Mr. Beethoven
Mr. Beethoven by Paul Griffiths, published by New York Review of Books on October 26, 2021, is a work of historical fiction that explores an imaginative scenario involving the renowned composer. This edition spans 312 pages and is presented in English. The narrative is based on Beethoven’s correspondence and posits a counterfactual journey where he travels to America to compose an oratorio inspired by the Book of Job, following a historical request from the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston.
Readers will find a richly woven tale that chronicles Beethoven’s adventures in a new world, where he navigates the complexities of his commission while adapting to American culture. The story delves into his interactions with various characters, including Reverend Ballou, who serves as his librettist, and Mrs. Hill, a widowed figure who becomes significant in his journey. Griffiths constructs a narrative that relies on historically plausible events, allowing readers to engage with a unique interpretation of Beethoven’s life and creative process.
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Shortlisted for the 2020 Goldsmiths Prize
Based on the German composer’s own correspondence, this inventive, counterfactual work of historical fiction imagines Beethoven traveling to America to write an oratorio based on the Book of Job.
It is a matter of historical record that in 1823 the Handel and Haydn Society of Boston (active to this day) sought to commission Beethoven to write an oratorio. The premise of Paul Griffiths’s ingenious novel is that Beethoven accepted the commission and traveled to the United States to oversee its first performance.
Griffiths grants the composer a few extra years of life and, starting with his voyage across the Atlantic and entry into Boston Harbor, chronicles his adventures and misadventures in a new world in which, great man though he is, he finds himself a new man.
Relying entirely on historically attested possibilities to develop the plot, Griffiths shows Beethoven learning a form of sign language, struggling to rein in the uncertain inspiration of Reverend Ballou (his designated librettist), and finding a kindred spirit in the widowed Mrs. Hill, all the while keeping his hosts guessing as to whether he will come through with his promised composition. (And just what, the reader also wonders, will this new piece by Beethoven turn out to be?)
The book that emerges is an improvisation, as virtuosic as it is delicate, on a historical theme.
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