The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable

The Instrumentalist by Harriet Constable

Read by Emilia Clarke

10 hours, 55 minutes

Published August 2024 by Simon and Schuster

Publisher's Summary: 

Anna Maria della Pietà was destined to drown in one of Venice's canals. Instead, she became the greatest violinist of the 18th century.

Anna Maria has only known life inside the Pietà, an orphanage for children born of prostitutes. But the girls of the Pietà are lucky in a sense: most babies born of their station were drowned in the city's canals. And despite the strict rules, the girls are given singing and music lessons from an early age. The most promising musicians have the chance to escape the fate of the rest: forced marriage to anyone who will have them.

Anna Maria is determined to be the best violinist there is-and whatever Anna Maria sets out to do, she achieves. After all, the stakes for Anna could not be higher. But it is 1704 and she is a girl. The pursuit of her ambition will test everything she holds dear, especially when it becomes clear that her instructor, Antonio Vivaldi, will teach Anna everything he knows-but not without taking something in return.

From the opulent palaces of Venice to its mud-licked canals, The Instrumentalist is a “searing portrait of ambition and betrayal” (Elizabeth MacNeal, author of The Doll Factory). It is the story of one woman's irrepressible ambition and rise to the top. It is also the story of the orphans of Venice who overcame destitution and abuse to make music, and whose contributions to some of the most important works of classical music, including “The Four Seasons,” have been overlooked for too long.

My Thoughts: 

I first heard about this book last month when some friends and I attended the Omaha Public Library's annual Book Bash. Historical fiction that focuses on classical music, particularly Vivaldi? Count me in! I requested the audiobook while I was still at the event. 

Let's get the one thing that kept me from liking this book as much as I wanted to out of the way. It was, as is so often the case, a matter of editing. I felt like there was quite a bit of repetition in the book and some things that could easily have been left out with no loss to the story. Oh, and one other thing: since this was an audiobook, I really wish there would have been more actual music involved. 

And now the good. It's not surprising to so often pick up books that teach us about something in history we know nothing about; even the most well educated historians don't know everything. But I'm always excited to read a book showcasing women making the most of their power, even in times and places where they had so little of it. 

Anna Maria della Pietà was a real person, who actually did grow up in the Pieta, study under Vivaldi and have some of his compositions written especially for her, and become a maestra. The Pieta was a real place where orphans were taken in and raised to be useful to society. The girls with musical talent were encouraged and the best of them placed in the figlie di coro. The figlie was widely admired and the members received extravagant gifts as well as brining in funds for the orphanage. 

 Constable takes that history and gives Anna Maria a beginning and a full life, filled with friends, sadness, betrayal, immense talent and even greater ambition. My beloved Vivaldi doesn't come off looking too good, but I was ok with that, given that it meant that Anna Maria could rise up and bring along with other girls with her. As in real life, Anna Maria first shows her talent at the age of eight, so what we see is a young girl desperate to use that talent to make something of herself while being too young to see how she is hurting herself (and others) even as she ascends in the figlie. The ending worked perfectly for me, with happiness for Anna Maria while still recognizing the limitations on her life and the other women. 

Enchantress of Numbers: A Novel of Ada Lovelace by Jennifer Chiaverini

Enchantress of Numbers: A Novel of Ada Lovelace by Jennifer Chiaverini

Published December 2017 by Penguin Group Dutton 

Read by Virginia Leishmaniasis

20 hours, 2 minutes

Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley

Publisher's Summary: 

The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scandalous of the Romantic poets, Ada was destined for fame long before her birth. But her mathematician mother, estranged from Ada's infamous and destructively passionate father, is determined to save her only child from her perilous Byron heritage. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada’s mother provides her daughter with a rigorous education grounded in mathematics and science. Any troubling spark of imagination—or worse yet, passion or poetry—is promptly extinguished. Or so her mother believes. 

When Ada is introduced into London society as a highly eligible young heiress, she at last discovers the intellectual and social circles she has craved all her life. Little does she realize how her exciting new friendship with Charles Babbage—the brilliant, charming, and occasionally curmudgeonly inventor of an extraordinary machine, the Difference Engine—will define her destiny.

My Thoughts: 

It's always more than a little embarrassing when a publisher has kindly granted your request to read one of their books and then you don't get to it right away. Or maybe not even for 5 1/2 years. Until you finally decide you'll check it out from the library because even a very late review is better than none. I hope. 

Told through Ada's own voice, as a kind of memoir, Enchantress of Numbers chronicles a life spent trying to please a mother who fought to be number one in Ada's heart (to the point where she was constantly firing nurses, governesses, and teachers who Ada grew fond of) despite not seeming to be overly concerned about the amount of time she spent with her daughter. Ada's mother was hyper vigilant to ensure that she turn out nothing like her romantic father. This from a woman who, after only a few months of marriage, kept the title Lady Byron for the remainder of her days. Yeah, it was a complicated upbringing. 

When Ada met Charles Babbage and mathematician Mary Somerville, her life began to change. Finally she found her people. Then she married a man who encouraged her intellectual pursuits...as long as she still maintained their homes and raised their children. Even Babbage, ultimately expected her to stand behind him, despite the fact that she essentially conceived of computer programming. After all of that, poor Ada died at the young age of 36, unacknowledged for all she had done. 

Chiaverini is an author who digs deep and her extensive research is evident. At 20 hours, it might be argued that she may have included too much of it here. All of the changing of caregivers can get a bit repetitive and moving about the country, for example. Although, it could be argued, all of that made it obvious why Ada was so quick to marry when a man came along who appeared to be supportive. 

Ada's personal life comes off as more compelling than her scientific efforts. Perhaps a bit too much explanation in that area; perhaps it was simply overwhelmed by Ada's personal life. Still, I always appreciate learning the history of a woman who has largely gone ignored by history (because, you know, mostly written by men) and who contributed so greatly to computers as we now know them. I can't help but wonder what Ada Lovelace might have accomplished in her life if she had had the means to focus only on her scientific endeavors and if she had lived longer.