Published February 2011
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
Published March 2011
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)
Alienation and Theatricality: Diderot after Brecht
Phoebe von Held
Studies In Comparative Literature 17
- ‘This is a rich and rewarding study that opens up important new perspectives not only on its two chosen thinkers, but also on the questions of acting both onstage and in society more generally.’ — Joseph Harris, French Studies 66.4 (October 2012), 557
- ‘[Held's] general principle is surprisingly simple and compelling: While the 'self-alienating artifice' of Diderot's calculating actor succeeds for the most part at immedsing the audience to identification and illusion, there are moments at which it suddenly comes to the fore... Jolted by this 'sudden emergence of alienation', the spectator is now 'faced with her own involvement in the operation of delusion'.’ — Florian Nikolas Becker, Brecht Yearbook 37 (2012), 253-58
Published May 2011
Ugo Foscolo and English Culture
Sandra Parmegiani
Italian Perspectives 20
- ‘Partecipe di un consistente e costruttivo dialogo critico con altri studiosi, Parmegiani non trascura di sondare, nel corso della propria disamina, il circostante terreno di ricerca presentando al lettore un resoconto attento ed attuale. Il libro costituisce in questa prospettiva un compendio indispensabile agli studi, tuttora in fieri, sui variegati rapporti intrattenuti da Foscolo con la cultura inglese. A questo elaborato mosaico Parmegiani ha avuto il merito di aggiungere con la propria indagine un autorevole tassello mancante.’ — Maria Giulia Carone, Annali d'Italianistica 2012
- ‘A well written and highly informative account of Foscolo's career... Most readers of The Shandean will think of Foscolo predominantly as the translator of Sterne: it is fascinating to read of his attempts to make a literary career in London in the last decade of his life where, encouraged by John Cam Hobhouse, he crosses paths (and often swords) with such luminaries as Wordsworth, Byron, Samuel Rogers, Thomas Moore, John Murray, and Sir Walter Scott.’ — W. G. Day, The Shandean 167-72
- ‘This book proves itself to be extremely important for a more global and at the same detailed analysis of Italian proto-Romanticism and Romanticism from a comparatively European viewpoint... The result is a convincing portrayal of Foscolo’s relationship with English culture, which will surely be helpful for both the Italian and Anglo-Saxon scholarships in Italian studies, as well as for the broader community of scholars in eighteenth-century and Romantic studies.’ — Fabio Camilletti, Journal of Modern Italian Studies 18.3, 2013, 364-65
Published June 2011
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)
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)
Published July 2011
Textual Wanderings: The Theory and Practice of Narrative Digression
Edited by Rhian Atkin
Legenda (General Series)
Published August 2011
German Women's Writing of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: Future Directions in Feminist Criticism
Edited by Helen Fronius and Anna Richards
Legenda (General Series)
- ‘The volume will be of great use to students and researchers alike, as a source of well-written critical scholarship and of pointers to severe deficits in current research. It offers productive methodologies for taking the enquiry forward in areas vital to a fuller, more nuanced understanding of the place of women writers as part of the whole picture of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century cultural history in the German-speaking lands.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 48.4 (October 2012), 489
- ‘Thus the book’s structure, like its title, ultimately collapses: the future has not yet happened. Yet it is glimpsed here—and it will indeed necessarily entail killing off and reviving the female author and the female reader, undoing and redoing gender, sexuality, and herstory, embracing pluralism and firing the canon. And it will only have been achieved once the gatekeepers become contributors and all critics—including men—are doing feminist criticism.’ — Robert Gillett, Modern Language Review 109.2, April 2014, 547-48 (full text online)
Enlightenment Cosmopolitanism
Edited by David Adams and Galin Tihanov
Legenda (General Series)
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