Published April 2024
Alexis Piron, Fernand-Cortés
Translated by Derek Connon 
Critical Texts 28
Published June 2023
Le Philosophe sans le savoir, by Michel-Jean Sedaine
Translated by Derek Connon
New Translations 19
Published March 2023
Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Le Vieillard et ses trois filles and Timon d’Athènes: Two Shakespeare Adaptations
Edited by Joseph Harris
Critical Texts 82
- ‘Mercier was a highly experienced playwright, and his adaptations offer readers a chance both to see Shakespeare through Mercier’s eyes and to appreciate Mercier’s own understanding of national culture, dramatic heroes, stagecraft, and the French Revolution. It is all the easier for readers to do this in Harris’s edition, which includes a wealth of helpful footnotes and a well-judged introduction that touches upon many important points without overwhelming the reader.’ — James Harriman-Smith, Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies 46.3, 2023, 311-97 (full text online)
- ‘In the Introduction, Harris locates the two plays within the author’s career, and associates them with the cultural, literary, and political issues of late eighteenth-century France. The Notes register in detail the numerous parallels as well as the differences between Shakespeare’s and Mercier’s plays, thus inviting and generously anticipating the comparative study of both... It is to be hoped that with this new edition of a moving and politically interesting play, Mercier’s Timon d’Athènes, hitherto largely ignored, will re-enter the collective memory of French and English readers.’ — Ina Schabert, Translation and Literature 32, 2023, 379-83 (full text online)
Published December 2022
Alexis Piron, Le Claperman and L’Âne d’or
Edited by Derek Connon
Critical Texts 84
Published October 2022
Classical Comedy 1508-1786: A Legacy from Italy and France
Richard Andrews
Italian Perspectives 55
- ‘An encyclopedic contribution to the history of comedy, with a particular focus on the transformation of comedy in Paris, where the greatest playwrights preserved the genre’s positive vision and harnessed the vitality of the Italian “Arte” to create their more serious comedies of character... The “Analyses” section is particularly valuable. It is divided between technical questions and plot or character issues, and the technical discussions, informed by Andrews extraordinary knowledge and deep understanding of how comedy works, are outstanding.’ — 552-54, Annali d'Italianistica 2023, 41, Laurie Shepard
Published September 2022
La Découverte de l’île Frivole by Gabriel-François Coyer
A Bilingual Edition by Jean-Alexandre Perras
Critical Texts 76
Last Scene of All: Representing Death on the Western Stage
Edited by Jessica Goodman
Legenda (General Series)
Published November 2021
The Pen and the Needle: Rousseau & the Enlightenment Debate on Women’s Education
Edited by Joanna M. Barker
Critical Texts 80
Published July 2021
André Chénier: Poetry and Revolution 1792-1794
David McCallam
Transcript 24
- ‘What quickly becomes clear is the scholar’s own passionate devotion to the poet, but also his fascination for the terrible narrowing vortex of his life, caught in the teeth of a particular moment, in the machinery of the historical circumstance.’ — Stephen Romer, Modern Language Review 119.2, 2024, 270-71 (full text online)
Published April 2021
Life and Death on the Plantations: Selected Jesuit Letters from the Caribbean
Edited and translated by Michael Harrigan
Critical Texts 68
- ‘This book should be in the library of every university and college in which the history of slavery is taught.’ — Bertie Mandelblatt, Modern Language Review 117.4, October 2022, 718-19 (full text online)
Published September 2020
The First English Translations of Molière: Drama in Flux 1663-1732
Suzanne Jones
Transcript 13
Published August 2020
Louis Sébastien Mercier, Comment fonder la morale du peuple: Traité d’éducation pour l’avènement d’une société nouvelle
Edited and translated by Geneviève Boucher and Michael J. Mulryan
Critical Texts 69
- ‘The editors are to be thanked for making this text available in this completely bilingual MHRA edition, with not only the main text in facing-page translation, but also the editors’ Introduction and notes.’ — Jessica Stacey, Modern Language Review 117.4, October 2022, 719-20 (full text online)
Published May 2019
Marmontel and Demoustier, Le Misanthrope corrigé: Two Eighteenth-Century Sequels to Molière’s ‘Le Misanthrope’
Edited by Joseph Harris
Critical Texts 65
