Passionate Spirit

The Life of Alma Mahler

Contributors

By Cate Haste

Formats and Prices

Price

$18.99

Price

$24.99 CAD

This item is a preorder. Your payment method will be charged immediately, and the product is expected to ship on or around September 10, 2019. This date is subject to change due to shipping delays beyond our control.

A new biography of Alma Mahler (1879-1964), revealing a woman determined to wield power in a world that denied her agency

History has long vilified Alma Mahler. Critics accused her of distracting Gustav Mahler from his work, and her passionate love affairs shocked her peers. Drawing on Alma’s vivid, sensual, and overlooked diaries, biographer Cate Haste recounts the untold and far more sympathetic story of this ambitious and talented woman. Though she dreamed of being the first woman to compose a famous opera, Alma was stifled by traditional social values. Eventually, she put her own dreams aside and wielded power and influence the only way she could, by supporting the art of more famous men. She worked alongside them and gained credit as their muse, commanding their love and demanding their respect.

Passionate Spirit restores vibrant humanity to a woman time turned into a caricature, providing an important correction to a history where systemic sexism has long erased women of talent.

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Genre:

On Sale
Sep 10, 2019
Page Count
368 pages
Publisher
Basic Books
ISBN-13
9780465096725

Cate Haste

About the Author

Cate Haste is a biographer, historian, and filmmaker. She is the author of a number of books, including Nazi Women and the award-winning biography Sheila Fell: A Passion for Paint. Haste lives in London.

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