This collection of essays by leading theatre scholars explores each element of Irving's art: his acting, his contribution to the plays he commissioned, his flair for the stage picture, and his ear for incidental music. Like Wagner, Irving was a proponent of a holistic approach to the stage.

Contents: Introduction, Richard Foulkes; The chief and his champion: Irving and J.L. Toole, Michael Read; 'He danced, he did not merely walk - he sang, he by no means merely spoke': Irving, theatricality and the modernist theatre, Jim Davis; Ellen Terry and Henry Irving: a working partnership, Katharine Cockin; The Lyceum and the Lord Chamberlain: the case of Hall Caine's Mahomet, Kristan Tetens; Embodiment of the king: Henry Irving's King Arthur, Doug Kirshen; Sins of the fathers: Dostoevsky and the murders of Henry and Laurence Irving, Laurence Senelick; Irving and his scenic artists, Jeffrey Richards; 'Henry and 250 supers': Irving, Robespierre and the staging of the revolutionary crowd, Jean Chothia; Serenade in a gondola: music and interpolated action in Irving's production of The Merchant of Venice, Stephen Cockett; Arthur Sullivan's incidental music to Henry Irving's Macbeth, Kenneth Delong; The matter with Irving: Bernard Shaw and Irving reconsidered, L.W. Conolly; Bibliography; Index.