- ‘This volume is an important addition to the corpus of Molière reception in the Enlightenment. The arc of Le Misanthrope’s reception can be traced back to the play’s first appearance with critical responses such as Donneau de Visé’s Lettre écrite sur la comédie du Misanthrope; but this new comparative and elucidating edition of two eighteenth-century sequels will encourage scholars and students to encompass a wider range of texts in their reflections on Molière’s audiences and adaptors.’ — Suzanne Jones, H-France 20.54, April 2020
- ‘Harris’s Introduction is essential reading. It provides a nuanced and fine-grained analysis of the two treatments, placing them into the context of the respective authors’ careers and the wider context of eighteenth-century ideas... the volume is a very welcome publication and is sure to be of great interest to a wide audience interested in Molière and his literary posterity.’ — Mark Darlow, Modern Language Review 115.4, October 2020, 917-18 (full text online)
Published September 2017
Sublime Conclusions: Last Man Narratives from Apocalypse to Death of God
Robert K. Weninger
Studies In Comparative Literature 43
- unsigned notice, The Year's Work in English Studies 98.1, 2019, 657-58
Michel-Jean Sedaine: Théâtre de la Révolution
Edited by Mark Darlow
Critical Texts 63
- ‘Théâtre de la Révolution is an impeccably researched edition of Michel-Jean Sedaine’s last operatic works... Sedaine’s Théâtre de la Révolution will be required reading for scholars of eighteenth-century theatre and music. Thanks to Darlow’s introduction, the work is also an essential contribution to scholarship on cultural production and policy during the Revolution... Overall, eighteenth-century French musical theatre, ignored by dix-huitièmistes for generations, has a champion in Mark Darlow and a welcome new title in his edition of Sedaine’s last librettos.’ — Logan Connors, H-France 18.95, April 2018
- ‘This is another admirable critical edition from Darlow which sheds new light on a playwright’s transition from Ancien Régime to Revolution.’ — Clare Siviter, Modern Language Review 114.1, January 2019, 144-45 (full text online)
Published August 2017
Commemorating Mirabeau: Mirabeau aux Champs-Elysées and other texts
Edited by Jessica Goodman
Critical Texts 58
- ‘In this fine book, Jessica Goodman provides the full corrected and modernized texts of five plays from the era of the French Revolution, three of them published in 1791 and two available only in manuscript... Goodman has done wonderful detective work, providing us with the performance history of the plays, the number of people likely to have seen them, and the amount the authors made on the productions... I hope that Goodman will continue to haunt the archives and bring more gems like these plays back into circulation, and I am confident that readers of her introduction and notes will find them useful and instructive.’ — Robert H. Blackman, H-France February 2018, 18.30
- ‘In this intriguing volume, Jessica Goodman unites five texts dating from the weeks following the death of Mirabeau on 2 April 1791... Particularly interesting is her analysis of Mirabeau aux Champs-Élysées and Gouges’s authorial strategies. This volume is an important contribution to scholarship on the Revolutionary period and, more generally, to our understanding of the commemorative practices of the late eighteenth century.’ — John R. Iverson, French Studies 72.4, October 2018, 601-02
Published April 2017
Les Veuves créoles
Edited by Julia Prest
Critical Texts 34
- ‘In compiling this edition, Prest aims to reveal how the play could be ‘of considerable interest today in the context of renewed and ongoing research into the story of French colonialism and, increasingly, in colonial and créole drama’ (p. 5). This edition of Les Veuves créoles is a concise and riveting introduction to these research areas, and would in addition provide an ideal teaching tool.’ — Vanessa Lee, Bulletin of Francophone Postcolonial Studies 8.2, Autumn 2017, 26-27
Published February 2017
Rétif de la Bretonne, Ingénue Saxancour; or, The Wife Separated from Her Husband
Translated by Mary S. Trouille
New Translations 6
- ‘Mary S. Trouille’s translation admirably renders the feel of the original, does not embellish, and gives the English reader access to the source with a minimum of stylistic anachronism... Trouille’s ample introduction provides a thorough and thoughtful account of the historical and legal context of the work, its place within Rétif’s writings and contemporaneous European literature, and crucial elements of the author’s biography.’ — James A. Steintrager, Eighteenth-Century Fiction 31.4, 2019, 769-71
Published December 2016
Montaigne in Transit: Essays in Honour of Ian Maclean
Edited by Neil Kenny, Richard Scholar and Wes Williams
Legenda (General Series)
