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Alma Mahler, or, The Art of Being Loved
Born in 1879, the daughter of a Viennese painter, Alma Mahler inspired the passionate love and devotion of an astonishing array of creative artists. She married three of them--the composer Gustav Mahler, the architect Walter Gropius, and the writer Franz Werfel--and had a host of admirers and
lovers, including the painters Oscar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, and Gustav Klimpt. The composer Alban Berg dedicated his opera Wozzeck to her and a violin concerto to the memory of her daughter, Manon, who died of polio.
In Alma Mahler , Francoise Giroud provides a spirited portrait of one of Europe's great femme fatales , ranging from her childhood (she was raised on a steady diet of Nietzche) to her heyday as a leading figure in Europe's art scene, to her later life as an exile in California and New York. We meet
a woman of remarkable beauty and unconventional mind, the possessor of a fine, demanding intelligence, who was highly conscious of herself as a member of the elite, a woman never truly conquered by her lovers. Her last husband, Franz Werfel, called her "one of the very few sorceresses of our time."
And indeed when she appeared, her presence attracted all eyes as she moved like a queen through a room. And what eyes she drew. Virtually all the great figures of 19th-century Vienna march through these pages, including Sigmund Freud, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schonberg, Hugo van Hofmannsthal, Karl
Kraus, and Elias Canetti, and Giroud pens striking portraits of each. There are also many memorable Franz Werfel singing Verdi arias with James Joyce in a Paris cafe; the young Gropius, having an affair with then-married Alma, chased from the Mahler home by guard dogs and taking refuge under
a bridge; Kokoschka, after his affair with Alma has died, commissioning a life-sized doll, a faithful reproduction of his former lover. But the heart of the book is Alma's marriage to Mahler. We read Alma's own first impression of Mahler--"He is terribly nervous. He paced around the room like a wild
animal. He's pure oxygen. You get burnt if you go too near." Unfortunately for Mahler, his attempt to subjugate his young wife to his will--"you have only one profession from now to make me happy "--led to disaster, and he himself was burnt.
Alma Mahler stood at the center of the creative world, the intimate friend (if not lover) of the major artists of her age, and Giroud paints an unforgettable portrait. It was awarded France's Grand Prix litteraire de la femme in 1988.
lovers, including the painters Oscar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, and Gustav Klimpt. The composer Alban Berg dedicated his opera Wozzeck to her and a violin concerto to the memory of her daughter, Manon, who died of polio.
In Alma Mahler , Francoise Giroud provides a spirited portrait of one of Europe's great femme fatales , ranging from her childhood (she was raised on a steady diet of Nietzche) to her heyday as a leading figure in Europe's art scene, to her later life as an exile in California and New York. We meet
a woman of remarkable beauty and unconventional mind, the possessor of a fine, demanding intelligence, who was highly conscious of herself as a member of the elite, a woman never truly conquered by her lovers. Her last husband, Franz Werfel, called her "one of the very few sorceresses of our time."
And indeed when she appeared, her presence attracted all eyes as she moved like a queen through a room. And what eyes she drew. Virtually all the great figures of 19th-century Vienna march through these pages, including Sigmund Freud, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schonberg, Hugo van Hofmannsthal, Karl
Kraus, and Elias Canetti, and Giroud pens striking portraits of each. There are also many memorable Franz Werfel singing Verdi arias with James Joyce in a Paris cafe; the young Gropius, having an affair with then-married Alma, chased from the Mahler home by guard dogs and taking refuge under
a bridge; Kokoschka, after his affair with Alma has died, commissioning a life-sized doll, a faithful reproduction of his former lover. But the heart of the book is Alma's marriage to Mahler. We read Alma's own first impression of Mahler--"He is terribly nervous. He paced around the room like a wild
animal. He's pure oxygen. You get burnt if you go too near." Unfortunately for Mahler, his attempt to subjugate his young wife to his will--"you have only one profession from now to make me happy "--led to disaster, and he himself was burnt.
Alma Mahler stood at the center of the creative world, the intimate friend (if not lover) of the major artists of her age, and Giroud paints an unforgettable portrait. It was awarded France's Grand Prix litteraire de la femme in 1988.
