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)

Perspectives on Culture and Politics in the French Antilles
Celia Britton
Selected Essays 4

  • ‘Engagingly written and meticulously argued at every turn, Britton’s essays reveal unexpected dimensions in her primary archives and offer challenging arguments on the relationship between politics and aesthetics in the French Caribbean... Although Britton has an abiding passion for Glissant’s work, she never lets this interest overshadow the singularities of her other authors. This careful sensitivity is characteristic of the masterful readings Britton provides in her provocative new collection.’ — Justin Izzo, French Studies 73.2, April 2019, 329-30 (full text online)
  • ‘Les analyses abordées sont très attentives et riches en éléments qui peuvent constituer le point de départ d’autres études.’ — Emanuela Cacchioli, Studi francesi 189, 2019, 616-17

Arthur Symons: Poet, Critic, Vagabond
Edited by Elisa Bizzotto and Stefano Evangelista
Studies In Comparative Literature 44

  • ‘The MHRA's recent commitment to publishing works by or on Arthur Symons was sus=tained in 2017 with selections edited by Nicholas Freeman and by Jane Desmarais and Chris Baldick. That commitment continues with a volume of essays on Symons’s life and work, many of which discuss his personal, intellectual, and artistic relations with aspects of European culture... In their short but excellent introduction, Bizzotto and Evangelista argue that their collection, “the first ... entirely dedicated to Symons[,] ... aims to project a new, nuanced view of Symons into the twenty-first century.”’ — Ian Small, English Literature in Transition 1880-1920 62.3, 2019, 599-606
  • ‘Once consecrated by Pater as a successor to Browning, Symons ranged far beyond poetry to practise literary and art criticism, aesthetic theory, drama, travel writing and translation; and he wrote prolifically, if self-cannibalistically, until his death in 1945.’ — Ellen Crowell, Times Literary Supplement 7 June 2019, 35
  • ‘A book devoted to the work of Arthur Symons is timely and much needed; and this carefully fashioned and integrated collection of essays offers an excellent response to that need... This is a well-crafted collection; a thoughtful and integrated multi- authored study of a writer, and one that has been put together both to confirm his significance to many of our current scholarly preoccupations while simultaneously unsettling what it might mean to think of a writer as ‘central’ to any of those debates.’ — Marion Thain, Comparative Critical Studies 17.1, 2020, 161-64 (full text online)
  • ‘The book is clearly a timely contribution to our knowledge of Symons and represents a significant milestone in his ongoing critical retrieval.’ — Rob Harris, Studies in Walter Pater and Aestheticism 5, 2020, 140-44
  • ‘Gives Symons the meticulous attention that such a pivotal cultural figure deserves. One of the most insightful aspects... is its analysis of the wandering obliqueness of his Decadent perspective as it reflects his philosophical commitment to freedom of expression, experience, and lifestyle.’ — Dennis Denisoff, Victorian Studies 62.4, 2020, 686-88 (full text online)

Published August 2018

Encounters with Albion: Britain and the British in Texts by Jewish Refugees from Nazism
Anthony Grenville
Germanic Literatures 17

  • ‘Some of the most moving stories, though, are written by less well-known figures: tales of loneliness; the humiliating treatment of domestic servants; stories of loss by children who arrived with the Kindertransport... Grenville has trawled the archives of the AJR and numerous books and diaries for stories which help us understand the experience of refugees. It is hard to think of anyone who has done more to open up their world and bring it to life.’ — David Herman, Jewish Chronicle 26 October 2018
  • ‘By examining the writings of Jews who had escaped to the UK, Grenville has pieced together an invaluable account of the feelings of shock, anger and confusion which those who were interned experienced.’ — Robert Philpot, The Times of Israel 2 December 2018
  • ‘Unusually for an academic publication, Grenville’s book will move its readers in several ways: the plight of the refugees in a strange country; their differing degrees of success; the crude and unfeeling ways in which the British authorities dealt with so many internees; the incomprehension towards refugees that was displayed by a large number of British citizens; and, conversely, the kindness, generosity and warm-heartedness that was shown by so many ordinary people to total strangers whose language they did not speak and for whose culture they often had little comprehension.’ — Richard Sheppard, Journal of European Studies 51.2, June 2021, 157-59 (full text online)
  • ‘Grenvilles Methode der Darstellung beruht auf einem close reading und de- taillierter Textinterpretation, wobei Grenville hier literarische und historische, oft kulturwissenschaftliche Analyse kombiniert. Durch die Zitate und Kommentare können LeserInnen sich einen guten Einblick in die Textgrundlage verschaffen, was besonders wichtig ist, denn die herangezogenen Texte wurden meistens auf Englisch geschrieben, sind aber nicht immer leicht zugänglich.’ — Eva-Maria Thüne, Jahrbuch für Internationale Germanistik 53.1, 2021, 226-29

