Published September 2011

Laya, L'Ami des lois
Edited by Mark Darlow and Yann Robert
Phoenix 4

  • ‘This edition is thus an essential resource for anyone with an interest in Laya’s play, and will be a rewarding read for those working in the area of revolutionary theatre.’ — Catrin Francis, Modern Language Review 108, 2013, 976-77 (full text online)
  • ‘the editors prove overwhelmingly that Laya’s comedy was a veritable social event in its time and is a necessary read today for students and scholars of the Revolution and of its rich, but often overlooked, theatrical culture.’ — Logan J. Connors, French Studies 67, 2013, 254-55
  • ‘on se réjouit de pouvoir disposer d’une nouvelle édition critique séparée et de qualité ... Une bibliographie sélective termine le volume, qui sera incontestablement
    très utile à la fois aux spécialistes du théâtre et aux chercheurs en histoire culturelle.’     — Jean-Noël Pascal, Dix-huitième siècle 44, 2012, 674

Published August 2011

Proust Writing Photography: Fixing the Fugitive in À la recherche du temps perdu
Áine Larkin
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘Throughout the volume, Larkin’s close readings often provide fresh insights by situating themselves at a tangent to existing interpretations. In this way they form an individual trajectory, turning the study into a valuable source of orientation and stimulation for experts and newcomers to the field alike.’ — Katja Haustein, French Studies 67.1 (January 2013), 115-16
  • ‘Áine Larkin makes an excellent contribution to this already well established field of study with this systematic analysis of the manifold ways in which Proust appropriates photography for both thematic and stylistic purposes.’ — Marion Schmid, Modern and Contemporary France 20.4 (September 2012), 514-16

Published July 2011

Textual Wanderings: The Theory and Practice of Narrative Digression
Edited by Rhian Atkin
Legenda (General Series)

Published June 2011

Delisle de Sales, Théâtre d'amour and Baculard d’Arnaud, L’Art de foutre, ou Paris foutant
Edited by Thomas Wynn
Phoenix 3

  • ‘Théâtre d’amour has never been published, and so its availability in this volume will nevertheless prove invaluable to scholars of the genre in the eighteenth century, and may also encourage tutors to include extracts in a module on French drama or erotic writing of the period ... The reader will find both works accompanied and illuminated by numerous footnotes, while Wynn’s clearly written and comprehensive introduction contextualizes both works historically and in terms of the genre’s remarkable popularity.’ — John Phillips, Modern Language Review 107, 2012, 1255-56 (full text online)

Alexis Piron, L’Antre de Trophonius et La Robe de dissention, ou le faux-prodige
Edited by Derek Connon
Phoenix 2

  • ‘Volume 2 of the MHRA Phoenix series on eighteenth-century French theatre will be particularly attractive to students of early modern French theatre and history ... Connon’s succinct presentation brings to life both Piron and the vibrant theatrical world of the period.’ — Síofra Pierse, Modern Language Review 108, 2013, 304-05 (full text online)

Published May 2011

Syntactic Borrowing in Contemporary French: A Linguistic Analysis of News Translation
Mairi McLaughlin
Research Monographs in French Studies 30

