Bowen Island’s Carol Cram has just published the second in her trilogy of historical novels about women in the arts. The first was The Towers of Tuscany, which tells the story of a painter in medieval Italy. With A Woman of Note, Cram takes us to 1820s Vienna to meet Isabette Grüber, a concert pianist and closet composer.
Isabette’s story opens on the day of Ludwig von Beethoven’s funeral. She is performing a concert, but we soon learn that her real passion is for composing music at a time where women composers are not accepted.
The novel takes us through Isabette’s challenges in bringing her music to light, chronicling her journey as she works to overcome painful social awkwardness, plain looks, and strict societal boundaries. It is easy to cheer for Isabette, and I enjoyed that all the twists and turns of her journey through friendship and marriage, high times and low, included many surprises.
Cram’s compassion for Isabette the artist is no doubt connected to her own background as a pianist, and a life shared with painter Gregg Simpson.
A Woman of Note takes us through the private salons and opulent concert houses of Vienna and Paris. We rub shoulders with an array of Beethoven’s successors, including Schubert, Berlioz, Chopin, Liszt, and Clara Schumann. Cram’s deep research into musical life at the end of Vienna’s classical era, and women’s role in it, shines throughout the story. I enjoyed the details – the pub politics of getting your musical score published, the impish eccentricities of Herr Schubert, and the much darker realities of those diagnosed with mental illness.
Cram’s latest book is already winning praise. Earlier this week, the Historical Novel Society published a glowing review, and anointed A Woman of Note with an “Editor’s Choice”. And this writer’s recommended pairings? A cozy fire, a slice of Sacher torte and glass of Grüner Veltliner, and your favourite Viennese composer spinning in the background. Anything but Strauss–Isabette’s orders.
Everyone is welcome to attend the Bowen Island launch of A Woman of Note this Sunday, November 8, at 3 pm at Cates Hill Chapel.
