After Reception Theory: Fedor Dostoevskii in Britain, 1869-1935
Lucia Aiello
Legenda (General Series) •25 September 2013
- ‘This new study complements a number of existing accounts of Dostoevsky reception in Britain and adds to our understanding of Anglo-Russian cul- tural exchange more generally. It also explores the current state of reception studies in the literary humanities (which it views rather pessimistically), creatively blurring the distinction between ques- tions of individual aesthetic reaction (‘reader response’) and patterns of transmission and cultural exchange.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 51.1, January 2015, 87
- ‘This book calls attention to the complexity of reception and literary criticism, analyzes temporal and geographic context, and stresses the importance and nuances of the cultural context in which a work and its criticism arise. Aiello's study re-evaluates a familiar theoretical framework, providing a new perspective for scholars in the field.’ — Megan Luttrell, Slavic and East European Journal 58.4, Winter 2014, 722-24
- ‘Fedor Dostoevskii once wrote in a letter to his brother, ‘Man is a mystery. It needs to be unravelled.’ Lucia Aiello’s new monograph traces the broad scope of social, psychological, and, most frequently, biographical criticism in Britain that has sought to unravel the mysteries of his major works.’ — Patrick Jeffery, Modern Language Review 111.2, April 2016, 600-601 (full text online)
Form and Feeling in Modern Literature: Essays in Honour of Barbara Hardy
Edited by William Baker with Isobel Armstrong
Legenda (General Series) •4 March 2013
- ‘The editors are to be congratulated on putting together a volume which maintains a consistently high quality, while ranging widely over a multitude of topics.’ — Leonee Ormond, George Eliot-George Henry Lewes Studies 64-65, October 2013, 99-100
- ‘An excellent tribute to the work of Professor Hardy; however, the critical essays and their approach to fiction in the nineteenth century also make this collection of interest to scholars in the field who may not be as familiar with the work of Hardy.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 50.4, October 2014, 506
Holocaust Intersections: Genocide and Visual Culture at the New Millennium
Edited by Axel Bangert, Robert S. C. Gordon and Libby Saxton
Moving Image 4•25 September 2013
- ‘The 'millennium' of this book's title stands for the reconstitution of Europe since the end of the Cold War - one effect of which has been an enhanced knowledge of the Holocaust based on archives in the former Eastern Bloc - and for the rise of digital media during the same period.’ — Henry K. Miller, Sight & Sound April 2014, 106
Ovid in English, 1480-1625: Part One: Metamorphoses
Edited by Sarah Annes Brown and Andrew Taylor
Tudor and Stuart Translations 4/1 of 2•1 October 2013
- ‘This volume is particularly useful for those interested in translation and adaptation culture in early modern England and could be especially valuable for scholars working on the specific myths highlighted.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 50, 2014, 503
- ‘This is a beautifully presented edition of a selection of early modern translations of Ovid’s Metamorphoses, which manages to be both student-friendly and a provocative resource to stimulate further research.’ — Tamsin Badcoe, Modern Language Review 110, 2015, 1110-11 (full text online)
- ‘The comprehensibility, and thus accessibility, of each item is incomparably enhanced by the editors’ modernization of texts, by their full annotation (both in the form of marginal glosses and extensive on-the-page commentary), and by their lengthy and learned Introduction which sets each piece in context and points out its potential interest for students of both English and classical literature.’ — David Hopkins, Translation and Literature 23, 2014, 402-04
- ‘Brown and Taylor provide a real service to the student not only of the reception of the Metamorphoses in the English Renaissance but also of the pervasive Ovidianism in Tudor and Stuart literary culture. This attractively produced volume should spur new interest in the Ovidian vogue in early modern England.’ — Alison Keith, Renaissance and Reformation 39, 2016, 214-17
Seamus Heaney and East European Poetry in Translation: Poetics of Exile
Carmen Bugan
Legenda (General Series) •23 February 2013