162 pages, Hardcover
First published December 24, 1987
6 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
Françoise Giroud
66 books18 followersFrançoise Giroud, born France Gourdji was a French journalist, screenwriter, writer and politician.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 12, 2023
First NL, than English
De titel geeft al aan welke de primaire invalshoek van Giroud is geweest bij het schrijven van deze biografie van Alma Mahler: de belangrijke mannen in haar leven en hoe zij met hen is omgegaan. Het levert een fascinerend beeld op van een vrouw die nagenoeg overal een grote sociale en seksuele aantrekkingskracht op mannen had en daarvan als een heerseres gebruik van heeft gemaakt. Op dat laatste is één uitzondering: Gustav Mahler, de Oostenrijkse componist. Hij had evenzeer een krachtige persoonlijkheid, die hij jegens zijn vrouw Alma liet gelden. Het zou haar levenstaak zijn om hem gelukkig te maken. Dat het in dienst staan van haar echtgenoot veel van Alma heeft gevergd, kan van een overbekend voorbeeld worden voorzien: Gustav heeft het Alma verboden nog langer te componeren. Intussen had zij een aantal liederen op haar naam staan; het moet toen een enorme tegenvaller voor haar zijn geweest. Maar wat we ook met haar volgende levensgezellen zien: zij had oog voor belang en status van hen aan wie zij zich verbond; aan armoedige en armzalige lui had zijn geen boodschap.
Wij weten vrij nauwkeurig wat Alma’s gedachtegangen zijn geweest door middel van haar dagboeken. Echter, deze getuigenissen mogen dan uit de eerste hand zijn, ze genieten geen volledige betrouwbaarheid; wat rechtstreeks van haar woorden is overgeleverd, is sterk gekleurd gebleken, zeker in de vergelijking met wat andere aanwezigen en commentatoren over dezelfde gebeurtenissen ons in geschriften hebben nagelaten.
Na het overlijden van Mahler in 1911 is Alma getrouwd geweest met Walter Gropius en Franz Werfel. Gedurende die officiële verbintenissen heeft zij weinig schroom gehad om het bed te delen met andere mannen. Bekend is met name de relatie tussen Alma en Oskar Kokoschka; daarover heeft Hilde Berger een roman gepubliceerd – die kan ik helaas niet aanbevelen, de heftige bewogenheid van de relatie is omgekeerd evenredig aan de kwaliteit van de roman.
Veel karaktereigenschappen van Alma komen langs. Een daarvan is ambivalentie. Die heeft zich geuit in een herhaaldelijke weergave van haar antisemitische opvattingen – terwijl zij de neiging heeft op joodse mannen te vallen.
Françoise Giroud is van huis uit journalist en dat is goed te merken aan de stijl waarin zij deze biografie heeft geschreven: vlot en ietwat populair, toewerkend naar welhaast op voorhand getrokken conclusies. Veel staat er niet in, de nadruk valt op de relatie met Gustav Mahler. De auteur maakt onomwonden duidelijk dat zij Hitler een duivels figuur vindt. Aan de Amerikaanse periode van Alma wordt weinig tekst besteed. Daardoor komt mij het boek niet heel evenwichtig over. Het is niettemin de moeite van het lezen waard.
English
The title already indicates Giroud's primary angle in writing this biography of Alma Mahler: the important men in her life and how she interacted with them. It provides a fascinating picture of a woman who had a strong social and sexual attraction to men almost everywhere and took advantage of it like a ruler. There is one exception to the latter: Gustav Mahler, the Austrian composer. He had an equally powerful personality, which he asserted towards his wife Alma. It would be her life's task to make him happy. That being in the service of her husband demanded a lot from Alma, can be provided with an over-familiar example: Gustav forbade Alma from composing any longer. Meanwhile, she had a number of songs to her name; it must have been a huge setback for her at the time. But whatever we see with her subsequent life companions: she had an eye for importance and status of those to whom she attached herself; to shabby folks she had no business.
We know fairly accurately what Alma's thoughts were through her diaries. However, these accounts may be first-hand, but they do not enjoy complete reliability; what has been handed down directly from her words has proved to be highly coloured, especially when compared with what others who were present and commented on the same events have left us in writings.
