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Every Valley: The Desperate Lives and Troubled Times That Made Handel's Messiah Audiobook
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From New York Times bestselling historian and National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Charles King, the moving untold story of the eighteenth-century men and women behind the making of Handel’s Messiah
"A delicious history of music, power, love, genius, royalty and adventure."—Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The World
"A book of power and glory, brimming with emotion and dazzling in its reach."—Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra and The Revolutionary
George Frideric Handel’s Messiah is arguably the greatest piece of participatory art ever created. Adored by millions, it is performed each year by renowned choirs and orchestras, as well as by audiences singing along with the words on their cell phones.
But this work of triumphant joy was born in a worried age. Britain in the early Enlightenment was a place of astonishing creativity but also the seat of an empire mired in war, enslavement, and conflicts over everything from the legitimacy of government to the meaning of truth. Against this turbulent background, prize-winning author Charles King has crafted a cinematic drama of the troubled lives that shaped a masterpiece of hope.
Every Valley presents a depressive dissenter stirred to action by an ancient prophecy; an actress plagued by an abusive husband and public scorn; an Atlantic sea captain and penniless philanthropist; and an African Muslim man held captive in the American colonies and hatching a dangerous plan for getting back home. At center stage is Handel himself, composer to kings but, at midlife, in ill health and straining to keep an audience’s attention. Set amid royal intrigue, theater scandals, and political conspiracy, Every Valley is entertaining, inspiring, unforgettable.
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"In Every Valley, Charles King shows in exquisite detail how George Frideric Handel’s epic work, the Messiah, sprang not from one solitary composer’s genius but out of the dramatic interplay of eighteenth-century lives and their times. Note by note, page by page, King takes us beyond an imagined Enlightenment to the sobering realities of a world that included the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade. Every Valley is a fascinating book, of interest to scholars and accessible to all readers."
— Henry Louis Gates Jr., author of Stony the Road
Quotes
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Ecstatic, affecting, entirely weird, Handel’s Messiah indeed seems — as a listener wrote after its 1742 Dublin debut — “a species of music different from any other.” With brio, Charles King pulls aside the curtain behind the work, to reveal the scandal and intrigue, opportunists and thugs, deep pain and soaring optimism, that Handel transmuted, in less than a month, into a sublime 130 pages. A book of power and glory, brimming with emotion and dazzling in its reach.
— Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra and The Revolutionary -
Vividly depicting life in Britain during the turbulence of the 1700's, Charles King celebrates Handel's Messiah as a glorious beacon of hope.
— Elaine Pagels, National Book Award-winning author of The Gnostic Gospels -
A delicious history of music, power, love, genius, royalty and adventure. A study of creativity and humanism, beautifully told, filled with charm and worldliness, deeply researched and as compelling as a symphony with a full choir of amazing characters who sing their songs around the central figure of Handel himself. Unforgettable.
— Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The World: A Family History of Humanity -
Vividly depicting life in Britain during the turbulence of the 1700's, Charles King celebrates Handel's Messiah as a glorious beacon of hope.
— Elaine Pagels, National Book Award-winning author of The Gnostic Gospels -
Charles King takes his readers on a mesmerizing journey of musical genius. There is only one Handel, and only one Messiah, and to understand how each was created is to become immersed in one of the most fascinating and creative moments in human history. King's lyrical writing resonates long after the final note fades away.
— Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire -
Charles King takes his readers on a mesmerizing journey of musical genius. There is only one Handel, and only one Messiah, and to understand how each was created is to become immersed in one of the most fascinating and creative moments in human history. King's lyrical writing resonates long after the final note fades away.
— Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire -
A delicious history of music, power, love, genius, royalty and adventure. A study of creativity and humanism, beautifully told, filled with charm and worldliness, deeply researched and as compelling as a symphony with a full choir of amazing characters who sing their songs around the central figure of Handel himself. Unforgettable.
— Simon Sebag Montefiore, author of The World: A Family History of Humanity -
"A lovely story, beautifully told—and featuring a veritable Who’s Who of the Georgian era. An absolute delight.
— Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads -
Ecstatic, affecting, entirely weird, Handel’s Messiah indeed seems — as a listener wrote after its 1742 Dublin debut — 'a species of music different from any other.' With brio, Charles King pulls aside the curtain behind the work, to reveal the scandal and intrigue, opportunists and thugs, deep pain and soaring optimism, that Handel transmuted, in less than a month, into a sublime 130 pages. A book of power and glory, brimming with emotion and dazzling in its reach.
— Stacy Schiff, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra and The Revolutionary -
Charles King takes his readers on a mesmerizing journey of musical genius. There is only one Handel, and only one Messiah, and to understand how each was created is to become immersed in one of the most fascinating and creative moments in human history. King's lyrical writing resonates long after the final note fades away.
— Amanda Foreman, author of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire and A World on Fire "Charles King's erudition is remarkable but never obtrusive, for he is a wonderful story-teller. Every Valley is eighteenth century history as page-turner, evoking both tears and laughter.
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About Charles King
Charles King is the author of several books, including the New York Times bestseller Gods of the Upper Air, which won the 2020 Anisfield-Wolf Book Award for Nonfiction. His essays and articles have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, and the New Republic. He is a professor of international affairs and chair of the department of government at Georgetown University.
About Juliet Stevenson
Juliet Stevenson is a narrator who is recipient of the AudioFile Golden Voice Award. She has won the prestigious Audie Award and numerous Earphones Awards for her narrations. She is a British actress on stage and screen and notably a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company. She has also appeared in popular films such as Bend It Like Beckham and Mona Lisa Smile. She was honored as a Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire. She received further recognition when she was nominated for several BAFTA Awards, and she earned an Olivier Award for her role in Death and the Maiden.