Published May 1998
Stéphane Mallarmé. Correspondance: compléments et suppléments
Edited by Lloyd James Austin, Bertrand Marchal and Nicola Luckhurst
Research Monographs in French Studies 2
- ‘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
Published October 1999
George Sand and Autobiography
Janet Hiddleston
Research Monographs in French Studies 5
- ‘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
Published December 1999
Critical Fictions: Nerval's Les Illuminés
Meryl Tyers
Research Monographs in French Studies 3
- ‘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
Published March 2000
Expressivism: The Vicissitudes of a Theory in the Writings of Proust and Barthes
Johnnie Gratton
Research Monographs in French Studies 6
- ‘Refreshing... This book is a must for graduates coming new to this debate and to these authors, and for the wider reader it is an engaging and polished addition to an excellent series.’ — Timothy Mathews, French Studies LVI.3, 2002, 421-2
- ‘Gratton's conclusion is that we should remember that words have matted, contradictory histories, to guard ourselves against believing wholeheartedly in unmediated expression... Repays attentive reading.’ — Ingrid Wassenaar, Fabula April, 2001
- ‘Nel corso della sua attenta analisi.’ — Antonella Arrigoni, Studi francesi XLVI, 2002, 2
Published December 2001
All Puns Intended: The Verbal Creation of Jean-Pierre Brisset
Walter Redfern
Research Monographs in French Studies 9
- ‘Brisset had been a good soldier, and he was a model railwayman: there was no hint during the working day of the oddity of what he was up to after hours... The fact that frogs turned out to speak what was easily recognizable as French seems at no point to have fazed Brisset, and since the original human language has willy-nilly to be universal, all other known languages must be capable of being derived from French, which was pleasing news for a Frenchman.’ — John Sturrock, Times Literary Supplement 18 January, 2002, 41
- ‘What indeed can one make of this autodidact who mused about etymology without mastering Latin and about human origins without reading Darwin? Brisset can readily be dismissed as arrogant, Gallocentric, sex-obsessed or simply unreadable. Yet Redfern finds in his work a splendid proof of the instability of language, and also a fine pretext for learned digressions about puns and myths and free associations and what Ponge called 'amphibiguité'... The main pleasure given by this book actually comes from Redfern's own style, which is intelligent, energetic, quirky and never too self-indulgent.’ — Peter Low, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 24/2, 2003, 51-2
- ‘Walter Redfern ... a particulièrement raison de s'appuyer sur les travaux les plus sérieux de ces dernières années pour situer enfin la place de Brisset et l'impact de ses ouvrages parmi les créateurs littéraires de la fin du XIXe et de la première moitié du XXe siècle. ... Un bonne bibliographie sert d'appui à cette monographie intelligemment projetée.’ — Jacques-Philippe Saint-Gérand, Revue d'histoire littéraire de la France November 3, 2004, 732
- ‘Redfern's treatment is interesting and wide-ranging, but interesting because it is wide-ranging. He shows that Brisset has interested a lot of interesting people, then sums him up: 'Brisset is a trampoline: to take off from and to come back to.' I think he is half right: one may be glad that he existed to provoke this book.’ — Stephen F. Noreiko, French Studies 57.2, 2003, 255-56
Published November 2002
Race and the Unconscious: Freudianism in French Caribbean Thought
Celia Britton
Research Monographs in French Studies 12
- ‘In this original, succinct, and highly relevant book, Celia Britton ... traces the various distortions and reformulations of Freudian thought within the Antillean context. ... The book combines intricate close reading with in-depth knowledge of the psychoanalytic field, and this brief but punchy sequence of arguments successfully points the way towards further questioning and research in a rich and complex area.’ — Jane Hiddleston, Modern Language Review 100.2, 2005, 515 (full text online)
- ‘Fascinating essay ... Britton does not so much draw a conclusion as bring the argument to a point of (provisional) closure. But it is equally her triumph to be in a position to point to certain stable notions.’ — Belinda Jack, French Studies LVIII.3, 2004, 438-9
- ‘A succinct, tightly-argued study... Britton's reading of this already much-interpreted and misinterpreted text [Peau noire, masques blancs] is complex and original.’ — Sam Haigh, Journal of Romance Studies 6.3, 2006, 127-35
Published February 2003
Proust: La Traduction du sensible
Nathalie Aubert
Research Monographs in French Studies 13