Thinking Cinema with Proust
Patrick ffrench
Moving Image 7

  • ‘ffrench masterfully argues that Proust’s novel undoes our confidence in the objectivity of memory and of history... This brief account cannot do justice to the intricacies of ffrench’s book, which will serve as a valuable resource to scholars of the novel and of the cinema.’ — Patrick M. Bray, French Studies 73.4, October 2019, 663-64 (full text online)
  • ‘Thinking cinema ‘with and through Proust’, this brilliant book unravels manifold new connections, resonances, and echoes across diverse fields of knowledge, demonstrating amply that the chapter of Proust’s relation to cinema is far from being closed.’ — Marion Schmid, Modern Language Review 115.4, October 2020, 922-23 (full text online)

The Modern Spanish Canon: Visibility, Cultural Capital and the Academy
Edited by Stuart Davis and Maite Usoz de la Fuente
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 28

  • ‘This volume showcases the work of early-career scholars working in modern peninsular Spanish studies as they seek a breakthrough into the institutional realm of the contemporary academy. It comprises ten essays ordered and presented by the editors, who, in a spirited Introduction, identify fundamental questions and issues ranging from nomenclature (Spanish Studies? Iberian Studies?) and the politics of the discipline, to ownership and the constitution of the canon.’ — Robin Fiddian, Hispanic Research Journal 20.4, 2019, 416-17 (full text online)
  • ‘A welcome and handsome contribution to debates on the limits, possibilities and opportunities for current and future research on the modern Spanish cultural canon... An excellent vision of the vibrant health of early-career Hispanism and a thought-provoking challenge to established critical paradigms... this volume is testament to a very bright and innovative future for our discipline.’ — Alison Ribeiro de Menezes, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 96.9, 2019, 1557-58

Utopian Identities: A Cognitive Approach to Literary Competitions
Clementina Osti
Studies In Comparative Literature 41

Published September 2018

The Poetics of Early Russian Crime Fiction 1860-1917: Deciphering Stories of Detection
Claire Whitehead
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘An intricately researched and fascinating exploration of the origins and development of a forgotten genre... Whitehead’s re- evaluation of Dostoevskii’s novels (including Brothers Karamazov) as crime literature is rewarding and insightful. Even more valuable, however, is her analysis of Dostoevskii’s forgotten peers, who created the landmarks of this fluid and reactive genre.’ — Muireann Maguire, Slavonic and East European Review 90.4, October 2020, 767-69 (full text online)
  • ‘Яркая книга Клер Уайтхед убедительно демонстрирует, что отечественные исто- рики литературы напрасно не обращают внимания на чрезвычайно интересный, причем не только в тематическом плане, но и в идейном, и в плане поэтики, кри- минальный жанр русской литературы. Это (как и игнорирование отечественных фантастики, оккультной прозы, колониального романа, романа о городских жули- ках и мошенниках и т.д.) значительно обедняет картину русской литературы XIX — начала XX в. Кроме того, рассмотрение «Преступления и наказания» Достоевского и «Шведской спички» Чехова в контексте уголовной прозы позволило исследова- тельнице внести ценный вклад в интерпретацию этих произведений. И наконец, для отечественных литературоведов книга может послужить своего рода путево- дителем по современной англоязычной нарратологии.’ — A. I. Reitblat, Novoe Literaturnoe Obozrenie 175, May/June 2022, 343-50

Swinburne’s Style: An Experiment in Verse History
L. M. Kilbride
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘An ambitious attempt to reckon with the poet’s achievement in verse... this book helps us to see Swinburne’s corpus for what it is: one of the most sophisticated formal projects in English verse, no matter what T. S. Eliot thought.’ — Justin A. Sider, English Literature in Transition 1880-1920 63.2, 2020, 280-83
  • ‘Kilbride provides the reader with insightful textual analyses that shed new light on a selection of Swinburne’s poetical works, some of which are canonical, others still fairly neglected.’ — Giovanni Bassi, Modern Language Review 115.4, October 2020, 905-07 (full text online)
  • ‘Combines a practitioner’s delight in Swinburne’s verse textures with a scholar’s insight into poetic experiment in nineteenth-century Britain and a literary theorist’s investment in social critique.’ — Julia F. Saville, Victorian Studies 63.1, Autumn 2020, 152-53 (full text online)

