Among the Great Masters of the Drama

Step into the glittering, gas-lit world of 19th century London theatre, where the greatest actors of the age commanded audiences nightly and reputations were made or destroyed with a single performance. Walter Rowlands offers an intimate portrait of the playwrights and performers who defined an era, from the immortal Shakespeare and Molière to the stars of the contemporary stage whose names once burned as bright as any modern celebrity. Through thirty-two striking reproductions of contemporary paintings and illustrations, Rowlands brings the Victorian stage to vivid life: the cramped dressing rooms, the thunderous applause, the rivalries and romances that unfolded behind the curtain. These brief biographies read like dispatches from another world, capturing the particular magic of an age when theatre was the dominant form of mass entertainment and actors occupied a position somewhere between artist and royalty. For anyone who has ever wondered what it was like to see Henry Irving command the stage or to watch the great tragedies performed in their original theatrical home, this book offers an incomparable time machine.