After Mahler's death in 1911, Alma was married to Walter Gropius and and later on to Franz Werfel. During those official engagements, she had little qualms about sharing the bed with other men. Particularly well known is the relationship between Alma and Oskar Kokoschka; Hilde Berger has published a novel about it - unfortunately, I cannot recommend it, the fierce eventfulness of the relationship is inversely proportional to the quality of the novel.
Many character traits of Alma come along. One is ambivalence. This manifested in a repeated display of her anti-Semitic views - while she tends to fall for Jewish men.
Françoise Giroud is a journalist by trade and this is well reflected in the style in which she has written this biography: smooth and somewhat popular, working towards conclusions drawn almost in advance. Too much of Alma’s life is not in the book. The emphasis is on the relationship with Gustav Mahler. The author makes it unequivocally clear that she finds Hitler a diabolical figure. Little text is devoted to Alma's American period. As a result, the book does not strike me as very balanced. It is nevertheless worth reading. JM
De titel geeft al aan welke de primaire invalshoek van Giroud is geweest bij het schrijven van deze biografie van Alma Mahler: de belangrijke mannen in haar leven en hoe zij met hen is omgegaan. Het levert een fascinerend beeld op van een vrouw die nagenoeg overal een grote sociale en seksuele aantrekkingskracht op mannen had en daarvan als een heerseres gebruik van heeft gemaakt. Op dat laatste is één uitzondering: Gustav Mahler, de Oostenrijkse componist. Hij had evenzeer een krachtige persoonlijkheid, die hij jegens zijn vrouw Alma liet gelden. Het zou haar levenstaak zijn om hem gelukkig te maken. Dat het in dienst staan van haar echtgenoot veel van Alma heeft gevergd, kan van een overbekend voorbeeld worden voorzien: Gustav heeft het Alma verboden nog langer te componeren. Intussen had zij een aantal liederen op haar naam staan; het moet toen een enorme tegenvaller voor haar zijn geweest. Maar wat we ook met haar volgende levensgezellen zien: zij had oog voor belang en status van hen aan wie zij zich verbond; aan armoedige en armzalige lui had zijn geen boodschap.
Wij weten vrij nauwkeurig wat Alma’s gedachtegangen zijn geweest door middel van haar dagboeken. Echter, deze getuigenissen mogen dan uit de eerste hand zijn, ze genieten geen volledige betrouwbaarheid; wat rechtstreeks van haar woorden is overgeleverd, is sterk gekleurd gebleken, zeker in de vergelijking met wat andere aanwezigen en commentatoren over dezelfde gebeurtenissen ons in geschriften hebben nagelaten.
Na het overlijden van Mahler in 1911 is Alma getrouwd geweest met Walter Gropius en Franz Werfel. Gedurende die officiële verbintenissen heeft zij weinig schroom gehad om het bed te delen met andere mannen. Bekend is met name de relatie tussen Alma en Oskar Kokoschka; daarover heeft Hilde Berger een roman gepubliceerd – die kan ik helaas niet aanbevelen, de heftige bewogenheid van de relatie is omgekeerd evenredig aan de kwaliteit van de roman.
Veel karaktereigenschappen van Alma komen langs. Een daarvan is ambivalentie. Die heeft zich geuit in een herhaaldelijke weergave van haar antisemitische opvattingen – terwijl zij de neiging heeft op joodse mannen te vallen.
Françoise Giroud is van huis uit journalist en dat is goed te merken aan de stijl waarin zij deze biografie heeft geschreven: vlot en ietwat populair, toewerkend naar welhaast op voorhand getrokken conclusies. Veel staat er niet in, de nadruk valt op de relatie met Gustav Mahler. De auteur maakt onomwonden duidelijk dat zij Hitler een duivels figuur vindt. Aan de Amerikaanse periode van Alma wordt weinig tekst besteed. Daardoor komt mij het boek niet heel evenwichtig over. Het is niettemin de moeite van het lezen waard.
English
The title already indicates Giroud's primary angle in writing this biography of Alma Mahler: the important men in her life and how she interacted with them. It provides a fascinating picture of a woman who had a strong social and sexual attraction to men almost everywhere and took advantage of it like a ruler. There is one exception to the latter: Gustav Mahler, the Austrian composer. He had an equally powerful personality, which he asserted towards his wife Alma. It would be her life's task to make him happy. That being in the service of her husband demanded a lot from Alma, can be provided with an over-familiar example: Gustav forbade Alma from composing any longer. Meanwhile, she had a number of songs to her name; it must have been a huge setback for her at the time. But whatever we see with her subsequent life companions: she had an eye for importance and status of those to whom she attached herself; to shabby folks she had no business.
