Deconstructing the Mozart Assassination: A Novelist's Wrestle with History
2025-03-13
American novelist David Weiss, fascinated by Mozart's life, wrote several fictional novels inspired by the composer. Among them, *The Assassination of Mozart* boldly hypothesized Mozart's death as a conspiracy. This article details the author's research in Temple University's archives, examining Weiss's manuscripts to uncover the truth behind his novel's creation. The research reveals that while Weiss consulted numerous historical sources, he intertwined his own speculation with facts, constructing a fictional story filled with conspiracy. This raises questions about the boundaries between fact and fiction in historical fiction and how authors use existing historical materials to build fictional narratives.