The World of Melodrama

Melodrama was the most widely practiced of all dramatic forms, and the accumulation of its examples is mountainous in manuscript and print, a circumstance which has scared off researchers even in this century of indefatigable research. Making up for its long neglect, the author searches out origins in France and England, analyzes and appraises the repertory in the two countries and in America, traces evolving techniques and changing moods, and views the plays in their social as well as in their theatrical context.

In such a neglected pasture, one can break much new ground, and the author has achieved a great deal in such areas as Wild West melodrama, the drama of "ten, twent', thirt'," music in melodrama, and the propaganda melodrama. The chapters on Guilbert de Pixerécourt ("Shakespeare of melodrama"), and his achievement and significance, deal in detail with this part of the story for the first time in English and to some extent even in French. Also new is the reconstruction of the role melodrama played in the establishment of the royalty payment for plays and in the invention of the director.

A bibliographical appendix lays down some preliminary guide lines for printed and manuscript plays and lists the extensive literature which is concerned with melodrama—peripherally and incidentally in many instances.