain (Author)
In the year 1629, a young English lutenist named Peter Claire arrives at the Danish Court to join King Christian IV's Royal Orchestra. From the moment when he realizes that the musicians perform in a freezing cellar underneath the royal apartments, Peter Claire understands that he's come to a place where the opposing states of light and dark, good and evil are waging war to the death. Designated the King's 'Angel' because of his good looks, he finds himself falling in love with the young woman who is the companion of the King's adulterous and estranged wife, Kirsten. With his loyalties fatally divided between duty and passion, how can Peter Claire find the path that will realize his hopes and save his soul? "From the Trade Paperback edition."
Format: Hardcover
Pages: 464
Edition: First Edition
Publisher: Chatto & Windus
Published: 02 Sep 1999
ISBN 10: 186056027X
ISBN 13: 9781860560279
Book Overview: A major new novel by Rose Tremain, with an extraordinary historical background. When the King of Denmark is in the mood to listern to music, he opens the trapdoor between his favourite room in the castle and the cellar where he keeps his orchestra. . . and when he's bored with it and want silence again, he simply kicks the trapdoor shut.
Prizes: Winner of Whitbread Prize (Novel) 1999 and Whitbread Book Awards: Novel Category 1999.
Lyrical, voluptuous--splendid--A sumptuous drama lit by the glamorous torchlight of the courtly past. - Sunday Times
Historical fiction so epic in scope and so moving and imaginative that the reader lives a second life. - Time Out
Superb--a wonderful, joyously noisy book. - Guardian
Tremain's achievement in Music & Silence is extraordinary--A narrative as funny as it is compelling. - Daily Telegraph
Magnificent--shot through with Tremain's unique blend of psychological acuity and charm. - The Times
From the Trade Paperback edition.
From the Trade Paperback edition.