The new book delivers a fun, entertaining and informative look at the lives, if not the music, of 34 classical music composers. The new book delivers a fun, entertaining and informative look at the lives, if not the music, of 34 classical music composers. The new book delivers a fun, entertaining and informative look at the lives, if not the music, of 34 classical music composers. Most fans of Berlioz, however, would not be familiar with the episode in which the French composer dressed as a woman to travel by carriage in disguise, intent on murdering an ex-fiancee, her lover and her mother. The story helps illustrate the composer's tendency to love women with passionate ardor, emotions he was able to express clearly in his music.