Michael Hamburger"s widely praised selection for the documentary record left by Beethoven himself, interspersed with comments on the composer"s personality and music from the letters and journals of his contemporaries, is now republished to delight a new generation of readers. In one volume, it charts every apsect of Beethoven"s life and work, from Mozart"s prophetic remarks on meeting him as a young man in 1787 to Grillparzer"s oration at his funeral in 1827, as well as highlighting the key feature of the social, cultural and political background to the story.