The New York Times Book Review - Elaine Showalter
…[an] inventive, stimulating book…By highlighting Bernhardt's agency and stamina, Marcus aims to overturn the elite intellectual position that the media is largely responsible for creating celebrities who are mere commodities; she wants to challenge the perception that 21st-century celebrity is "synonymous with an empty renown that has no basis in merit or achievement."
Society’s Books of Note
"[In The Drama of Celebrity], Marcus challenges everything that has been thought about the obsession with fame. Icons are not merely famous for being famous; the media alone cannot make or break stars; fans are not simply passive dupes. Instead, journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories told about celebrities and fans. The result: A high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable."
From the Publisher
"[An] inventive, stimulating book. . . . [Sharon] Marcus is a brilliant theorist and analyst of theater history."—-Elaine Showalter, New York Times
Audiofile Magazine
"Olivia Vinall delivers an engaging narration of Marcus's exhaustive research on the origins of modern celebrity culture . . . [her] pace and tone are just right for this fascinating investigation of celebrity in our media-driven world."
Society’s Books of Note
"[In The Drama of Celebrity], Marcus challenges everything that has been thought about the obsession with fame. Icons are not merely famous for being famous; the media alone cannot make or break stars; fans are not simply passive dupes. Instead, journalists, the public, and celebrities themselves all compete, passionately and expertly, to shape the stories told about celebrities and fans. The result: A high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable."
Kirkus Reviews
2019-03-10
Fame and the famous are put in perspective in this insightful and often entertaining take on celebrity.
Given the author's scholarly credentials—Marcus (Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England, 2007, etc.) is a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and a founding editor of the book review website Public Books—some readers may expect an erudite work that drains the fun and color from a take on fame. Though there are instances of overly academic language—e.g., "defiant celebrities speak to a paradoxically social investment in fantasies of anti-social autarky"—for the most part, the author's heavily researched observations (notes and bibliography total more than 75 pages) both divert and provoke. Fleshing out her basic point that fame results from a confluence of the public, media, and celebrities, Marcus follows Marilyn Monroe taking her fight with Twentieth Century Fox to her fans as well as news stories of fans stampeding and endangering the public at an early Elvis Presley concert in Vancouver. The linchpin of the author's study is French stage actress Sarah Bernhardt, a master of self-promotion. To the shelves of works about Bernhardt, Marcus brings a singular take—richly illustrated throughout by reproduced drawings, paintings, and photographs—that fascinates as it explains her concepts of celebrity. She also makes it clear that the idea of fandom existed long before the E! network, People, and other media thrived on it. Marcus effectively breaks down her broad topic into considerations of intimacy, sensation, imitation, and other elements she sees as components of her subject. In one of the book's most impressive discussions, the author defines what some consider undefinable: She suggests that star quality can be defined not as some vague interior quality but rather something concrete that results from "arresting facial expressions, vocal acrobatics, and extravagant, riveting body movements."
Marcus ably shows why and how celebrities are not like you and me.
