Sir William Schwenck Gilbert (1836-1911) was the most brilliant dramatist of Victorian England. His plays were considered daring and cynical, and he was the forerunner of Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. He was also a prolific journalist and humorous poet (his Bab Ballads are still widely read), and he achieved worldwide fame through his long collaboration with the composer Arthur Sullivan. The libretti of H.M.S Pinafore, The Mikado, and all the other Savoy Operas were written by Gilbert, and the story of their often stormy relationship is here chronicled by a renowned authority on Gilbert's life and on the theatrical and literary scene in Victorian London. For this biography Jane Stedman has returned to original sources, has interviewed survivors, and has scoured a whole variety of Victorian periodicals for reviews and personal comment. Gilbert emerges as a much more complex and interesting figure than has previously been thought, and the book is a worthy companion piece to Arthur Jacobs's recent biography Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musician.
This biography takes W. S. Gilbert, leading dramatist of his day in Victorian England and collaborator with Arthur Sullivan on HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, and the other Savoy Operas, through his entire life, discussing his journalism, including the Bab Ballads, his non-Sullivan plays such as The Wicked World, and his collaborations with other musicians in the 1890s. It deals with his life as a private and public person, including a hitherto undiscovered early romantic attachment and his life-long work for the social acceptance of the theatre and those on and off stage. It portrays a Gilbert of greater complexity and interest than anyone has yet shown him to possess, a portrait drawn not from established and hitherto erroneous sources, but built up from fresh documents, interviews with survivors, and innumerable periodical articles.
This biography takes W. S. Gilbert, leading dramatist of his day in Victorian England and collaborator with Arthur Sullivan on HMS Pinafore, The Mikado, and the other Savoy Operas, through his entire life, discussing his journalism, including the Bab Ballads, his non-Sullivan plays such as The Wicked World, and his collaborations with other musicians in the 1890s. It deals with his life as a private and public person, including a hitherto undiscovered early romantic attachment and his life-long work for the social acceptance of the theatre and those on and off stage. It portrays a Gilbert of greater complexity and interest than anyone has yet shown him to possess, a portrait drawn not from established and hitherto erroneous sources, but built up from fresh documents, interviews with survivors, and innumerable periodical articles.