Purcell Remembered

Purcell was the greatest ornament of English music in the seventeenth century, and has been a source of inspiration for British composers ever since. But the person of Henry Purcell has seemed shadowy; in his day there were no newspapers to illuminate his career, no colour supplements to delve into Frances Purcell's sitting room.
From the mass of assorted material that does exist Michael Burden has assiduously and cunningly devised a portrait of the composer both in his time and since, using diaries, letters, and official and published writings from the seventeenth to the twentieth centuries.