- ‘This book is a marvellous accumulation of insights and openings into Heaney’s work in the context of his affinities with the four East European poets with whom he shares an acute awareness that history is ‘the mother of culture’, as Brodsky put it in a comment on Herbert. In the minutiae of her study she has provided Heaney students with a valuable resource that will be challenging to surpass.’ — Gerry Smyth, Modern Poetry in Translation 2013 no. 3, October 2013, 106-11
- ‘Though many critics have mentioned their influence, Carmen Bugan’s monograph is the first to offer a detailed, in-depth study of Heaney’s relationship with East European poets... This is a very good book, a massively and precisely documented scholarly study, written by someone who has a consummate knowledge of her subject.’ — Adolphe Haberer, The European English Messenger 22.2, 2013, 82-85
- ‘A well-documented and insightful study of one of the few aspects of Seamus Heaney’s work that still needs attention. As Irish studies are becoming increasingly comparative and intercultural, this is a very welcome addition to the academic discussion on Seamus Heaney’s work and on Irish literature in general.’ — Florence Impens, Irish Studies Review 2014
- ‘Bugan's book demonstrates just how productive cultural exchange between poets East and West can be. She shows how Heaney borrows the concept of exile - a Cold War topos par excellence - and successfully recasts it in the Irish context, imbuing his work with an ethical complexity and self-awareness that continues to resonate with readers from all corners of the globe.’ — Connor Doak, Slavic and East European Journal 58.2, Summer 2014, 166-67
- ‘A densely researched and lucid study of a poetic congeniality that Heaney experienced with four East European poets... Published in the year that saw the death of this most influential of contemporary poets, it represents a fitting tribute to Heaney’s relational poetics.’ — Rui Carvalho Homem, Translation and Literature 23.3, 2014, 412-16
Renaissance Keywords
Edited by Ita Mac Carthy
Legenda (General Series) •23 February 2013
- ‘A thoughtful, well-written and engaging volume whose accessible presentation of wide-ranging but precise detail should appeal to the Renaissance specialist and the general reader alike.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 50.2, April 2014, 231
- ‘These chapters share an approach, drawing insights from close attention to both dictionary definitions and uses of terms in different contexts, and thereby provide excellent examples of ‘word histories’.’ — Hugh Roberts, French Studies 68.2, April 2014, 241-42
- ‘By bringing together intellectual history and philology in ways that are both rigorous and ambitious, the essays in Renaissance Keywords constitute a great contribution to the field of Renaissance and early modern studies. The book, however, transcends the limits of its field and offers anyone interested in the history of ideas important insights of the ways in which lan- guage in its ever-evolving nature determines ideas and worldviews.’ — Pablo Maurette, Modern Philology 112.3, February 2015, E231-33
James Mabbe, The Spanish Bawd
Edited by José María Pérez Fernández
Tudor and Stuart Translations 10•1 October 2013
- ‘This edited volume is a valuable contribution to early modern translation studies; it opens this neglected tragicomedy to new audiences, offers an erudite consideration of Mabbe’s text and its place within a complex web of literary and cultural exchange, and lays a solid foundation for future scholarship on La Celestina and The Spanish Bawd.’ — Edel Semple, Renaissance Quarterly 68, 2015, 1488-89
- ‘Required reading for anyone with an interest in Mabbe and early Stuart Hispanism ... Pérez’s edition of The Spanish Bawd is the authoritative edition, the one I think scholars of the period will most want to have on their bookshelves.’ — John R. Yamamoto-Wilson, Translation and Literature 24, 2015, 99-103
- ‘This MHRA edition, modernized for accessibility, offers an excellent point of entry to both early modern Spanish literature and renaissance translation.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 51, 2015, 231
English Renaissance Translation Theory
Edited by Neil Rhodes with Gordon Kendal and Louise Wilson
Tudor and Stuart Translations 9•1 August 2013
