Dion Boucicault: The Vampire (1852) and the Phantom (1873) (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9781837721504)

Previously unpublished versions of plays by one of the most popular and prolific dramatists of the Victorian age.

Almost fifty years before Bram Stoker penned Dracula, Dion Boucicault staged The Vampire, a three-act play that thrilled London audiences and Queen Victoria. The production boasted innovations of stagecraft and dramatic composition, to say nothing of the mesmerizing performance of Boucicault as the titular creature. After The Vampire closed, Boucicault moved to the United States and revised his play, staging a two-act version renamed The Phantom in 1856. The Vampire has languished in relative obscurity, with no published edition nor critical commentary, since the mid-nineteenth century.

Boucicault's original handwritten script provides the basis for this first full edition of his innovative tour de force. Similarly, a manuscript of The Phantom, updated by Boucicault for an 1873 production, offers audiences a new version of this influential play. The Vampire and The Phantom can now take their proper place in the lineage of vampire literature that began with John William Polidori and continues to this day.

Author: Matthew Knight
ISBN-10: 1837721505
ISBN-13: 9781837721504
Publisher: University of Wales Press
Language: English
Published: 09/25/2024
Pages: 112
Format: Hardcover