Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach Meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment
&#8220;James Gaines writes with great beauty and intelligence&#8230;an exciting saga that brings the turmoil of the Enlightenment alive.&#8221; (Walter Isaacson, author of BENJAMIN FRANKLIN)&#8220;History winningly told , with the immediacy of a great novel...Gaines paints a whole age with the skill of Tuchman.&#8221; (Mary Karr, author of THE LIARS CLUB and CHERRY)&#8220;Evening in the Palace of Reason has given me enormous pleasure and instruction.&#8221; (Jan Morris, author of A Writer&#8217;s House in Wales)&#8220;First rate...[Gaines] writes superbly and makes us feel at home with things that would have sounded arcane otherwise.&#8221; (Daily Telegraph (London))&#8220;A moving portrait...Gaines has a deep understanding of music and an infectious zeal for narrative history.&#8221; (People (four stars))&#8220;Gaines maps sweeping cultural history with dazzling virtuosity&#8230;You won&#8217;t find a more lucid and engaging guide.&#8221; (Entertainment Weekly)&#8220;A book-length romp that is less like a B-Minor Mass than an Italian opera&#8230;Wonderful.&#8221; (Harper's Magazine)&#8220;Gaines writes very accessibly&#8230;A marvelous story that will captivate the classical music audience.&#8221; (Booklist)&#8220;Highly entertaining&#8230; Lovers of music, European history, and Western philosophy will find this book an enormous pleasure.&#8221; (Library Journal (starred review))&#8220;An eloquent and fascinating study, highly debatable at points yet all the more stimulating for that&#8230;Accessible and entertaining.&#8221; (Time magazine)&#8220;Gaines elegantly sketches parallel biographies of the two protagonists....His enthusiasm is infectious.&#8221; (New York Sun)&#8220;Intelligent, stylish, wryly witty, serious yet never solemn, and above all passionate in its celebration of a great composer.&#8221; (The Guardian)&#8220;Articulate, well-informed and rigorous&#8230;Gaines makes this dauntingly technical subject accessible.&#8221; (Sunday Telegraph)&#8220;Impossible to put down when one is dancing, swerving, stumbling through [the] extraordinary brilliance&#8230;a wonderfully engaging tale.&#8221; (The Independent (Sunday))&#8220;Lively&#8230;with a delicious cast of characters&#8230;Gaines shows himself a deft writer.&#8221; (Denver Post)&#8220;Filled with sensible speculation and insights, Gaines&#8217; books is a model for humanities writing.&#8221; (San Antonio Express-News)&#8220;Gaines writes with admirable erudition&#8230;No author could want a more promising pair of antagonists.&#8221; (New York Times Book Review)