Brooks, William

Dr. Brooks is Professor of French in the University of Bath, England. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Newcastle on Tyne. Dr. Brooks’s research centers on seventeenth-century French theater and opera, especially the playwright and librettist Philippe Quinault and the theater-loving Elisabeth Charlotte.

ARTISTS' IMAGES AND THE SELF-DESCRIPTIONS OF ELISABETH CHARLOTTE, DUCHESS OF ORLEANS (1652-1722), THE SECOND MADAME

2007 0-7734-5420-9
Elisabeth Charlotte, Duchess of Orleans, (1652-1722), the Palatine princess who became the second wife of Monsieur and the mother of the Regent, is well known for the thousands of letters she wrote about her life at the court of Louis XIV and during the Regency, many of which have been anthologized. She if further defined for many by Rigaud’s sumptuous court portrait of her in old age. Many other portraits of her were made by both painters and engravers, and in the course of her letters she penned many self-descriptions and wrote about some of the paintings and engravings. This is the first ever comprehensive study of her physical image and her self-image, using all available evidence, both visual and verbal.

Dramatic Criticism of Elizabeth Charlotte, Duchesse D'orleans, with an Annotated Chronology of Performances of the Popular and Court Theatres in France (1671-1722) Reconstructed From Her Letters

1996 0-7734-8834-0
Elizabeth Charlotte, duchesse d'Orléans, the second wife of the king's brother, left a voluminous correspondence. Through her forthright attitude, set against the context of the sometimes mealy-mouthed French court and French society of 1671-1722, we can learn much about the successes and failures, quarrels and crises in the theatre, about the hostility of the Church, and the actors, actresses, and playwrights as individuals. This scholarly study, the outcome of seven years' work, is the first full-length analysis of the topic. It establishes as nearly as possible a chronological list of what she saw. The information gathered about the theatre at court has never been published in collected or collated form. This unique record is of significance for theatre and opera studies of the period, as well as for the study of Elizabeth Charlotte (also known as 'Madame', the 'Princess Palatine' and 'Liselotte') herself.