Beethoven's Eighth

A week after Napoleon invades Russia, Ludwig van Beethoven almost certainly says “Yes, tonight Josephine” to the love of his life, the unhappily married and recently jilted but socially impossible match, Countess Jozefina Brunszvik. Three days later he pours forth - with the pencil (!) he souvenired from the tryst - the 10 little pages of hopeless devotion that have spawned thousands of pages of academic speculation. He hastily concludes in order...