Representing Shakespearean Tragedy
Garrick, the Kembles, and Kean

Reiko Oya explores theatrical expressions of Shakespearean tragedy in Georgian London and the relations between the representative players of the time - David Garrick, John Philip Kemble and his sister Sarah Siddons, and Edmund Kean - and their close circle of friends. The book begins by analysing the tragic emotion that Garrick conveyed through his performance of King Lear, and the responses to it from such critics as Samuel Johnson and Elizabeth Montagu. The second chapter examines the concept of sublimity in Kemble and Siddons' interpretations of Macbeth. The final chapter studies the disparity between the literary and the theatrical Hamlet in Kean's impersonation and William Hazlitt's response to it. With subjects ranging from Shakespearean promptbooks to paintings and the poetics of Romanticism, the book offers great insights into the exchange of ideas and inspirations among the cultural luminaries who surrounded the London stage.

Reviews & endorsements

"The book will not only be appreciated by scholars of the eighteenth century and by Shakespeareans but will be of interest also to dramatists, actors and aestheticians. Indeed, because all the necessary information is so fully presented, the book can also be read fruitfully by a general reader without a profound knowledge of the period"
-Angela Kikue Davenport, The University of Tokyo

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Product details

• Date Published: February 2011
• format: Paperback
• isbn: 9780521181402
• length: 258 pages

• dimensions: 229 x 152 x 15 mm
• weight: 0.38kg
• availability: Available