Antonietta

by John Hersey

"John Hersey's brilliantly inventive novel is the romantic odyssey of a Stradivarius violin from its creation three hundred years ago in Cremona through its many adventures in the hands of the famous and infamous ... It begins in 1699 as the great Stradivari, in love at fifty-five, fashions a magnificent instrument and names it Antonietta, after the object of his desire. It ends on Martha's Vineyard with a tone-deaf financier purchasing Antonietta to improve his image as a person of culture. In the intervening years--a sparkling variety of incidents--we see Stradivari's bewitching violin affecting the lives of: the young Mozart in Paris ... the fiercely ambitious Berlioz ... and Stravinsky ... The composers come alive in all their idiosyncrasies, and Antonietta becomes a compelling presence--giving voice to the changing character, and eternal art, of music over the centuries."