John McCormick: Dancing on the Rim

Originally published in 1766, the Laocoön has been called the first extended attempt in modern times to define the distinctive spheres of art and poetry. ...more

In this fascinating and colorful book, researcher and performer John McCormick focuses on the marionette world of Victorian Britain between its heyday after 1860 and its waning years from 1895 to 1914. Situating the rich and diverse pupper theatre in the context of entertainment culture, he explores both the aesthetics ...more

Banned, marginalised, tolerated or neglected, puppets were a major form of entertainment of the subordinate classes in the nineteenth century. Showmen travelled from one end of Europe to the other bringing everything from biblical plays to melodramas and variety to audiences who experienced them as their only form of dramatic ...more

John McCormick's is the only text to provide an account of how popular theatre made the leap from the fairground booths of the eighteenth century to become a vehicle of mass entertainment in the following century. Whereas other studies offer a traditional approach to the theatres of high culture, John ...more

This study attempts to balance the achievements of Vanbrugh's dual career as an architect and dramatist, and to illuminate aspects of Vanbrugh's personality as revealed by his work. The author demonstrates the continuity of Vanbrugh's literary and architectural styles. ...more