Natascha Veldhorst Books

Ah! . . . to make of painting what the music of Berlioz and Wagner has been before us . . . a consolatory art for distressed hearts!--Vincent van Gogh

This book is about the presence of music in novels. More specifically, it is about music in the early modern novel, with an emphasis on seventeenth-century musical prose from The Netherlands. It is remarkable that up until now the presence of musical elements in prose works from earlier centuries received almost no attention from academic researchers. This essay provides a concise and an accessible introduction into the subject. It presents an exploration of the role and function of musical elements in seventeenth-century Dutch prose fiction and at the same time offers an overview of this compelling and fascinating new musical-literary territory.