The Frightful Stage

<p> In nineteenth-century Europe the ruling elites viewed the theater as a form of communication which had enormous importance. The theater provided the most significant form of mass entertainment and was the only arena aside from the church in which regular mass gatherings were possible. Therefore drama censorship occupied a great deal of the ruling class's time and energy with a particularly focus on proposed scripts that potentially threatened the existing political legal and social order. This volume provides the first comprehensive examination of nineteenth-century political theater censorship at a time in the aftermath of the French Revolution when the European population was becoming increasingly politically active.</p>