Claude Debussy (1862-1918) changed the direction of music history with works such as his celebrated tone poem Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, the opera Pelléas et Mélisande and his extended symphonic works La Mer and Images , as well as with highly original and challenging piano compositions.

An absorbing portrait of a pioneering composer, this book describes how Debussy pursued his innovative ideas m fin-de- siècle Paris, where developments in the written and visual arts crucially influenced his work. Debussy's personal life was the subject of malicious gossip and (occasionally substantiated) rumour, echoes of which persist to the present day. Through discussion of letters, contemporary accounts, photographs and of course the music, Debussy's fiercely guarded personality begins to emerge and we encounter a complex and contradictory character, one who combined indulgent sensuality with iron self-discipline, tenderness with cruelty, ebullient extroversion with gauche shyness, and a passionate conviction in his ideas with insecurity and self-doubt.