"Fanny Mendelssohn (1805–47), like her brother Felix (1809–47), was a precocious musician who trained with the best teachers. Her parents believed, however, that a woman must devote body and soul to home, family, and motherhood. Her hopes for a musical career thus dashed, Fanny became Felix's confidante. Enter painter and poet Wilhelm Hensel (1794–1861), who met Fanny in 1821 and, eight years later, married her. Fanny continued composing pieces, including settings of Hensel's poems, that she performed at Sunday afternoon musicales in the couple's apartment in the Mendelssohn home. An 1839 trip to Rome revived her spirit for music. She surrounded herself with French composers: Gounod, Berlioz, and Massenet, from whom she learned the meaning of liberty. In 1845, she began publishing her music. She issued 12 collections by the end of her life, by which time she saw herself as a woman dilettante, 'the most alarming creature that can be imagined.' Telling her story, Tillard tells that of the Mendelssohns, too, because much of Fanny's life is revealed in their correspondence."—Booklist