Top

We have updated our Privacy Policy Please take a moment to review it. By continuing to use this site, you agree to the terms of our updated Privacy Policy.

Waxing Mythical

On sale

3rd May 2007

Price: £9.99

Selected:  Paperback / ISBN-13: 9780719565526

Disclosure: If you buy products using the retailer buttons above, we may earn a commission from the retailers you visit.

Marie Tussaud led a remarkable life and with grit and audacity she overcame reversals of fortune to build an extraordinary spectacle.

Of lowly birth, Marie became apprentice to a charismatic Paris showman who taught her wax modelling. They lived among a colourful cast of ‘Italian singers, pastry cooks, restaurant keepers, marionettes, acrobats, giants, dwarves, ferocious beasts’. In her memoir she also claimed friendship with royals and revolutionaries including Marie Antoinette and Voltaire. But, as a born entrepreneur, did Marie’s flair for publicity extend to moulding her own story?

After the Revolution, she came to England and took her show on the road. She pursued the punishing lifestyle of the travelling show for years and secured a lasting reputation in the Dickensian world of 19th century popular entertainment.

More than a biography, this captivating cultural history plunges the reader into the escapist delights of canine cabaret, living skeletons, phantasmagoria and waxworks. It reveals a truth that Madame Tussaud harnessed from the outset – the appeal of glamour and gore is enduring and universal.

What's Inside

Read More Read Less

Reviews

thefirstpost.co.uk
'Berridge's Tussaud-likeness is modelled with commendable lack of sentiment and a secure grasp of zeitgeist and historical background.' -- thefirstpost.co.uk
John Carey, Sunday Times
'Spectacular and spellbinding'
John Adamson, Sunday Telegraph
'Excellent ... Kate Berridge goes beyond the bounds of the conventional 'life-and-times' biography.... Here, the background of 'the times' is painted with as much skill as the spot-lit figure in the foreground ... shrewd and myth-debunking.'
Daily Telegraph
'An immensely stylish book: well researched, witty, perceptive and provocative'
Independent on Sunday
'Sparkly, entertaining, crammed with intriguing details, this cultural history reveals Madam Tussaud as canny, tough as old boots and with a knack for riding the storm'
Irish Times
'An immensely comic and rich account'
Sarah Howard , Times Literary Supplement
'Waxing Mythical is great fun... its heady mix of glitz and fore captures the magic of Madame Tussaud's waxworks and the mysterious businesswoman who created them'
Jeremy Lewis, The Sunday Times
'Engaging'