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Although Magee occasionally exaggerates Wagners importance, he nontheless elucidates many parts of his art as wells different philosophers bearing upon it.

I find myself enthralled by Gorkys prose.

"By looking at three of the late, great works - the Ring, Tristan und Isolde and Parsifal - we can see that the initial creative spark was not so much a single musical idea as a conceptual nucleus of some kind. That might have included a musical idea, but it was also likely to have embraed a creatove cell that might be mythological, philosophical or existential in nature" (p. 192)

So far superb!

Roberts writes well although it at times tends toward hagiograpy. I am also critical of the deterministic tendency of the work. The book emphasizes again and again the destiny of Churchill as if it was preordained (the book is divided in two - preparation and trial). Roberts also picks out an episode from his early manhood when Churchill said he would one day save london. As his "destiny".

This book seems too involved in details rather than getting a good overview of Brooks life. Informative sure, but risk missing the forrest for all the trees.