  • ‘Throughout, the author demonstrates a strong awareness of methodology, a solid grounding in the relevant literature, and a laudable attention to detail... Deserves to become a point of reference for future studies within the field.’ — Maj-Britt Mosegaard Hansen, Modern Language Review 107.4, October 2012, 1248-49 (full text online)
  • ‘Works like this, at the crossroads of linguistics and translation studies, are all too rare. The potential of the work reported here to inspire further investigation is considerable.’ — Nigel Armstrong, Modern and Contemporary France 20.2 (February 2012), 267-68
  • ‘En somme, cet ouvrage est très convaincant par sa rigueur (méthodologie, présence de graphiques), son aspect novateur et sa clarté. Il peut servir de référence aux chercheurs et doctorants de diverses disciplines telles que l’évolution du français contemporain, le contact des langues (en particulier la transmission de l’emprunt syntaxique) ou la traduction.’ — Michèle Vincent, French Studies 66.4 (October 2012), 594-95
  • ‘Es wäre wünschenswert, wenn künftig weitere weit verbreitete und unkritisch rezipierte Thesen zu sprachlichen Fragen einer ebenso gründlichen, sine ira et studio durchgeführten Untersuchung unterzogen würden.’ — Jörn Albrecht, Zeitschrift für französische Sprache und Literatur 123.2, 2013, 200-05
  • ‘...Excellente connaissance du sujet, abondance et pertinence des références, clarté des démonstrations, exhaustivité de l’analyse, structuration de l’exposé, soutien statistique, sophistication linguistique et aisance de style. Les introductions à chaque chapitre méritent à elles seules la lecture, car elles permettent de découvrir ou de réviser l’essentiel sur l’emploi de l’adjectif, du passif et du participe présent en français.’ — Alain Thomas, Journal of Language Contact 6, 2013, 203-05
  • ‘An original insight, especially considering her field work in a press agency for the data collection. In fact, dealing with the linguistic impact of news translation, the study provides evidence of the detrimental impact of lack of regulations, ethics and professionalism in news translation.’ — Federico M. Federici, The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 21.1, 2013, 112

Victor Hugo, Jean-Paul Sartre, and the Liability of Liberty
Bradley Stephens
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘Liberty may be a liability, but in Hugo and in Sartre it has two strong, subtle, and surprisingly complementary exponents. For the detail of its analyses and for the breadth of its final perspectives, this volume is, therefore, a welcome addition to the Legenda imprint.’ — Owen Heathcote, French Studies 66.3, July 2012, 422-23
  • ‘Bradley Stephens explores unexpected, intriguing connections between Victor Hugo's and Jean-Paul Sartre's visions of liberty in this clearly written study... Brings a unique analysis of Hugo's and Sartre's work, offering insights that may challenge readers to reconsider their previous understandings.’ — Marva A. Barnett, Modern and Contemporary France 20.2, 2012, 281-82
  • ‘Stephen’s work provides equally valuable insights for Hugo and Sartre specialists as it does for students of modern culture. Previous scholarship is pleasingly woven into Stephens’s argument and his writing style is quick and fluid, itself more dynamic as the work progresses.’ — Andrea S. Thomas, Nineteenth-Century French Studies 41.3-4, 2013, 326-28
  • ‘Informed by the latest literary criticism, up to speed with philosophical debates, knowledgeable on secondary literature in English and in French on both Hugo and Sartre... Stephens sets up a dialogue between Hugo, the nineteenth-century writer and Sartre, whom Foucault (in-)famously referred to as ‘a man of the nineteenth century’... This book is excellent on philosophy of language and moral philosophy, and it should be of interest to scholars of either Hugo or Sartre, or both, as well as to post-modernists interested in human experience and freedom.’ — Jean-Pierre Boulé, Sartre Studies International 19.1, 2013, 91-102

English Responses to French Poetry 1880-1940: Translation and Mediation
Jennifer Higgins
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘The account of Huxley’s version of Rimbaud’s ‘Les Chercheuses de poux’ is particularly fine, and laurels awarded to Beckett’s ‘Drunken Boat’ are shown to be well deserved. In this respect, Higgins’s readings are consonant with some of her own general arguments, for she frequently conveys the sense of a critical mind finding out more about the original text, as well as testing the qualities of the translation. In her hands, both French and English texts are made to speak to and of each other.’ — Matthew Creasy, Translation and Literature 21, 2012, 255-61
  • ‘This rewarding book deftly handles — and illuminates — a wide range of sources... a tantalizing taste of a fascinating area for further research.’ — Adam Watt, Modern Language Review 107.3, July 2012, 897-98 (full text online)
  • ‘In the years preceding the Second World War [...] a diminution in the quantity of translated material is compensated for by a greater acknowledgement of the centrality of translation to the development of national — and transnational — literary cultures. This study is to be commended for its consistent advocacy and demonstration of that centrality.’ — Michael G. Kelly, French Studies 66.4 (October 2012), 572

