I recently had back surgery and was going out of my mind with boredom when my mom insisted I read a book that had brought her much happiness in her teens. Ever since I picked up The Valley of Decision, I cannot stop insisting that everyone I know read it. Ms. Davenport made the characters come alive; They are real people whose lives I cried over, laughed at, was upset for and rejoiced with. It has been a long time since I felt as much a part of a book - probably since reading the Narnia series by C.S. Lewis in my childhood.

Reading this book has been one of the better things I've ever done for myself. I HIGHLY recommend it to all.

I first read this as a teenager (I'm now 50) and re-read it several times before I lost it sometime in my twenties. For years I tried to find it in second hand shops, or to order it from book shops, all to no avail. So I was not overly hopeful when I typed the title and author into Amazon's search engine - and was amazed and very excited when I got a picture of it in front of me within ten seconds! I had it in my hands just a week later and after all those years of thinking about it, was finally able to read it again. And I wasn't disappointed at all - it was as majestical, magical, emotional, compulsive and wonderful as I remembered, even after a gap of nearly 30 years. It's such a touching tale, spans such a great historical era and has such truly memorable characters, it still ranks as one of my very favourite books of all time.

I first read "The Valley of Decision" as a teenager, and find great comfort in it as an adult. I have reread it many times, not only for its "human" story, but for the sense of history it conveys. The sense of history in the book is strong, but the characters are even stronger. So many of the characters remind me of my ancestors, so each reading of the book is a delight.

I have read this book several times in the past. I was able to check it out at the library, they no longer have it to read, and I have searched all over trying to find it. I really want it for by own library to read again, and let other family members read it.

The story of the 2 brothers was mind boggling on the amount of trash they accumlated in their house. I am amazed this was never made into a movie.

Fran

I have just reread this fascinating book by Marcia Davenport after 45 years. I found the original 1954 edition, published by Charles Scribner's Sons in our library, but would like to buy it to keep and have my daughter and friends read it. The story begins with the mysterious death of two elderly brothers who are found buried in a mound of trash in their town house in the 1950's in New York. In all these years, the story has effected me in two ways: trying not to keep too much junk in my house, and one day hoping to visit Bellagio on Lake Como in Italy, where part of the story takes place. Please have the publisher reprint this novel and what an excellent movie it would make!

As I recall, this book was based on the true-life story of the Collier brothers of New York. The author explains very rational reasons for all the irrational mess the brothers were found in after their deaths. The true story was never known for sure, of course. But what a great book! My mother had a copy for many years and then put it in a garage sale! What I wouldn't give to see it again.

I have read this book several times over the last two decades. And still find it engrossing, both for the glimpses it provides of life in an earlier age and among talented people, and for the model of self-examination it provides. Marcia Davenport comes close to living up to the maxim we all imbibed in school, "An unexamined life is not worth living." Additionally, she was an intelligent, strong, independent woman during an era when that was not usual: her story should be sustaining to young girls who have been labeled by our schools as "gifted" but have few role models.

Marcia Davenport lived among and knew well many people we would now call "celebrities" -- although their contributions to the arts and to freedom go deeper than that. She is well known as the first writer in English to do a biography of Mozart; additionally, she has written several novels. Among her family and friends are included: her mother, the opera singer Alma Gluck; her step-father, the violinist Efrem Zimbalist; her husband, writer & publisher Russell Davenport; the conductor, Arturo Toscanini; the editor Max Perkins; and the Czech politician Jan Masaryk. It is a testament to her strong personality that she does not get "lost" among these luminaries.

Davenport's writing is always more cerebral than emotional. Because of that, I have found her memoirs and biographies more satisfying than her novels. This autobiography is honestly written and totally absorbing.

I first read this book in 1967 when it was published and was enthralled by it then and was equally so when I recently reread it to review for a book club. Odd that one would review such an old book, but it has always been one of my favorites. Davenport's intense relationships with her mother, Alma Gluck, a sensationally popular opera singer; her husband, Russell Davenport; Arturo Toscanini, the famed conductor; her editor, Max Perkins; and especially, Jan Masaryk, the foreign minister of Czechoslovakia, and the great love of her life, are described compellingly and with unusual perception. She writes, also, of some of her novels, such as The Valley of Decision, and Mozart. She was particularly attached to places, such as Czechoslakia, especially Prague, and Italy, and she gives you a real sense of what they were like pre- and post World War II. Like her novels, her autobiography is moving and totally engrossing.

This book, written over many years and published in 1967, is one of my favorite books, read and reread many times. It is a picture of the first part of the 20th century, seen though the eyes of a perceptive writer. Through her eyes we meet her remarkable mother, Alma Gluck, one of the great opera singers of the century; Arturo Toscanini, one of the century's great conductors; Max Perkins, her editor, who was also the editor, for Scribners, of, among others, Hemingway, Wolfe and Rawlings; and Jan Masaryk, one of the political heroes of the Czech people in this century. An amazing book, vividly and honestly written..

