The Sentinel: An Incomplete Early Novel by Rebecca West
Edited by Kathryn Laing
Legenda (General Series) •1 December 2002
- ‘It is the least surprising thing in the world that Rebecca West should have begun a novel when she was 17, and that parts of it should be very good. She was only 18, after all, when her stinging reviews first appeared in The Freewoman and The Clarion, and caused sleepy Fabian giants to sit up and take notice of this fiercely intelligent Edinburgh schoolgirl juggling axes in the air... Richly rewarding.’ — Claudia FitzHerbert, Daily Telegraph 1 February, 2003, 5
- ‘Quite a coup... West's urgent descriptions of events and characterisations of key figures, from politicians to the Pankhursts, can hardly be bettered. But this is more of a social history than it might first appear, thanks to the journalistic observations woven into her storytelling. Her description of the Daily Mail as 'the encyclopaedia of vulgarity' retains a certain resonance today.’ — Harriet Griffey, Financial Times 22 February, 2003, 4
- ‘An astonishing piece of juvenilia... It is easy to recognise the real women who belonged to the militant Women's Social and Political Union: Mary Gawthorpe, Emily Davidson, Dora Marsden, Emmeline Pankhurst. The rise of the New Woman writing of the 1890s and suffragette fiction of the early twentieth century challenged strict definitions of feminine experience only to replace them with equally rigid rules governing women's social and political roles. West questions such demarcations. Her women long for motherhood and some of the most important suffragists are men. The novel's message is that love is not only more important than political power, it is the source of such power in the modern world and the modern novel.’ — Rosalind Porter, Times Literary Supplement 28 February, 2003, 24
- ‘Here is an emerging and well-read mind confronting public and private matters... Laing's scholarly introduction is a rich tool for reading this novel. Though unsophisticated and fragmentary as a novel, The Sentinel is nevertheless a richly worked resource; a readable and fascinating historical document that brings much of the time and its author to life.’ — Antonia Byatt, Times Higher Education Supplement 18 April, 2003, 28
- ‘Not only the publication of The Sentinel, but the way it has been published, may represent a tidal change in the way its author's work is now received... Fascinating to readers interested in the development of West as a woman, because it is obsessively concerned not only with feminist politics but with sexuality, and with the compelling beauty of certain girls and women, pored over in erotic detail... The most striking passages, which foreshadow the vivid reportage of her maturity, are the accounts of suffragette marches, protests and riots... Carries in it the seeds of almost everything that was to preoocupy West throughout her writing life. Laing's treatment of The Sentinel may complete the transition of her fiction, and of her work as a whole, out of the overcrowded 20th-century mainstream and into the canon.’ — Victoria Glendinning, The Guardian 20 December, 2003, G2
Louis-Charles Fougeret de Monbron, Le Cosmopolite, ou le citoyen du monde (1750)
Edited by Édouard Langille
Critical Texts 22•14 June 2010
Agostino Valier, Instituzione d'ogni stato lodevole delle donne cristiane
Edited by Francesco Lucioli
Critical Texts 43•1 June 2015
Abraham Fraunce, The Shepherds' Logic and Other Dialectical Writings
Edited by Zenón Luis-Martínez
Critical Texts 46•29 April 2016
- ‘Luis-Martínez gives as rigorous and detailed an account of the work’s genesis and immediate context as most readers could possibly wish for, offering much greater precision about Fraunce’s sources than earlier studies have been willing or able to provide... Fraunce has found a well-informed and sympathetic editor who can guide readers through what will be, to most, the unappealing thickets of humanistic logic, and direct their attention, instead, to the instructive value of this idiosyncratic Elizabethan voice.’ — Michael Hetherington, Spenser Review 47.1.14, Winter 2017
- ‘Luis-Martínez’s introduction not only explains Ramism but also puts Fraunce’s project in dialogue with Spenser’s 'Shepheardes Calender’.’ — Katherine Eggert, English Literature 57, 2017, 209
- ‘All in all, for the foreseeable future Luis-Martínez’s meticulous, ground-breaking edition will be the obligatory point of departure for all students and scholars with an interest in Fraunce’s logical writings, as well as a providing a useful introduction to English Ramism in general. The book is a credit to English Renaissance studies in Spain, and Luis-Martínez is to be congratulated.’ — Jonathan P. A. Sell, Spanish and Portuguese Society for English Renaissance Studies Yearbook 27, 2017, 255–61
