On 26 January 1899 The New York Times printed, on its front page, the cable announcing the death of Adolphe Dennery, "one of the most prolific playwrights of the century." After mentioning in particular his A Celebrated Cause, which had caused a great impact in New York during the 1877 season, the notice states that "in 1862 and 1863 it several times happened that no fewer than five plays from his pen were being presented simultaneously at as many Parisian theaters. He wrote comedies, vaudeville sketches, dramas, and spectacular reviews with equal facility." This recognition was accorded to an author who, in spite of his literary flaws, had enjoyed a tremendous popularity among theatergoers in France and throughout Europe and the United States for more than two-thirds of the nineteenth century. Writing mostly in collaboration, he was particularly successful in the creation of melodramas (a genre he revitalized and perpetuated) dealing with domestic...