Art and its Uses in Thomas Mann's Felix Krull
Ernest Schonfield
Bithell Series of Dissertations 32 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 70•1 August 2008
- ‘Concerning freedom, play, and Mann’s appeal to a community, Schonfield makes a persuasive case in his lucid and admirable study.’ — Steve Dowden, Modern Language Review 103, 2010, 905-06 (full text online)
The Wallenstein Figure in German Literature and Historiography 1790-1920
Steffan Davies
Bithell Series of Dissertations 36 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 76•19 February 2010
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)
Odilon Redon: Écrits
Edited by Claire Moran
Critical Texts 1•30 June 2005
- ‘The most interesting recent insight into Redon and his work emerges from this slender edition of his own early writings, carefully edited and presented by Claire Moran.’ — Natalie Adamson, Modern Language Review 101.4, 2006, 1131 (full text online)
- ‘Ce recueil ne manquera pas de susciter l'approfondissement d'études antérieures ou de nouvelles analyses sur l'expression écrite et picturale de Redon. En tant que chercheur, nous ne pouvons qu'encourager ce genre de collection qui facilite notre travail et nous offre par conséquent de nouveaux horizons de recherche.’ — Béatrice Vernier-Larochette, Dalhousie French Studies 76, 2006, 168-69
- ‘Claire Moran's exemplary introduction shows ... that Redon stood 'au cœur du chassé-croisé entre art et littérature' at the start of the twentieth century ... This publication will be heartily welcomed by all devotees of Redon's strange œuvre.’ — Peter Low, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 27.2, 2006, 52-53
Phosphorus Hollunder und Der Posten der Frau von Louise von François
Edited by Barbara Burns
Critical Texts 13•1 October 2008
- ‘This handsome critical edition of two of François’s lesser-known short stories from 1857 offers a valuable reminder of the writer’s many merits as a storyteller.’ — Karen Leeder, Modern Language Review 105.3, 2010, 896-97 (full text online)
Walter Pater: Imaginary Portraits
Edited by Lene Østermark-Johansen
Critical Texts 35 / Jewelled Tortoise 1•1 April 2014
- ‘Long out of print, Imaginary Portraits has finally found a worthy home in print, thanks to what Pater might have characterized as Østermark-Johansen’s ‘minute and scrupulous’ lapidary care.’ — Kit Andrews, Modern Language Review 111.3, 2016, 861-63 (full text online)
- ‘It makes the portraits accessible through the lucid, highly original, and perceptive critical introductions and the useful, often necessary annotations. This is an essential text for students of Pater and Aestheticism.’ — David Riede, Pater Newsletter 65, 2014, 92
- ‘"[Østermark-Johansen] combines an encyclopedic knowledge of Pater's influences and allusions, and an astute understanding of his works and life, with enviable lightness of touch."’ — Kate Hext, Times Literary Supplement 8 August 2014, 11
- ‘The annotations are perhaps the most significant contribution this collection will make, as Pater’s highly allusive prose poses difficulties even to trained scholars – there is nothing close to its combination of comprehensiveness and critical apparatus on the market right now.’ — Matthew Potolsky, Journal of Pre-Raphaelite Studies 24, 2015, 112
- ‘Lene Østermark-Johansen’s magisterial new edition ... offering incisive critical and historical contexts for the individual texts.’ — James Eli Adams, English Literature in Transition 1880-1920 59, 2016, 105-08
- ‘Remarkable value and puts the exorbitant prices charged by some other publishers of textual editions to shame.’ — William Baker, The Year's Work in English Studies 95.1, 2016, 1472
- ‘This invaluable edition will hopefully bring some hitherto neglected texts of the Pater canon to a wider readership including undergraduates, especially as it comes for a very reasonable price. A definite "must-buy".’ — Bénédicte Coste, Cahiers victoriens et édouardiens 82, 2015
‘Noa Noa’ by Paul Gauguin and Charles Morice: With ‘Manuscrit tiré du “Livre des métiers” de Vehbi-Zumbul Zadi’ by Paul Gauguin
Edited by Claire Moran
Critical Texts 50•21 August 2017
- ‘Moran has given us not only a fine new edition of Noa Noa, but also a forceful reminder of the generic complexities that underpin artists' writings.’ — Richard Hobbs, French Studies 72.3, July 2018, 450-51 (full text online)
- ‘Moran’s introductory essay is itself a noteworthy piece of contemporary scholarship on Gauguin... her very thorough and carefully edited new version of Noa Noa add to our understanding of Gauguin as a writer, in particular, the way he used writing as a mode of self-representation, not merely as a backdrop for his visual art... This affordable text will be useful for scholars of fin de siècle French art and literature as well as students of French language, art history, and aesthetic theory, and will likely lead to new scholarship on Gauguin... I would invite others going forward to consult Moran’s edition of Noa Noa as the definitive text for any study of Gauguin.’ — Heather Waldroup, H-France 18.213, October 2018