- ‘Careful examination of that delicate area between object seen and the deepening sense of being and elation which goes beyond the banality of the situation and becomes a challenge for the narrator to resolve in words: in fact, the very opposition of life and art that lies at the root of Proust's quest.’ — W. L. Hodson, Modern Language Review 99.3, 2004, 786-7 (full text online)
- ‘Utile et intéressant, ce petit volume introduit des observations profondes et nouvelles.’ — Gareth Gollrad, French Review 79.3, 2006, 624-25
Published May 2003
Robert Antelme: Humanity, Community, Testimony
Martin Crowley
Research Monographs in French Studies 15
- ‘A sensitive and timely account... Crowley’s challenging and detailed study shows vitally that if Antelme is ultimately and necessarily writing within the limits of his own period, none the less he makes an urgent, ethical, and highly politicized challenge to the reader which may never be realized, yet which remains all the more pressing at the beginning of the twenty-first century.’ — Kathryn Robson, Modern Language Review 100.1, January 2005, 220-21 (full text online)
- ‘Martin Crowley's concern, in this thought-provoking study of the text and the readings to which it has given rise, is to elucidate the dynamics of Antelme's thought firstly by focusing specifically on Antelme, rather than on Antelme as approached from Marguerite Duras, and secondly by situating Antelme's writings historically, philosophically and, to a certain extent, politically.’ — Margaret Atack, French Studies 58.4, 2004, 574
Published December 2003
For the People, by the People? Eugène Sue's 'Les Mystères de Paris': A Hypothesis in the Sociology of Literature
Christopher Prendergast
Research Monographs in French Studies 16
- ‘What is particularly fascinating in Prendergast's work is his detailed analysis of the voluminous correspondence received by Sue as his novel progressed... The substantial Bibliography is itself illustrative of the various analyses that have been made over the years, among which For the People By the People? now earns a major place.’ — John Dunmore, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 26.2, 2005, 60-61
- ‘This is a brilliant and lucid book, richly documented and subtle, and as engaging as it is authoritative.’ — David H. Walker, French Studies 58.4, 2004, 561
Published August 2007
France/China: Intercultural Imaginings
Alex Hughes
Research Monographs in French Studies 22
- ‘The author's scholarly and intriguing readings could be seen to invite us to look beyond the French framings of China to the texts of writers who know the country intimately.’ — Rosalind Silvester, Modern and Contemporary France 497-98
Published December 2007
Balzac and the Model of Painting: Artist Stories in La Comédie humaine
Diana Knight
Research Monographs in French Studies 24
- ‘Carefully focused, tightly written, and well-presented, this volume of close readings of Balzac’s artist stories is a solid and valuable addition to the Research Monographs in the Legenda series.’ — Marja Warehime, Nineteenth-Century French Studies 38, Fall-Winter 2009-10, 119-20
- ‘Are painting and sculpture equally liable to distort lived experience, or is sculpture capable of securing a closer approximation of material truth? This is just one of the intriguing questions suggested by Balzac and the Model of Painting.’ — Elizabeth C. Mansfield, caa.reviews 2 December 2009
Published July 2008
Exotic Subversions in Nineteenth-Century French Fiction
Jennifer Yee
Research Monographs in French Studies 25
- ‘An elegant and thoroughly researched monograph... a valuable reference for future work on exoticism, imperialism and postcolonial France.’ — unsigned, Forum for Modern Language Studies 46.1, January 2010, 120
- ‘A highly effective demonstration of the use of postcolonial perspectives to open up new possibilities for our reading of the nineteenth century.’ — Timothy Unwin, Modern Language Review 105.2, 2010, 561-62 (full text online)
- ‘Yee’s text, stranded between the dogmatic (un)certainties of “1991” and the questions that have opened up in its ongoing aftermath, provides a salutary, if unintended, reminder of what it is that we, as postcolonial critics, have been invested in, and of what is at stake in our ongoing attempts at justifying this investment (the “aesthetic turn”) or contesting it (the “political turn”). Were the praise-songs of “oppositionality,” which once (à la Lowe, Chambers, Scott) dominated our field, simply the epiphenomena of a strategy of containment through which postcolonial studies was bound to a certain vision of “complexity” at odds with the anti-colonial, and unrepentantly non-literary, dynamics of a work like Orientalism, so that its truly radical (and, first and foremost, anti-Zionist) politics could be rendered palatable to an Anglo-American academic audience ever in search of a specious newness but intent on preserving the old, bourgeois order upon which literary studies, and the affect that so intimately at’ — Chris Bongie, Francophone Postcolonial Studies 7.2, 2010, 89-94
