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Gilbert of Gilbert and Sullivan
The author of The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, HMS Pinafore and the other great Savoy libretti, W S Gilbert, witty, caustic and disrespectful, was one of the celebrities of the late Victorian age. In his time he had been many things: journalist, theatre critic, cartoonist, comic poet, stage director, writer of short stories, dramatist. A political satire he wrote was banned by the Lord Chamberlain at the personal insistence of the Prince of Wales. He wrote the most brilliantly inventive plays of his time. With Arthur Sullivan he wrote comic operas that defined the age. He became richer and more famous than he could have imagined, but at the price of his artistic freedom. This is the story of an angry and quarrelsome man, discontented with himself and the age he lived in, raging at life's absurdities and laughing at them. In this book his glorious, contradictory character is explored and brought vividly to life.
Down to Earth
New schoolteacher Jenny Threadneedle has lived for almost as long as she can remember in High Hants, an enclosed idealised Little England. A cautionary tale about building a castle and pulling up the drawbridge behind you.
Engaged
Engaged, W.S. Gilbert’s most popular stage work after the comic operas he produced in collaboration with Arthur Sullivan, is a farcical comedy that has long lived in the literary shadows – although wildly neglected today, the play influenced literary names as great as George Bernard Shaw, and directly inspired Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. Centring on a rich young man’s search for a wife and his uncle and best friend’s attempts to hinder him, the play toys with conventional notions of love and sincerity. In this edition, which also contains notes and an essay by the undisputed authority on W.S. Gilbert, Andrew Crowther, Engaged deserves to step out into the spotlight once more. 'The laughter was almost incessant.' The New York Times 'The satirical comedy of Mr Gilbert has all the sting, smack and strength of neat brandy… a sudden gulp of it is apt to take one’s breath away.' The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News
Contradiction Contradicted
This book is a critical study of the dramatic works of W. S. Gilbert -- not only the famous libretti for other composers, but also his comedies and farces, his serious dramas, and his blank-verse plays. Aspects of his craft such as plot construction, lyric writing, and "stage management" (directing) are discussed. The bulk of the book explores the ideas and attitudes that are expressed in the plays, with particular attention to his concern with irony and inversion.
Foggerty's Fairy
‘Take care. The consequences of an act are often much more numerous and important than people have any idea of.’ Today W.S. Gilbert is best known for the comic operas he produced in collaboration with Arthur Sullivan, a creative partnership that diverged over the supernatural. Unlike Sullivan, Gilbert was a great fan of fairy tales, and Foggerty’s Fairy, one of his most unjustly neglected plays, is a brilliant farcical comedy that hinges on the wish-granting of a fairy. Loosely based on his short story ‘The Story of a Twelfth Cake’, Foggerty’s Fairy considers the dangers of playing with the past. Trying to shore up his relationship, a man enlists a fairy’s help to make a few tweaks in his past – he soon realises, however, these small changes have made great waves through time, and his present becomes unbearable. 'The wildest absurdity ever perpetrated.' The Era
The Bab Ballads
"What?" said the reverend gent, "Dance through my hours of leisure? Smoke? Bathe myself with scent? Play croquet? Oh, with pleasure!"' Today W.S. Gilbert is best known for the comic operas he produced in collaboration with Arthur Sullivan, but another of his great - and numerous - literary contributions were his humorous ballads, written and illustrated under the pseudonym 'Bab'. Combining his trademark absurdist wit with keenly observed character studies, the ballads are a satirical tour de force that lambast society figures. This new selection, chosen and introduced by Andrew Crowther, Secretary of the W.S. Gilbert Society, brings together the very best of the ballads and presents the 'Bab' works for a new readership.
The Triumph of Vice and Other Stories
Gilbert's libretti of the comic operas composed by Arthur Sullivan are hugely well known, and lines such as “let the punishment fit the crime” have entered the English lexicon – but his short stories also deserve to be rediscovered by the modern reader. This collection, carefully curated by the secretary of the W.S. Gilbert Society, brings together the best of these sharp, clever, comical tales – many of which are published here for the first time since their first appearance in ephemeral magazines – enriched with the author's own illustrations. The stories feature many of the powerful motifs so associated with his work – fairies, elixirs, magic – and a wide variety of characters – from burglars to barristers and shopkeepers to gentlemen. This volume is shot through with the observational wit which drove Gilbert and Sullivan's works to fame, and constitutes a hugely enjoyable companion for fans of the pair's theatrical oeuvre.
The Influence of Edward Paley and Alexander Paterson on Two Nineteenth Century Lunatic Asylums
In attempting to manage these lunacy systems, Edward Paley and Alexander Paterson showed differing degrees of efficiency and commitment. Neither met with conspicuous success, nor was a leader in the field of lunacy matters. The career of each was marked by a series of public inquiries into their affairs. The work of Paley was especially criticised by the inquiry that marked the end of his career. In the final analysis, however, each was a comparatively ordinary administrator, and each worked within an emerging bureaucracy, and a professional setting, that proved increasingly more complex and difficult to manage.
