Antonietta Summary
John Hersey

Antonietta Summary

Antonietta was written "for the fun of it," as Hersey says in his brief note at the beginning of the book. He begged forgiveness in advance from musicians and musicologists for his intrusion into their territory. However, most of the reviewers of the book were music critics, and they did not indulge him.

These readers found one of their unusual targets in the last section of the book. "Act Five" presents Spenser Ham, a tone deaf entrepreneur and insider trader who buys Antonietta at a Sotheby auction. Money, not music, is the chief passion of his life.

Some critics accused Hersey of preaching against the entrepreneurs of the era because making money was their only interest. Actually, Spenser Ham was very much like the other billionaires of the period who had created a new Gilded Age in American history. Ham used Antonietta to add elegance to... View more of the Antonietta Summary