- ‘Montaigne in Transit proves one of the finest volumes on this overworked author... In a reflective Afterword, Ian Maclean celebrates the scholarly exchanges out of which this volume grew and the generosity inherent in intellectual work. Another aspect that ties these contributions together lies in how the authors foreground the practice of close reading. Such patience with ‘slow’ reading is a welcome change from more ambitious quantifiable, contextualizing, and politicizing forms of criticism that currently dominate the field. The contributors intelligently defend their choice not as an antidote or alternative to these other approaches but as a needed counterweight and complement.’ — George Hoffmann, Modern Language Review 113.3, July 2018, 658-59 (full text online)
- ‘In a reading of Montaigne’s classical allusions in ‘Sur des Vers de Virgile’, Terence Cave finds the essayist resurrecting the dead: ‘The quotations from Virgil and Lucretius are haptic, erotic; they come to life, become bodies. And their life flows palpably over into Montaigne’s prose.’ Cave’s is the first of several essays in the wonderful collection Montaigne in Transit to explore metaphors for Montaigne’s thought and quotation practice, and to evaluate how we study Montaigne’s relation to other texts.’ — Peter Auger, Translation and Literature 27, 2019, 353-60 (full text online)
- ‘In sum, the journey through these essays is well worth the effort and strongly recommended to seasoned specialists and fellow travelers interested in the historical development of learned culture in Europe from the Renaissance to the nineteenth century. This reviewer wishes them a bon voyage!’ — Michael Wolfe, Sixteenth Century Journal 49.3, 2018, 885-87
Published November 2016
Gabriel-Marie Legouvé, La Mort d'Abel
Edited by Paola Perazzolo
Critical Texts 61
Published March 2016
Alexis Piron, Gustave-Wasa
Edited by Derek Connon
Critical Texts 57
- ‘Connon’s rich critical edition boasts extensive contextualization and intriguing paratexts. His wide-ranging Introduction analyses the tragedic elements of pity, terror, and character self-revelation, alongside Piron’s spirited self-defence against Prévost’s accusations of plagiarism.’ — Síofra Pierse, Modern Language Review 113.1, January 2018, 244-45 (full text online)
Published August 2015
Fougeret de Monbron, Margot la ravaudeuse
Translated by Édouard Langille
New Translations 8
- ‘Langille’s edition offers much to satisfy a scholarly readership: his Introduction provides a detailed account of the life and works of Fougeret de Monbron, includes an exhaustive bibliography, and perfectly succeeds in situating the novel within the broader context of European literature, with a special focus on Britain.’ — Ruggiero Sciuto, French Studies 70.4, October 2016, 599-600
- ‘A valuable addition to the New Translations series, making available to a wider public an interesting and unusual text.’ — Derek Connon, Modern Language Review 112.1, January 2017, 251-52 (full text online)
- ‘Les traductions anglaises de la littérature libertine du xviiie siècle français se sont enrichies d’un nouvel ouvrage: Margot la ravaudeuse de Fougeret de Monbron. L’heureuse initiative provient d’Édouard Langille qui, avec son introduction et ses notes explicatives, remet à portée de tout lecteur anglophone la verve de Monbron... La richesse et la qualité des notes en fin d’ouvrage sont remarquables. Langille ne laisse aucun nom propre ou expression complexe lui échapper. Tout est expliqué en abondance ce qui fait de cette version anglaise de Margot la ravaudeuse une lecture attrayante pour un lecteur bilingue.’ — Jacqueline Chammas, Eighteenth-Century Fiction 29.4, 2017, 694-97
Published July 2015
Michel-Jean Sedaine: Maillard, ou Paris sauvé et Raimond V, comte de Toulouse
Edited by John Dunkley
Phoenix 8
Published June 2015
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Voyage en Normandie
Edited by Malcolm Cook
Critical Texts 49
- ‘1775 was a crucial year for Bernardin, and his trip represents a return to his homeland after an absence of ten years; the account gives a vivid description of the landscape and settlements visited, food eaten, plants and topographical features, and his own experiences, including his dreams and quality of sleep, feelings, sociological observations of those he meets, among other issues.’ — Mark Darlow, Modern Language Review 111.3, 2016, 870-71 (full text online)
- ‘There is value in resurrecting little-known texts, and we can be grateful that this manuscript has been newly edited. Voyage will be of primary interest to Bernardin scholars, and it will appeal more broadly to scholars of French history, and to scholars of green studies.’ — Annie K. Smart, French Studies 70.4, October 2016, 600-01
Edward Kimber, The Happy Orphans
Edited by Jan Herman and Beatrijs Vanacker
Critical Texts 29