St Teresa of Ávila: Her Writings and Life
Edited by Terence O'Reilly, Colin Thompson and Lesley Twomey
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 19

  • ‘The variety of topics and approaches in these essays, and the erudition and rigour of their authors, ensures that this volume represents an invaluable contribution to scholarship on St Teresa of Avila and will serve as a touchstone for future work on this saint and, more generally, on religious writing in the period.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 55.4, October 2019, 498-99 (full text online)
  • ‘Readers from a variety of disciplinary backgrounds will find this collection fruitful and accessible, and scholars who are unfamiliar with Spanish will find faithful translations... The volume commemorates the five-hundredth anniversary of Teresa’s birth, but its imaginative, far-reaching perspectives on her life and legacy show that there is still ample appetite and space for future Teresian scholarship.’ — Catherine Maguire, Hispanic Research Journal 20.4, 2019, 409-10 (full text online)
  • ‘The contributors [...] deepen our understanding of Teresa by noting previously-overlooked sources and influences and emphasizing her theological contributions, which carry potential relevance in spiritual discussions today. As Thompson notes, in Teresa’s writings we encounter her not as an otherworldly being, but a person to whom modern-day readers can relate. The essays in this volume allow us further access to the human experiences, resultant insights and immediate legacy of one of Spain’s most famous saints.’ — Teresa Hancock-Parmer, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 97.2, 2020, 269-70

Erotic Literature in Adaptation and Translation
Edited by Johannes D. Kaminski
Transcript 7

  • ‘Each chapter is conceptually challenging and theoretically rigorous. Indebted to the ‘cultural turn’ of translation studies, ... the contributors are sensitive to the vicissitudes of cultural values and sexual mores, and to the disfigurement that translation precipitates... This volume unleashes a network of exciting discursive tributaries, primed for further navigation.’ — Victoria Carroll, Modern Language Review 115.3, July 2020, 694-95 (full text online)
  • ‘In spite of the fact that the publishing industry has been flooded with erotic literatures since the old times and that translation studies has newly witnessed a felicitous avalanche in the academic publication of our time, erotic literatures and translation studies have by far remained two sufficiently wide and wild parallels in contemporary academia. Erotic Literature in Adaption and Translation edited by Johannes D. Kaminski hence boasts a brave and brilliant contribution, a contribution that not only makes such two distant parallels meet in one single volume but also conjures up a happiest convergence of the estranging twain—erotic literature in the West and its counterpart in the farthest East, by the medium of both multilingual translation and, above all, universal humanity, wherein reigns Eros, the Greek god of erotic love.’ — Min-Hua Wu, The Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture 12.2, June 2019, 223-31 (full text online)

Fulvio Tomizza: Writing the Trauma of Exile
Marianna Deganutti
Italian Perspectives 38

  • ‘Deganutti’s monograph is a fine and original book whose ultimate merit is to reclaim multilingual, multicultural Tomizza and the exilic predicament of the Istrian borderlands for Italian literature. It is to be hoped that her study will inspire further cross-cultural research on this still contentious and yet incredibly generative literary, historical, and memorial field.’ — Katia Pizzi, Modern Language Review 115.3, July 2020, 736-37 (full text online)

Rome: Modernity, Postmodernity and Beyond
Edited by Lesley Caldwell and Fabio Camilletti
Italian Perspectives 39

  • ‘As the seat of the Roman Empire, the Catholic Church, Mussolini’s Fascism, and Silvio Berlusconi’s neoliberalism, and as a site of immigration and social diversity, Rome is characterized by complexity... A valuable contribution to the scholarship of one of Europe’s most historically significant and cathected cities and will no doubt be of value to scholars of the Eternal City within both urban and Italian studies.’ — Damien Pollard, Modern Language Review 115.1, 2020, 190-91 (full text online)

A 'New' Woman in Verga and Pirandello: From Page to Stage
Enza De Francisci
Italian Perspectives 40

  • ‘Effectively demonstrates that the two Sicilian writers, conventionally thought of as patriarchal figures, have, in their dramatic works, an affinity with the emerging ‘new woman’.’ — Mary Ann Frese Witt, Modern Language Review 115.2, 2020, 470-71 (full text online)

The History of Language Learning and Teaching I: 16th-18th Century Europe
Edited by Nicola McLelland and Richard Smith
Legenda (General Series) vol 1 of 3