Marcia Davenport's "Mozart" is indeed wonderfully written and truly was a labor of love. She has a gift for drawing the reader into the book; her wit (and, on occasion, biases) can be noted throughout the book. Davenport doesn't get you to know ABOUT Mozart; she gets the reader to KNOW him.
The reader will find himself emotionally attached to Mozart. He or she will rejoice when he rejoices and will feel sorrow when the Austrian prodigy felt sorrow (which, sadly, was not uncommon.) I truly enjoyed reading this book...

...which is why I'm sorry to say that it is not the best biography.

The work is contains many myths and legends that were masqueraded (often by musicologists) as facts in the past. The author makes use of a letter ("Letter to Baron B.") that was proven fraudulent. This particular letter, concocted by a Friedrich Rochlitz in the early 19th century, was dubbed a forgery even before Davenport's time. (Mozart's first reliable biographer, Otto Jahn, acknowledged this.)

This is not to discredit Davenport; she researched all she could. Again, many otherwise reliable musicologists of Davenport's day regarded the above, as well as other myths and legends found in the Davenport biography, as bona fide information. Many other biographers fell victim to this: Alfred Einstein and Maynard Solomon included. It wasn't until the 1980's that further research revealed that many so-called facts about Mozart were nothing more than myth, and that musicologists and biographers alike put a stop to myth-propagation.

I recommend the reader study this book alongside a biography written within the last decade or so... or better yet, obtain a copy of "The Mozart Myths: a Critical Reassessment" by William Stafford. It will allow the reader to filter the fiction from the fact in "Mozart".

With all this said, "Mozart" truly is a wonderful book, even though it isn't an excellent biography. If you're willing to study "Mozart" and compare it to more authoritative works as you're reading it, you should definitely purchase it. I think you'll find that, despite its shortcomings, it is a charming work.

"No biographer, no commentator, critic, or interpreter can ever reveal Wolfgang Mozart entirely. Every attempt to know him truly, to relive his life, is incomplete without his own musical revelations."

Although that sentiment could not be more accurate, this biography by Marcia Davenport, simply entitled Mozart, brings us about as close as we can get to knowing and understanding this musical genius solely through a 400-page biographical account. In preparing for the writing of this biography, Davenport retraced every journey Mozart made, saw every dwelling in which he had lived, every theatre in which audiences first heard his works performed, and every library and museum that possessed useful manuscripts. In the foreword, she asserts, "I think I know what he looked like, how he spoke, what he did day by day."

Throughout the book, we too get a sense for Mozart the composer and Mozart the man. His great musical works did not emerge from a vacuum; rather, they are the products of a man deeply affected by a unique combination of experiences spanning from his prodigious childhood days of touring throughout Europe to his last days in which he wrote his great Requiem (K. 626), a piece he knew he was composing for his own death. We worry with him through his difficulties with debt and the constant onslaught of disgruntled creditors, and we delight with him when he glows with amorousness for some new love interest. We rejoice with him at the success in Prague of his great operas Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni, and we mourn with him as Wolfgang attempts fruitlessly to receive a much-desired court appointment and recognition worthy of his talent. We carouse with him when he lightheartedly indulges in time with good friends; we are spectators at the heart-wrenching deaths of his mother, father, and a number of children who could not survive infancy.

The book is thorough, accurate, and engagingly informative in its narrative of Mozart's life. Though sometimes bland, the language Davenport uses is appropriately simple; quite admirably, she resists the impulse to indulge in the romanticized and flowery rhetoric with which many authors approach Mozart's miraculous genius. Her graceful writing style lets the characters speak for themselves rather than overpowering them with her own bravura.

Davenport also frequently quotes letters written to and from Mozart, thus providing internal proof for her assertions, as well as supplying additional insight into Wolfgang's personality and wit. Davenport quotes from a letter written by Mozart to his wife, Constanze, in which Wolfgang bemoans his ever-growing debt, then adds a post-script: "Tears rained upon the paper as I wrote the foregoing page, but now let us cheer up! Catch!-an astonishing number of kisses are flying about! The devil!-I see a whole crowd of them, too. Ha, ha! I have just grabbed three-they are delicious!" Such blithely clever passages are not uncommon in Mozart's letters, even when he is at his most miserable. Davenport's numerous references to such letters greatly enhance the lucidity of our perception of Mozart.

One weakness in the biography's articulation, however, occurs in Davenport's copious use of foreign words and phrases, for which she offers no translation. Those who are not moderately proficient in German, Italian, and French will miss some of the book's sly humor and more vivid descriptions, although the use of foreign phrases is not significant enough to diminish substantially a reader's understanding of the book.

For those interested in Mozart's life but who have not done much reading on him, this book is a lovely resource filled with such an abundance of information so as to transform such a novice into an expert. For those who are already Mozart aficionados, this book may not offer much new insight, but the depth and detail with which Davenport describes events may give such readers fresh perspective and heightened understanding. For the musician who enjoys Mozart's works, this biography is particularly intriguing, not only for the reasons noted above but also because the book mentions most of Mozart's great compositions while describing the time during which he produced them. For a performer or an analyst, such information as Mozart's present circumstances and frame of mind while composing a specific piece can be extremely helpful in interpreting his music.

