Franz Schubert 1797–1828: A Literary Biography by Gloria Kaiser (review)

This attractive and imaginative little novel, dubbed a “literary biography,” about the Austrian composer Franz Schubert provides a layman’s insight into the life and creative world of the only one of the four greatest “Viennese” composers of his day to have been born in Vienna. Schubert’s parents had migrated to Vienna from Moravia, a Crown land of the Austrian Empire, now in the Czech Republic. Author Gloria Kaiser uses the existing letters of Schubert and his circle to create a vivid picture of the composer’s tragically short life; less so of his astonishing output and path-breaking works. Her biographical vision is by and large in line with musicological studies.

But, as Robert Winter writes in Grove Music Online, “the enigmatic nature of [Schubert’s] uneventful life has invited a wide range of readings of both man and music that remain among the most hotly debated in musical circles.” The reader needs to have a clear understanding that in her selection of source materials Kaiser has created a personal reading, which the title “a literary biography” clearly allows.

Those seeking to encounter Schubert on a more complex level would be well advised to keep the literary character of this book in mind and to read further in the Schubert literature that provides a variety of viewpoints and deals with controversies. For example, it is no longer debated that Schubert contracted syphilis and may have died from it, but the nature of his sexuality has been the subject of controversial research in recent decades, particularly by Maynard Solomon and Susan McClary. Others reject the idea that there is any relevance of Schubert’s sexuality to his creative work.

One might question a few of the leaps of imagination that the author makes where little or conflicting evidence exists. Particularly, the premises that Schubert’s father was continually physically abusive and that singer Theresa Grob and pupil Caroline Esterházy were love partners seem overdrawn. Given the premise of “literary biography,” however, one may grant the author such license.

It is clear that the author does not intend the book for an academic audience, but some indication of sources, not necessarily in scholarly format, would be an advantage and an improvement to this pleasant volume. The glossary, chronology, Schubert family tree, and afterword are welcome finds at the end of the book, as is the translator’s afterword, which expands on “the themes of loneliness, isolation, social alienation and father-son conflict that are presented in the novel” (208). High marks go to Lowell A. Bangerter for a flowing translation that reads naturally and idiomatically.