Victorian Theatricals

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Victorian Theatricals
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Sara Hudston
SeriesDiaries, Letters and Essays
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:431
Dimensions(mm): Height 216,Width 135
Category/GenreDrama
Poetry anthologies
Plays, playscripts
Literary essays
ISBN/Barcode 9780413744609
ClassificationsDewey:822.808
Audience
General
Undergraduate

Publishing Details

Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint Methuen Drama
Publication Date 11 May 2000
Publication Country United Kingdom

Description

A captivating study of the plays, literature and writings about private and public theatrical spectacle during the Victorian Age By the 1890s the British theatre had transformed itself into a world where spectacles and public shows were aimed at the widest audience possible. The theatre had become big business. This anthology brings together a variety of plays and prose which sets this phenomenon in perspective and traces the development of Victorian theatricals from private home events in the late-Georgian period to full-scale Gilbert and Sullivan operettas in the 1890s. The section 'Theatrical Behaviour' looks at the world of the audience and includes extracts from Jane Austen's novel Mansfield Park; Thackeray's Vanity Fair; an anonymous playlet called Acting Proverbs; and an extract from Marie Corelli's novel Sorrows of Satan. In 'Fun and Freaks' we explore the world of popular, sensationalist entertainment through the eyes of Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Dion Boucicault and others. In the final section, 'Society', we have the scripts for four principal melodramas and serious plays of the age: The Factory Lad by John Walker; Society by T.W. Robertson; The Mikado by W.S. Gilbert and The Second Mrs Tanqueray by Arthur Wing Pinero.

Author Biography

Sara Hudston is a writer and freelance journalist. she was born in 1968 and educated at St John's College, Oxford, where she gained a first in English. She has also published Islomania, a book about the fascination of islands. She lives in Dorset.