Private Lives and Collective Destinies: Class, Nation and the Folk in the Works of Gustav Freytag (1816-1895)
Benedict Schofield
Bithell Series of Dissertations 37 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 81•30 May 2012

  • ‘Schofield’s unprecedented and skillful incorporation of the author’s entire oeuvre has made a real and lasting contribution to nineteenth-century scholarship.’ — Alyssa Howards, German Quarterly 86, 2013, 489-90
  • ‘Represents a valuable contribution to the field and enhances our understanding of Freytag’s strategy and agenda in no small measure.’ — Florian Krobb, Modern Language Review 109, 2014, 556-58 (full text online)
  • ‘This is the only comprehensive work on Freytag that I know of, at least in our time. It is thoroughly researched... The criticism is exacting and precise.’ — Jeffrey L. Sammons, Monatshefte 106, 2014, 312-15

Space in Theodor Fontane's Works: Theme and Poetic Function
Michael James White
Bithell Series of Dissertations 38 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 82•30 May 2012

  • ‘The book is exceptionally well written, precise, compact, and lean. It has been well edited with very few faults.’ — Jeffrey L. Sammons, Modern Language Review 109, 2014, 277-79 (full text online)

Crisis and Form in the Later Writing of Ingeborg Bachmann: An Aesthetic Examination of the Poetic Drafts of the 1960s
Áine McMurtry
Bithell Series of Dissertations 39 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 84•30 May 2012

  • ‘There is precious little in McMurtry’s approach and textual interpretation that invites criticism. In fact, one so often feels compelled to applaud the subtlety of these examinations, the comprehensiveness of argument, and sheer erudition of the author... With this study McMurtry has positioned herself in the forefront of contemporary Bachmann scholarship.’ — Rüdiger Görner, Modern Language Review 109, 2014, 1144-45 (full text online)
  • ‘The study’s solid grounding in Bachmann research, and modern European literature in general, means that it provides a useful starting point for readers who are new to Bachmann’s work, academics interested in modern literature or philosophy, and Bachmann scholars in search of a new perspective on her work.’ — Lina Fisher, German Quarterly 2013, 110-12

Bridal-Quest Epics in Medieval Germany: A Revisionary Approach
Sarah Bowden
Bithell Series of Dissertations 40 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 85•30 May 2012

  • ‘Bowden’s style is clear, lively, and elegant. As well as making a definitive statement, this book also offers insightful interpretations that are likely to make the texts in question more accessible and appealing to students.’ — Annette Volfing, Modern Language Review 109, 2014, 534-35 (full text online)

Joséphine de Monbart, Lettres tahitiennes
Edited by Laure Marcellesi
Critical Texts 36•1 July 2012

  • ‘This outstanding volume ... excellent scholarly apparatus ... ideal for classroom use.’ — Heidi Bostic, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 34, 2013, 82-84

Pedro Calderón de la Barca, La devoción de la Cruz/August Wilhelm Schlegel, Die Andacht zum Kreuze
Edited by Carol Tully
European Translations 3•1 December 2012

  • ‘There can be no doubt about the importance of this parallel edition of Calderón’s La devoción de la cruz and Schlegel’s groundbreaking German translation, published as Volume 3 of the interesting new MHRA European Translations Series.’ — Sofie Kluge, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 92, 2015, 144

Early Welsh Gnomic and Nature Poetry
Edited by Nicolas Jacobs
MHRA Library of Medieval Welsh Literature •1 March 2012

  • ‘La simplicité des textes fait de ce livre une excellente introduction au gallois ancien.’ — Pierre-Yves Lambert, Etudes celtiques XXXIX, 2013, 330
  • ‘Nicolas Jacobs hat sehr gute Arbeit geleistet; sein Buch wird für lange Zeit die Standardedition dieser notorisch dunklen und schwierigen, aber vielleicht gerade eben deshalb so anziehenden Verse bleiben und darüber hinaus als mustergültiganerkannt sein. — Y gwaith a ganmol ei weithiwr!’ — Stefan Zimmer, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 59, 2012, 271
  • ‘Mae Nicolas Jacobs a golygyddion y 'Library of Medieval Welsh Literature' yn haeddu ein diolchiadau gwresog am ailagor maes a esgeuluswyd yn rhy hir ac am wneud y corff hwn o farddoniaeth yn fwy hygyrch i fyfyrwyr ac ysgolheigion mwy profiadol fel ei gilydd. [Nicolas Jacobs and the editors of the Library of Medieval Welsh Literature deserve our warmest thanks for reopening a field of study which has been neglected too long and for making this body of poetry more accessible for students and more experienced scholars alike.]’ — Barry James Lewis, Dwned 18, 2012, 99-107

Historical Texts from Medieval Wales
Edited by Patricia Williams
MHRA Library of Medieval Welsh Literature •29 October 2012

  • ‘A very useful volume both in itself and in broadening the range of the series.’ — Paul Russell, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 66, 2013, 94-95
  • ‘Williams has given us an excellent resource for the study of medieval Welsh history and of Middle Welsh as a language of record, and her book deserves to be taken seriously by specialists and non-specialists alike.’ — Helen Fulton, Modern Language Review 110, 2015, 234-35 (full text online)

Elizabethan Seneca: Three Tragedies
Edited by James Ker and Jessica Winston
Tudor and Stuart Translations 8•1 October 2012

  • ‘This important edition will act as a stimulus for further comparative work: it will help to reconfigure our valuation of Elizabethan Seneca not just in terms of its legacy (important though that is) but as an innovative literary endeavour in its own right.’ — Sarah Dewar-Watson, Times Literary Supplement 5 April 2013, 27
  • ‘It is appropriate and welcome that one of the first volumes in the attractive new MHRA series gives [the translations] the stage to themselves for a while, and an occasion even for those who already more or less know them to look at them afresh.’ — Gordon Braden, Translation and Literature 22, 2013, 274
  • ‘Seneca is enjoying a renaissance of sorts, prompting reevaluations of both his plays and their afterlives. This intelligently conceived and carefully edited volume offers a valuable opportunity to examine the evidence firsthand ... This volume is clear, intelligent, and informed by current scholarship; it will be valuable for scholars with an interest in Seneca, Elizabethan translation, classical reception, academic drama, and/or the development of tragedy.’ — Tanya Pollard, Renaissance Quarterly 66, 2013, 1513-14
  • ‘This edition will be tremendously useful not just to scholars working on classical transmission or early modern drama, but also to those looking at Elizabethan literary culture as a whole. Ker and Winston successfully demonstrate the centrality of Seneca to the Elizabethan literary landscape and open doors for a wide variety of potential areas of enquiry.’ — Kavita Mudan Finn, Sixteenth Century Journal 45, 2014, 474-75
  • ‘An excellent entry-point for students to the contexts both of the Senecan originals and of the Tudor translations.’ — Andrew J. Power, Modern Language Review 110, 2015, 238-39 (full text online)