RARE BOOK GUIDE - THE RUNNERS, THE RIDERS & THE ODDS

30 March 2007

The Art of Gesture. Dene Barnett, 1987.


Dene Barnett (with Jeanette Massy - Westropp.) THE ART OF GESTURE. THE PRACTICES AND PRINCIPLES OF 18TH CENTURY ACTING. Carl Winter University Press, Heidelberg, 1987.

Current Selling Prices
$300-$500? /£160-£260?


HISTORICAL STUDY / THEATRE /ACTING
500 page study. A little known book, but with a keen following. The code of dramatic gesture. Often cited in academia as 'massive and authoritative.' The late Dene Barnett, an Australian scholar and Professsor of Philosophy (Flinders) was the founder of the modern day 'Gesture Movement.' Academic books published in Europe in English are often highly elusive and this is not on the web and would appear not to show up there. Most info on this is in those academic journals you have to pay to see. Unless you have your institution paying for you, or are absolutely desperate for the info, or have alot of time to fill in forms and fish out a working credit card, forget it. One day they will have worked this out; not all scholars are in institutions.

Our pic is of La Comedie Francaise, Paris in the 18th century, no pics of the book can be found. The book is intended for the use of theatre historians, singers, actors, Early Dance fans, directors and teachers of acting. Its preface states the purpose:
'...is to give a detailed picture of the acting techniques used in the 18th century tragedy and serious opera, based entirely on contemporaneous sources...'

VALUE? No idea of value, not obviously a rich collectors subject, but decidedly scarce and impressively authoritative so let's say the London price of 80 grande lattes. Possibly copies come and go very swiftly and no one has come up with a dastardly enough price to hold it on the web for long--there are a lot of wants for it. It could be rare as hen's teeth. There was a paperback issue too - OCLC give it 7 ISBN numbers : 3533037169 9783533037163 9783533037163 3533037169 3533037150 9783533037156 9783533037156 3533037150 What's that all about.? [ W/Q ** ]

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