The Pen and the Needle: Rousseau & the Enlightenment Debate on Women’s Education
Edited by Joanna M. Barker
Critical Texts 80•26 November 2021
Eugénie et Mathilde by Madame de Souza
Edited by Kirsty Carpenter
Critical Texts 26•1 June 2014
- ‘I will be including Souza’s novel in my courses and am grateful to scholars such as Kirsty Carpenter for making these obscure but important texts available.’ — Antoinette Sol, Modern Language Review 111, 2016, 553 (full text online)
- ‘Kirsty Carpenter’s edition of Madame de Souza’s 1811 novel ... contributes to the rediscovery, understanding and appreciation not just of a writer too often considered as a minor author, but also of an overlooked period in the history of French literature, between the Revolution of 1789 and the first Napoleonic campaigns (1798–1800s).’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 51, 2015, 87-88
- ‘Réjouissons-nous donc que Mme Carpenter nous ait restitué ce roman parfaitement oublié, qui se trouve être, à la relecture, un des textes les plus lucides de son époque.’ — Paul Pelckmans, Dix-huitième siècle 47, 2015, 645-46
- ‘"a valuable resource for students, professors, and researchers interested in the history of the French Revolution, eighteenth-century society, women's studies, or the development of literary genres in France."’ — Theresa Kennedy, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 36, 2015, 161-62
Alexis Piron, Fernand-Cortés
Translated by Derek Connon 
Critical Texts 28•29 April 2024
Alexis Piron, Gustave-Wasa
Edited by Derek Connon
Critical Texts 57•8 March 2016
- ‘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)
Alexis Piron, Le Claperman and L’Âne d’or
Edited by Derek Connon
Critical Texts 84•1 December 2022
Alexis Piron, L’Antre de Trophonius et La Robe de dissention, ou le faux-prodige
Edited by Derek Connon
Phoenix 2•1 June 2011
- ‘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)
Le Siège de Calais by Pierre-Laurent De Belloy
Edited by Logan J. Connors
Phoenix 6•1 August 2014
- ‘This scholarly edition will be of use in the undergraduate and graduate classroom as well as of interest to all those who are fascinated by French theatre and drama on the eve of the Revolution.’ — Jessica Munns, Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Theatre Research 28, 2013, 117-19
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre, Voyage en Normandie
Edited by Malcolm Cook
Critical Texts 49•1 June 2015
- ‘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
La Voie de Povreté et de Richesse
Edited by Glynnis M. Cropp
Critical Texts 51•11 May 2016
- ‘As Glynnis Cropp notes in her foreword, while historians have made reference to La Voie de Povreté et de Richesse, a vernacular fourteenth-century dream-vision poem, the text itself has never received a critical edition. That omission has now been impressively rectified... this is an impressive and accessible edition, justifying why La Voie de Povreté et de Richesse deserves recognition in its own right.’ — Bridget Riley, Modern Language Review 116.2, April 2017, 506 (full text online)
- ‘L’edizione di Cropp... ha il merito incontestabile di far progredire in maniera sostanziale la nostra conoscenza di un testo e di una tradizione no ad oggi completamente trascurati. Il testo critico è stabilito con criteri chiari e le scelte operate sono controllabili. Si tratta di un lavoro di grande peso e impegno, che offre delle basi di partenza solide a chi vorrà approfondirne la complessa situazione testuale della Voie de la Pouvreté et de la Richesse.’ — Maria Teresa Rachetta, Revue de Linguistique Romane 82.325-26, January-June 2018, 278-81
- ‘This slim but attractively produced volume is part of the enormously useful MHRA Critical Texts series... The volume contains a useful introduction followed by the edited text based on MS Paris, BnF, fr. 1563, fols 203r–221r. An index of proper names, a glossary, and a thorough bibliography are compiled with that meticulous attention to detail we are accustomed to nd in Cropp’s work... An invaluable edition.’ — Anne M. Scott, Parergon 36.1, 2019, 238-39
C. E. Boniface, Relation du naufrage de L’Eole sur la côte de la Caffrerie, en avril 1829
Edited by D. J. Culpin
Critical Texts 37•1 January 2013
Laya, L'Ami des lois
Edited by Mark Darlow and Yann Robert
Phoenix 4•1 September 2011
- ‘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
Michel-Jean Sedaine: Théâtre de la Révolution
Edited by Mark Darlow
Critical Texts 63•29 September 2017
- ‘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)
Michel-Jean Sedaine: Maillard, ou Paris sauvé et Raimond V, comte de Toulouse
Edited by John Dunkley
Phoenix 8•1 July 2015
La Peyrouse dans l’Isle de Tahiti, ou le Danger des Présomptions: Drame politique
Edited by John Dunmore
Critical Texts 10•20 October 2006
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•21 August 2020
- ‘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)
Life and Death on the Plantations: Selected Jesuit Letters from the Caribbean
Edited and translated by Michael Harrigan
Critical Texts 68•12 April 2021
- ‘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)
A Critical Edition of La tribu indienne; ou, Édouard et Stellina by Lucien Bonaparte
Edited by Cecilia Feilla
Critical Texts 5•20 October 2006
