The speaker's ideal entertainments: for home, church and school. Consisting of recitals, dialogues and dramas

About this book

The Speaker’s Ideal Entertainments is a practical manual for the home, church and school, offering a collection of recitations, dialogues and dramas compiled by George M. Vickers. The opening pages stress that many of the pieces are new or appear for the first time from original manuscripts, and each work is accompanied by a detailed “Notation of Gesture” that explains how to use hands, arms and posture to enhance delivery. The book also boasts full‑page, finely engraved plates taken from life, intended to illustrate the proper actions for both novice speakers and seasoned elocutionists. Vickers presents his system as a simple, step‑by‑step guide, promising that even those without prior instruction can achieve natural oratorical and dramatic performance.

Written in a late‑Victorian instructional tone, the text reads like a classroom handbook as much as a performance anthology. Its language is formal yet earnest, with frequent parenthetical asides and a focus on precision in gesture and diction. Readers who enjoy historical approaches to public speaking, teachers seeking period‑appropriate material, or anyone fascinated by 19th‑century theatrical pedagogy will find the work both informative and evocative of its era.

Opening lines

The work contains many new pieces not found in any other book, and we have been able to secure a number of selections in the original manuscript, which are here published for the first time. Most of the recitations are accompanied by Annotations for Gesture, by which the amateur, as well as the elocutionist, may be guided in the necessary action, and by a method so extremely simple that the novice who has never had the privilege of instructions in the art of elocution will be enabled to give that indispensable accompaniment, without which, there can be neither natural, oratorical, nor dramatical delivery. This important feature has been carefully prepared by one who stands at the head of the profession as an instructor of elocution, and is found in no other “Speaker.” …

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