Decadent and Occult Works by Arthur Machen
Edited by Dennis Denisoff
Critical Texts 53 / Jewelled Tortoise 4•11 July 2018
- ‘What’s here will certainly enliven the reading lists of many undergraduate courses on the Victorian Gothic, but, hopefully, it will also allow Machen to be seen not simply as a writer of ‘shockers’ but as a significant and distinctive contributor to the wider literature of his day. The edition is bolstered by a helpful bibliography of secondary works and a chronology of Machen’s life and times. It is well produced and very competitively priced, meaning that it should find a home on university reading lists as well as on the hungry shelves of acquisitive Machenites such as myself.’ — Nick Freeman, Volupté 1.2, Winter 2018, 165-70
- ‘This is an invaluable scholarly edition of Machen's work which makes a thoughtful case for his profound, but idiosyncratic contribution to Decadence.’ — Timothy J. Jarvis, Faunus 38, 2018, 56
- ‘In taking the complexities of Machen’s relationship with the Decadent movement as its starting point, Denisoff’s volume is a significant intervention. ... There is an authentic sense of the volume as a carefully curated experience... a valuable teaching edition.’ — Jane Ford, Modern Language Review 115.3, July 2020, 712-13 (full text online)
The Blind Bow-Boy by Carl Van Vechten
Edited by Kirsten MacLeod
Critical Texts 62•31 August 2018
- ‘Kirsten MacLeod’s new MHRA Critical Texts edition of The Blind Bow-Boy makes it possible and attractive to bring Van Vechten into both the undergraduate and graduate classroom by illuminating the novel’s complex recipe for hedonism... In every sense, then, MacLeod’s framing of the novel makes it feel at once more significant and more enjoyable, and its availability now in an affordable paperback form will hopefully bring more scholars, students, and general readers into contact with its pleasures.’ — Kristin Mahoney, Textual Cultures 12.2, 2019, 144-46
- ‘If one were to add The Blind Bow-Boy to a class on modernism, New York literature of the 1920s, or even a twentieth-century literature survey, this edition would make the work accessible to a wide range of students because it serves in itself as an excellent introduction to modernist work. Highly recommended.’ — Michelle E. Moore, Modern Language Review 116.3, July 2021, 500-01 (full text online)
Aphra Behn's Emperor of the Moon and its French Source Arlequin, Empereur dans la lune
Edited by Judy A. Hayden and Daniel J. Worden
Critical Texts 67•31 May 2019
Mathilde Blind: Selected Fin-de-Siècle Poetry and Prose
Edited by James Diedrick
Critical Texts 70 / Jewelled Tortoise 6•12 November 2021
- ‘This book will be an indispensable new resource for students and scholars of Victorian women’s poetry, travel writing, decadence, Aestheticism, the New Woman, queer and feminist literature, and literature and science.’ — Barbara Barrow, Volupté 5.2, Autumn/Winter 2022, 149-53 (full text online)
Hubert Crackanthorpe: Selected Writings
Edited by William Greenslade and Emanuela Ettorre
Critical Texts 71 / Jewelled Tortoise 7•19 October 2020
- ‘This is an informative, comprehensive, and detailed introduction to Crackanthorpe for those who know little about him. It is an illuminating companion edition for those already familiar with his dark vision of life in the 1890s, which his own life trajectory so much resembled.’ — Jad Adams, Volupté 5.1, 2022, 98–102 (full text online)
- ‘A much-needed edition that successfully presents the range and importance of Crackanthorpe’s writing... Overall, Selected Writings is an accessible introduction to Crackanthorpe that makes proper consideration of his work alongside others of the ‘Tragic Generation’ possible. Highly recommended.’ — Jessica Gossling, Modern Language Review 118.4, October 2023, 604-06 (full text online)
Michael Field, For That Moment Only and Other Prose Works
Edited by Alex Murray and Sarah Parker
Critical Texts 72 / Jewelled Tortoise 8•4 July 2022
- ‘Alex Murray’s and Sarah Parker’s edition of Michael Field’s short prose, For That Moment Only, considers the small-scale, gem-like pieces that were either lifted from the diary or specifically composed for publication. These range from essays or even sermons to sketches, impressions, vignettes, croquis, short stories and pieces of memorably poetic prose. In their excellent and detailed introduction, the editors describe croquis or prose poems as “the fragmented and fleeting poetic forms we associate with modernism”, though this notional “modernity of form” goes back not only to the 1860s, with Baudelaire’s Petits Poèmes en prose and Pater’s early essays, but also to Novalis and Schlegel as well as Coleridge.’ — Angela Leighton, Times Literary Supplement 17 February 2023
