James Robinson Planché was one of the most prolific and successful of
nineteenth-century playwrights. In a career spanning fifty years he
wrote over one hundred and eighty pieces of all types, from pantomime
and farce to melodrama and opera, for production at a wide range of
London theatres. This book offers a representative selection of his most
popular plays. It includes one melodrama - The Vampire; or The Bride of
the Isles (1820), which represents the first treatment of the vampire
theme on the English stage; one farce - The Garrick Fever (1839); three
'fairy' extravaganzas - Beauty and the Beast (1841), Fortunio and his
Seven Gifted Servants (1843), and The Discreet Princess; or, The Three
Glass Distaffs (1855); one 'classical' extravaganza - The Golden Fleece;
or, Jason in Colchis and Medea in Corinth (1845); and one revue of
events in contemporary London - The Camp at the Olympic (1853). The
volume includes a lengthy introduction which sets the plays in the
theatrical context of their time, a chronological record of Planché's
life, a complete list of his plays, and a bibliography.