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dc.contributor.authorMaunder, Andrew
dc.date.accessioned2014-08-18T11:30:41Z
dc.date.available2014-08-18T11:30:41Z
dc.date.issued2014-07
dc.identifier.citationMaunder , A 2014 , ' Dickens goes to war : David Copperfield at His Majesty's Theatre, 1914 ' , Dickens Studies Annual , vol. 45 , no. 1 , pp. 175-203 . https://doi.org/10.7756/dsa.045.009/175-203
dc.identifier.issn0084-9812
dc.identifier.otherPURE: 2891015
dc.identifier.otherPURE UUID: 60838810-2cb0-4f99-97a4-01573c3afeb5
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2299/14383
dc.description.abstractAs a powerful symbol of education, culture, and "Englishness," Dickens had a busy time during the First World War. He was available as a cultural icon whose spirit and authority could be invoked for uses beyond the literary. In Britain, very few questioned the mobilization of Dickens in this way; the novelist's worth was self-evident. This was also the view of theater managers up and down the country who, worried about the slump in attendances, rediscovered Dickens's cultural (and commercial) value. This article focuses on a specific instance of how Dickens was put to work in the theatre during the War. In 1914, at His Majesty's Theatre in London's West End, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree produced a lavish version of David Copperfield, adapted by Louis Napoleon Parker. The production was a hit, running for four months. Herbert Tree's star status was part of its appeal, but this version of David Copperfield can also be seen as an important piece of wartime propaganda. Dickens's work could be extended to a specific cultural and historical moment and reach out beyond its original boundaries. Thinking about this particular adaptation thus invites us perhaps to consider some of the strategies involved in dealing with the literary legacy of an author and his worken
dc.language.isoeng
dc.relation.ispartofDickens Studies Annual
dc.subjectCharles Dickens, David Copperfield, theatre, adaptation, Herbert Beerbohm Tree, First World War
dc.titleDickens goes to war : David Copperfield at His Majesty's Theatre, 1914en
dc.contributor.institutionSchool of Humanities
dc.contributor.institutionSocial Sciences, Arts & Humanities Research Institute
dc.contributor.institutionEnglish Literature and Creative Writing
dc.contributor.institutionEnglish Literature
dc.description.statusPeer reviewed
rioxxterms.versionofrecordhttps://doi.org/10.7756/dsa.045.009/175-203
rioxxterms.typeJournal Article/Review
herts.preservation.rarelyaccessedtrue


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