Reassessing the theoretical usefulness of the "high/low culture" perspective often found in writings on Romantic theater, this book shows how this dichotomy has obscured the centrality of melodrama as a dominant mode of Romantic expression in post-revolutionary France. The book focuses on Victor Ducange's production (1813-33) in order to reveal melodrama's aesthetic and political contribution to the Romantic movement during the Restoration. The restructuring of the theatrical field after 1830 is analyzed to account for the break between Hugo's Romantic drama and the melodrama and for melodrama's subsequent reputation as a "popular" genre.