Published March 2011

Kundera and the Ambiguity of Authorship
Christine Angela Knoop
MHRA Texts and Dissertations 79

Post-War Jewish Women’s Writing in French
Lucille Cairns
Legenda (General Series)

Böece de Confort remanié: Edition critique
Edited by Glynnis M. Cropp
European Translations 1

  • ‘Glynnis M. Cropp nous offre une édition soignée du Böece de Confort remanié.’ — Béatrice Stumpf, Revue de Linguistique Romane 303-4, 2012, 557-62
  • ‘The Böece de Confort remanié marks the latest step in publishing the rich medieval French tradition of Boethius reception and is a fitting first volume in the MHRA European Translations series of valuable, affordable critical editions.’ — Helen J. Swift, Modern Language Review 108, 2013, 642-43 (full text online)
  • ‘Le plus grand mérite de ce volume réside sans doute dans la précision avec laquelle son auteure a édité le texte [...] Nous voudrions souligner ... l’utilité des Annexes ... qui constitueront des aides précieuses pour les chercheurs qui travailleront sur les différentes versions des traductions et des commentaires médiévaux de Boèce."’ — Andrea Valentini, Medioevo Romanzo XXXVI, 2012, 194-96

Aza ou le Nègre
Edited by Loïc Thommeret
Critical Texts 27

  • ‘Aza ou le Nègre, an unknown French literary fiction unearthed and introduced to us by Loïc Thommeret, certainly highlights what can be considered to be a revolution in the genre of eighteenth-century French colonial fiction advocating the abolition of slavery.’ — Christian Kittery, Modern Language Notes 127, 2012, 947-48
  • ‘On ne peut que remercier Loïc Thommeret d’avoir retrouvé ce roman et de l’avoir publié ... Ce petit livre est appelé à devenir un grand classique.’ — Marie-Hélène Huet, Eighteenth-Century Fiction 25.2, 2013, 480
  • ‘This is a most welcome addition to the growing number of previously little-known and largely inaccessible texts representing Blacks republished in recent years. ... Aza ou le Nègre would make an excellent text for undergraduate study.’ — Roger Little, Modern Language Review 107, 2012, 624-25 (full text online)

Published February 2011

The Picture as Spectre in Diderot, Proust, and Deleuze
Thomas Baldwin
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘Current critical debates on both spectrality and ekphrastic poetics are greatly enriched by Thomas Baldwin’s tightly woven and theoretically intricate study.’ — Margaret Topping, French Studies 67.1 (January 2013), 125

The Libertine’s Nemesis: The Prude in Clarissa and the roman libertin
James Fowler
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘The beguiling cover of this Legenda volume is well matched by the book’s contents. Fowler’s thesis is an original and well-argued one: the establishment of a symbiotic relationship between the libertine and the prude in a number of key eighteenth-century texts... the argument is persuasive and elegant, and we are swept along by the author’s enthusiasm for his subject.’ — John Phillips, French Studies 66.3, July 2012, 402

Jacques Derrida and the Institution of French Philosophy
Vivienne Orchard
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘Orchard’s careful attention to significant details promises to refresh thinking in an important area of theory and philosophy.’ — Sarah Wood, French Studies 66.4 (October 2012), 581

Monvel, Les Victimes cloîtrées
Edited by Sophie Marchand
Phoenix 1

  • ‘Sophie Marchand’s edition of Monvel’s drame Les Victimes cloîtrées is particularly welcome as a significant text from its period which is little known today but well worth rediscovering, as her critical introduction makes clear ... this is a very welcome publication and is highly recommended.’ — Mark Darlow, Modern Language Review 107, 2012, 1256-57 (full text online)