Excerpt from Wagner and His Works, the Story of His Life, Vol. 1: With Critical Comments
Although only half a century has elapsed since Richard Wagner first became prominent as an operatic composer, it may be safely asserted that more has already been written and printed about him than about any other dramatic author excepting Shakespeare. To add to this collection two more volumes may seem a rash and superfluous proceeding; but if the reader will take the trouble to compare these volumes with other works on the same subject, he will see at a glance that the biographic treasures had been very far from exhausted by my predecessors. There are many short Wagner biographies in the market, written by Tappert, Muncker, Pohl, Nohl, Gasperini, Hueffer, Dannreuther, Kobbe, and others. Several of these are excellent in their way, but they all attempt to present, in from a hundred to two hundred pages, a subject which requires a thousand pages for adequate treatment.
The only two elaborate biographies are Glasenapp's and Jullien's. Glasenapp, having been the first in the field, had to do some hard pioneer work, for which he deserves credit. But his treatise exists only in German, and it will probably never be translated, as it is too verbose, and contains too many dry details of merely local interest.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Wagner and His Works, the Story of His Life, Vol. 1