Although Barbara Nickel’s novel about Anna Maria Walburga Ignatia (Nannerl) Mozart is a well-meaning attempt to bring Wolfgang Mozart’s older sister to centre stage, the argument is too far removed from 18th-century reality. This awkward mix of fancy and biography will confuse children and require careful explanation from parents and teachers. It attempts to give women’s lives an equality of purpose and opportunity that did not exist, and as such does a disservice both to history and to Nannerl herself.
Nannerl’s 12th birthday wish is “to be the most famous composer in the whole wide world.” She also wants equal time in the public eye with little brother Wolfi, equal admiration from her father, Leopold, the chance to play the violin and organ (forbidden to women) – and she wants Johann Christian Bach to hear her symphony, composed while the family slept. The story has been reconstructed from Nannerl’s actual diary of the Mozarts’ grand tour in 1763, Leopold’s letters, and contemporary documents. The fanciful bits (clearly acknowledged) have been interwoven with substantiated accounts of real events.

Ironically, a novel about the life of a female “wunderkind” might have been valid. But Nannerl’s desire for equal recognition as a performer and composer is a distortion. As acknowledged in the notes, women did not play lead instruments or learn composition or improvisation because they could not aspire to a “job” as capellmeister. (Even Clara Schumann, a century later, knew her place in the ordered world of music and public life and only composed pieces for Robert to play). In the hierarchical world of 18th-century Europe, a little girl, no matter how talented, could not have imagined breaking this delineation of roles. Nannerl excelled in what she was allowed to essay. A young girl reading this novel may wish that Nannerl could have wished for another life, but that’s another tale.

As wish fulfillment, the novel will find a willing audience. The writing is undemanding and occasionally charming, and the book will be easily accessible to ages nine and up. The glossary, timeline, and bibliography will aid those faced with the task of separating fact and fiction (but they only add verisimiltude to the story as history). Germaine Greer’s revealing study of women painters, The Obstacle Race, showed us the pitfalls of retroactive sociology. We owe children, who lack a historical perspective, at least the same standards.