Theatre of the Book 1480-1880: Print, Text and Performance in Europe [Paperback]

Julie Stone Peters (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 2003

Theatre of the Book explores the impact of printing on the European theater, 1480-1880. Far from being marginal to Renaissance dramatists, the printing press played an essential role in the birth of the modern theater. Looking at playtexts, engravings, actor portraits, notation systems, and theatrical ephemera as part of the broader history of theatrical ideas, this illustrated book offers both a history of European dramatic publication and an examination of the European theater's continual refashioning of itself in the world of print.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is an example of some of the exciting work being undertaken in the growing field of book history.... It is an important contribution to the understanding of the impact and legacy of the printing press.... Eminently scholarly and subtly argued.... Scholars in a variety of fields...will welcome this book as an engaging starting point for research at the intersection of historical bibliography, the history of communication, theatre history, and dramatic theory."--Sixteenth Century Journal

"The Theatre of the Book does what no other book has done so well: gather an account of the relationship between the rise of printed drama and theatrical practice. It's absorbing reading, richly detailed and illustrated, and should promote ongoing consideration of the mutual abrasion of these two long-lived (and now often-maligned) institutions."--Studies in English Literature 1500-1900

"Remarkable and wide-ranging."--Times Literary Supplement

"Magnificent.... A magnum opus in more ways than one.... This is a big book and an important one, that merits applause for both the scope of its intellectual ambition and the scholarly integrity and enthusiasm of its execution."--Years Work in English Studies

"This is a terrific book.... I really like this book, and I shall turn to it many times in the future, not only for its contents, but also because it has been artfully produced with proper paper, lovely and abundant illustrations, and an organization that insistently counterpoises the page and the stage, contrasting, comparing, and finally unifying the one with the other."--Tom Berger, SHARP News

About the Author

Julie Stone Peters is Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University NY. Her publications include Congreve, the Drama, and the Printed Word (Standford UP 1990) and, with Andrea Wolper, Women's Rights, Human Rights: International Feminist Perspectives (Routledge 1995).

Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (May 15, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0199262160
• ISBN-13: 978-0199262168
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,777,686 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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