本书探讨了音乐神童「莫扎特」（Mozart）在公众想像中的媒介角色，内容综合了音乐与哲学丶教育学丶儿童文学丶戏剧丶政治丶宗教和生理缺陷等等探讨面相。作者以具启发性的视角，针对19世纪「启蒙运动」和「童年」的概念史提出了新的理解方式。

哈布斯堡王室成千上万的孩子都受到了这位音乐神童以及他所体现的理念的影响。莫扎特的音乐和人物形像改变了公众对於儿童的能动性丶心智能力丶亲朋间的关系丶政治与经济价值丶工作丶学校和休闲时间的态度。本书所建立的新解读方式，不仅受到文本丶图像和物件的影响，还受到行为的影响。作者从儿童期刊丶哈布斯堡宫廷法令，以及伪造的莫扎特印刷品中整理出一系列证据，其在在显示，尽管我们需要童年史来帮助我们理解莫扎特本人，我们也需要莫扎特来帮助我们理解童年史。

书评

“This is a deeply learned yet delightfully readable book. Mueller weaves together musicology and childhood studies in a way that is truly prodigious. Her revelatory arguments unfold with the glittering nimbleness of a Mozart symphony. Mueller uncovers previously unexplored connections between music and philosophy, pedagogy, children’s literature, drama, politics, religion, and disability. This fascinating book is a must-read for scholars working not just in musicology but also in children’s literature and childhood studies, the history of education and print culture, and theater and performance studies.”

Marah Gubar, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

“Through buoyant prose, Mueller’s work puts a figure as familiar as Mozart in a completely new interdisciplinary frame. Mueller draws on a fantastic array of primary and secondary sources reflecting the social facts and developing mythologies of childhood. Taking nothing for granted in her scholarship, she is able to make broad claims without overgeneralizing. This book should appeal to people with an interest in constructions of childhood, as well as to general scholars of the Enlightenment, and of course to music historians.”

Matthew Gelbart, Fordham University

“This book investigates how ‘Mozart,’ a mediated figure in the public imagination, is a useful lens through which to examine the changing ideas about childhood, both in the Enlightenment and into the nineteenth century. This is by far the most extensive study on the topic, and there is no doubt that this is distinctly original, well-researched work. Mueller has done a wonderful job of laying out the stakes of childhood in the late Enlightenment and beyond.”

Mary Hunter, Bowdoin College

“This is a thoughtful and incisive account of Mozart and childhood in the late eighteenth century. . . . Addressing an impressively broad range of literature and cultural contexts, Mueller skillfully demonstrates Mozart’s pivotal position in discourse relating to the ideas, practices, and realities of childhood. Her study intelligently reshapes our understanding of the young Mozart and his historical and cultural significance.”

Simon P. Keefe, author of 'Mozart in Vienna: The Final Decade'

关於作者

Adeline Mueller是Mount Holyoke College音乐系的助理教授。