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Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen
Greg Jenner
c 1700 to c 1800, Biography, Biography: arts & entertainment, Autobiography: arts & entertainment, Social & cultural history, Popular culture
'A joyous romp of a book.' GUARDIAN A witty, rich and surprising history of celebrity by the historical consultant to HORRIBLE HISTORIES
'Fizzes with clever vignettes and juicy tidbits... [a] joyous romp of a book.' Guardian
'A fascinating, rollicking book in search of why, where and how fame strikes. Sit back and enjoy the ride.' Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads
'[An] engaging and well-researched book... Jenner brings his material to vivid life' Observer
Celebrity, with its neon glow and selfie pout, strikes us as hypermodern. But the famous and infamous have been thrilling, titillating, and outraging us for much longer than we might realise. Whether it was the scandalous Lord Byron, whose poetry sent female fans into an erotic frenzy; or the cheetah-owning, coffin-sleeping, one-legged French actress Sarah Bernhardt, who launched a violent feud with her former best friend; or Edmund Kean, the dazzling Shakespearean actor whose monstrous ego and terrible alcoholism saw him nearly murdered by his own audience - the list of stars whose careers burned bright before the Age of Television is extensive and thrillingly varied.
In this ambitious history, that spans the Bronze Age to the coming of Hollywood's Golden Age, Greg Jenner assembles a vibrant cast of over 125 actors, singers, dancers, sportspeople, freaks, demigods, ruffians, and more, in search of celebrity's historical roots. He reveals why celebrity burst into life in the early eighteenth century, how it differs to ancient ideas of fame, the techniques through which it was acquired, how it was maintained, the effect it had on public tastes, and the psychological burden stardom could place on those in the glaring limelight. DEAD FAMOUS is a surprising, funny, and fascinating exploration of both a bygone age and how we came to inhabit our modern, fame obsessed society.
More books by Greg Jenner
Praise for Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity from Bronze Age to Silver Screen
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Fizzes with clever vignettes and juicy tidbits... [a] joyous romp of a book. - GUARDIAN
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A fascinating, rollicking book in search of why, where and how fame strikes. Sit back and enjoy the ride. - Peter Frankopan, author of The Silk Roads
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With characteristic wit and curiosity, Jenner reveals the glamour and graft of celebrity lives in this rich, entertaining and original history. - Dr Hannah Greig, historical adviser to The Favourite and Poldark
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A magical mystery tour through the history of celebrity - eye opening, provocative, triumphant. Greg Jenner is a suave and generous guide to the glittering, glamorous, often deadly world of celebrity. Dead Famous takes you deep into fabulous lives, tells all about price you pay for fame and explores why the world in which we live needs to make a few shining people into icons who thrill us, obsess us and then, finally, we want to tear apart. - Kate Williams, author and historian
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[An] engaging and well-researched book... Jenner brings his material to vivid life - OBSERVER
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This is a lively look at history's great and gawped at - and how they reshaped the world around them. - HISTORY REVEALED
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Delivers a bounty of colourful anecdotes. - TLS
Greg Jenner
Greg Jenner is a public historian best known as the host of the hit BBC podcasts You're Dead To Me and Homeschool History, his work on BBC's multi-award winning TV series Horrible Histories, and for his books Dead Famous: An Unexpected History of Celebrity, From Bronze Age To Silver Screen and A Million Years In A Day: A Curious History of Everyday Life From The Stone Age To The Phone Age. He is an Honorary Research Associate at Royal Holloway, University of London.
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