Romantic Actors, Romantic Dramas

Romantic Actors Romantic Dramas: British Tragedy on the Regency Stage is my new book, now published by Palgrave Macmillan.

The book reinterprets British dramas of the Romantic era through the lens of the star actors for whom they were written. It is the first book-length study to examine the interplay of early 19th century actors and the dramatists writing for them.

The book consists of seven chapters:

1. Introduction: The Age of the Actor

2. The Progress of British Romantic Drama: A Brief Tour

3. Summoning Siddons: Joanna Baillie's Play for the Stage

4. Remorse and a Certain Glover: Coleridge's Unapologetic Dramatics

5. Kean for the Stage: Byron's Self-Fashioning in Manfred

6. Succeeding Siddons: Shelley's Unsung Muse

7. Conclusion: The Long Shadow

Romantic Actors, Romantic Dramas answers questions about how and why actors from the Regency period influenced major writers we may or may not generally associate with the stage. Four in-depth case studies in the book examine pairs of actors and playwrights: Sarah Siddons and Joanna Baillie, Julia Glover and S.T. Coleridge, Edmund Kean and Lord Byron, and Eliza O'Neill and P.B. Shelley.

If you're interested in any of those people, you'll definitely want to read this book.

The cover image features the famed actress Eliza O'Neill. Interior images include a mezzotint of Siddons, a toy theatre version of Coleridge's play Remorse, a close-up photograph of a decorated screen once owned by Lord Byron, and a cartoon comparing Siddons and O'Neill.

To order the book, click here.