Chopin's Funeral

By: Benita Eisler

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Synopsis: Benita Eisler, author of the acclaimed biography Byron, offers a closely focused portrait of Chopin - the story of his last years, of his legendary affair with the novelist George Sand, and of nineteenth-century Parisian cultural life. Like his music, Chopin's life is heartbreaking. At twenty-one, he left embattled Warsaw for exile in Paris. After just two public concerts, he was a star of Parisian society, and an intimate of his great contemporaries, Schumann, Liszt and the painter Eugene Delacroix, who famously introduced him to George Sand and painted their double portrait. Ten years later, as Chopin lay destitute and dying of consumption in the arms of Sand's estranged daughter, revolution surged through the streets of Paris. Chopin's Funeral is an intimate close-up of the composer's last years - the story of the artist as exile, of a spectacular love affair, and of a nation on the cusp of the modern age. Artful and engaging, brilliantly compressed and atmospheric, it is a masterful interpretation of a great life.