Every Valley: The Story of Handels Messiah

(Hardback)

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The extraordinary true story of intertwined lives that lies behind Handel's Messiah, the most performed piece of classical music ever written London & Dublin, 1741-42. An actress mired in scandal plans her escape from an abusive husband. A penniless sea captain sets out to rescue the city's abandoned infants. An African Muslim and former captive in the colonies becomes a celebrity. A grieving political dissident seeks release from his torment. And a great composer to kings - George Frideric Handel - now ill and straining to keep an audience's attention, faces a decision that will secure his place in history. Evoking a pivotal moment at the birth of modernity, a time of fear, conspiracy and uprising, and featuring some of the most unusual and brilliant personalities of the eighteenth century, Every Valley tells the story behind the creation of Handel's Messiah- a cinematic and moving drama of hope in the darkness and the entangled lives that shaped a masterpiece.

Reviews

A mesmerizing journey of musical genius. There is only one Handel, and only one Messiah, and to understand how each was created is to become immersed in one of the most fascinating and creative moments in human history -- AMANDA FOREMAN
A delicious history of music, power, love, genius, royalty and adventure, beautifully told. Unforgettable -- SIMON SEBAG MONTEFIORE
A book of power and glory, brimming with emotion and dazzling in its reach -- STACY SCHIFF
A lovely story, beautifully told and featuring a veritable Whos Who of the Georgian era. An absolute delight -- PETER FRANKOPAN
Charles King shows how Handels epic work, the Messiah, sprang not from one solitary composers genius but from the dramatic interplay of eighteenth-century lives and their times. Fascinating and accessible to all -- HENRY LOUIS GATES JR

Author Bio

Charles King is Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University, Washington DC. His numerous books include the New York Times bestseller The Reinvention of Humanity (published in the US as Gods of the Upper Air), which was winner of The Francis Parkman Prize and shortlisted for the British Academy Prize and the National Book Critics Circle Award; Midnight at the Pera Palace- The Birth of Modern Istanbul; and Odessa- Genius and Death in a City of Dreams, which was winner of a National Jewish Book Award. His writing has appeared in the TLS, New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, The New Republic and other publications.