Interview with Susanne Dunlap about Liszt's Kiss:
In your historical note at the end of the novel you write that Marie d’Agoult was a true person and had a romantic relationship with Liszt. Is the character of Anne based on any known person or is she purely a fictional character?
Anne is a purely fictional character. Rather than try to center a story on someone who is very well-documented historically, I have taken the approach here of exploring the people history has not recorded, those who might (or might not) have come into contact with famous figures, or interacted and been influenced by important events. Anne is the hypothetical “what if” character who inspired the book, in fact. What if a young woman with true talent came across Liszt at a time of his life when he had not yet entirely assumed his mature artistic personality, and before he was deeply involved with Marie d’Agoult? What if a young woman of aristocratic birth were a true artist and capable of taking her place among the professionals of her day? What if a woman on the brink of life were touched by tragedy because of a force of nature—in this case the cholera epidemic of 1832? What I write is not fictionalized history in the manner of Anya Seton or Philippa Gregory (both of whom I love to read), but fiction that builds on actual historical characters and events, introducing non-historical characters to round out my imagined world, more in the manner of Sarah Dunant.
Which character (s) in the novel do you relate to the most and why?
I relate strongly to Anne, not because I shared her privileged and sheltered upbringing, but because I myself was a pianist, and music and playing the piano
