Description

In this first-ever publication of seventy-seven letters written by Cosima von Bülow (who changed her name to Cosima Wagner after marrying again in 1870) to her long-standing Berlin friend Ellen Franz (who after her marriage became Helene von Heldburg), Maren Goltz and Herta Müller tap an extremely informative yet previously unknown source of fresh insights into the worlds of these two women so important in cultural history. Although the replies from Ellen Franz - an actress who married theatre aficionado Duke Georg II of Saxe-Meiningen - have not survived, the letters spanning 1859-1912 do far more than demonstrate the existence of a lifelong friendship between the 'Queen' (Cosima von Bülow/Wagner) and the 'Chick' (Ellen Franz) previously unknown to scholars. They also enable a more nuanced view of Cosima's emotional world, her relationship with her father Franz Liszt, and her marriage to Hans von Bülow.