Come to Dazzle: Sarah Bernhardt's Australian Tour
Biography & Memoir History Australiana
Come to Dazzle: Sarah Bernhardt's Australian Tour by Corille Fraser recounts the legendary French actress's 1891 stage odyssey across Australia, a moment when theatre history and colonial culture collided. This first-edition hardcover, complete with its illustrated dust jacket, brings the era to life through rare photographs, playbills and vivid first-hand accounts.
Currency Press's 1998 release traces Bernhardt's sold-out performances from Melbourne's Theatre Royal to Sydney's Lyceum, showing how the star dubbed "the Divine Sarah" captivated rough-and-ready gold-rush cities. Fraser blends biography with travelogue, mapping the troupe's 10 000-mile rail-and-coach circuit and the backstage dramas that kept newspapers buzzing.
The 372-page volume is a treasure for collectors of Australiana, theatre buffs and biography lovers alike. Rich illustrations let readers glimpse Bernhardt's costumes, railway carriages and the hastily built stage sets that turned remote towns into cultural hubs for one glittering night.
Offered in very good condition from a smoke-free home, this sturdy hardcover sits 243 mm tall and weighs just under a kilo, ready for proud shelf display. Secure this scarce first edition now and invite the most celebrated actress of the 19th century to dazzle your personal library.
Refer to our eBay listing for a full condition report and many more high-quality pictures of this item.
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