Behind the Footlights

Alec-Tweedie, Mrs. (Ethel), 1862-1940Project Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

2.8

Word count: 522K words
Chapters: 53

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.Behind the Footlights by Mrs. Alec-TweedieAuthor: Alec-Tweedie, Mrs. (Ethel), 1862-1940,Language: English, Class: PN: Language and Literatures: Literature: General, Criticism, Collections, Release Date: Sep 6, 2017

Editor's review

Written by Mrs. Alec-Tweedie in the early twentieth century, this is a behind-the-scenes record of the stage, falling under the category of English literature and theatre criticism. From a first-hand perspective, the author recounts the people and events both inside and outside the theatre, with the composure and curiosity of the late Victorian to Edwardian era, covering both the glamour of actors before the footlights and the trivialities and toil backstage. For today's readers, its value lies not in systematic theatre theory but in the vivid historical material it offers on the ecology of the early modern theatre: how performances were run, the relationship between audience and stage, and the ethos of the profession all survive between the lines. The prose is English, more narrative than argumentative, suited to leisurely reading as a cultural essay and also to being read alongside theatre history and social history. There is no need to seek a continuous plot; readers may enter at any chapter that interests them and treat the book as a side door into the theatre of the past.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Theatre enthusiasts interested in the British stage from the late nineteenth to the early twentieth century
Readers who need original English-language sources for research in theatre or social history
English-language readers who enjoy slow-paced cultural essays and the atmosphere of an older era

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking systematic theatre theory or training in performance technique
Readers who prefer plot-driven, fast-paced fiction
Those with limited English reading ability who need a Chinese translation to assist them

Reading tips

Begin with the table of contents and pick chapters on actors, backstage, or audiences, then expand from there
Keep pen and paper to note plays and names mentioned, for later background verification
Read alongside contemporary British theatre histories or memoirs to deepen understanding of the material's context
One or two chapters a day is enough; don't rush—focus on absorbing the tone of the era

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.

FAQ

Is this book a novel or a work of non-fiction?

Judging by the title and the author's identity, it is a non-fiction essay collection about the stage and theatre life, not a novel. It draws on the author's experiences and observations, discussing actors, performances, and theatrical mores with a personal touch. The specific contents should be judged by the original text, and it should not be cited as a work of rigorous historical scholarship.

How difficult is the original English for non-native readers?

The author wrote in an earlier era, with long sentences and wording shaped by Edwardian written conventions, posing a certain barrier for non-native readers. With university-level English reading ability and a dictionary, it can be read through smoothly; those who only want a summary can read the opening and closing paragraphs of chapters to grasp the gist before deciding which parts to read closely.

What should readers note about this public-domain e-book?

This book comes from Project Gutenberg and is a free public-domain e-book, formatted mainly as plain text and possibly lacking modern annotations and illustration captions. Readers are advised to verify names, play titles, and other proper nouns themselves, and to watch for spelling variations caused by scanning or transcription, checking doubtful points against other editions.

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About the author

Alec-Tweedie, Mrs. (Ethel), 1862-1940 Author

Ethel Alec-Tweedie (Mrs. Alec-Tweedie, 1862-1940) was a British travel writer active in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; details of her life are limited in publicly available sources. Five of her works are held here, spanning a wide range of subjects: Through Finland in Carts recounts a journey by carriage through the Finnish countryside, A Girl's Ride in Iceland describes a trip to Iceland, and Hyde Park, Its History and Romance traces the history and character of London's Hyde Park. Thirteen Years of a Busy Woman's Life is autobiographical in tone, while Behind the Footlights deals with the world of the theatre. Her writing rests on firsthand experience, with a lively and concrete style that blends travel narrative with social observation, offering readers of her day vivid portraits of Britain and of Scandinavia and Iceland, and preserving for present-day researchers a sample of women's travel writing from that period.