Decadent Writings of Aubrey Beardsley
Edited by Sasha Dovzhyk and Simon Wilson
Critical Texts 78 / Jewelled Tortoise 10•18 November 2022
- ‘Sections of [Under the Hill] appeared, heavily edited, in The Savoy during Beardsley’s life, and it has been reissued several times since in varying degrees of expurgation. But it has never received the lavish scholarly attention that Sasha Dovzhyk and Simon Wilson bestow in Decadent Writings of Aubrey Beardsley.’ — Colton Valentine, New Yorker 13 February 2023
- ‘Sasha Dovzhyk and Simon Wilson’s edition... offers a thorough and judicious introduction to a figure whose influence as an artist is uncontested while making a compelling case for reconsidering Beardsley’s significance as a writer... Their scrupulously scholarly edition strikes a deft balance between providing a rich resource for Beardsley scholars and making Under the Hill accessible to general readers. They provide able guidance to Beardsley’s densely allusive world, painstakingly tracking down and teasing apart the thicket of references threaded throughout Beardsley’s prose... One of the pleasures of the edition is the clear personal investments of the editors; this is clearly a labour of love and their admiration for their subject is – in a metaphor Beardsley himself would relish – contagious.’ — Nicole Fluhr, The Wildean 64, 2024, 206-09
Bertha von Suttner, Lay Down Your Arms: The Autobiography of Martha von Tilling
Edited by Barbara Burns
European Translations 5•15 February 2019
Arthur Symons, Spiritual Adventures
Edited by Nicholas Freeman
Critical Texts 39 / Jewelled Tortoise 2•10 February 2017
- ‘How gratifying it is, then, to have not one but two new volumes of Symons’ work published by the Modern Humanities Research Association’s Jewelled Tortoise imprint, thoroughly edited and placed in both a biographical and cultural context. The volumes’ editors are all wise enough to balance their informative footnotes with letting Symons’ work shine on its own.’ — Heather Marcovitch, Review of English Studies 2017
- ‘These excellent critical editions of Symons’s poetry and prose… Symons emerges much clearer for their informative and well-judged notes.’ — Kate Hext, Times Literary Supplement 12 January 2018, 3-4
- ‘The great service these two editions do to the study of Symons, and more broadly in developing our understanding of the contours and development of fin de siècle culture as it was negotiated during the period between Victorianism and modernism. We are left with the impression that the Jewelled Tortoise series is a vital scholarly project for researchers working on the period, and the hope that they will continue to publish such important scholarly editions.’ — Giles Whiteley, Notes & Queries September 2018, 459-61
- ‘Freeman’s brilliantly researched Introduction makes a compelling case for these stories as an ‘intriguing example of early modernism, providing further evidence of that movement’s evolutionary development rather than implying a clean break from earlier conventions’... Freeman’s footnotes and introductions to each story are a model: concise, judicious, and enhancing the reading experience without imposing interpretation... Under the expert eye of Catherine Maxwell and Stefano Evangelista, this series is setting a new standard in fin-de-siècle textual scholarship... Just as importantly, these texts are very reasonably priced, which means they can be set in courses on Decadence and fin-de-siècle culture, bringing Symons’s work—enriched by rigorous scholarship—to a new generation of critics.’ — Alex Murray, Modern Language Review 113.4, October 2018, 867-70 (full text online)
Arthur Symons, Selected Early Poems
Edited by Chris Baldick and Jane Desmarais
Critical Texts 42 / Jewelled Tortoise 3•11 April 2017
- ‘How gratifying it is, then, to have not one but two new volumes of Symons’ work published by the Modern Humanities Research Association’s Jewelled Tortoise imprint, thoroughly edited and placed in both a biographical and cultural context. The volumes’ editors are all wise enough to balance their informative footnotes with letting Symons’ work shine on its own.’ — Heather Marcovitch, Review of English Studies 2017
- ‘Selected Early Poems by Arthur Symons is a carefully and beautifully edited book. ... The introduction and notes, together with the prose selections, provide illuminating material for the deeper appreciation and understanding of Symons’ poetic work. It is a book that should provide pleasure for scholars and all who are interested in the literature of the late-nineteenth century.’ — Noreen Doody, The OScholars September 2017
