1: Love can be joy, or our undoing! That has not changed since this novel was written.
I read this book because I read that the movie RHAPSODY was loosely based on it, and I did enjoy that melodramatic film. The film is really not much like the book, except that in both, the "Guest" character, the hero, has an obsessive love for the heroine, Louise, that proves very dangerous for him. I won't give away the ending of either film or novel, but you will want to find out once you get into either of them.
This is as good a book about obsessive love and infatuation as you will ever find, in any era, in any language. The music provides more of a backdrop than it does in the film (in the film the music/concerts are a real high point) but it is a good backdrop. Richardson is a descriptive, somewhat flowery writer--very good, but if you are looking for a "quick read" this is not the book for you.
If you have the time, though, and like novels with European settings that show the culture and values of an earlier time, and if you like personality studies, then you will enjoy MAURICE GUEST. I did. This would be a good book to get into on a train or plane ride, or while you are stuck in an airport.
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