Book description
In eighteenth-century England, actresses were frequently dismissed as
mere prostitutes trading on their sexual power rather than their
talents. Yet they were, Felicity Nussbaum argues, central to the
success of a newly commercial theater. Urban, recently moneyed, and
thoroughly engaged with their audiences, celebrated actresses were
among the first women to achieve social mobility, cultural authority,
and financial independence. In fact, Nussbaum contends, the eighteenth
century might well be called the "age of the actress" in the
British theater, given women's influence on the dramatic repertory
and, through it, on the definition of femininity.
Treating individual star actresses who helped spark a cult of
celebrity-especially Anne Oldfield, Susannah Cibber, Catherine Clive,
Margaret Woffington, Frances Abington, and George Anne
Bellamy-Rival Queens reveals the way these women animated
issues of national identity, property, patronage, and fashion in the
context of their dramatic performances. Actresses intentionally
heightened their commercial appeal by catapulting the rivalries among
themselves to center stage. They also boldly rivaled in importance the
actor-managers who have long dominated eighteenth-century theater
history and criticism. Felicity Nussbaum combines an emphasis on the
celebrated actresses themselves with close analysis of their diverse
roles in works by major playwrights, including George Farquhar,
Nicholas Rowe, Colley Cibber, Arthur Murphy, David Garrick, Isaac
Bickerstaff, and Richard Sheridan. Hers is a comprehensive and
original argument about the importance of actresses as the first
modern subjects, actively shaping their public identities to make
themselves into celebrated properties.
Selected by Choice magazine as an Outstanding Academic
Title for 2010
Felicity Nussbaum is Distinguished Professor of English at the
University of California, Los Angeles. She is the author of numerous
books including most recently The Limits of the Human: Fictions of
Anomaly, Race, and Gender in the Long Eighteenth Century.
