See also the home page of the Legenda book series Research Monographs in French Studies

Stéphane Mallarmé. Correspondance: compléments et suppléments
Edited by Lloyd James Austin, Bertrand Marchal and Nicola Luckhurst
Research Monographs in French Studies 21 May 1998

  • ‘This volume is intended to be an indispensable companion to the immense material already published by Editions Gallimard, and stands as a monument to the academic devotion of Lloyd Austin.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 37.1, 2001, 106
  • ‘Nous retrouvons ici la rigueur, l'érudition, la minutie et le bon sens qui caractérisent le travail d'Austin.’ — Peter Dayan, French Studies LIV.1, 2000, 101-2

Privileged Anonymity: The Writings of Madame de Lafayette
Anne Green
Research Monographs in French Studies 11 June 1996

  • ‘Produces many fresh insights, and demonstrates admirably that La Fayette's writing repays detailed scrutiny... Readable, instructive and accessible: valuable for specialists and illuminating for the general reader.’ — Maya Slater, Times Literary Supplement 1996
  • ‘This thought-provoking study inaugurates a major new series of critical monographs... Offers many fresh insights into these important texts, and it is to be warmly welcomed.’ — Jonathan Mallinson, French Studies LIV.2, 2000, 215-6
  • Luisa Benatti, Studi francesi 124, 1998, 135

George Sand and Autobiography
Janet Hiddleston
Research Monographs in French Studies 51 October 1999

  • ‘Janet Hiddleston's well-informed, lucid and succinct study, which takes account of Sand's complex, often contradictory self-identity in terms of gender, will undoubtedly make more accessible a text which is all too often approached selectively.’ — Belinda Jack, Times Literary Supplement 14 July, 2000
  • ‘It is in subtle textual analysis that Hiddleston excels, and her studies of Sand's vocabulary, structure, imagery, symbolism and narrative strategies break new ground... Hiddleston offers us a sensitive and nuanced portrait of a complex writer.’ — Nigel Harkness, French Studies LV.1, 2001, 104-5
  • ‘The conclusion, in many respects the most compelling section of the book, offers a fascinating analysis of central image polarities of the autobiography, Paris versus Nohant, the Garden of Eden versus 'a room of one's own'.’ — Keith Wren, Modern Language Review 96.3, 2001, 832-3 (full text online)
  • ‘Solidly researched and engagingly written, Hiddleston's studies provide a valuable point of departure for readers coming to these texts for the first time, and a welcome stimulus to further reflection for those already familiar with them.’Nineteenth-Century French Studies 30.3-4, 2002, 417-19)
  • ‘Particular attention is given to Sand's confused and ambivalent attitude to gender, leaving a text in which the contradictions are shown to be largely unresolved.’The Year's Work in Modern Language Studies 1999, 168)
  • unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 37.3, 2001, 343

Critical Fictions: Nerval's Les Illuminés
Meryl Tyers
Research Monographs in French Studies 32 December 1999

  • ‘These six mavericks reflect aspects of Nerval himself, who thus becomes the implicit seventh in the series... Tyers's writing is as lively as it is bedazzling.’ — Roger Cardinal, Modern Language Review 96.1, 2001, 195-6 (full text online)
  • ‘As Meryl Tyers argues throughout this monograph, Nerval's Les Illuminés is one of his most intriguing but also most neglected works... Tyers examines the author's textual folie, an imaginary library in which the self loses itself.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 37.1, 2001, 115
  • ‘On retiendra aussi une hypothèse intéressante - et neuve, semblable-t-il - sur les sens du titre, Les Illuminés, que l'on peut rapprocher des 'livres illuminés', c'est-a-dire orné d'illuminations, ou d'enluminures.’ — Michel Brix, Studi francesi 130.1, 2000, 189

Towards a Cultural Philology: Phèdre and the Construction of 'Racine'
Amy Wygant
Research Monographs in French Studies 41 July 1999

  • ‘This book approaches Racine not primarily as a classicist, but as a playwright rooted in his own time... Through references to philosophy, art and music, Wygant interrogates the meaning of frequently used phrases such as 'the music of Racine'. This study draws together many strands of research through the juxtaposition of a multiplicity of areas and details.’ — Rosemary Arnoux, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 22.2, 2001, 43-4
  • ‘A fresh, clever, often entertaining book, about lots of things as well as Phèdre, and the brief volume is lavishly and revealing illustrated.’ — Richard Parish, Modern Language Review 96.1, 2001, 187-8 (full text online)