Description
Book SynopsisHistorians of British theater have often noted that the eighteenth century was an age not of the author but of the actor. In Rival Queens, Felicity Nussbaum argues that the period might more accurately be seen as the age of women in the theater, and more particularly as the age of the actress.
Trade Review"Excellent." *
TLS *
"[
Rival Queens] has vital ramifications not only for a renewed study of the eighteenth-century theater but also for our understandings of the performance of gender and, specifically, femininity across the period." *
Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 *
"A pleasure to read, with a deft balance of anecdote and theory, statistical data and narrative. Nussbaum, an acknowledged expert on gender and literature in the long eighteenth century, demonstrates her facility with eighteenth-century theater as well. The book will certainly appeal to feminists, theater historians, and scholars looking for nuanced histories of acting." *
Theater Survey *
"Skillfully interweaving analysis of a breadth of biographical source materials with literary analysis of plays and understandings of the economic context in which these women worked, the author offers a compelling argument for the ways in which theatrical economics disrupted simple stagings of femininity." *
Theater Research International *
Table of ContentsIntroduction: At Stage's Edge
Chapter 1. The Economics of Celebrity
Chapter 2. "Real, Beautiful Women": Rival Queens
Chapter 3. Actresses' Memoirs: Exceptional Virtue
Chapter 4. Actresses and Patrons: The Theatrical Contract
Chapter 5. The Actress and Performative Property: Catherine Clive
Chapter 6. The Actress, Travesty, and Nation: Margaret Woffington
Chapter 7. The Actress and Material Femininity: Frances Abington
Epilogue: Contracted Virtue
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