- ‘Bongie's review is alarmingly accurate. I do indeed accept 'literature as [my] chosen and delimited field of study' (though I try to see that field as part of a broader history). And he is entirely accurate in saying that I see the subversions offered by nineteenth-century literature as largely falling short of 'true resistance'... Of course the literature of the nineteenth century is racist according to our modern definitions; but racism is so vast and insidious a phenomenon that it is not in itself analytically useful and requires careful historical nuancing. In any case, although I am most interested in an approach that combines aesthetic and political concerns, and would regret such a rigid separation as Bongie appears to think necessary, I also differ from him in my belief in a supple and many-voiced criticism that does not need to dictate one single mode of textual analysis.’ — Jennifer Yee's invited reply to Chris Bongie's FPS review, Bulletin of Francophone Postcolonial Studies 1.1, Spring 2010, 15-17
- ‘In this elegant, lucid, and original study of four ‘exotic’ works by Chateaubriand, Hugo, Flaubert, and Segalen, Jennifer Yee turns her back on Edward Said's negative depiction of nineteenth-century Orientalism in order to read her chosen texts from a post-colonialist perspective... Impressive and admirably comparative.’ — Michael Tilby, French Studies 64.4, 2010, 495-96
Published July 2009
The Syllables of Time: Proust and the History of Reading
Teresa Whitington
Research Monographs in French Studies 26
- ‘En faisant de la lecture et des livres, le cœur de la Recherche, A. Watt et T. Whitington soulignent et établissent, en fin de compte, une communauté de lecteurs; la récurrence des épisodes de lecture invite nécessairement le lecteur du roman à s'interroger sur sa propre condition et sur ses identifications possibles avec le héros. Par un effet de miroir récurrent, le lecteur est amené à se voir lire, à retrouver ses sensations de lectures d'enfance et à se poser inévitablement la question de l'écriture. T. Whitington en proposant un judicieux rapprochement entre un passage de Jeunes filles et le Contre Sainte-Beuve identifie cette communauté de lecteurs. Le narrateur, évoquant en effet le «cœur de celui qui, assassin dans la vie, reste tendre comme amateur de feuilletons, [et se tourne] vers le faible, le juste et le persécuté», semble se souvenir du credo que défend le narrateur du Contre Sainte-Beuve, selon lequel il convient de distinguer nettement le moi social du moi créateur.’ — Matthieu Vernet; joint review with Adam Watt, Reading in Proust’s À la Recherche, OUP 2009, Fabula 26 April 2010
- ‘Manages to address some of the complex and multi-layered realities at play in any history of reading and provides some valuable evidence for Proust’s significant contribution to such a history.’ — Kathrin Yacavone, Modern Language Review 106.4, 2011, 1162-63 (full text online)
Published February 2010
Personal Effects: Reading the Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff
Sonia Wilson
Research Monographs in French Studies 27
- ‘Wilson’s account is fascinating and throws light upon feminist controversy in late nineteenth-century England and the European continent.’ — unsigned review, The Year's Work in English Studies 91, 2012, 724
Published April 2010
The Choreography of Modernism in France: La Danseuse, 1830-1930
Julie Townsend
Research Monographs in French Studies 28
- ‘An engaging and concise chronology of modernism through dance, with the danseuse constituting the correlation between performing, visual, and literary modernisms.’ — Paul Ryan, French Studies 65.4, 2011, 545-46
Published January 2012
The Subversive Poetics of Alfred Jarry: Ubusing Culture in the Almanachs du Père Ubu
Marieke Dubbelboer
Research Monographs in French Studies 35
- ‘The innovative political focus that she provides on Jarry’s œuvre is especially welcome... It is a pleasure to find the Jarry–Bonnard collaboration given thorough analysis... This book expands Jarry’s relevance beyond the literary arena.’ — Jill Fell, Modern Language Review 108.3, 2013, 977-78 (full text online)
- ‘En raison de la précision et de la justesse des analyses qu’il propose, le livre de Dubbelboer doit donc dès à présent être considéré comme un ouvrage de référence pour quiconque s’intéresse de près à la cosmogonie ubuesque.’ — Karl Pollin, Nineteenth-Century French Studies 42.3-4, Summer 2014, 293-94
