Book Description

"The historical record has given us very few real letters written by or to the composer George Frideric Handel. The Handel Letters seeks to amend this oversight, though admittedly n the realm of ficiton. This work presents an ethnographic research perspective, a fictional set of characters, and some meaningful encounters as a focus group meets to examine some putative letters written to Handel. Wealthy American mining widow, Forella Wainwright, has her own unusual reason for seeking out any previously unknown information on the life of Handel. Her query in a London newspaper unearths a packet of letters written to Handel over the course of nearly fifty years. She brings together a seminar of ten people who meet over many months to discuss the letters and consider what lessons these missives and some digging into biographies and videos about Handel may hold for them and others living in the twenty-first century. The seminar becomes a collective review of Handel's music, his times, and a number of social and philosophical issues still trailing from Handel's full yet enigmatic life."--Back cover.