  • ‘Es erhebe nicht den Anspruch, seinen Gegenstand ganz abzudecken, sondern biete “an illustrative sample of in-depth studies” (I: 2). Doch möchte es das Studium der Geschichte des Fremdsprachenlehrens und -lernens (“History of Language Learning and Teaching”, HoLLT) wenn nicht begründen, so doch maß- geblich begleiten, denn bisher sei die Forschung an verschiedenen Stellen getrennt und unkoordiniert betrieben worden (I: 3–4). Mit diesem Werk werde HoLLT etabliert oder gar zu einer Disziplin erweitert (I: 5).’ — Helmut Glück, Historiographia Linguistica 46.1, 2019, 208-17 (full text online)
  • ‘As far as I know, this three-volume collection is the first-ever attempt at a comparative and truly global history of our discipline... The three volumes just discussed constitute a treasure trove to the riches of which a single reviewer can do scant justice.’ — Arthur van Essen, ELT Journal 74.1, January 2020, 89-93
  • ‘The three volumes of The History of Language Learning and Teaching offer a significant contribution to the emerging interdisciplinary, intercultural and plurilinguistic research area of historical foreign language didactics... a very stimulating and rich mosaic of FLT history.’ — Britta Juska-Bacher, Paedagogica Historica online, 25 Nov 2020 (full text online)
  • ‘Edited collections of this breadth and quality are rare and these three volumes make an important and vitalising contribution to the multidisciplinary field of HoLLT. The extensive range of case studies provides a highly readable and scholarly reference which will be undoubtedly valued by language teachers and students and researchers of language and education historiography.’ — Simon Coffey, Language & History 31 Mar 2020 (full text online)

The History of Language Learning and Teaching II: 19th-20th Century Europe
Edited by Nicola McLelland and Richard Smith
Legenda (General Series) vol 2 of 3

  • ‘Es erhebe nicht den Anspruch, seinen Gegenstand ganz abzudecken, sondern biete “an illustrative sample of in-depth studies” (I: 2). Doch möchte es das Studium der Geschichte des Fremdsprachenlehrens und -lernens (“History of Language Learning and Teaching”, HoLLT) wenn nicht begründen, so doch maß- geblich begleiten, denn bisher sei die Forschung an verschiedenen Stellen getrennt und unkoordiniert betrieben worden (I: 3–4). Mit diesem Werk werde HoLLT etabliert oder gar zu einer Disziplin erweitert (I: 5).’ — Helmut Glück, Historiographia Linguistica 46.1, 2019, 208-17 (full text online)
  • ‘As far as I know, this three-volume collection is the first-ever attempt at a comparative and truly global history of our discipline... The three volumes just discussed constitute a treasure trove to the riches of which a single reviewer can do scant justice.’ — Arthur van Essen, ELT Journal 74.1, January 2020, 89-93
  • ‘The three volumes of The History of Language Learning and Teaching offer a significant contribution to the emerging interdisciplinary, intercultural and plurilinguistic research area of historical foreign language didactics... a very stimulating and rich mosaic of FLT history.’ — Britta Juska-Bacher, Paedagogica Historica online, 25 Nov 2020 (full text online)
  • ‘Edited collections of this breadth and quality are rare and these three volumes make an important and vitalising contribution to the multidisciplinary field of HoLLT. The extensive range of case studies provides a highly readable and scholarly reference which will be undoubtedly valued by language teachers and students and researchers of language and education historiography.’ — Simon Coffey, Language & History 31 Mar 2020 (full text online)

The History of Language Learning and Teaching III: Across Cultures
Edited by Nicola McLelland and Richard Smith
Legenda (General Series) vol 3 of 3