- ‘This cogent, insightful study analyzes the sophisticated collage-based social satire in the critically underrepresented Almanachs du Père Ubu (1898, 1901). Through close readings and archival research, Dubbelboer immerses us in Jarry’s inspired fusion of art and life.’ — Aaron Prevots, French Review 88.2, October 2014, 223
Published October 2012
The Livres-Souvenirs of Colette: Genre and the Telling of Time
Anne Freadman
Research Monographs in French Studies 33
- ‘Freadman’s own book is elegantly written and delivers analytical acuity in the voice of a reader moved and enriched by her subject, as Colette’s writing deserves.’ — Diana Holmes, French Studies 67.4, October 2013, 575
- ‘What shines through brightly across the entirety of Friedman's analysis is the sensitivity with which she highlights Colette's narrative intentions... A highly valuable addition to the scholarly activity currently produced on Colette.’ — Eileen M. Angelini, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 34.2, 2014, 125-26
- ‘A new and convincing account of genre and autobiography in a selection of Colette’s more autobiographical writings... This book will be indispensable for scholars of Colette and those interested in the genre of autobiography.’ — Kathleen Antonioli, Modern Language Review 109.4, October 2014, 1088-89 (full text online)
- ‘The rich and varied readings of the material, competently informed by theoretical input, together with acute sensitivity to the corpus, mark out this study as incontournable for Colette scholars.’ — Hélène Stafford, Modern and Contemporary France 22.3, 2014, 407-09
- ‘Freadman’s book is clearly organized, with English translations following original French quotations, notes at the end of each chapter, bibliography, and index. Given the free-flowing analy- sis and essay-like treatment in general, this is an approach that will be appreciated most by those already familiar with a substantial part of Colette’s extensive corpus; for such readers, Freadman’s rapidly-moving treatment and often ludic touch should provide a good measure of enjoyment.’ — John T. Booker, French Review 88.4, 2014, 272
Published March 2015
Regarding Manneken Pis: Culture, Celebration and Conflict in Brussels
Catherine Emerson
Research Monographs in French Studies 42
- ‘In this detailed and investigative study, the multiplicity of interpretations to which the statue has been subjected comes to the fore... The iconic Manneken Pis straddles French-speaking and Flemish-speaking communities and cultures, and Emerson teases out these narratives and their ramifications.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 52.2, 2016, 235
- ‘To arrive at the heart of understanding how this two-foot statue has come to mean so much to the people of Brussels and to express the wide variety of social relations and tensions of a complex city and a modern nation as a whole, Regarding Manneken Pis is an ideal resource.’ — Eileen M. Angelini, French Review 89.3, 2016, 60
Published July 2015
Dada as Text, Thought and Theory
Stephen Forcer
Research Monographs in French Studies 39
- ‘Stephen Forcer’s original, timely and impeccably researched monograph is an adventurous and therefore provocative attempt to combine close readings of verbal and visual Dada texts with an imaginative analytical conspectus of the ‘rich inner life’ of the Paris Lodge... Dada wisdom is finally reaching a large audience, both inside and outside universities, during a dürtiger Zeit when that unconventional commodity is becoming more behovely than ever.’ — Richard Sheppard, Journal of European Studies 46.1, 74-75
- ‘This cogent and wide-ranging study... challenges the reader to reassess Dada as a far from simplistic phenomenon exerting a radical influence on contemporary culture.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 52.2, 2016, 235
- ‘A perceptive reappraisal of the movement... Forcer’s study uncovers convincingly, through a close and sensitive study of diverse intersections, the semantic plurality and allusive density of Dada texts; and thus confirms his conclusion that, even when meaning appears to collapse, it ‘inevitably re-emerges, playfully and gloriously’.’ — Elza Adamowicz, Modern Language Review 111.4, October 2016, 1139-40 (full text online)
- ‘This is a lively, incisive, and thought-provoking book substantially based on original archive work, which injects new and proliferating life into the study of Dada... With excellent English translations of quotations throughout, and well-chosen monochrome illustrations, the book is fully accessible to non-francophone readers and is an absolute must for anyone with a serious interest in Dada.’ — Andrew Rothwell, French Studies 71.1, Winter 2017, 133-34
