Alexander Wheelock Thayer's Beethoven biography reaches the composer's middle years with extraordinary detail, tracing the rise of his fame alongside the pressures that shaped his art. From Vienna's rival theaters, salons, and musical factions to the private tensions of friendship, love, patronage, and money, this volume follows Beethoven year by year from 1803 to 1818 as he struggles, creates, and triumphs. It reveals the making and reception of landmark works including Fidelio, the Eroica, the Waldstein Sonata, the Appassionata, the Rasoumowsky Quartets, the Pastoral Symphony, the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies, Egmont, and the Mass in D. The narrative brings to life Beethoven's benefit concert for Christus am Ölberg, his collaboration with Bridgetower on the Sonata in A minor, his dealings with Schikaneder, Meier, patrons, publishers, and performers, and his encounters with figures such as Cherubini, Goethe, and Amalie von Sebald. Rich in historical reconstruction, it shows Beethoven as a fiercely independent artist whose genius was inseparable from conflict, ambition, and the burdens of daily life, including his deepening spiritual development and the growing responsibility for his nephew Karl. This edition has been fully restored with modern typesetting, custom cover design.