A political satire.

Unlike collections of essays which focus on a single century or whose authors are drawn from a single discipline, this collection reflects the myriad performance options available to London audiences, offering readers a composite portrait of the music, drama, and dance productions that characterized this rich period. Just as the performing arts were deeply interrelated, the essays presented here, by scholars from a range of fields, engage in dialogue with others in the volume. The opening section examines a famous series of 1701 performances based on the competition between composers to set William Congreve's masque The Judgment of Paris to music. The essays in the central section (the 'mainpiece') showcase performers and productions on the London stage from a variety of perspectives, including English 'tastes' in art and music, the use of dance, the depiction of madness and masculinity in both spoken and musical performances, and genres and modes in the context of contemporary criticism and theatrical practice. A brief afterpiece looks at comic pieces in relation to satire, parody and homage. By bringing together work by scholars of music, dance, and drama, this cross-disciplinary collection illuminates the interconnecting strands that shaped a vibrant theatrical world.

How representations of the preparation, sale, and consumption of leftovers in nineteenth-century urban France link socioeconomic and aesthetic history The concept of the “harlequin” refers to the practice of reassembling dinner scraps cleared from the plates of the wealthy to sell, replated, to the poor in nineteenth-century Paris. In The Harlequin Eaters, Janet Beizer investigates how the alimentary harlequin evolved in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries from the earlier, similarly patchworked Commedia dell’arte Harlequin character and can be used to rethink the entangled place of class, race, and food in the longer history of modernism. By superimposing figurations of the edible harlequin taken from a broad array of popular and canonical novels, newspaper articles, postcard photographs, and lithographs, Beizer shows that what is at stake in nineteenth-century discourses surrounding this mixed meal are representations not only of food but also of the marginalized people—the “harlequin eaters”—who consume it at this time when a global society is emerging. She reveals the imbrication of kitchen narratives and intellectual–aesthetic practices of thought and art, presenting a way to integrate socioeconomic history with the history of literature and the visual arts. The Harlequin Eaters also offers fascinating background to today’s problems of food inequity as it unpacks stories of the for-profit recycling of excess food across class and race divisions.

From master of suspense Jo Gibson comes two chilling novels of irrational fear--two living nightmares with no hope, no mercy, and no end in sight. . . Dance Of Death They were the most gorgeous shoes Donna Burke had ever seen. An exquisite pair of scarlet high heels. And allegedly cursed. According to the old shopkeeper, the shoes endowed their wearers with incredible talent--and horrible misfortune. But that doesn't stop Donna's friends from buying them. One by one, the girls are drawn to the shoes. One by one, the girls suffer grisly fates. And learn a sinister, final truth: One size kills all. The Dead Girl Julie Forrester is a dead ringer for her cousin Vicki. They could pass for twins--except for the fact that Vicki isn't alive anymore. Now, when Julie goes to stay with her aunt and uncle in Colorado, everyone keeps mistaking her for her cousin. Late at night, she even dreams about Vicki. Reaching out from the grave. Trying to come back. With each passing day, Julie fears she's becoming someone else. Someone sick. Someone deranged. Someone dead.

A new evil has arisen in the far away kingdom of Despare, a nameless creature known only as the Jester, who is furious over the arrival of Max, a mysterious wanderer who's been befriending the cruel ruler's slaves. The slaves want him to liberate them, the Jester wants him dead, and all Max wants is to be rid of Despare so he can be back with his love, Rachel, who is waiting for him back in Aleria. With Rachel practicing for the lead role in Masquerade, Aleria's spring play, Max, along with two goofy friends, a monk wise beyond his years, and a mischievous sword, must chase after the Jester, who flees to Aleria to aide Furion, who has been committing murders behind the scenes. When the final curtain falls, can Max and his friends save Aleria from the Jester? Can Rachel stop any of the mysterious murders that seem to be leading toward her? Will Furion rise to power? Find out in the second installment of Venture to Midnight, a story that explores the mystery of human nature, sheds some light on a sorcerer's tormented mind, and shows what one man would do to be with his true love.