I'll tell you what : the life of Elizabeth Inchbald / Annibel Jenkins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jenkins, Annibel.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Inchbald, Mrs., 1753-1821.

Women and literature--England--History--18th century.

Women and literature.

Theater critics.

England.

History.

Authors, English--18th century--Biography.

Authors, English.

Great Britain.

Theater critics--Great Britain--Biography.

Actors--Great Britain--Biography.

Actors.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

596 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lexington : University Press of Kentucky, [2003]

Summary:

On April 10, 1772, eighteen-year-old Elizabeth Simpson packed up her possessions, wrote her mother a note, and struck out alone to find fame and fortune as an actress. Late-eighteenth-century London was brimming with fascinating people, grand theatre, and political intrigue, and the beautiful young Elizabeth wanted a taste of it all. After several years touring the surrounding countryside with struggling theatre troupes, she would eventually find herself at the center of the city's social and cultural circles. Finding work in the theater was difficult, despite Elizabeth's good looks and determination; she came to London with a noticeable stutter and absolutely no acting experience. Refusing to audition on the casting couch -- she threw a basin of hot water in the face of a man who suggested it -- she suffered weeks of disappointing interviews before accepting the marriage proposal of Joseph Inchbald, a thirty-seven-year-old actor and painter with two children. Joseph proved to be Elizabeth's most skillful and tireless acting coach, and his connections kept them employed through various theatre circuits before his sudden death in 1779.

In 1780, the newly widowed Mrs. Inchbald returned to London to act at the Covent Garden Theatre. Between rehearsals and social engagements with the up-and-coming elite, she busied herself with writing. Her literary debut came in 1784 with the play The Mogul Tale; Or, The Descent of the Balloon. Over the next two decades, she wrote or adapted twenty-one plays: comedies, farces, and French and German works, including the version of Kotzebue's Lover's Vows later used in Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Inchbald's acclaimed first novel, A Simple Story, prefigured the work of later women writers such as Austen. I'll Tell You What: The Life of Elizabeth Inchbald follows Elizabeth Simpson on her journey to becoming the "Celebrated Mrs. Inchbald" -- actress, playwright, novelist, and respected drama critic. Using material from Inchbald's own pocket books detailing her daily life (she destroyed most of her letters and journals late in life at the advice of a Catholic confessor) as well as a wealth of other sources, Annibel Jenkins provides a vibrant portrait of life in eighteenth-century London as well as the first full story of this fascinating and thoroughly modern woman.

Contents:

In London to find a fortune

Scotland and the perils of travel

Wilkinson and the York Company

London at last

To Ireland with Hitchcock

1784

New plays and a publisher

1788-1789

A new chapter

Nature and art, a second novel, and new plays

A new century

The last years.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [559]-565) and index.

ISBN:

0813122368

OCLC:

50270170