Histoire anecdotique de l'Ancien Théâtre en France, Tome Premier

Du Casse, Albert, 1813-1893Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

Rating 3.1
Word count
513K words
Chapters
52

Tags

Foreign Language Books Dramatic Literature Historical ReappraisalPerforming ArtsUrban RomanceIllustrated GuideAcademic StudyTraditional Aesthetics19th CenturyEclectic ReadingCultural ChangeFolk Customs

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today.Histoire anecdotique de l'Ancien Théâtre en France, Tome Premier by Albert Du CasseAuthor: Du Casse, Albert, 1813-1893,Language: French, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Mar 18, 2011

Editor's review

This book is the first volume of Albert Ducas's anecdotal history of the old French theatre, stringing together the theatrical ecology, actors' careers, and viewing customs of the ancien régime in a note-like style, along with anecdotes about the transmission of plays. Its value lies not in a systematic general history but in using fragmented materials to reconstruct the human feelings and social conditions beyond the stage; it is suitable for readers interested in French theatre history and early modern European performance culture as reference browsing. The writing has the tone of nineteenth-century French essays, combining scholarship with entertainment; readers can sense the liveliness and complexity of early theatres as public spaces. As the book was written early, some judgments bear the marks of their time and should be read in reference to modern research. In terms of reading context, it is suitable as supplementary material for specialized research, or for leisurely browsing by literature lovers with French reading ability; reading a few anecdotes at random can also offer a glimpse of the old theatre world.

Who it's for

A good fit for

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Reading tips

  1. Read the table of contents and chapter titles first, then skip to plays or actors of interest.
  2. Keep a chronological table of French theatre history for reference to locate figures and events.
  3. Skip unfamiliar names and plays at first, then return to verify after reading the whole chapter.
  4. Read alongside modern works on French theatre research, and note period-specific judgments.

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

Contents

  1. 1
  2. 2
  3. 3
  4. 4
  5. 5
  6. 6
  7. 7
  8. 8
  9. 9
  10. 10
  11. 11
  12. 12
  13. 13
  14. 14
  15. 15
  16. 16
  17. 17
  18. 18
  19. 19
  20. 20
  21. 21
  22. 22
  23. 23
  24. 24
  25. 25
  26. 26
  27. 27
  28. 28
  29. 29
  30. 30
  31. 31
  32. 32
  33. 33
  34. 34
  35. 35
  36. 36
  37. 37
  38. 38
  39. 39
  40. 40
  41. 41
  42. 42
  43. 43
  44. 44
  45. 45
  46. 46
  47. 47
  48. 48
  49. 49
  50. 50
  51. 51
  52. 52

FAQ

Is this book a complete general history of French theatre? No. It is anecdotal notes, compiling old theatre anecdotes by theme and figure, emphasizing detail and interest rather than the systematic completeness of a general history. For a systematic overview, one should read a general history alongside it.
Can someone who doesn't know French read this book? The original is written in French, and this is a public-domain electronic edition with no Chinese translation information found. Readers without French reading ability will find it difficult; it is advisable to confirm the language of the edition first, or start with a French theatre history that has a translation.
What should be noted when reading the electronic edition? This book comes from a public-domain e-book project; the layout is mainly text, and annotations and proper names may vary by edition. When reading, one should mark names and plays oneself, note nineteenth-century spelling and usage, and consult reference works when necessary.

This site is an index: you start “Search all sources” in your browser, and the entries it lists all point to third-party sites; please judge their availability yourself.

About the author

Du Casse, Albert, 1813-1893 Author

Albert Du Casse (1813–1893) was a nineteenth-century French writer on history and letters. Details of his life are limited in publicly available sources; what can be confirmed is chiefly the body of work he left on the French Old Regime and the Napoleonic era. Three of his works are held in this collection: the two-volume Histoire anecdotique de l'Ancien Théâtre en France (Volumes One and Two) and Les Rois Frères de Napoléon Ier. His subjects show a preference for weaving history from anecdotes and curiosities, combining theatre history, court life and the escapades of political figures in a narrative, compilation-style approach. His writings may be of interest to readers concerned with the old French stage and the Bonaparte family.