Francisca Wood and Nineteenth-Century Periodical Culture: Pressing for Change
Cláudia Pazos Alonso
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 35•21 January 2020
- ‘It is a rare pleasure to encounter such a meticulous, far-reaching, and at the same time, downright readable academic book as this (which, to its further merit, has an excellent, full Index). The author leaves no stone unturned in her painstaking exploration and rigorous analysis of Wood’s career and periodical culture in nineteenth-century Portugal. The book traverses intellectual biography, literary, social and cultural history, the history of ideas and, of course, the insightful textual analysis for which Pazos Alonso is so highly regarded. This excellent and ground-breaking monograph extends our understanding of the intellectual culture of 1860s Portugal, reaching well beyond the immediate subject matter at hand. It is an essential reference for scholars of nineteenth-century writers of any sex.’ — Rhian Atkin, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 2021 (full text online)
- ‘Pazos Alonso vai mesmo mais longe celebrando Wood como um exemplo da primeira vaga de feminismo na Europa... A autora reconstrói uma rede de figuras, europeias e outras, defensoras dos direitos femininos, na qual insere Wood demontrando que, se era uma voz praticamente isolada em Portugal, não o era se colocada num contexto mais amplo situado para além das estreitas fronteiras culturais e políticas lusas.’ — Teresa Pinto Coelho, Revista de Estudos Anglo-Portugueses 29, 2020, 233-41
- ‘Neste livro, Cláudia faz brilhantemente justiça a Francisca, prestando ao mesmo tempo um serviço à cultura nacional.’ — Ana Luisa Vilela, Colóquio-Letras 206, 2021, 276-279
- ‘Pazos Alonso’s compelling and engaging study not only rescues a prime Portuguese journalist and intellectual from cultural oblivion, but also grants her a well-deserved transnational place in feminist and gender scholarship.’ — Leticia Villamediana González, Modern Language Review 117.3, July 2022, 508-09 (full text online)
- ‘Succeeds admirably in its proposed aim to offer an overview of the Portuguese mid-nineteenth-century periodical press through the closer analysis of Francisca Wood’s career as editor of A Voz Feminina. It is a groundbreaking study, especially valuable for its extensive archival research that brings to light the figure of a forgotten Portuguese woman writer and pioneer feministas well as the results of her progressive efforts in both the Portuguese and international contexts.’ — Manuela Mourão, American Journal of Lusophone Studies 6.2, 2022, 209-11 (full text online)
Georg Hermann: A Writer’s Life
John Craig-Sharples
Germanic Literatures 19•28 August 2019
Théophile Gautier, Orator to the Artists: Art Journalism of the Second Republic
James Kearns
Legenda (General Series) •14 November 2007
- ‘In this first ever study of all of Théophile Gautier’s art criticism produced during the Second Republic, James Kearns brings us a much-needed reassessment of the art critic’s role in the history of French art... this is a highly accomplished study, which should be essential reading both for the scholar researching the Salon during this period and for the Gautier specialist. The material is well structured and the writing style engaging, making it equally accessible to the student or more seasoned researcher.’ — Catherine Hewitt, French Studies 64.2, April 2010
- ‘This highly informed and informative study exposes a breadth of sources that should serve to prompt new enquiries in Gautier scholarship... Analyses [in this book] suggest the role this fine study may play in releasing Gautier’s art journalism ‘from the simplistic art-for-art’s-sake commonplaces to which it has been for so long reduced’ and in reasserting Gautier’s importance in the visual culture of nineteenth-century France.’ — Greg Kerr, Modern Language Review 105.2, 2010, 567-68 (full text online)
- ‘Focusing on the period of the Second Republic which spans the 1848 Revolution and the 1851 coup d’état, this meticulously researched and engaging study follows Gautier’s reactions to developments in the organisation of the salon and to the artists themselves through a series of 49 articles published in La Presse... Gautier emerges in Kearns’s study not only as a prolific and idiosyncratic critic but also as one who challenges the label of 'art for art’s sake', embracing an overtly Republican artistic agenda.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 46.2, 2010, 247
The Journalist in the French Fin-de-siècle Novel: Enfants de la presse
Kate Rees
Legenda (General Series) •26 February 2018
- ‘L’ouvrage de Rees est donc intéressant et riche, on ne peut qu’en recommander la lecture. Il constitue une excellente synthèse de la recherche en direction du public anglophone, tout en apportant son propre regard sur les représentations du journalisme.’ — Guillaume Pinson, French Studies 73.2, April 2019, 312 (full text online)
- ‘An excellent new analysis of the figure of the journalist in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century French fiction. It will be a significant guide for future studies of the French press and the French journalist, and it serves as a reminder of the historical importance of journalists and the press, especially in today’s world of “fake news” campaigns and anti- media attacks that aim to silence the essential role of journalists in our society.’ — Juliette M. Rogers, H-France 19.70, May 2019
- ‘Kate Rees’s fine new monograph takes us into a world both strange and familiar: magazine and newspaper publishing in the Belle Époque... Rees produces rich and detailed readings of all the texts she considers, unfolding their complexities with great subtlety while drawing in ideas from fields as diverse as phenomenology and remediation theory. A substantial and significant research content has been orchestrated with a sure touch, resulting in a monograph which will be of interest not only to dix-neuviémistes but to anyone concerned with the relationship between literature and journalism, and the latter’s role in shaping modern culture.’ — Emma Bielecki, Modern Language Review 115.3, July 2020, 729-30 (full text online)