It is more than a simple "life and times" bio. Written by a UK musicologist, he also discusses the major works as a part of the flow of his story. It is nevertheless for the general reader. I find that I need to listen to the music as I go, so I'm collecting more music CDs. :-) ( )

I'm not an expert on Tchaikovsky - and this book isn't meant for that sort of audience - but I enjoyed this book very much. It doesn't rank with the best biographies I've read, where you really feel like you've gotten to know a personality in all his complexity and followed that personality closely through all its development and changes, but Brown does give us a pretty good sense of Tchaikovsky's character, and he does a really nice job of describing and analyzing the music. Fortunately, I had access to pretty much every work Brown described, so I could listen along as I read. This added greatly to the experience, and I'd recommend that others do the same if they can. ( )

Enthusiastic and sincere appreciation by a leading expert, but lacking objectivity and a grounding in the history of late 19th century Russia. Too much gush. ( )