Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving

An engaging 1906 two-volume tribute to the most famous actor-manager of the nineteenth century by his closest friend and business manager.

Bram Stoker (Author)

9781108057431, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 21 February 2013

424 pages, 17 b/w illus. 1 colour illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm, 0.62 kg

The greatest actor of his day, Sir Henry Irving (1838–1905) thrilled audiences with his tragedy and melodrama, his Hamlet and Richard III, most famously at the Lyceum Theatre in London. Born John Henry Brodribb, he took the name Irving for his first professional stage appearance in 1856. A long and exhausting apprenticeship followed, during which he played some 700 roles in theatres up and down the country before establishing his reputation in 1871 in the psychological thriller The Bells. In 1878, he took over the Lyceum and here, with his business manager Bram Stoker (1847–1912) and actress Ellen Terry (rumoured to be his mistress), he became the theatrical icon of his age. This engaging two-volume tribute by Stoker, his closest friend, was first published in 1906. Volume 1 includes reminiscences of Irving's Shakespeare, performances of The Bells, Faust and Tennyson's plays, Ellen Terry's acting and his appearances in America.

Preface
1. Earliest recollections of Henry Irving
2. The old school and the new
3. Friendship
4. Honours from Dublin university
5. Converging streams
6. Joining forces
7. The Lyceum productions
8. Irving begins management
9. Shakespeare plays - 1
10. Shakespeare plays - 2
11. Shakespeare plays - 3
12. Shakespeare plays - 4
13. Irving's method
14. Art-sense
15. Stage effects
16. The value of experiment
17. The pulse of the public
18. Tennyson and his plays - 1
19. Tennyson and his plays - 2
20. Tennyson and his plays - 3
21. Tennyson and his plays - 4
22. Waterloo - King Arthur - Don Quixote
23. Art and hazard
24. Vandenhoff
25. Charles Matthews
26. Charles Dickens and Henry Irving
27. Mr J. M. Levy
28. Visits to America
29. William Winter
30. Performance at West Point
31. American reporters
32. Tours-de-force
33. Christmas
34. Irving as a social force
35. Visits of foreign warships
36. Irving's last reception at the Lyceum
37. The voice of England
38. Rival towns
39. Two stories
40. Sir Richard Burton
41. Sir Henry Morton Stanley
42. Arminius Vambéry.

Subject Areas: Theatre studies [AN]