Introducing Charlotte Charke

Download or read book Introducing Charlotte Charke written by Philip Edward Baruth and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The notorious troublemaker Charlotte Charke worked as a novelist, autobiographer, and strolling actress. But it was as a cross-dresser -- both on stage and off -- that she scandalized eighteenth-century England. Known as Mr. Charles Brown, she lived openly with another woman for nearly a decade.Charke, daughter of Colley Cibber, the English playwright and poet laureate (1740), lived a life of masquerade. Her autobiography is a fascinating document of low- and middle-class life in the 1700s and is explored in some detail by Philip E. Baruth. Other contributors to this collection look at Charke, her famous family, and her place within stage and cross-dressing traditions. Felicity A. Nussbaum provides a thought-provoking afterword on the current state of Charke criticism.