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Bram Stoker interviews W. S. Gilbert
Bram interviewed the dramatist and lyricist W. S. Gilbert for his series of conversations with prominent writers. The interview is known as “The Tendency of the Modern Stage”.
The conversation
Gilbert discusses theatrical audiences and the commercial pressures on dramatists. A contemporary newspaper account contrasts the success of entertainment that makes people laugh with the risks of work demanding sustained thought.
Read the contemporary report in the Auckland Star, 22 February 1908 →
This newspaper column reports the conversation; it is not the complete interview.
Publication history
The interview’s publication history identifies versions in the New York World (1907) and London Daily Chronicle (2 January 1908). The BramStoker.org scan host was temporarily unavailable when checked on 28 October 2026; the contemporary newspaper report linked above remains a way to read its reception.