List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction 1
1. Labor, Leisure, and the Scope of Ungenteel Play 20
2. Dramatic Regression: The Borrowed Pleasures and Privileges of Youth 46
3. Fracturing Genteel Identity: The Cultural Work of Grotesque Play 71
4. Skills Rewarded: Women’s Lives Transformed through Entertainment 101
5. Staging Disaster: Turn-of-the-Century Entertainment Scenes and the Failure of Personal Transformation 130
6. Old Games, New Narratives, and the Specter of a Generational Divide 159
7. Imagined Unity: Entertainment’s Communal Spectacles and Shared Histories 184
Epilogue 208
Notes 213
Selected Bibliography 241
Index 249