Charlotte: Being a True Account of an Actress's Flamboyant Adventures in Eighteenth-Century London's Wild and Wicked Theatrical World [Hardcover]

Kathryn Shevelow (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 10, 2005

The life of actress Charlotte Charke transports us through the splendors and scandals of eighteenth-century London and its wicked theatrical world

Her father, Colley Cibber, was one of the eighteenth century's great actor/playwrights-the toast of the British aristocracy, a favorite of the king. When his high-spirited, often rebellious daughter, Charlotte, revealed a fondness for things theatrical, it was thought that the young actress would follow in his footsteps at the legendary Drury Lane, creating a brilliant career on the London stage. But this was not to be. And it was not that Charlotte lacked talent-she was gifted, particularly at comedy. Troublesome, however, was her habit of dressing in men's clothes-a preference first revealed onstage but adopted elsewhere after her disastrous marriage to an actor, who became the last man she ever loved.

Kathryn Shevelow, an expert on the sophisticated world of eighteenth-century London (the setting for classics such as Tom Jones and Moll Flanders), re-creates Charlotte's downfall from the heights of London's theatrical world to its lascivious lows (the domain of fire-eaters, puppeteers, wastrels, gender-bending cross-dressers, wenches, and scandalous sorts of every variety) and her comeback as the author of one of the first autobiographies ever written by a woman. Beyond the appealingly unorthodox Charlotte, Shevelow masterfully recalls for us a historical era of extraordinary stylishness, artifice, character, interest, and intrigue.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Shevelow entertainingly raises the curtain on author-actress Charlotte Cibber Charke (1713–1760), a cross-dresser famed for her portrayal of male characters. The author, a specialist in 18th-century British literature and culture, offers a full-scale biography of this enigmatic eccentric, who also wrote plays and novels (including Henry Dumont). She was the youngest daughter of England's poet laureate, the actor-playwright Colley Cibber. Estranged from him and abandoned by her philandering husband, Charke supported herself and her daughter by acting, often in male roles, and then began wearing male clothing offstage. After a 1737 cutback in productions, she worked traditionally male jobs (grocer, innkeeper, pastry cook, proofreader, puppeteer, sausage seller, valet), assuming a male identity for years under the name Charles Brown. Contrasting Charke's early theatrical triumphs with her later misfortunes, poverty and despair, Shevelow quotes extensively from Charke's autobiography, A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Charlotte Charke (1755), and ends with 30 pages of notes and a bibliography. With more than a few speculative passages, this splendiferous recreation of the past is rich in period detail, and theater buffs will applaud. Illus. not seen by PW. Agent, Amy Rennert at the Rennert Agency. (Apr. 4)
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From Booklist

*Starred Review* Charlotte Charke (1713-60) is a plum of a subject for -eighteenth-century culture-specialist Shevelow. Youngest child of noted actor, playwright, stage manager, and poet laureate Colley Cibber, she took to the stage, as had her brother, Theophilus. Although she married at 17 (unhappily and fairly briefly) and bore a daughter, tall, slim Charlotte became known for her cross-dressing both onstage and off-, which, with her public parodies of her father, led to an estrangement she was never able to mend. As she bent gender roles with her dress, she also did with her work, managing theater troupes, starting a puppet theater, and writing her autobiography (the first written by a British actress). Still, she was a poor money manager, and with her companion, Mrs. Brown, she often lived hand to mouth. In vivid language, Shevelow describes the dirt and danger of London streets, the economics and politics of the theater world, the paralyzing effect of the Stage Licensing Act of 1737, and the creative means taken to evade it; since Charlotte has primarily been the subject of academics in feminist and lesbian contexts, Shevelow deals briefly but sensitively with what is known about Charlotte's sexuality. This is fine theater history, but it is most notable as a biography of a woman who was true to herself. Michele Leber
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.; First Edition edition (March 10, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0805073140
• ISBN-13: 978-0805073140
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,902,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kathryn Shevelow grew up in southwestern Ohio. Her parents were public school teachers, and she has three younger sisters. As an adult, she moved to the west coast for graduate school, and got her PhD at the University of California, San Diego, where she is now a faculty member in the Literature Department. Her first book, "Women and Print Culture," was about the invention of magazines for women in 18th-century England. More recently, she wrote "Charlotte," a biography of the scandalous 18th-century cross-dressing actress, Charlotte Charke, which was the winner of the Theatre Library Association's George Freedley Memorial Award for the year's best book on live theater. Her newest book, "For the Love of Animals," combines her life-long concern for animal welfare with her knowledge of 18th and 19th century England to tell the story of how society's changing attitudes towards animals enabled a collection of extraordinary people, working over many years, to pass the world's first animal welfare law and to found the SPCA, the world's first animal protection society.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Well written, definitely not how romantic novellists see it..., July 24, 2005

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Charlotte: Being a True Account of an Actress's Flamboyant Adventures in Eighteenth-Century London's Wild and Wicked Theatrical World (Hardcover)

There is a tendency in romantic novellists to spice up their novels with tales of actresses and cross-dressing young women who make good and marry the handsome peer - this is perhaps a more accurate reflection of what happened in reality to women of their ilk in eighteenth century Britain

Charlotte's story is probably not typical as such of the period, being a woman's lot - but the reactions and results, well researched and written by Shevelow - seem to accurately reflect the period.

Charlotte was born of a good family, her father was the poet laureate, and she had all possibility of advantage - however marrying at 17 and later abandoned by both her husband and her father, she was forced to make her own way in the world. she wrote plays (some apparently good for the period) and acted - specialising in male roles. This cross-dressing she later took into her real life.

If anything this seems like a slow unfolding and destruction of a life. Much of it seems to be from her original autobiography published in the mid eighteenth century - no doubt to boost her finances as well - but gradually she was forced into all kinds of generally male dominated occupations.

Saddening to read, at times heavy going, but enlightening. This is an excellent portrayal of the limitations on women in this period, and the consequences.

3 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Romp Through Georgian London, May 10, 2005

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Old School but Kicking "Foggy" (Bayville, New Jersey USA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Charlotte: Being a True Account of an Actress's Flamboyant Adventures in Eighteenth-Century London's Wild and Wicked Theatrical World (Hardcover)

This book is of interest to anyone who cares about 18th century England but it also could work well for someone looking for an introduction to those extraordinary days. The struggle to survive has never been more acutely portrayed than in this remarkable and yet true story of a daughter spurned by a famous but cold hearted father. You will laugh and cry with and about Charlotte but you cannot come away from this book without a deep appreciation for just how easy our lives are today.