Jane Austen and the TheatreCambridge University Press, 2006 M03 16 - 216 pages Jane Austen was fascinated by theatre from her childhood. As an adult she went to the theatre whenever opportunity arose. Scenes in her novels often resemble plays, and recent film and television versions have shown how naturally dramatic her stories are. Yet the myth remains that she was 'anti-theatrical', and readers continue to puzzle about the real significance of the theatricals in Mansfield Park. Penny Gay's book describes for the first time the rich theatrical context of Austen's writing, and the intersections between her novels and contemporary drama. Gay proposes a 'dialogue' in Austen's mature novels with the various genres of eighteenth-century drama - laughing comedy, sentimental comedy and tragedy, Gothic theatre, early melodrama. She re reads the novels in the light of this dialogue to demonstrate Austen's analysis of the pervasive theatricality of the society in which her heroines must perform. |
Contents
Jane Austens experience of theatre | 1 |
Sense and Sensibility comic and tragic drama | 26 |
Northanger Abbey Catherines adventures in the Gothic theatre | 52 |
Pride and Prejudice the comedienne as heroine | 73 |
Mansfield Park Fannys education in the theatre | 98 |
Emma private theatricals in Highbury | 123 |
Persuasion and melodrama | 147 |
Epilogue | 166 |
Notes | 168 |
| 193 | |
| 199 | |
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acting actor actress Adeline Admiral AMELIA ANHALT Anne Anne's audience Bath behaviour Bingley Boaden Catherine Catherine's century chapter character charm comedy comic contemporary Covent Garden Darcy Darcy's dialogue Dora Jordan Edmund eighteenth eighteenth-century Elinor Elizabeth Inchbald Elton Emma Emma's emotional emphasis English epilogue eyes Fanny Fanny's feelings female femininity Frances Sheridan Frank Churchill Garrick gaze Gothic drama Hannah Hannah Cowley Harriet Hazlitt heart Henry Crawford Henry Tilney Henry's heroine Highbury Jane Austen Jane's Knightley Kotzebue Lady Letters London look Lovers Mansfield Park Marianne Marianne's marriage Mary masculinity melodrama Miss never Northanger Abbey novel passion performance play pleasure plot popular Pride and Prejudice Radcliffe reader recognise role Roxalana RUSPORT Sarah Siddons scene Sense and Sensibility sentimental sexual Sheridan Siddons Siddons's sister social society speech Steventon theatre theatrical tragedy University Press villain Vows Wentworth Willoughby witty woman women young