My Life, My Loves: The Memoirs of Alma Mahler by Alma Mahler-Werfel

My Life, My Loves: The Memoirs of Alma Mahler Reviews

• 
  Jan-Maat

  I read a very little book called
  Mahler en Freud. This was an account of the real life meeting of Mahler and Freud in the Netherlands, where they spent an afternoon together, the book imagines what they might have discussed - the book had a bibliography and in it was this book: Alma Mahler-Werfel's Mein Leben, seeing this I exclaimed 'Oh Alma Mahler wrote a memoir!' It seemed too good to be true, that the woman who was intimated involved with Gustav Mahler, Oskar Kokoschaka, Walter Gropius, Franz Werfel, and friends with many many other well known people in the cultural life of early twentieth century Europe had written a memoir. I was intrigued. A little while later I was given a copy of her memoir - a loving and thoughtful gift!
  
  There's a saying - if it seems to good to be true, it probably is. That certainly applies to Alma Mahler's book. It is a bit strange; it appears to be selections from her diaries, but they have plainly been edited at a later date because she refers to later events and moves backwards and forwards in time, some comments appear to have been written for specific purposes rather than as personal diary entries - for instance when she writes that Gustav Mahler converted from Judaism to Catholicism out of conviction rather than because he had to get the job of conductor of the Opera House, later though she records Mahler as saying that Christmas was just a day like any other which does not strike me as a sign of a particularly convinced Christian. Overall my impression was that she presents what was emotionally significant to her from her life, coloured strongly by her adoption of Catholicism in middle age. On the plus side what you read is emotionally engaging, on the downside it's all about Alma, and fair enough she gives due warning of that in her title, though possibly it needs to be read as MY life.
  
  Worse possibly is that although she knows and meets a lot of people in the cultural and political worlds she does not come across as interested in other people or in ideas, you get the strong impression of someone who knows what they like, and likes what they know. She remarks on Arthur Schnitzler's blue eyes a couple of times but never on his writing, she tells us that she found Erich Maria Remarque - who she met in the USA - good looking but nothing about what they discussed. Implicitly she knew everybody who was anybody - apart from Stefan Zweig, and was, if not the centre of the turning world, at least fairly close to it. In the USA she was present when Thomas Mann read bits of his Joseph and Dr Faustus books, but he spoke so quietly (possibly Alma's hearing was no longer so sharp either) that she asked to borrow the Faustus extract afterwards to be able to read it for herself.
  
  She does tell us what she doesn't like: Dostoevsky, Bolshevism (actually any political position left of centre), Atonal music, and her reason for this is that these things are all strange to her (and somehow they are all interconnected in her mind), at one point she considers not marrying Franz Werfel because he wrote a poem about Lenin's funeral - they had been together for some years at that point, she comes across as tending to be both extreme yet inconsistent, as though she remained a teenager for most of her life.
  
  Her father, and this all felt very Freudian, came across as a huge and dramatic figure, reminiscent of Mr Micamber, in her life, her mother is a pale and colourless figure, I was surprised that Alma even mentions when she died. Her father died and her mother remarried to another painter, Carl Moll who was active in the Viennese Secession.
  
  With the possible exception of Walter Gropius the men she has relationships with all are either older than her or controlling (she says that Gustav forbade her to compose, and that Oskar Kokoschka stalked her and attempted to take her identity papers, while married to Werfel she receives a letter from Kokoschka and wonders how she can answer it as she is 'under control') or both, perhaps this ties in with her far-right political views. These are typical on some ways - adoration of Mussolini, justifications for the slaughter of working class people by the Austrian military, and unusual in others such as her suspicion of Verdi's racial views. Her belief in the healthy eroticism of Italian culture brought Silvio Berlusconi to mind for some reason.
  
  A curious instance was Alma Mahler's own compositions. Before her marriage to Gustav Mahler, music was a very important part of he life and she was studying composition. She wrote that while engaged to Gustav Mahler she wrote to him that she was too busy with music to write a longer letter, Gustav responded by insisting that she give up composition and focus on him instead. Shortly before his death, looking though Alma's paper's Gustav finds some of her songs, and in her account says that they are good and that they must be published. After that she never writes a word about composing or the fate of the songs that she wrote, which seems a little odd to me. Presumably they were less well received than she had hoped.
  
  The introduction suggests that she was a muse to the various creative men in her life, this doesn't come across so clearly though unsurprisingly the Chinese poems that Gustav Mahler drew upon for Das Lied von Der Erde, Alma says that she read those to Gustav, and the life of St. Bernadette of Lourdes which inspired
  The Song of Bernadette, Alma read that first and gave it to Franz Werfel afterwards.
  
  Apart from a few years after WWI and earlier immediately after Gustav Mahler's death it is striking how wealthy Alma seems to be, she is frequently buying and selling properties, she must either have been financially astute or consistently well advised throughout her life.
  
  The period in France is the most dramatic part of the narrative with Alma and Werfel keen to escape before the Nazi advance, but they end up blundering around backwards and forwards through Southern France, pausing to queue for papers, and spending money, while hanging on to their Mahler and Bruckner manuscripts (they were not your typical refugee).
  
  Of her four children born alive, only one survived her, on the other hand the dominant note of the book is a deep self-satisfaction and unsinkable self-confidence.
  
