This is a fascinating analysis of Schumann's mental illness and compositions by a psychiatrist and music lover. It is essential if you want to understand the composer's alter egos Eusebius (the depressive), Florestan (the manic), and Master Raro (the mediator). ( )

Harold C. Schonberg, New York Times Book Review: "Schumann is a remarkable piece of work. The author obviously loves the composer's music and writes about him--and Clara too--with compassion and understanding. . . . Soberly and objectively, it unearths information that no previous Schumann research--in English, at least--has come near duplicating."

Arthur Hepner, Boston Globe: "Peter Ostwald, a San Francisco psychiatrist who is also a trained musician, has dug deeply . . . and applied his professional knowledge to the fashioning of a fascinating, perceptive psychobiography of the nineteenth-century Romantic master."