Ecstasy

Sharratt (Illuminations; The Dark Lady's Mask) writes historical fiction focusing on strong women who have been overlooked by history. Her seventh novel tells the story of Alma Mahler, the much younger wife of composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, seeking to correct the popular view of Alma as a "voracious, man-eating, hysterically self-dramatizing seductress." The author succeeds in making her sympathetic, if rather exhausting. Alma wants to be a composer herself, not just a wife, mother, and helper, but because of her beauty she is seen by the many famous men in her circle as a muse, not an equal. Her relationship with the autocratic and difficult Mahler, who demanded she give up her music to focus on providing a protective shield around his genius, does not flow smoothly. The author has in-depth knowledge of classical music and turn-of-the-20th-century Vienna, but her highly romantic style, which urges on the melodramatic, is geared more toward romance readers than history lovers.