Published October 2015
Baudelaire and Photography: Finding the Painter of Modern Life
Timothy Raser
Research Monographs in French Studies 45
- ‘Writing on the cusp of modernity, runs Raser’s overarching argument, Baudelaire is struggling to leave behind the traditional world, abandoning a search for beauty in a quest for a theory of modernity.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 52.4, October 2016, 476-77
- ‘Highlights exciting aspects of Baudelaire’s work and illuminates his stance on modernity. One of Raser’s achievements is to take seriously the fact that Baudelaire transcended the boundaries between various arts and media. Exploring the relations between painting, poetry, engravings, and photography, he shows to what degree Baudelaire’s work is characterized by intertextual and intermedial tensions.’ — Marit Grøtta, Modern Language Review 112.1, January 2017, 254-56 (full text online)
- ‘As always with Raser’s writing, this is an intelligently and cogently argued book. His deep knowledge of Baudelaire’s art criticism firmly grounds his arguments about aesthetic theory. Raser’s literary interpretations, such as that of Hugo’s poem, are interesting and thought-provoking... This slender and elegant book has set me to thinking about Baudelaire’s “aesthetics” of the modern as I read his works — it has given me a new perspective on his poetry.’ — Dorothy Kelly, H-France 16.125, July 2016
Published December 2016
The French Art Novel 1900-1930
Katherine Shingler
Research Monographs in French Studies 43
- ‘An extremely informative and enjoyable study, which takes the reader on a rich and detailed tour of the early twentieth-century French artist’s world, “far beyond the form and concerns of the genre’s nineteenth-century foundational texts”. Clear, compelling, lucid, well researched, and beautifully written, Shingler’s book is an important and welcome sequel to scholarship written on the romantic art novel.’ — Dominique Jullien, H-France 18, May 2018, No. 111
- ‘Shingler uncovers an approach to twentieth-century novels that bears pursuing further. Shingler investigates gender issues thoroughly and with great clarity, but she also locates other anxieties in the work of these writers.’ — Alexander Dickow, French Studies 72.2, April 2018, 305–306 (full text online)
- ‘Il genere letterario dell’art novel viene de nito da Katherine Shingler come un genere in cui la nzione è strettamente connessa all’arte, nel senso che il focus della narrazione è rivolto a problematiche legate alle arti visive e i personaggi, perlopiù nel ruolo di protagonisti, sono degli artisti.’ — Michela Gardini, Studi francesi 185, 2018, 356-57
- ‘A well-documented volume offering in-depth analyses of a well-chosen corpus, which comprises the expected classics as well as less familiar novels. The book will be useful and illuminating for readers of art novels and for literature and art students and scholars alike.’ — Emilie Sitzia, Modern Language Review 113.4, October 2018, 879-80 (full text online)
Broken Glass, Broken World: Glass in French Culture in the Aftermath of 1870
Hannah Scott
Research Monographs in French Studies 46
- ‘Perhaps due to glass’s ubiquity in the urban landscape, Parisians did not fully realize its fragile underpinning of Paris until Prussian bombing quite literally shattered glass’s transparency as urban phenomenon. It was through glass’s destruction that it became a privileged object manifesting the devastation of the année terrible for Parisians. Scott’s ingenuity lies in making glass visible, but especially in proposing broken glass as another ruin of Paris that both fascinated and disturbed contemporaries.’ — Colin Foss, H-France 18, March 2018, no. 53
- ‘Scott’s incredible historical precision within a compact monograph has tremendous benefits to the field and raises even larger questions about the relationship between the Third Republic’s emphasis on glass and the social roles played by glass today, especially in the ecological arena. One wonders how the windowpanes, glass aquariums, and wine glasses of the post-industrial era gave way to the plastic wrapping and electronic screens that now serve as barriers between ourselves, the rest of humanity, and the planet as a whole.’ — Claire Nettleton, Nineteenth-Century French Studies 46.3-4, 2018
- ‘This book is an outstanding contribution to an increasingly important field of study: the activating relationship between material culture and literary texts. Substantial and innovative chapters are devoted to Zola, Maupassant, and Huysmans, prefaced by a richly informative account of the proliferation of glass objects and structures, from the monumental to the miniscule, in nineteenth-century France.’ — Robert Lethbridge, French Studies 72.3, July 2018, 456-57
- ‘This engaging and perceptive monograph is a significant contribution to the growing body of scholarship that resituates nineteenth-century literature within its material environment... A remarkably original work, one which is grounded in material research but which manages, nonetheless, to be rightly a work of primarily literary criticism.’ — Natasha Ryan, Modern Language Review 113.3, July 2018, 661-62 (full text online)
Southern Regional French: A Linguistic Analysis of Language and Dialect Contact
Damien Mooney
Research Monographs in French Studies 47
- ‘Encapsulates both the challenges and the promise of linguistics for history... the kinds of suggestive connections between linguistic form, social identity, and cultural context traced in chapter six hint at the considerable possibilities for integrating a substantive study of language into cultural history. It is to be hoped that more historians will take up this challenge.’ — Paul Cohen, H-France 18, February 2018, no. 5
- ‘Un travail de grande qualité et sera une référence incontournable pour tous les dialectologues, phonologues et sociolinguistes qui s’intéressent à la variation phonologique en français.’ — Julien Eychenne, French Studies 72.3, July 2018, 484-85
Balzac's Love Letters: Correspondence and the Literary Imagination
Ewa Szypula
Research Monographs in French Studies 52
- ‘Balzac the inveterate re-reader forces his own readers into their own, creative, re-readings of his texts. How fortunate, then, that so many of Balzac’s own letters, not least those to Mme Hanska, have been preserved for our own reading and re-reading, and are thus able to give rise to this subtle, sophisticated, original — and eminently readable — new study.’ — Owen Heathcote, H-France 17, November 2017
- ‘On en saluera en n l’originalité, la nesse d’analyse, et l’attention subtile prêtée à l’écriture de Balzac, à ses tactiques comme à son tact, à sa volonté de maîtrise comme à sa délicatesse.’ — Thomas Conrad, Studi francesi 185, 2018, 335-36
- ‘Szypula treats the letters as texts in their own right, arguing persuasively that they can be analysed in much the same way as we might read and interpret Balzac’s fiction... As Szypula argues compellingly, the themes of writing and rereading assume special importance in the 1844 novel Modeste Mignon, in which Balzac can be seen to reflect on the limitations of rereading, particularly when a letter-writer is insincere. The study concludes with an Afterword that examines Mme Han ska’s attempts at revising Balzac’s letters following his death, a process that shows — as Szypula does so refreshingly in this volume — that this correspondence has never truly closed, but instead remains intriguingly open to rereading and re-interpretation.’ — Andrew Watts, French Studies 72.4, October 2018, 610-11
Published May 2018
Laforgue, Philosophy, and Ideas of Otherness
Sam Bootle
Research Monographs in French Studies 54
- ‘This is the first full-length study of Laforgue to be published in English since Anne Holmes’s Jules Laforgue and Poetic Innovation (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1993). For all that anglophone scholarship has contributed in the intervening twenty-five years to the critical picture of a poet best known for his pioneering vers libre, it has lacked the sustained depth and breadth of attention that Sam Bootle’s excellent monograph offers... Through its own openness to Laforgue’s intellectual eclecticism, this book offers a necessary and compelling account of a poet far more widely recognized for his formal experimentation than for his very particular brand of culture critique.’ — Claire White, French Studies 73.3, July 2019, 471-72 (full text online)
- ‘Ecco qui la monografia di un giovane ricercatore incentrata sulla presenza della filosofia tedesca e orientale nella produ- zione di Jules Laforgue. Lo studio è così convincente che un suo capitolo, volto in lingua francese, è entrato a far parte di un recentissimo numero (2, 2017) della “Revue d’Histoire littéraire de la France” coordinato da Henri Scepi e dedicato a Laforgue, Poésie et Philosophie. A fine volume, l’indice dei nomi, concetti e titoli evi- denzia che, in questo luogo, l’indagine è di più ampio spettro, coinvolgendo sia l’opera in versi che l’opera in prosa di Jules Laforgue.’ — Alessandra Marangoni, Studi francesi 188, 2020, 383
- ‘Bootle’s fine monograph brings us fresh and valuable perspec- tives on Laforgue’s infinitely intriguing poetry, prose, and, above all, philosophical engagement with the world.’ — Alexandra K. Wettlaufer, Modern Language Review 115.3, July 2020, 726-27 (full text online)