This meticulously complete and factual account of Mozart's life is a valuable resource for lovers of Mozart and of his music, whether reading for study or for pleasure.

From an avid reader in general, and of biographies and history in particular, I found this book remarkably hard to put down after the very first page. I agree with Barnes & Nobel when the wrote "The result is a biography of such commanding stature that it has remained unassailable since its publication in 1932." What makes this book so special is that it doesn't tell you about Mozart, it is Mozart. You feel as if you are living your life along side Mozart's. Davenport's writing, woven throughout the scores of quotations from letters written by Mozart and those around him, is so vivid that you can actually see Mozart's life unfold in your imagination from the beginning until the end. And what about the subject of the book - Mozart. In my opinion, Mozart is one of the most spectacular individuals the World has ever known. If you are not a Mozart fan now, you most assuredly will be after reading this book. He seems to have been not only an ungodly genius, but a generous individual with an incredible sense of humor as well. This book should be studied at the high school level. I really believe teenagers would not only comprehend Mozart, but would also find him similar to themselves from a social point of view. I bet it would be real eye-opener to many of these students that such an apparently laid-back, rebellious and "party animal" type of person could create such serious and Ingenious work. This book is a must read for all!

At a rummage sale I chanced upon this post-war novel set in Manhattan; my copy was published in 1947. What a little gem of a book. Davenport explores a narrow band of post-war social strata in New York and provides the reader with a rare and poignant glimpse into an aspect of society surely not missed in the freedoms of present day. Almost more satisfying than the struggles of the core characters - who in the span of a week see themselves anew, or are willing to see themselves for the first time - are the sense impressions provided in large doses of a New York City long forgotten, the sights and smells, the behavior patterns, the ways of life that have broken down and evolved over the past 50 years. If you love New York and its social history, you will truly enjoy this glimpse into its past.

The story of Garibaldi, Father of Modern Italy, tells of one man who dedicated his life to freeing his homeland and uniting all of Italy. The King of Piedmont, however, exiles Garibaldi twice for spurring the people to fight for freedom. No matter how many times he was exiled he always came back to help his people. When Garibaldi was a young man he met men who were Italian freedom fighters, and they inspired him to help free his country. After the King of Piedmont exiled him for the first time, Garibaldi went to Brazil and fought with the freedom fighters there where he learned tactics to take back to Italy. He returned to Italy after a few years when he was called back to help fight. By the end, he freed most of Italy. The Italian people are sick of being the way the French, Bourbons and Austrians are treating them. They turn to Garibaldi for his leadership, his ability to inspire men to fight, his fighting tactics that never failed and he was their chance at freedom. As a person of Italian decent I liked the way Marica Davenport portrayed the Italians and Garibaldi as loyal to their cause and the man they wanted to be king.

Hmmmmmm.....the Republican House Leader here says that the Minimum Wage is against the American family and should not be raised or even exist? Is he insane or what? He states that such basic labor laws as publicly funded Social Security are 'anti-family.' He says that we need a flat tax of 17% which would see the top rate on the wealthiest 2% fall by more than 50%. He favors privatization of Medicare, Social Security and various labor laws. He favors regressionin civil rights and the environment. He favors dismanteling all current gun laws, even those who ban AK-47's. This guy's crazy! This book is a pure looser by a pure looser and for a pure looser.

In his book, Rep. Armey shows why and how Freedom is vital to ensure success for any nation. He begins with a quick history lesson, about how President Reagan gave the people the Freedom to use their own money with his large tax cuts, and how our national economy was transformed from stagnant to superlative. He goes on to show how Freedom and privatization can work in any area of public life: the economy, education, social security, medicare, and helping the needy.

His main ponit is that government cannot do all the things people want it to do. He stresses that large government is dangerous and can cause irresponsibility just as it has in our inner cities with welfare. Only with Freedom from government can people be trusted to make their own decisions and use their money as they see fit.

Dr. Armey's chapter on abortion and education can really open your eyes to see the real meaning of being pro-life and wanting a better future for our children. Unfortunately, many liberals would call Dr. Armey cold-hearted, mean, or insensitive. He is actually a realist who only wants government to stay out of our way so we can help ourselves as well as others. Through privatization, deregulation, responsibility, and trust can we in America overcome the shackles of big government and truly be Free.

And for those people who speak of Dr. Armey's gun control stance, no where in the book did he speak of gun control. Which book did you read?

Has big government failed? Is a more conservative agenda sweeping the nation? Is government taking more of your money without asking? If you ask Dick Armey, his book will tell you yes and he may be on to something.

As House majority leader, Dick Armey has battled for lower taxes, smaller, smarter government, flat tax system and the balanced budget and is this book, Armey lays out a plan that shows why he is the majority leader.

Armey has a unique way of giving the reader the facts without condescending. Armey's ability to provide data to backup his facts is what this books a real winner. Armey knows what he's talking about.

Read how Armey wants to reduce federal regulations, bring back power to parents, abolish welfare and reduce government by half. A well-written and well-presented book makes this a must read for all!