Download or read book Sir Henry Irving written by Jeffrey Richards and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2005-12-16 with total page 556 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sir Henry Irving was the greatest actor of the Victorian age. He transformed the theater in Britain and America from a disreputable and marginal entertainment into a respected art form. His admirers ranged from Queen Victoria to working men and housewives. He was thought of by Gladstone as his greatest contemporary and in 1895 became the first actor to receive a knighthood. Published to mark the centenary of Irving’s death, this book gives an account not only of Irving himself and of his career, but also of his whole impact on the Victorian Theatre and on Victorian culture.