  
  
  
• 
  Viki

  When you were born and raised in Vienna, hardly any literature is quite as depressing as the one that makes you feel and understand just how incredible Vienna was between 1900 and the First World War..truly, it was the capital of the greatest artists alive, held alive by an endlessly intelligent, passionate and cultured civilisation. Alma Mahler was the Muse of some of the most promising artists alive at the time and this insight into their lives is truly a remarkable read..have to admit I really cried at the end, when she moves to New York, widowed from Franz Werfel, at the pinnacle of this painful yet extremely colourful and fascinating journey of art and love. Wow!
• 
  Annelies

  This poignant novel tells the life of Alma Mahler-Werfel. It's a story about music, art, literature. Of the musici, artists and writers she knew during one of the most turbulent periodes of the 20th century. It starts about 1900 and ends after world war II. It's also a story about loss: losing the men she loved, a few of her children and many friend. There's also the episode of the upcoming nazi- german and her final escape to America with Franz Werfel. She was a strong and interesting woman who also dealt with misery in her life. But over all, art triumphs!
• 
  Arvid Steyaert

  Ik geloof dat een mens heel goed de lijnen van zijn lot kan herkennen , als hij er maar aandacht voor heeft. hij wordt ook gewaarschuwd door een innerlijke stem. Maar hij moet die horen en ernaar kunnen luisteren. Ieder mens kan alles- maar hij moet ook tot alles bereid zijn.
• 
  Laroy Viviane

  J'ai lu ce livre avec beaucoup d'intérêt pour l'époque qu'elle décrit que ce soit au niveau intellectuel, artistique ou politique. Vous y croiserez Klimt, Chagall, Schönberg, Hitler etc. et Gustav Mahler évidemment qui a donné son nom à Alma, son épouse, née Schindler.
  
  Son nom dit presque toute de la difficulté de cette femme à se positionner dans son époque. Elle-même compositrice et musicienne, elle est pourtant restée dans l'ombre de son premier mari qui lui avait demandé d'arrêter ses occupations pour s'occuper exclusivement de sa musique à lui. Ce qu'elle a fait avec de l'admiration pour l'oeuvre de son premier mari. Ce qui a entraîné un vague à l'âme qu'elle a compensé en fréquentant des génies et en vivant des histoires d'amour parfois tumultueuses.
  
  Un portrait haut en couleur et mondain d'une femme cultivée de son époque.
  
  
• 
  Nina

  *3,5
  
  “Ja, gewiß sind Künstler desto größer als Menschen, je größer ihre Kunst ist, aber sie messen mit anderen Maßen… ihre Welt ist eine von ihnen erfundene Welt, aus der sie sich (erwachen sie zur Realität) schwer umpflanzen können. Darum sind solche Menschen oft so roh oder verständnislos im Verkehr mit Frauen. Sie sehen ja ihr Gegenüber nicht; vom Fühlen gar nicht zu sprechen. Die Frau wird neben einem bedeutenden Künstler immer zu kurz kommen. Er empfindet sich, wie auch sie, nur als Instrument, um seine Art von Herrschsucht durchzusetzen und auslebend zu gestalten, nämlich seine Kunst. Mit einem Wort: um besser arbeiten zu können.”
• 
  angelinakahlo

  At first I was really displeased with Alma's way of describing her rather privileged upbringing and her constant complains about minor events- especially the way she treated the people around her.. But the pain this woman had to endure throughout her life, the loss of loved ones and the Second World War, made me enjoy her storytelling and perspective on Europe at the time!
  Overall a beautiful biography if you're interested in the life of a bourgeoise woman during this specific time period!
• 
  Rhomboid Goatcabin

  Mein Leben offers insight into both an interesting epoch and the life of a fascinating woman. Alma Mahler-Werfel's memoir is styled as (and presumably arises from) a journal of sorts and, though lengthy by way of pages, is succinct, highly entertaining and indeed quite the page-turner. Highly recommended!
• 
  Alexander Von Roon

  What a ride.
  Alma Mahler-Werfel met so many fascinating personalities throughout her many lives. One can learn so very much from her observations. Since being related to Gustav Mahler, Alex von Roon was interested to learn more about the Musicians life and work. You meet Franz Werfel, Walter Gropius, Arnold Schönberg, Oskar Kokoschka, Hugo von Hofmannsthal & Thomas Mann and his family as well as Alma's children. These important and fascinating personalities occupy your mind for a while and the descriptions and depictions by this gracious artist make them real in flesh and blood. May I recommend devouring this piece of fine writing "bit by bit" as Konstantin Stanislavski might say, enjoy it like a Sacher Torte on the Piazza San Marco when you consider if you shall move on to read Franz Werfel's book "Verdi" next. Music and Paintings that you love get filled with new life as well. Chapeau & Grazie Mille.
  
  
• 
  Dana Filipová

  Nesmírně zajímavá kniha, hlavně jako dobový dokument… svědectví ženy, která stála v centru vídeňského kulturního dění první půle 20. století. Těšila jsem se na jiskřivý příběh femme fatale mnoha slavných mužů, ale nalezla jsem mnohem víc. Alma byla výjimečná žena, a osud ji připravil nejednu těžkou chvíli (3 z jejích 4 dětí zemřely). Zvlášť nástup nacismu v třicátých letech je líčen velmi sugestivně. Ono je něco jiného na ta léta pohlížet optikou dneška, a něco jiného je tu dobu žít - s přáteli vybarvujícími se různě. Pět hvězd ani ne tak za literární, jako za kulturně-historickou hodnotu. A taky za originálně nastolenou “ženskou” otázku :)
• 
  Ruby

  My dearest, dearest liar.
• 
  Kristýna Tesařová

  Vzpomínky Almy Mahlerove-Gropiusove-Werfelove jsou poutave predevsim kvůli obsahu, nikoliv stylu psaní. Autorka se dopouští značných zkratek a často ve svém životě výrazně přeskakuje. Přesto je její líčení běžných životních peripetií, při nichž se setkala s radou známých osobnosti, fascinujici. Skoda, ze autorka nebyla talentovanejsi v práci s jazykem.