The Beethoven sculpture on the cover of this book was made around 1907 by Max Klinger. It is a smaller version of the monumental figure that Klinger had created for the Vienna Secession House Exhibit in 1902, in which Beethoven sits enthroned, with polychrome drapery upon his knees. This less elaborate sculpture, showing only Beethoven's torso, had been ordered by the Viennese art patron Karl Wittgenstein for his music room. Subsequently it passed to his son, the pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who gave it to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts in 1962.

In both versions Klinger portrays Beethoven the man, naked before the world, resolute, fists clenched, peering into the distance. If we move from the domain of imagery to that of biography, I would suggest that all the writers whom I will discuss in the following chapters, including myself, are seeking to find ways to clothe the figure imaginatively, to bring the artist and the man to life, and to enable the reader to try to reach beyond the basic experience of Beethoven's music to the man himself. The search is for Beethoven, as best we can determine, as he was in his age and in his lifetime – with the understanding that each biographer sees him according to his own perspectives, his own background, and his own cultural framework.

This book offers a critical and comparative review of Beethoven biography. It begins with the first attempts in the early nineteenth century, then moves through the longer history of the genre and comes down into our own time. Over nearly two hundred years since Beethoven's death in 1827, many book-length interpretations of his life and work have appeared, mainly in German, French, and English, though also of course in other languages. Years ago I compared Beethoven biographers to portrait painters: