 | 👤 Marcel Proust (1871-1922), French novelist |
Published December 2013
Selected Essays of Malcolm Bowie I: Dreams of Knowledge
Malcolm Bowie
Legenda (General Series) vol 1 of 2
- ‘Only someone with Bowie’s exquisite powers of expression and formidably focused, well-stocked mind could home in so closely on the multilevelled play of thought in some of the most difficult modern writers, and especially on the places where their work crosses aesthetic boundaries... It is therefore a huge treat to be able to revel in the publication of his Selected Essays, impeccably edited by Alison Finch and beautifully produced by Legenda... Even in the space of a short review, Bowie’s writing offers both pleasure and intense mental stimulation. For readers old and new, there are marvels in store in these two magnificent volumes.’ — Michael Sheringham, French Studies 68.3, July 2014, 422-23
- ‘These two volumes can only add to our sense of [Bowie's] importance... Criticism like this is clearly so much more than criticism: it is an engagement with the act of creation that is brought back to creation itself. These two volumes are full of brilliance and insight and deftly communicated and thus infectious pleasure.’ — Patrick McGuinness, Times Literary Supplement 5805, 4 July 2014, 21
- ‘His readings are always marked by a resistance to easy answers that would attempt to reduce or deny the complexity of the text under analysis; the role of the critic is to illuminate that complexity, giving close attention to the way the text functions and how it guides the reader to a range of potential interpretive moves. While he is a highly trustworthy guide through the intricacies of the text, as he himself writes in an essay on Mallarmé, 'somehow the passage through imbricated levels of utterance towards some final state of achieved propositional clarity is never quite the point' (I: 152).’ — Joseph Acquisto, Nineteenth-Century French Studies 43.1-2, 2014
- ‘How Verdi moves Shakespeare’s Othello around the globe, finding the mental ‘fingerprint’ in Winnicott, introducing Judith Butler, deciphering Stéphane Mallarmé, exploring brevity in Proust (yes), Liszt’s relationship with Wagner, ‘that most exhausting of sons-in-law’: these are just a few of the subjects considered with such zest by Malcolm Bowie, who was a critic of immense talent.’ — Edward Hughes, Times Higher Education Supplement 1 January 2015, 63
- ‘Evidence abounds in these pieces of Bowie’s keen appetite for intrinsically difficult subject-matter. Indeed, his ability to sustain his critical nerve in the handling of complex material was to become a hallmark of his achievement... Yet alongside this intensity of engagement with serious subject-matter, we also see the poise and panache of a critic who was so evidently at home with textual composition.’ — Edward J. Hughes, Modern Language Review 111.1, January 2016, 228-29 (full text online)
Published April 2019
Scenographies of Perception: Sensuousness in Hegel, Novalis, Rilke, and Proust
Christian Jany
Studies In Comparative Literature 45
- ‘Christian Jany’s Scenographies of Perception situates itself on well-traversed philosophical territory, but with a freshness unusual in a volume devoted to longstanding issues in the history of philosophy and theories of poetry and literature... A thought-provoking, cross-disciplinary account of the relationship between thought and perception that ought to appeal to students of German idealism and ro- manticism and their aftermath in the 20th century, and in a way that stays admirably close to the relevant texts and the concerns that animate them.’ — James D. Reid, Monatshefte 112.3, 2020, 555-57
Published September 2019
Reading Dante and Proust by Analogy
Julia Caterina Hartley
Transcript 12
- ‘Hartley’s erudite, persuasive, and reader-friendly book is a powerful debut, an irresistible invitation to love literature. I confidently look forward to her future work.’ — Thomas Pavel, Modern Philology 24 August 2020 (full text online)
- ‘Hartley’s book contributes significantly to the fields of Dante and Proust stu- dies. Moreover, it is persuasive in demonstrating the rich productive potential of this dynamic, interactive approach, setting an important example for literary comparisons to come.’ — Valentina Mele, Modern Language Review 115.4, October 2020, 891-92 (full text online)
- ‘By practicing a meticulous close reading of selected passages from both the Commedia and the Recherche, Hartley’s intention is to read Dante in light of Proust and Proust in light of Dante, in a continuous change of perspective that keeps the interpreter’s attention receptive enough to uncover, in each author, thematic and stylistic aspects that would not otherwise have been noticed... A stimulating methodological contribution to the field of comparative literature.’ — Alessandra Aloisi, H-France 20.204, November 2020
- ‘A scholar who grew up in a trilingual family (English, Italian, French) and who therefore can slip smoothly from one linguistic world to another, Julia Caterina Hartley performs an exquisitely comparatist analysis in Reading Dante and Proust by Analogy. Hartley’s conclusions are quite unexpected and shed new light on two authors who share more than one might think: Alighieri, as a medieval writer who anticipates modernity, and Proust, as a modern writer who engages with the weight of the past... In sum, this book is a meticulous comparative work at its best.’ — Ilaria Serra, Speculum 96.2, 2021, 509-10
- ‘En plus d’être une brillante étude comparée de Proust et de Dante, ce livre offre un fin plaidoyer pour la littérature comparée considérée autant comme un art de la critique que comme une forme de critique littéraire... L’objectif est atteint, les deux œuvres sont lues ‘afresh’, dans une urgente réciprocité.’ — Hugues Azérad, French Studies 76.1, January 2022, 129–30 (full text online)
- ‘An enlightening, original, and powerful book, addressed to Dante scholars and Proust scholars, as well as comparatists and scholars of literature in general... Besides the simple fact that Hartley’s work gives us the pleasure of looking at two masterpieces together, with an elegant and enjoyable style, this volume is an important example of how comparative literature, across space and time, can tell us something new even on texts about which everything has already been said, and on literary structures in general, by finely combining close and distant reading.’ — Serena Vandi, Italian Studies 77.2, 2022, 202-03 (full text online)