A Strange Eventful History: The Dramatic Lives of Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, and Their Remarkable Familes - Couverture rigide

Holroyd, Michael

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0374270805 ISBN 13 : 9780374270803

Editeur : Farrar Straus & Giroux, 2009

Synopsis

Book by Holroyd Michael

A propos du livre

Quatrième de couverture

'Holroyd has a wonderful eye for detail...an entirely captivating biography' Richard Eyre, Guardian

'This has all the tumbling narrative, spicy detail and easy empathy that determine his midas touch... shows Holroyd yet again pushing the biographer's art to new imaginative planes' Jackie Wullschlager, Financial Times

Henry Irving - a merchant's clerk who became the saviour of British theatre - and Ellen Terry, who made her first theatre appearance as soon as she could walk, were the king and queen of the Victorian stage. Creatively interdependent, they founded a power-house of arts at the Lyceum Theatre, with Bram Stoker as business manager, where they recast Shakespeare's plays on an epic scale and took the company on lucrative and exhilarating international tours. In his masterly new biography, award-winning writer Michael Holroyd explores their public and private lives, showing how their artistic legacy and their brilliant but troubled children came to influence the modern world.

'Magnificent - not just as a fascinating exercise in group biography, but as a masterpiece of comic writing. I can think of no higher compliment that to say that I think Proust would have been addicted to it...such joie de vivre' New Statesman, Paul Taylor

'Vastly absorbing... This wonderful book, abounding in theatrical, literary, artistic, social and sexual apercus, resoundingly echoes the Shakespearian quotation that is its apt title' Irish Times

'Michael Holroyd has once again triumphed over a seemingly impossible subject. For so capacious is this tale of two great actors and their descendants that he has written a sweeping social history of theatre in late 19th- and early 20th-century England... deftly plotted, with an infectious verve that springs from his delight in the waywardness of human nature' Frances Spalding, Independent

'It's possibly the most challenging work that Holroyd has ever attempted. It may also be the most successful...Holroyd evokes the mysterious world of the Victorian and Edwardian theatre, the hiss of the gas footlights, the coloured lights and smoke, with all the attention to detail of the star-struck fan seated in the front stalls' Mark Bostridge, Independent on Sunday

Revue de presse

"Holroyd has a wonderful eye for detail...an entirely captivating biography...one of the glories of the form" (Guardian)

"It has all the tumbling narrative, spicy detail and easy empathy that determine his midas touch... shows Holroyd yet again pushing the biographer's art to new imaginative planes" (Financial Times)

"Magnificent - not just as a fascinating exercise in group biography, but as a masterpiece of comic writing...such joie de vivre" (New Statesman)

"This is a fabulous cavalcade of a book, written with infectious verve and deep imaginative sympathy ... a joy to read" (John Carey Sunday Times)

"Michael Holroyd has once again triumphed over a seemingly impossible subject. For so capacious is this tale of two great actors and their descendants that he has written a sweeping social history of theatre in the late 19th and early 20th-century England. Deftly plotted, with an infectious verve that springs from his delight in the waywardness of human nature" (Frances Spalding Independent)

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Farrar Straus & Giroux
• Date d'édition: 2009
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0374270805
• ISBN 13: 9780374270803
• Reliure: Relié
• Numéro d'édition: 1
• Nombre de pages: 620
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible