Description
Book SynopsisHow do we recapture, or hold on to, the live performances we most love, and the artists and performers we most revere?
Shakespeare and the Legacy of Loss tells the story of how 18th-century actors, novelists, and artists, key among them David Garrick, struggled with these questions through their reenactments of Shakespearean plays.
Trade ReviewAnderson’s book gives a nuanced account of the ways in which the eighteenth century, in the face of such anxieties, made Shakespeare its cultural weapon of choice [...] Shakespeare and the Legacy of Loss
is exemplary work." — Times Literary Supplement, January 2019"An eloquent and well-designed study; Anderson packs a powerful conceptual punch into practically every sentence. Her conception of how we might view the significance of these performances—as an archive of loss and renewed life—makes them afresh. This book is full of invaluable insights and conceptually astute observations that will benefit many scholars." — Lisa A. Freeman, University of Illinois-Chicago"A fascinating book. Firmly embedded in recent scholarship on performance and celebrity in the eighteenth century on the one hand and recent Shakespearean criticism on the other, this book offers far more than another account of David Garrick's cultural impact. Its key insights are extremely original. In short, this is criticism of the highest order." — Daniel O'Quinn, University of Guelph
