Introduced By Elizabeth Inchbald

THE BRITISH THEATRE

"With biographical and critical remarks by Mrs. Inchbald"

1808

First edition thus, the Elizabeth Inchbald-branded survey of great English plays, and a major Georgian work of literary criticism by a woman writer.

Near fine.

Price: $4,800.00

THE BRITISH THEATRE

Elizabeth Inchbald was a farmer's daughter who ran away from home as a teen to become a professional actress. After she reached the height of the profession acting at Covent Garden, she became a successful playwright and novelist, known as the "Celebrated Mrs. Inchbald." Her 1791 work A SIMPLE STORY was one of the most acclaimed novels of the 18th century. Yet today we remember her primarily as the author of a single play, LOVERS VOWS, because that play sets up the plot in Jane Austen's novel MANSFIELD PARK. This set — a work of canon formation in the late Georgian period — indicates Inchbald's influence in her own time, which far exceeded Austen's own.

Beginning with Shakespeare, Inchbald wrote introductions for each of the plays, bringing her considerable experience in acting and writing to her remarks. Her essays established "a precedent for all theater criticism that followed in the first half of the nineteenth century" (Jenkins, 3) and were standard references well into the twentieth. Among the plays included were five of her own, including LOVERS VOWS, which offers readers a rare opportunity to see a writer of this era analyze her own work critically and retrospectively. A gorgeous, exceptionally well-preserved set.

The Object

London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, 1808. Full title: The British Theatre; or, a collection of plays, which are acted at the theatres Royal, Drury Lane, Covent Garden, and Haymarket. 25 volumes in 12mo, 5.75'' x 3.75'' each. Contemporary half calf, marbled paper boards, gilt-ornamented spines. Speckled edges. Illustrated with engraved frontispieces in each volume (except III and XXIII, as issued), as well as 125 engravings at the beginning of each play. Contemporary ink owner name in gutter of vol. XXV front free endpaper; 19th-century bookplate of Joseph Noakes to front pastedowns. Only a bit of edgewear. Clean and tight.

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