The Farewell Symphony (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Edmund White
- First Published: 1997
- Type of Work: Novel
- Time of Work: The 1960’s through early 1990’s
- Setting: New York City, Venice, and Paris
- Principal Characters: Brice, Eddie, Joshua, Anne, Gabriel
- Genres: Long fiction, Autobiographical fiction
- Subjects: New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Gay men, Homosexuality or homosexuals, Sex or sexuality, New York City, Guilt, AIDS, Gossip
- Locales: New York, NY, Paris, France, Venice, Italy
The title of White’s novel derives from Joseph Haydn’s Symphony no. 45 in F Sharp Minor (1772), nicknamed “The Farewell Symphony” because in its final movement the instrumentalists get up one by one, blow out their candles, and tiptoe offstage. White is alluding to the AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) epidemic, which erupted in the early 1980’s, killing homosexual friends and former lovers, leaving him to approach old age alone.
The first two novels in his trilogy, A Boy’s Own Story (1982), about growing up gay in the homophobic Midwest, and The...
[The entire page is 2169 words long]
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