- ‘The edition issues a siren call to literary scholars, in particular those working on historical formalism, and literature and education, to probe afresh for potential reciprocity between poetry and logic in England in this period... By making a rationale for reading The Shepherds’ Logic not as a poor cousin of Fraunce’s later, more famous textbook, but in its own right with its own arguments to make about poetry and logic, and the vernacular, Luis-Martínez elevates this text to essential reading for those working on English humanism and early modern education and literature more broadly.’ — Emma Annette Wilson, Spanish Journal of English Studies 38, 2017, 139‒143
- ‘Many are the reasons why Zenón Luis-Martínez’s critical edition of Abraham Fraunce’s The Shepherds’ Logic is a highly valuable contribution to early modern scholarship... As customary with editions published by the MHRA, there is a “Textual Notes” section at the end of the work to supplement the rich comments of the footnotes that run throughout the text, a final glossary of rare and archaic words, and an updated bibliography.’ — Rocío Gutiérrez Sumillera, Miscelánea 56, 2017, 141-144
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)
Joséphine de Monbart, Lettres tahitiennes
Edited by Laure Marcellesi
Critical Texts 36•1 July 2012
- ‘This outstanding volume ... excellent scholarly apparatus ... ideal for classroom use.’ — Heidi Bostic, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 34, 2013, 82-84
Monvel, Les Victimes cloîtrées
Edited by Sophie Marchand
Phoenix 1•1 February 2011
- ‘Sophie Marchand’s edition of Monvel’s drame Les Victimes cloîtrées is particularly welcome as a significant text from its period which is little known today but well worth rediscovering, as her critical introduction makes clear ... this is a very welcome publication and is highly recommended.’ — Mark Darlow, Modern Language Review 107, 2012, 1256-57 (full text online)
Edition Critique du Sermon 'Qui Manducat Me' de Robert Ciboule (1403-58)
Nicole Marzac
MHRA Texts and Dissertations 4•1 January 1971
André Chénier: Poetry and Revolution 1792-1794
David McCallam
Transcript 24•26 July 2021
- ‘What quickly becomes clear is the scholar’s own passionate devotion to the poet, but also his fascination for the terrible narrowing vortex of his life, caught in the teeth of a particular moment, in the machinery of the historical circumstance.’ — Stephen Romer, Modern Language Review 119.2, 2024, 270-71 (full text online)
Antonio Malatesti, La Tina. Equivoci rusticali
Edited by Davide Messina
Critical Texts 41•1 March 2014
- ‘Dobbiamo rendere merito a Davide Messina, Senior Lecturer presso l’Università di Edimburgo e fine studioso di letteratura italiana del Seicento, se possiamo leggere ed apprezzare i cinquanta sonetti che compongono la raccolta poetica’ — Mario Ceroti, Mosaici online at www.mosaici.org.uk, 2014
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
‘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
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
The Correspondence of Edward Gordon Craig and Count Harry Kessler, 1903-1937
Edited by L. M. Newman
Bithell Series of Dissertations 21 / MHRA Texts and Dissertations 43•1 January 1995
Alfonso X the Learned, Cantigas de Santa Maria
Edited by Stephen Parkinson
Critical Texts 40•1 April 2015
- ‘A new scholarly anthology with a balanced selection of songs—fresh, complete and competent—is welcome and overdue. Moreover, this preliminary view, in hard copy, of the promised full edition offers extraordinary value for the price.’ — Martha E. Schaffer, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 94, 2017, 1222-23
- ‘Le scelte editoriali di P. appaiono nel complesso ade guate e contribuiscono a fornire un testo valido, che riesce nell’intento di rivolgersi con profitto sia al pubblico non specialistico, sia, grazie alla scrupolosità dell’analisi metrica e alla completezza degli apparati, a studenti universitari o a specialisti della letteratura romanza e galego-portoghese.’ — Simone Marcenaro, Medioevo Romanzo XLII.2, 2018, 466-69
Gabriel-Marie Legouvé, La Mort d'Abel
Edited by Paola Perazzolo
Critical Texts 61•7 November 2016
La Découverte de l’île Frivole by Gabriel-François Coyer
A Bilingual Edition by Jean-Alexandre Perras
Critical Texts 76•16 September 2022
Delw y Byd: A Medieval Welsh Encyclopedia
Edited by Natalia I. Petrovskaia
MHRA Library of Medieval Welsh Literature •31 December 2020
- ‘Dr Petrovskaia’s new discussion and partial edition is to be warmly welcomed. She provides illuminating contextual discussion of the text’s source … with admirably detailed footnotes providing guidance for further reading.’ — David Callander, Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies 83, 2022, 99–101
