Children and Theatre in Victorian Britain

The cult of the child performer was a significant emergence of the Victorian age. Fierce public debate and lasting legislation grew out of the conflict between a desire for juvenile display and a determination to stop exploitation. This study explores the social and artistic context of their lives and their developing professionalism as actors.

Shortlisted for the 2007 Theatre Book Prize. For more information about the prize, see http://www.str.org.uk/ 'The author really goes into the whole complexity of the situation of having children in the theatre: the morality of it, the darker aspects of it, how they were trained, what sort of people trained. It is endlessly fascinating, I would think for anybody...very well written and very enjoyable.' - Siân Phillips, Actress, Theatre Book Judge 'Children and Theatre in Victorian Britain is an excellent overview of the various concerns - legal, artistic and sociological - tracing the changing notions of childhood, of children, and of their place in a world that was slowly shifting its emphasis from the adult to the child.' - Judith Flanders, Times Literary Supplement 'Children were such a prominent part of the Victorian theatre onstage, offstage and in the audience that it is strange that hitherto there has been no book-length study of the subject. Happily Anne Varty has remedied this with a wide-ranging, thoroughly researched and eminently readable account.' - Richard Foulkes, Theatre Notebook '...[a] meticulously researched study...' - Theatre Research International

ANNE VARTY is a Senior Lecturer in the English Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, UK. Her research interests include the literature, theatre and culture of the Victorian period and she is author of A Preface to Oscar Wilde (1998) and Eve's Century. A Sourcebook of Writings on Women and Journalism 1895-1918 (2000).