- ‘Not only is the anthology representative, but it is rich in the diversity of opinions expressed ... Needless to say, this is a must acquisition for those interested in those redoubtable early English translators as artisans and cultural mediators reflecting, after the fact, upon how the instruments of translation do what they do, and according to whose bidding.’ — Donald Beecher, Renaissance and Reformation 37.2, 2014, 187-90
- ‘The general editors' ambitions ... are brilliantly realized ... This is an invaluable work that will shape future directions in early modern translation studies.’ — Liz Oakley-Brown, Renaissance Quarterly 68, 2015, 383-84
- ‘Supremely useful ... this volume will be a major spur to translation studies.’ — Barbara Fuchs, Studies in English Literature 1500-1900 55, 2015, 225
- ‘English Renaissance Translation Theory is an important work – a necessary one, indeed [...] from now on, nobody working on translation in the Tudor and early Stuart periods will wish to be without it.’ — Massimiliano Morini, Translation and Literature 23, 2014, 390-93
- ‘A substantial and illuminating introduction opens up debates familiar to scholars and translators today, such as whether to privilege word over sense, or to prefer poesy or prose in translation, and situates them firmly in their renaissance context.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 50, 2014, 505
- ‘This is an important book that will prove an invaluable resource to undergraduates new to translation theory and to the more informed reader alike.’ — Rachel Willie, Modern Language Review 111, 2016, 538 (full text online)
- ‘The most comprehensive anthology of English Renaissance Translation Theory that has ever been printed, and it will be a trusted companion text for generations of future scholars.’ — Joshua Reid, Spenser Review 45.2.34, Fall 2015
Early English Drama
Edited by Pamela M. King, Sue Niebrzydowski and Diana Wyatt
Yearbook of English Studies 43•1 January 2013
Iris Murdoch and Elias Canetti: Intellectual Allies
Elaine Morley
Studies In Comparative Literature 29•25 September 2013
- ‘As Elaine Morley aptly observes in her exciting and innovative book, the majority of publications foreground personality and relationship issues but allow little room for discussion of the creative affinity between the two authors... The much-needed shift of focus from the personal to the literary and philosophical in Morley’s analysis of Murdoch and Canetti as intellectual allies is path-breaking.’ — Dagmar C. G. Lorenz, Modern Language Review 109.4, October 2014, 1142-43 (full text online)
The Realist Author and Sympathetic Imagination
Sotirios Paraschas
Studies In Comparative Literature 28•28 May 2013
- ‘The arguments are based throughout on meticulous research, close attention to textual detail, and an adroit engagement with literary theory. They are also conveyed with notable elegance and clarity. Paraschas is not afraid to contest claims made by such influential theorists as Paul de Man, whose view of realism as a regression from the ironic novel of the eighteenth century is here neatly reversed. Undergraduates would find his admirably succinct introductory discussion of the ‘realist author’ a source of elucidation and stimulus.’ — Michael Tilby, French Studies 68.3, July 2014, 405-06
- ‘In arguing for a more nuanced understanding of the realist mode, Paraschas has written an important contribution to nineteenth-century French studies, and a book that will serve as an invaluable reference for students and scholars alike.’ — Andrew Watts, Modern Language Review 110.2, April 2015, 516-17 (full text online)
- ‘Extremely useful for understanding the attitude of early nineteenth-century Realists and their attempts to present verisimilitude as art.’ — Catherine Winters, Nineteenth-Century French Studies 43.3-4, 2015
Likenesses: Translation, Illustration, Interpretation
Matthew Reynolds
Studies In Comparative Literature 30•25 September 2013
- ‘The collection reveals an impressive breadth of scholarship, travelling between disciplines and across centuries from George Stubbs’s equestrian paintings, through the more familiar Reynoldian territory of Robert Browning, to the conspicuously contemporary, ‘Dante on the Tube’. This diversity effectively demonstrates ‘continuities’ in literature, impressing upon the reader the contemporary relevance of earlier works through juxtaposition.’ — Rebecca Butler, Modern Language Review 110.3, July 2015, 793-94 (full text online)
Shandean Humour in English and German Literature and Philosophy
Edited by Klaus Vieweg, James Vigus and Kathleen M. Wheeler
Legenda (General Series) •4 March 2013