100 years after his death, Tchaikovsky remains a controversial and enigmatic figure. His popularity as a composer of ballets, symphonies and operas has never faded, yet the character of the man himself continues to conjure up paradoxes. This book draws on a wide range of contemporary accounts of the man and his life, many of them never before translated into English. The accounts provide a chronicle of his upbringing in Russia and the early years of his career, as well as impressions of his extensive European concert tours. His private torments are contrasted with the increasing success of his public life, while the memoirs of colleagues and pupils shed light on the circumstances of his still mysterious death.