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John Suchet is the author of three best-selling books on the life,
passion, pain and glory of Beethoven in the form of a fictional
biography trilogy. Q: Why did you write three books? Q: Why
did you decide to write it as a novel? Why not a biography? A: I only set out to write one quick book! That's what I told my wife and that's what my publisher accepted. Then one became two, and two became three. Fortunately my publisher, and even more fortunately my wife, decided to stick with me. The reason for three books is simple. I couldn't answer the question, what to leave out? So in the end I left out practically nothing. In fact I don't think of it as three books. It's really just one book, divided into three parts for pure practicality. Volume One begins before Beethoven's birth, and ends after his death. Q: Why did you decide to write it as a novel? Why not a biography? A: There are literally thousands of books about Beethoven. Formal biographies as well as deep, scholarly, musicological books analysing the works note by note. There is one book of 250 pages about a single composition, the Diabelli Variations! In the musicological books Beethoven's life is dealt with fairly summarily - a brief section at the beginning or the end of the book. The biographies lay out his life in factual, sometimes colourless, prose, tending to come alive only when looking at the music. After all, they seem to say, isn't that the most important aspect of Beethoven? After reading them you may know the basic structure of his life, and how the music fits into it, but how much do you know about the man? I decided to adopt a different approach. A unique approach. I decided to take the facts and turn them into a novel. "Fictionalise" them. For instance, where a formal biographer might say, 'In 1803 Beethoven composed the Symphony that was to become known as the Eroica.....', I have to be in the room with him. Which room is he in? Who else is in the room with him? What are they saying to each other? Are they drinking? If so, what are they drinking.......?. Q: If you are fictionalising the facts, how do we know that what we are reading is true? A: I have stuck scrupulously to the known facts. Believe me, I have done my research. Everything in my books is in accordance with the known facts. Nothing in them cannot have happened. Only where the known facts are missing, do I use my imagination to join them up, and the join should be seamless. You, the reader, should not be able to tell where the facts give way to my imagination and vice versa. And I believe - paradoxical though it may sound - that by writing it as a novel, I can bring the reader closer to Beethoven himself than a formal biographer can. As I said, you and I are in the room with him. Q: You say you did your research. How did you do it? What was involved? A: I began by reading books. As I said, there is no shortage of them. Once I knew the basic structure of his life, I went to Bonn, his home town. There I became a member of the Beethoven-Archiv, the most important research centre into Beethoven's life. In their library I found obscure books, in German and long out of print, which gave me invaluable information about his childhood and teenage years. Next door, in the Bonngase, is the faithfully restored house in which he was born. It is a miracle that it was not torn down in the last century, nor seriously damaged in two world wars. I began writing in earnest, knowing that soon I would have to go to Vienna, where he spent his entire adult life. I thought a long weekend would do it, and that would be the end of my research. In the event Bonnie and I went to Vienna three times, back to Bonn for a second time, we travelled throughout the Austrian countryside Beethoven loved so much - Baden, Mödling, Döbling, Heiligenstadt, Linz where his brother Johann had an apothecary shop, Gneixendorf where Johann bought an estate - we went to Prague twice, Northern Bohemia and Southern Bohemia where Beethoven, along with the aristocrats of Vienna used to take the waters ... I believe we went to just about every location that is connected to Beethoven and is still there. There is no substitute, if you want to write accurately and with insight, for going to the locations and seeing them for yourself. Every description in my books is based upon my own experience and observation, every place name is accurate, every street name, the names of all the taverns and restaurants ... It is all as Beethoven knew it. Q: What about his deafness? How did you research that? A: When I had my own problem with tinnitus, I consulted an eminent London ear specialist. He and I spoke at length about Beethoven, and what might have caused his deafness. In particular we discussed its effects on him, and whether today's medicine might have been able to cure it. I have also spoken to many people who are deaf or hard of hearing. I am President of the charity, Hearing Concern, which provides a unique level of support and advice for the deaf and hard of hearing. During my research, I received an offer to become "deaf" for a day. A specialist offered to insert plugs into my ears to give me an insight into what it is like to be deaf. I wanted to accept; but my ITN commitments prevented me! A: I decided to put a cast of characters at the front of each volume because there are so many of them! Every character in these lists is real. A real person who actually lived. That put an enormous responsibility on me. I wanted to portray each character accurately. I owed it to them to get it right. In all three volumes there can't be more than half a dozen characters and names I have invented, and they are all minor such as innkeepers, landlords and so on. Q: How do you know you got everything right? A: I can only point to the research I carried out. But you can never be entirely sure. In the 1940's a whole series of letters Beethoven wrote to a woman he was in love with forced a rethink by scholars of that relationship. Who knows what letters might today be in private hands somewhere in the world? I just hope that one day - hopefully many years from now - when I pass on and enter the pearly gates, I'll find him waiting for me and I'll ask him, "Well, Ludwig, did I get it right?" I won't expect him to nod and say yes. I just want him to say: "You got closer to the truth than anyone."
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© John Suchet |
