ABSTRACT
One of the best of books on Ludwig van Beethoven—that of Paul Bekker—opens its discussion on the composer's personality. Even biographers who subscribe to the "nothing extenuate" ideal rarely get beyond the theoretical stage. Franz Ries, for example, fell out with Schindler over their proposed collaboration in a life of Beethoven; he courageously maintained that the whole truth should be told, whereas Schindler was for drawing a decent veil. Beethoven was a familiar public character all his life. Even in his boyhood he had no mean place in such limelight as was to be had at Bonn, being recognized as something of a prodigy in his eighth year, and becoming more and more prominent in local musical happenings until his departure to Vienna. In the case of Beethoven, the character of his music naturally suggested a heroic figure, to which his reported utterances on personal and political independence added a few inches; his physical infirmities made a powerful appeal.