- ‘This re-edition of a novel by Lucien Bonaparte, one of Napoleon’s younger brothers, is the latest in the MHRA’s admirable series of critical texts ... [It] is to be welcomed as providing a new addition to the corpus of Revolutionary literature available for study ... Cecilia Feilla’s introduction is clear and concise, dealing briefly with the author’s life and situating the novel within the tradition of sentimental exoticism.’ — Jennifer Yee, Modern Language Review 103.1, 2008, 234-35 (full text online)
- ‘This is a fascinating reprint of the original edition including illustrations of the only novel ever written by Lucien Bonaparte ... [It] is of particular interest to anybody studying early nineteenth-century French politics.’ — Kirsty Carpenter, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 29.2, 2008, 52-53
- ‘The text of Feilla’s edition—with five lush plates illustrated by Prud’hon—is one of only three extant copies of La Tribu indienne. Revolutionary literary studies are currently a 'hot' topic, but excavating, analyzing, and eventually constructing a viable canon out of this material will occupy scholars for years to come. We are thus grateful to Feilla for this edition of Lucien Bonaparte’s La Tribu indienne.’ — Julia V. Douthwaite, Eighteenth-Century Fiction 23.1, 2010, 253-55
Commemorating Mirabeau: Mirabeau aux Champs-Elysées and other texts
Edited by Jessica Goodman
Critical Texts 58•1 August 2017
- ‘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
La Belle Dame qui eust mercy and Le Dialogue d'amoureux et de sa dame: A Critical Edition and English Translation of Two Anonymous Late-Medieval French Amorous Debate Poems
Edited by Joan Grenier-Winther
Critical Texts 60•28 September 2018
- ‘The poems themselves are presented with facing-page translations, in clear and idiomatic English, making this edition eminently useful for scholars and students alike.’ — unsigned notice, Medium Aevum 88, 2019, 184
- ‘This volume is a welcome addition to studies of fifteenth-century French poetry, especially within the context of the Quarrel of the Belle dame sans mercy.’ — Joan E. McRae, Modern Language Review 115.1, 2020, 178-79 (full text online)
- ‘Joan Grenier-Winther has provided a welcome new bilingual scholarly edition of two important poems (each about four hundred lines) out of around twenty love poems long recognized as ‘the cycle of the Belle Dame sans mercy’... Scholarship is served by the excellent Introduction, comprehensive list of variant readings, description of all manuscripts and early books up to 1617, and an extensive bibliography with separate categories for other editions, critical studies, and manuscript studies.’ — Linda Burke, French Studies 74.1, January 2020, 107-08 (full text online)
Marmontel and Demoustier, Le Misanthrope corrigé: Two Eighteenth-Century Sequels to Molière’s ‘Le Misanthrope’
Edited by Joseph Harris
Critical Texts 65•31 May 2019
- ‘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)
Louis-Sébastien Mercier, Le Vieillard et ses trois filles and Timon d’Athènes: Two Shakespeare Adaptations
Edited by Joseph Harris
Critical Texts 82•13 March 2023
- ‘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)
Edward Kimber, The Happy Orphans
Edited by Jan Herman and Beatrijs Vanacker
Critical Texts 29•1 June 2015
La Disme de Penitanche by Jehan de Journi
Edited by Glynn Hesketh
Critical Texts 7•2 October 2006
- ‘Au total, on se trouve devant une production éminemment estimable, dont il faut féliciter l'auteur ... On voudrait qu'il en fût plus souvent ainsi.’ — Claude Thiry, Les Lettres Romanes 61.1/2, 2007, 154
- ‘Students of vernacular penitential texts will welcome this edition, particularly as the editor provides extensive explanatory notes, interspersed with comments of linguistic interest.’ — Leslie C. Brook, Modern Language Review 103.2, 2008, 531 (full text online)
- ‘[Hesketh's] edition of La Disme de Penitanche cannot but become a joy to read, a philologist's delight!’ — Max Walkley, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 29.1, 2008, 55
Baron, Le Rendez-vous des Tuileries, ou Le Coquet trompé
Edited by Jeanne-Marie Hostiou
Phoenix 5•1 September 2013
- ‘L’edizione critica, completata da un’esaustiva bibliografia, contribuisce alla riscoperta di una delle numerose creazioni drammatiche della fine del xvii secolo.’ — Monica Pavesio, Studi francesi 177, 2015, 590
Les Paraboles Maistre Alain en Françoys
Edited by Tony Hunt
Critical Texts 2•30 June 2005
- ‘The reader now has a reliable text of the Paraboles ... Alan of Lille’s collection, whether in Latin or in French, was an important work, both for the later Middle Ages and for the humanistic learning of the Renaissance, and it can now be studied both as a work in its own right and as part of the cultural life of its time.’ — Glyn S. Burgess, Modern Language Review 101.4, 2006, 1107 (full text online)
- ‘An interesting addition for our knowledge of paroemiological literature ... As one would expect from such a prolific and experienced scholar as Tony Hunt, the Introduction covers in an efficient and scholarly manner all the essential questions relating to the text he prints.’ — Max Walkley, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 27.2, 2006, 47-48
- ‘L'analyse perspicace de Tony Hunt montre comment les choix différents opérés par les deux imprimeurs pour ce qui concerne la mise en page orientent la lecture du recueil ... Il s'agit dans l'ensemble d'une excellente édition...’ — Maria Colombo Timelli, Medium Aevum 75, 2006, 175