David Garrick: A Biography

Garrick had a profound effect on the development of the English theater. In the mid-18th century, he brought Shakespeare back to the stage at a time when the dramatist's reputation was at a low. This is the first book to attempt to introduce Garrick as a person in a relatively brief yet comprehensive fashion. It seeks to portray Garrick realistically, stripped of the more flamboyant and sinister extremes of the Garrick myth. In steering a middle course, however, the book is occasionally bland. Yet, the rich portraits of the great London theaters and the appearances of such contemporaries as Boswell, Johnson, Handel, and Hogarth make this a very enjoyable work. It is profusely illustrated and should prove more popular than G.W. Stone and G.M. Kahrl's David Garrick: a critical biography (Southern Illinois Univ . Pr . , 1979). Daniel J. Lombardo, Jones Lib., Inc., Amherst, Mass.Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc.