{"product_id":"2940170053117","title":"The Drama of Celebrity","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA bold new account of how celebrity works\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhy do so many people care so much about celebrities? Who decides who gets to be a star? What are the privileges and pleasures of fandom? Do celebrities ever deserve the outsized attention they receive?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn this fascinating and deeply researched book, Sharon Marcus challenges everything you thought you knew about our 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 we tell about celebrities and fans. The result: a high-stakes drama as endless as it is unpredictable.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDrawing on scrapbooks, personal diaries, and vintage fan mail, Marcus traces celebrity culture back to its nineteenth-century roots, when people the world over found themselves captivated by celebrity chefs, bad-boy poets, and actors such as the ¿divine¿ Sarah Bernhardt (1844¿1923), as famous in her day as the Beatles in theirs. Known in her youth for sleeping in a coffin, hailed in maturity as a woman of genius, Bernhardt became a global superstar thanks to savvy engagement with her era¿s most innovative media and technologies: the popular press, commercial photography, and speedy new forms of travel.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWhether you love celebrity culture or hate it, \u003ci\u003eThe Drama of Celebrity\u003c\/i\u003e will change how you think about one of the most important phenomena of modern times.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Princeton University Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47179701846256,"sku":"2940170053117","price":29.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940170053117_p0.jpg?v=1763701015","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940170053117","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}