Description
Adam and Charles Black, Published 1970. Hardcover, 284 pp.; 24 cm; First Edition; 31 plates, with portraits and a genealogical table.
Rare, out-of-print & unusual books · Since 1997
112
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Catalog notes
Condition & notes
In Very Good condition with a Good dust jacket. Bright reddish pink cloth boards, gilt lettering on spine, mild surface and edge wear. Top edge stained red, pale purple endpapers. Binding tight. Previous owner's gift inscription in ink on front free endpaper, dated 1973, pages otherwise clean and unmarked. Purple dust jacket lettered in white around an oval portrait of Elssler, priced 60s net and 3.00 pounds net; short nicks and closed tears to edges, none over half an inch, small chips at the top corners and at the foot of the spine fold, light creasing along the folds, mild shelf and surface wear overall. Now in an archival quality (removable) Brodart cover. Biography of Fanny Elssler (1810-1884), Taglioni's great rival and, in Gautier's formulation, the pagan dancer to Taglioni's Christian one. Guest draws on eye-witness accounts and much unpublished material for her two-year American tour, the first by a great European ballerina, her triumphs in Russia, her long attachment to the publicist Friedrich von Gentz, and the persistent legend of a liaison with Napoleon's son. Genealogical tree of the Elssler family compiled by Professor Riki Raab of Vienna. Dedicated to the memory of the American dance historian Lillian Moore, whose collection supplied several of the plates, alongside the Victoria and Albert Museum, the Harvard Theatre Collection and the New York Public Library. Guest chaired the Royal Academy of Dance from 1970 and wrote more than thirty books on dance history. Contents: Introduction; The Rise of an Infant Prodigy; The Last Love of Friedrich von Gentz; London Interlude; Fanny and the Napoleonic Legend; Paris, the Ultimate Goal; The Cachucha; Gautier's Pagan Ballerina; La Valette; Preparations for the American Tour; Conquest of the New World; Havana and the Deep South; The Second Year of the American Tour; The Breach with Wikoff; "Giselle"; An Austrian in Italy; Russia: The Crowning Triumph; The Years of Retirement; Bibliography; Genealogical Tree of the Elssler Family; Index.