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Painted Veils
This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.
- GenresFiction
320 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1920
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About the author
James Huneker
366 books7 followersHuneker was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He studied piano in Europe under Leopold Doutreleau and audited the Paris piano class of Frédéric Chopin's pupil Georges Mathias. He came to New York City in 1885 and remained there until his death. In the USA he studied with Franz Liszt's student Rafael Joseffy, who became his friend and mentor.
Huneker wrote the analysis and commentary on the complete works of Chopin for Schirmer's music publishing company. His analysis of all the piano solo works of Johannes Brahms, written shortly after that composer's complete works were published after his death, is highly regarded.
He was the music editor of the Musical Courier and for two years was music editor of the New York paper The Sun, and a frequent contributor to the leading magazines and reviews.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hu...
Huneker wrote the analysis and commentary on the complete works of Chopin for Schirmer's music publishing company. His analysis of all the piano solo works of Johannes Brahms, written shortly after that composer's complete works were published after his death, is highly regarded.
He was the music editor of the Musical Courier and for two years was music editor of the New York paper The Sun, and a frequent contributor to the leading magazines and reviews.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Hu...
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
September 1, 2020
James Huneker, a forgotten name today, is oft cited as the
most perceptive American culture essayist in the early 20th C. He's definitely worth getting to know.
Huneker (1857-1921) was a music critic who also wrote w passion
and insight about art, literature and theatre. This deeply-felt
novel, published just before his death, is a fascinating (and
modern) philosophical treatise on love, sex, marriage, the
creative urge, religion, God and the painful truths of living.
Without satire or sentimentality, Huneker succinctly examines worldly behaviour.
"Character is plot," he writes, "but plot is not character."
His hero, a young drama critic, falls in love with an aspiring
soprano who will not let any emotion stand in her way. (She reminds me of Willa Cather's diva in her great story, 'Coming, Aphrodite!'). He's drawn to a Good Woman who likes to conjure up make believe 'dream-children' (Albee, 'Va Woolf') and expresses his lust w a perky trollop ("they made the eternal gesture which man shares with his simian cousins at the zoo") who reminds her gents to leave their money on the mantlepiece. Others in the Huneker salon of maxims, axioms and paradoxes are a deceitful music critic and a seminarian who flies too close to the sun.
The cast reminds me of an MGM epic like 'Grand Hotel' with Clark Gable surrounded by Garbo (soprano), Norma Shearer (goodie) and Joan Crawford (baddie). However, the hovering characters here are Goethe, Balzac, Huysmans, and Chopin, Liszt, Wagner -- all referenced. The author scorns conventional rules of novel writing: characters come & go,
viewpoints are changed within two sentences. Considered a torrid book in 1920, it's not a polished "novel," or maybe even a good one, but it is a gleaming cerebral hour-glass that reminds us, in Huneker's witty words: "Truth is stranger than morals" and "Hypocrisy rules the world."
most perceptive American culture essayist in the early 20th C. He's definitely worth getting to know.
Huneker (1857-1921) was a music critic who also wrote w passion
and insight about art, literature and theatre. This deeply-felt
novel, published just before his death, is a fascinating (and
modern) philosophical treatise on love, sex, marriage, the
creative urge, religion, God and the painful truths of living.
Without satire or sentimentality, Huneker succinctly examines worldly behaviour.
"Character is plot," he writes, "but plot is not character."
His hero, a young drama critic, falls in love with an aspiring
soprano who will not let any emotion stand in her way. (She reminds me of Willa Cather's diva in her great story, 'Coming, Aphrodite!'). He's drawn to a Good Woman who likes to conjure up make believe 'dream-children' (Albee, 'Va Woolf') and expresses his lust w a perky trollop ("they made the eternal gesture which man shares with his simian cousins at the zoo") who reminds her gents to leave their money on the mantlepiece. Others in the Huneker salon of maxims, axioms and paradoxes are a deceitful music critic and a seminarian who flies too close to the sun.
The cast reminds me of an MGM epic like 'Grand Hotel' with Clark Gable surrounded by Garbo (soprano), Norma Shearer (goodie) and Joan Crawford (baddie). However, the hovering characters here are Goethe, Balzac, Huysmans, and Chopin, Liszt, Wagner -- all referenced. The author scorns conventional rules of novel writing: characters come & go,
viewpoints are changed within two sentences. Considered a torrid book in 1920, it's not a polished "novel," or maybe even a good one, but it is a gleaming cerebral hour-glass that reminds us, in Huneker's witty words: "Truth is stranger than morals" and "Hypocrisy rules the world."
Displaying 1 of 1 review