They show an extraordinary force of nature, a man of astonishing energy, by turns charming and unbearable, astonishingly quick both to rage and to forgive, and childish beyond belief. A famous example, given here, is the soiree where the guests - not Wagner's guests, by the way - briefly paid attention to another person in the room. Wagner solved the problem by screaming, literally, with rage; when the astonished company turned back to Wagner he carried on his "conversation", or monologue, as if nothing had happened. Other less well-known stories appear here, illustrating a similar outrageousness. The ugly and unpleasant antisemitism is also fully represented. Though the different excerpts all find this mercurial man in different moods, all accounts have one thing in common: the writers are all aware that they have just encountered something absolutely extraordinary.

Not appearing is (I've forgotten the original source and the exact form of the quote, though it's cited in a well-known article on Wagner by Deems Taylor) Wagner's own observation on what people who put up with his demands, financial and emotional could expect: they were well recompensed because they would be able to tell stories about having known Wagner, for the rest of their lives. He was right, of course, as this book, among thousands of others, so richly proves.

This is an excellent portrait and resource book, offering a more vivid and arguably truer picture of Wagner than any of the available biographies. (Wagner may be the historical figure of whom secondary sources are most unreliable. With Wagner it ALWAYS pays to read the original source and NEVER to trust the commentator, some of whom should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.)

A fault is that we should have heard more from the musicians who knew Wagner: not the fellow composers, whose anecdotes are mostly well-known and appear here once again, but the orchestral players and others who played under him or worked with him at London, Dresden and of course Bayreuth: more especially on his rehearsing of the _Ring_ would have been most welcome. Among musicians Wagner is not only at his best as a human being, but also his most fascinating as a talker. His obiter dicta on his contemporaries, and even more on his great ancestors, are worth the price, but there could comfortably have been more.

Still, a book which is both a fascinating read for the Wagner neophyte and a useful resource for the Wagner scholar: a great combination and an excellent book. Highly recommended.

Cheers!

Laon

Contrary to popular belief, I'm fast coming round to the idea that Williams was a *philosophical* writer rather than a *religious* writer. And not only because he himself described his seven novels as "metaphysical thrillers".

Unlike "Descent into Hell" - which is quite frankly an overwrought gothic monstrosity - "Many Dimensions" is a 'typical' Williams story, with standard English prose (standard for the 1930s, that is), a straightforward plotline and plenty of pace. In fact you could put "Many Dimensions" up against later fiction of a similar tone - like Dennis Wheatley, for example (not very well-known now, but immensely popular in the 50s and 60s) - and be hard put to pick a winner.

So where does the philosophy come in?
Primarily in the form of a series of very basic, but also very important, questions that lie just below the surface of the story - and sometimes not even below the surface.

Questions like: "If you can restore all of the people in group A to health, but in the process throw at least an equal number of people in group B out of work - at a time when work isn't that easy to come by in the first place - which group should take priority?"

This question, and others closely related, run all through the story yet, due to Williams' writing skill, they do nothing to impede the plot unless the reader actively chooses to think them through.

The final answer Williams gives, I *think*, is that there is no *easy* answer. Only he frames his conclusion far more lucid and impactful manner than that last observation might suggest.

In short, this writing has the power to enthrall and satisfy a wide range of readers.
The only reason I don't give it five stars is because the literary style is typical of British writing in the 1930s, which I guess won't necessarily be to everyone's taste.
Having said which, I really do recommend the majority of Williams' novels as a taste worth acquiring.

Oh yes, why did I give this review the title "Does God Play Dice?"? When you read the book I think you'll know exactly why.
Good reading!

Williams combines an ultimately serious theme with high poetry, good plot and characters, and his highly individual treatment of the supernatural and mysticism for a very satisfying read (and re-read).

The potential reader should also be forewarned that he reveals virtually nothing about his own art and insights. Anyone who enjoyed Joseph Horowitz's Conversations With Arrau and is looking for something similar will be disappointed. It very well may be that Richter was incapable of explaining or comprehending his talent. Or perhaps it was pretty much as he said, that it was pretty obvious to him how a piece should go because "all one has to do is read the score." He summed himself up with Kurt Sanderling's remark about him, "Not only can he play the piano, he can read notes too." To many such as myself who have been at times overwhelmed by Richter's mastery, that may seem too simplistic, and even like a veiled statement (deliberately simplistic, in other words), but that's what he says. And listening again to some of his greatest recordings, maybe it really was as simple as that.

He also clearly became a sadder and sadder man as life went on. There is some discussion in the foreward of health troubles and lengthy hospital stays, but this too is not really talked about in any detail, and we are left with a very incomplete picture. So if you buy this book you will have a fuller picture of Richter, but we are still seeing him through a veil, and I have a feeling the author wants it that way to protect some things he may not want to reveal, or that Richter may have asked him not to reveal before consenting with his cooperation. At any rate Richter is still an enigma after this book and the video, but a fascinating enigma nonetheless!

His account of the Amazon and the Madeira near the beginning of the 20th century is fascinating, and his anecdotes about his time at the construction site are hilarious. He comes across as a modest man with an adventurous streak and a wonderful sense of humor. This book is a delight to read as a sheer travel adventure.

It is also the only easy-reading description I've encountered of what was then the sheer wilderness of much of Amazonia was like before it was opened up by the advent of airplanes and the construction of the Trans-Amazon Highway. Even now, much of Brazil's part of the Amazon basin is wild, but now one can get in and out of all but the most remote spots conveniently. In Tomlinson's day, a million square miles was still mostly unmapped and almost unexplored; reading this book is an easy way of learning what true wilderness was like.

I recommend it highly; it's one of my favorite books.