Berlioz has often been dismissed as flamboyant, self-advertising and lacking in depth - in fact he was the archetypal romantic, at the centre of an extraordinary flowering of artistic talent in early 19th-century Paris. Berlioz's own Memoirs have become a classic of musical literature, but they are inevitably self-regarding. Michael Rose's book presents the other side of the picture - the effect he had on other people, whether friends or enemies, supporters, critics, or just plain observers.