- ‘Petrovskaia’s edition of Delw y Byd is a very welcome addition to the still limited group of edited texts available for teaching Middle Welsh. It provides a refreshing insight into the variety of literature that was consumed by readers in the Middle Ages. At the same time, it materially advances understanding of an understudied text in an accessible manner. In this sense, the book will be just as important for experienced researchers as for student learners. It is only to be hoped that more volumes of this kind will follow in its footsteps.’ — Ben Guy, Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie 69, 2022, 292-95 (full text online)
- ‘These volumes serve an important function in terms of bringing less familiar texts into a wider sphere of scholarly interest. While students of Middle Welsh will be able to work through the texts, producing their own translations with the help of notes and glossaries, scholars seeking access to these particular texts, along with a comparative perspective on medieval translation, Latinity, geography, and hagiography, will find these editions extremely valuable.’ — Helen Fulton, Modern Language Review 118.4, October 2023, 604-06 (full text online)
Les Veuves créoles
Edited by Julia Prest
Critical Texts 34•11 April 2017
- ‘In compiling this edition, Prest aims to reveal how the play could be ‘of considerable interest today in the context of renewed and ongoing research into the story of French colonialism and, increasingly, in colonial and créole drama’ (p. 5). This edition of Les Veuves créoles is a concise and riveting introduction to these research areas, and would in addition provide an ideal teaching tool.’ — Vanessa Lee, Bulletin of Francophone Postcolonial Studies 8.2, Autumn 2017, 26-27
Evariste-Désiré de Parny, Le Paradis perdu
Edited by Ritchie Robertson and Catriona Seth
Critical Texts 20•30 June 2009
- ‘Robertson’s authorship of a volume on mock epic, including Parny’s, and Seth’s extensive work on the poet make them an ideal editorial team for this volume.’ — Derek Connon, Modern Language Review 105.4, 2010, 1159-60 (full text online)
- ‘it is particularly interesting to have this careful, commentated and annotated edition of Parny's ironical, erotic and witty version of the Fall.’ — Angus Martin, New Zealand Journal of French Studies 31.1, 2010, 46-47
A Selection of Early Welsh Saga Poems
Edited by Jenny Rowland
MHRA Library of Medieval Welsh Literature •1 September 2014
- ‘A Selection of Early Welsh Saga Poems is a timely introduction to this fascinating genre, and is recommended reading for all beginning and advanced students of early Welsh poetry.’ — Alderik H. Blum, Modern Language Review 111.4, October 2016, 1132-33 (full text online)
Lodovico Dolce, Dialogo della instituzion delle donne secondo li tre stati che cadono nella vita umana (1545)
Edited by Helena Sanson
Critical Texts 30•1 June 2015
Isabella Sori, Ammaestramenti e ricordi
Edited by Helena Sanson
Critical Texts 48•31 October 2018
Christophe Colomb par Népomucène Louis Lemercier
Edited by Vincenzo De Santis
Phoenix 7•1 January 2015
- ‘Grâce à cette édition, Vincenzo De Santis met en lumière, à travers la redécouverte d’une pièce emblématique de l’expérimentation dramatique sous l’Empire, les enjeux d’un théâtre à la recherche d’une identité nouvelle au seuil de la modernité.’ — Maurizio Melai, Studi francesi 178, 2016, 134
Le Gouvernement présent, ou éloge de son Eminence, satyre ou la Miliade
Edited by Paul Scott
Critical Texts 14•1 October 2010
- ‘Paul Scott’s edition is both meticulous and erudite ... [the] astute analysis of the political and literary significance of the poem will be of broad interest to scholars who work on the political and cultural history of early modern France.’ — Peter Shoemaker, Modern Language Review 107.2, 2012, 618-20 (full text online)
- ‘The editor convincingly argues that the Miliade deserves our attention today as not only the first significant satire since the years of the Catholic League in the 1580s, but also the pamphlet that, in an increasingly centralized and controlled public sphere, made an audacious claim for the possibility of resistance ... This erudite edition will interest students of seventeenth-century history, literature, and all those interested in the history of political dissent.’ — Antonia Szabari, Renaissance Quarterly 67, 2014, 565-66
- ‘Après 90 pages de riche présentation, l’édition elle-même occupe 30 pages complétées de d’autant de notes (32 pages) qui en permettent la plus exacte compréhension ... [une] excellente édition.’ — Françoise Hildesheimer, Dix-septième siècle 258, 2013, 171-72
- ‘In this impeccably researched new edition, editor Paul Scott shows exactly why this pamphlet should be taken seriously ... I have no doubt that this edition will be essential reading for all scholars of the period.’ — Nicholas Hammond, Seventeenth Century XXVII, 2012, 246-47