In a shabby Paris eating-house an Italian count, Andrea Marcosini, meets Paolo Gambara, a composer and instrument-maker of real genius whose music sounds like noise to everyone but himself. Gambara expounds his opera on the life of Mahomet with passionate brilliance, while the count’s interest in Gambara’s devoted wife complicates the friendship.
One of Balzac’s philosophical studies, a probing tale of art, madness and the gulf between vision and execution. Download the free EPUB.