The Other Mozart: The Life of the Famous Chevalier de Saint-George.(Book review)

* The Other Mozart: The Life of the Famous Chevalier de Saint-George, by Hugh Brewster. Abrams Books for Young Readers (www.hnabooks.com), 2006. 48 pp. $18.95.

While telling the life story of Chevalier de Saint-George, Hugh Brewster gives the reader a historical documentation, which covers the French Revolution and the struggle for Haitian independence. Born to a slave mother and a wealthy French father on the island of Guadeloupe, Joseph Bologne was renamed Chevalier de Saint-George and educated as a young aristocrat in Paris, France. Known as the other Mozart (the black Mozart), he overcame every social obstacle with accomplishments as a virtuoso violinist, composer, conductor, champion swordsman, and later as a military commander in the French Revolution.

Each page is inter-laced with historical sidebars and timelines (featured in contrasting colors). These inserts tell the reader information regarding fencing, the guillotine and the French revolution, while highlighting the lives of Marie Antoinette, Franz-Josef Haydn and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Because of the position of the inserts, the reader may choose to simply read the story, or include the inserts as they progress through the narrative.

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