We know fairly accurately what Alma's thoughts were through her diaries. However, these accounts may be first-hand, but they do not enjoy complete reliability; what has been handed down directly from her words has proved to be highly coloured, especially when compared with what others who were present and commented on the same events have left us in writings.
After Mahler's death in 1911, Alma was married to Walter Gropius and and later on to Franz Werfel. During those official engagements, she had little qualms about sharing the bed with other men. Particularly well known is the relationship between Alma and Oskar Kokoschka; Hilde Berger has published a novel about it - unfortunately, I cannot recommend it, the fierce eventfulness of the relationship is inversely proportional to the quality of the novel.
Many character traits of Alma come along. One is ambivalence. This manifested in a repeated display of her anti-Semitic views - while she tends to fall for Jewish men.
Françoise Giroud is a journalist by trade and this is well reflected in the style in which she has written this biography: smooth and somewhat popular, working towards conclusions drawn almost in advance. Too much of Alma’s life is not in the book. The emphasis is on the relationship with Gustav Mahler. The author makes it unequivocally clear that she finds Hitler a diabolical figure. Little text is devoted to Alma's American period. As a result, the book does not strike me as very balanced. It is nevertheless worth reading. JM
May 10, 2023
Είναι αρκετά ξεκάθαρο σε όλο το βιβλίο ότι είναι μια βιογραφία γυναίκας ,γραμμένης από άντρα συγγραφέα και μάλιστα στα 1980κάτι...Θα προτιμούσα να μην υπάρχει τόσο πολύ η γνώμη του συγγραφέα,καθώς δεν είναι αντικειμενική και εστιάζει στο πόσους συζύγους και συντρόφους είχε...Παρόλα αυτά,βρήκα ενδιαφέρουσα την εποχή,καθώς εκείνη την περίοδο στη Βιέννη έζησαν πάρα πολλοί γνωστοί και σημαντικοί καλλιτέχνες,γι αυτό έβαλα τρία και όχι δύο αστέρια!
March 7, 2021
A wicked little biography. Too cynical for my taste but captivating.
February 5, 2023
In varie biografie di artisti del primo Novecento ci si imbatte spesso nella figura di Alma Mahler: curioso di approfondire la sua vita ho letto questa biografia ormai un po' datata, e devo dire che ne sono rimasto abbastanza deluso. Basandomi solo sul libro, la vita di Alma Mahler non è altro che un insieme di flirt, matrimoni, tradimenti, seduzioni, nient'altro, sembra di leggere la trama di una soap opera. Inoltre nell'ultima edizione della Beat la traduzione è molto scarsa, con frasi completamente sgrammaticate.
October 8, 2009
Cursory overview that ignores (willfully or not, I can't say) the Alma Problem. It's a quickie bio and a fast read, but I'd recommend Alma's diaries and Mahler's letters to his wife to balance it out.
March 22, 2018
Quelle femme!
October 31, 2021
Na můj vkus hodně zaujatá a hodnotící biografie, nicméně zajímavá. Škoda těch autorčiných “soudů, dost mi vadily…
August 27, 2024
Een recht-toe-recht-aan geschreven relaas van het turbulente (liefdes)leven van Alma Mahler-Gropius-Kokoscha-Werfel. Een leven rond de eeuwwisseling, de eerste- en tweede wereldoorlog.
January 22, 2025
Sets a fascinating portrait of Vienna’s intellectual and artistic circles in the early 1900s
August 9, 2024
Due stelle perché non mi è piaciuta affatto la scrittura....
July 29, 2014
To read this book, someone definitely has to like facts about music, art, politics, religion and history, so I can't say that this is a strictly biographical book, of course every mention of a name, place, artifact or event is somehow connected to the ''Queen of Vienna'', that was Alma Mahler. This beautiful, ingenious and proud siren, acquired an impressive collection of men such as Mahler the composer, Kokoschka the painter, Gropius the architect , Werfel the author and many more followers of her everlasting charm..
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews