New novel on the young Mozart from Viking Penguin debuts to excellent reviews

"Marrying Mozart" has just been released in the United States. The lives of the four lovely Weber sisters are changed by the arrival of the twenty-one-year-old Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a young man struggling to find his place in the eighteenth-century musical world. The sisters will inspire him with their singing; he will write great music for them (including the Queen of the Night) and fall in love with at least two of them. But the one he eventually marries is not the one he first loves.

(PRWEB) February 12, 2004 --The Los Angeles Times write: Cowell's portrait of Mozart is subtly done: understated, balanced and believable, conveying his youthful high spirits and occasional silliness as well as his essential seriousness, kindliness and decency... Equally remarkable is her depiction of her heroines' temperaments - mixtures of naivete and sophistication, sentiment and common sense, sensuality and piety and, above all, a wonderful, passionate kind of romantic innocence and sincerity. Marrying Mozart is a charming novel, so much so that one would enjoy it even if the gentleman involved in these girls' lives were not one of the greatest geniuses in the history of music. As it is, however, it also has the virtue of offering a believable and appealing portrait of Mozart himself.

Kirkus Reviews gave the novel a star for outstanding quality and said, With its frequent changes in locale and abrupt switches in the objects of affection, the tale is reminiscent of nothing so much as an opera-appropriately enough. A delight, at once fanciful and erudite: richly satisfying to Mozart buffs and fascinating to those in the outer circle as well." Publishers Weekly said: "A graceful and entertaining historical [novel]...the tale is as rich and unhurried as 18th-century court life."

The author is an American Book award winner and a lyric coloratura soprano. This is her fourth novel.

To learn more about the novel and the author, or to read an excerpt, please visit her web site: http://www.StephanieCowell.com
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