Rating: 
Summary: Not Schumannesque
Review: I wish this book possessed the Romantic genius of Robert Schumann's best music rather than collecting the literal facts of his life. A biography in the guise of fiction, complete with scholarly footnotes, all this books needs is an index - that, and a perfervid imagination. I wanted to enjoy Longing, but it was so slow and meandering, I only longed for it to be over. The minutiae of scholarship defeated me. There is invented dialogue amidst all the factual detail, but it does not transport, much less convince. If you want true fantasy, choose Schumann's Fantasy in C - Longing is far too literal.
Rating: 
Summary: LONG WINDED
Review: IF I KNEW IT WAS WRITTEN LIKE A TEXTBOOK, LONG WINDED, OVERLY DESCRIPTIVE, TIRESOMELY LONG, AND FULL OF FOREIGN VOCABULARY, THEN I WOULD NOT HAVE BOUGHT LONGING FOR PLEASURABLE READING. IT TOOK ME NEARLY THREE WEEKS TO COMPLETE BECAUSE I READ FOR ENJOYMENT AND LONGING WAS AN ORDEAL. THE BIBLIOGRAPHY ALONE WAS A SHORT BOOK IN ITSELF. GRANTED THE AUTHOR WAS VERY THOROUGH IN THIS BIOGRAPHY, BUT IT WASN'T A NICHOLAS AND ALEXANDER OR A KATHERINE GRAHAM TYPE OF READ.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to read
Review: Let me preface my review by saying that although a lover of history, I have very little knowledge or familiarity with classical music/musicians. I could tell you about the romanticism of the 19th century, the political atmosphere in Europe and dash in some flourishes of art/artists, but my education is sadly lacking in music. Thus said, I found Longing both informative, and difficult to read. In a purely historical, clinical way, I got more information on musicians and music than I will ever need. The main problem I found was with the way the story was written. I expected a fictional story (based on fact), but this is not what I found. At some times I could have been reading a textbook (ok, a verbose textbook), while at others, I could have been reading the longwinded romance style in which this story was written about (i.e. Charles Dickens). There were many times where I got lost in the landscape of meandering sentences. Many things were not written about, but alluded to. For example, it took me a while to figure out the part where Robert loses the use of one finger. We see him going to various doctors, and having to endure all kinds of treatments, but I never knew what was going on until later. (He was always going to doctors, this was nothing new). Or right before Robert goes completely mad, there were scenes where Robert avoids conscription into various armies while revolutions break out in "Germany" (not a country until 1871: Prussia, Saxony, Bavaria, etc.). If I had not previously known about the volatile state of "Germany" in the mid 19th century, (or the rest of Europe for that matter) I would have probably been confused while reading this portion of the book. While it was interesting to learn about other contemporaries or influential people to the Schumann's (Schubert, Heine, Liszt, von Weber, Beethoven, Wagner, Haydn, Chopin, Paganini, Goethe, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Kierkegaard, Brahms, and Hans Christian Andersen) the passages between these people seemed detached. Many of the technical terms they were talking about, went above my neophyte head, though I suppose that is my problem, not the author's. All in all, I felt like I had to plod through this story as opposed to being swept along the narrative. It is written for the well informed reader, who already knows the political landscape and musical landscape of Europe in the mid 19th century.
Rating: 
Summary: A ravishingly good read!
Review: Many a biography has been criticized for having embellished the facts, or, indeed providing facts when there were none lying around. Landis,however, is guilty of neither act, having billed "Longing" as a fictional biography."Longing" gives us the lifestory of composer and pianist Robert Schumann. Schumann's brief life, driven by a passion for music and its creation, ends in a suicidal jump into the Rhein, for he is also driven by madness. He was 45. But these facts about Schumann are well known,as well as, his study of law and his career switch to music. He is a pianist until a finger injury, prevents him from playing. He then turns to composition. His wife Clara, also a talented pianist and composer, perhaps even more talented, makes a self sacrafice, for the sake of aiding her husbands career. Also fact is the passionate( but consummated?) relationship of Clara to Johannes Brahms. Music,desire, passion and madness: the stuff of great books are all there. Perhaps the best fact, is that Landis has provided the reader with plausible links between all the knowns, and instead of wild leaps of imagination, has made "Longing" a riveting good read.
Rating: 
Summary: Enchants Pianists Everywhere
Review: Not only does Longing convey the utmost and personal experiences of Robert and Clara Weick Schumann, but it goes into incredible detail of other composers such as Mendelssohn, Chopin, and countless others. This book is a true classic and J.D. Landis should be thanked for bringing such a wonderful book into the lives of so many pianists.
Rating:
Summary: Pearls in Slime
Review: The author of this book can be thanked for sparking my interest in looking up Clara Wieck and Robert Schumann and finding out the real facts of their lives. The book itself treats important aspects of their lives with an ambiguous shimmer that shouldn't be acceptable when writing of historically real people. For music lovers, the details of Clara's playing technique, the quality of various pianos, the contemporary view of Schumann's work as avant-garde, are fascinating tidbits despite the prose through which they must struggle to find them. My own view of this process is of fishing pearls out of slime. The author's archly prurient style casts an unpleasant light over the whole story. To be more charitable (possibly) I quote from the author himself in answer to a question about the style: "Maybe it's a bit of Henry James meets Thomas Mann, and the two of them go to bed with Edith Wharton."
Rating:
Summary: If you have any music in your soul, you'll love this!
Review: This book is an act of literary magic--so astonishing in its depth and scope that you will probably never hear music the same way again! J. D. Landis recreates the extraordinary love story of composer Robert Schumann and pianist/composer Clara Wieck, complete with their letters and details of their relationship. But the author also gives poignant context to their intense and oft-thwarted love by revealing the totally encompassing musical, literary, philosophical, and political climate of the day. Anyone who has ever had any curiosity at all about the Romantic period--even negative curiosity about the sometimes sentimental and uncontrolled passion of the writing and music--will be totally won over here. The book is amazing. Robert Schumann, one of the most controversial and least understood of composers, had ruined his promising concert career as a pianist by damaging his hand through overpractice and/or the use of a stretching device, an act never forgiven by Friedrich Wieck, Robert's teacher and the father of Clara. Clara, on the other hand, eight years old when Robert sees her for the first time, is her father's triumph--becoming the most celebrated pianist/composer in Germany and the darling of audiences throughout Europe. As she approaches maturity, Friedrich will stop at almost nothing to keep Clara from Robert. Landis creates wonderful scenes, not only of Clara and Robert, but also of how the world of young Clara expands to include Paganini, Goethe, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Kierkegaard, and Hans Christian Andersen (whose cruel treatment by singer Jenny Lind will never by forgotten by the reader). Scenes showing Robert's veneration of Schubert, Heine, Liszt, von Weber, Beethoven, the young Wagner, Haydn, and Chopin, among others, are brought fully to life, and are particularly moving when his love for them must survive their often fatal illnesses and early deaths. The final scenes which reveal the depth of love which both Robert, now institutionalized by his madness, and his devoted Clara feel for Johannes Brahms are perhaps the consummate expressions of romanticism. Once Landis gets beyond the convoluted prose and long sentences of his first 25 pages, this book becomes a can't-put-it-downer.
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