Talma, ou l’histoire du théâtre (in French)

This life of François-Joseph Talma is part history, part theatre, and part novel and as such rather like the hectic, contradictory, fascinating century in which the actor lived. Indeed the troubled, ever-changing times are brought to life again in the pages of this great actor's story, from the last breaths of the Ancien Regime to the waning Restoration, with, of course, the Revolution and the saga of Napoleon that came between. The story (which was written using many previously-unpublished documents) comprises nearly a century of French social history. It is the account of a society caught between the desire for change and cautious conservatism. Their hopes, illusions and problems are not that far removed from our own: generational clashes, rivalries, struggles for influence and financial debt…
 
This publication is the winner of the Fondation Napoléon First Empire History Prize 2008.