- ‘These excellent critical editions of Symons’s poetry and prose… Symons emerges much clearer for their informative and well-judged notes.’ — Kate Hext, Times Literary Supplement 12 January 2018, 3-4
- ‘The great service these two editions do to the study of Symons, and more broadly in developing our understanding of the contours and development of fin de siècle culture as it was negotiated during the period between Victorianism and modernism. We are left with the impression that the Jewelled Tortoise series is a vital scholarly project for researchers working on the period, and the hope that they will continue to publish such important scholarly editions.’ — Giles Whiteley, Notes & Queries September 2018, 459-61
- ‘A judicious assortment of Symons’s early and late poems, and a small sampling of reviews and Symons’s own prose to add context, make this a one-stop shop for anyone wishing to conduct further research into Symons’s poetic oeuvre... Under the expert eye of Catherine Maxwell and Stefano Evangelista, this series is setting a new standard in fin-de-siècle textual scholarship... Just as importantly, these texts are very reasonably priced, which means they can be set in courses on Decadence and fin-de-siècle culture, bringing Symons’s work—enriched by rigorous scholarship—to a new generation of critics.’ — Alex Murray, Modern Language Review 113.4, October 2018, 867-70 (full text online)
University Theses in Russian, Soviet, and East European Studies 1907–2006: A Centennial Bibliography of Research in the British Isles
Compiled and edited by Gregory Walker and J. S. G. Simmons
MHRA Bibliographies 3•1 March 2008
- ‘This volume is a fascinating work in all kinds of ways. All scholars and researchers in the field are indebted to the labours of the compilers, Gregory Walker and the late John Simmons, for providing what will be an invaluable research aid ... In what it tells us ultimately of the workings of the human mind and spirit, this book is extraordinary...’ — Joe Andrew, Modern Language Review 104.1, 2009, 302-04 (full text online)
An International Annotated Bibliography of Strindberg Studies 1870–2005: Volume 1: General Studies
Compiled, annotated, and edited by Michael Robinson
MHRA Bibliographies 4/1 of 3•1 October 2008
- ‘In these three volumes Michael Robinson, already a renowned Strindberg scholar, has completed an exceptional work... The concise and informative annotations are an essential part of this remarkable bibliography, and there are cross-references to facilitate research projects ... Michael Robinson has performed an invaluable service with this bibliography, not only for those readers interested in Strindberg but for everyone who wants to have a sense of the international literary and cultural interchange that his works have generated.’ — Ross Shideler, Modern Language Review 105.2, 2010, 616-17 (full text online)
An International Annotated Bibliography of Strindberg Studies 1870–2005: Volume 2: The Plays
Compiled, annotated, and edited by Michael Robinson
MHRA Bibliographies 4/2 of 3•1 October 2008
An International Annotated Bibliography of Strindberg Studies 1870–2005: Volume 3: Autobiographies, Novels, Poetry, Letters, Historical Works, Natural History and Science, Linguistics, Painting and the Other Arts, Politics, Psychopathology, Biography, Miscellaneous, Dissertations
Compiled, annotated, and edited by Michael Robinson
MHRA Bibliographies 4/3 of 3•1 October 2008
Flesh, by Júlio Ribeiro
Translated by William Barne
New Translations 2•22 August 2011
Wilhelm Raabe, German Moonlight / Höxter and Corvey / At the Sign of the Wild Man
Translated by Alison E. Martin, Erich Lehmann, and Michael Ritterson
New Translations 3•1 April 2012
- ‘A major accomplishment. Raabe’s is a voice which deserves to be heard, and an oeuvre which deserves to be appreciated across linguistic boundaries. These translations allow the reader with no knowledge of German and little appreciation of the context of the originals to hear an authentic version of that voice, to understand something of the world it can open up, and so to appreciate the writer’s achievement. They merit an enthusiastic response.’ — William Webster, Translation and Literature 24, 2015, 121
Wilhelm Raabe, The Birdsong Papers
Translated by Michael Ritterson
New Translations 4•1 October 2013
- ‘A major accomplishment. Raabe’s is a voice which deserves to be heard, and an oeuvre which deserves to be appreciated across linguistic boundaries. These translations allow the reader with no knowledge of German and little appreciation of the context of the originals to hear an authentic version of that voice, to understand something of the world it can open up, and so to appreciate the writer’s achievement. They merit an enthusiastic response.’ — William Webster, Translation and Literature 24, 2015, 121