This long, detailed and meticulously researched biography of Samuel Barber critically explores his entire oeuvre and offers new perspectives on the life and the work. Authoritative and comprehensive, it offers a detailed assessment of Barber’s work. Exhaustive and occasionally exhausting – for example it even lists all those in the audience at many of the performances - it is perhaps a book for the serious music lover and music scholars of all stripes rather than the general reader. However, even the author accepts this and helpfully focuses on the life and work in different chapters, so that the less musically knowledgeable, such as myself, can read just the chapters indicated in the preface, rather than get too bogged down in musical detail. And I did find the book far too detailed. Including synopses of the operas was useful, and I enjoyed learning about the life, but overall this wasn’t really a book for me. That doesn’t prevent me appreciating it for what it is and I don’t hesitate to give it a high rating.

Musicologist Howard Pollock provides a chronology for composer Samuel Barber and documents the reception of Barber's major works, offering a solid foundation for future scholars interested in analyzing Barber's work. Pollack touches on Barber's relationships, romantic, platonic, professional, adversarial, and other, gives a very close comparison between Barber's Antony and Cleopatra and Shakespeare's play, and includes a robust bibliography for the in-depth scholarship I'm sure this volume will encourage.