Wagner and the Romantic Hero

Simon Williams is Professor of Dramatic Art at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is the author of German Actors of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: Romanticism, Idealism, and Realism (1985), Shakespeare on the German Stage: 1582-1914 (Cambridge, 1990), and Richard Wagner and Festival Theatre (1994).

• Acknowledgements; Names on abbreviations of sources; Introduction; 1. Modes of heroism in the early nineteenth century; 2. Wagner and the early nineteenth-century theatre; 3. Early music-drama: the isolated hero; 4. Heroism, tragedy, and the Ring; 5. The last music-drama: towards the Messiah; 6. Wagner's heroism on stage; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

"Whether or not the reader agrees with all points, those with an interest in Wagner and with some of the broader implications of his work will come away with cogent ideas to ponder. Another strength of the book is the writing, which is highly literate and very fine throughout." German Studies Review Barry Salwen, University of North Carolina, Wilmington