  • ‘Es erhebe nicht den Anspruch, seinen Gegenstand ganz abzudecken, sondern biete “an illustrative sample of in-depth studies” (I: 2). Doch möchte es das Studium der Geschichte des Fremdsprachenlehrens und -lernens (“History of Language Learning and Teaching”, HoLLT) wenn nicht begründen, so doch maß- geblich begleiten, denn bisher sei die Forschung an verschiedenen Stellen getrennt und unkoordiniert betrieben worden (I: 3–4). Mit diesem Werk werde HoLLT etabliert oder gar zu einer Disziplin erweitert (I: 5).’ — Helmut Glück, Historiographia Linguistica 46.1, 2019, 208-17 (full text online)
  • ‘The studies cover analyses of instruction books and didactic materials, and the cultural representations and values found in those; teaching and education policies or applications of phonetics for teaching. One study also examines creating and maintaining international penfriend networks.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 55.4, October 2019, 496 (full text online)
  • ‘As far as I know, this three-volume collection is the first-ever attempt at a comparative and truly global history of our discipline... The three volumes just discussed constitute a treasure trove to the riches of which a single reviewer can do scant justice.’ — Arthur van Essen, ELT Journal 74.1, January 2020, 89-93
  • ‘The three volumes of The History of Language Learning and Teaching offer a significant contribution to the emerging interdisciplinary, intercultural and plurilinguistic research area of historical foreign language didactics... a very stimulating and rich mosaic of FLT history.’ — Britta Juska-Bacher, Paedagogica Historica online, 25 Nov 2020 (full text online)
  • ‘Edited collections of this breadth and quality are rare and these three volumes make an important and vitalising contribution to the multidisciplinary field of HoLLT. The extensive range of case studies provides a highly readable and scholarly reference which will be undoubtedly valued by language teachers and students and researchers of language and education historiography.’ — Simon Coffey, Language & History 31 Mar 2020 (full text online)

Accent, Rhythm and Meaning in French Verse
Roger Pensom
Research Monographs in French Studies 44

  • ‘With his passing, we have lost an indispensable and challenging voice in the ongoing dispute about the nature of French metricity, a voice that has restored to the debate, with impressive scholarship, the claims of the pre-modern and early modern periods, a voice that has tirelessly made the very necessary case for accent, and tellingly revealed the shortcomings of too purist a version of isosyllabism.’ — Clive Scott, Modern Language Review 114.4, October 2019, 875-76 (full text online)
  • ‘This highly detailed, technically demanding book is not one that undergraduates will be expected to read, but its findings should unquestionably be one’s starting point in introducing them to French verse.’ — unsigned notice, Forum for Modern Language Studies 55.4, October 2019, 497 (full text online)
  • ‘The legacy of this book, and of its author’s life’s work, does not have to be, indeed, does not deserve to be, relegated to the lone furrow which he sometimes suggests he is ploughing. There is ample proof here to suggest that the accentual has a vital role to play within the metrical, that the peculiar tensions and hesitations of verse rhythm are produced, precisely, by the interplay between the two... Pensom’s work makes a welcome and valuable contribution.’ — David Evans, H-France 19.239, November 2019

No Country for Nonconforming Women: Feminine Conceptions of Lusophone Africa
Maria Tavares
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 32

  • ‘An excellent scholarly contribution that is both clear and accessible. It must be critically addressed byprofessors, students, and researchers both in and beyond the Lusophone academic sphere.’ — Sandra I. Sousa, Journal of Lusophone Studies 4.1, 2019, 328-30 (full text online)

Published February 2019

Unidentified Narrative Objects and the New Italian Epic
Kate Elizabeth Willman
Italian Perspectives 42

Gravity and Grace: Essays for Roger Pearson
Edited by Charlie Louth and Patrick McGuinness
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘A core series of contributions offers a remarkably sustained and rich reflection on the interplay between the aesthetic and ethical notions of gravity and grace.’ — Scott M. Powers, H-France 20, June 2020, no. 92
  • ‘Works of art function by allowing something to happen, rather than by making something happen, and are nothing without our active participation. The prescriptive weightiness of words in practical discourse is not what poetry, especially, puts in play. That certainly makes this book a fitting tribute to the wonderful work of Roger Pearson, whose own writing is never heavy, never pedantic, but always invites and inspires the reader to continue thinking beyond the page.’ — Peter Dayan, Modern Language Review 116.1, 2020, 188-89 (full text online)

Santería, Vodou and Resistance in Caribbean Literature: Daughters of the Spirits
Paul Humphrey
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 12

  • ‘Humphrey does not argue for the homogenization of [Vodou and Santería], but for the honest recognition and acceptance of their differences. Moving past the violent stereotyping [...], he encourages us to treat these religions as ‘living systems’ in which slavery, colonialism, creolization and hybridity intersect in a dynamic negotiation of all the complexities that create what would be a ‘postcolonial’ Caribbean.’ — Janelle Rodriques, Bulletin of Spanish Studies 97.2, 2020, 294-95

Photographing the Unseen Mexico: Maya Goded’s Socially Engaged Documentaries
Dominika Gasiorowski
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 21

  • ‘By employing innovative, subaltern questioning, Dominika Gasiorowski makes an exceptionally strong case for engaging with this socially committed Mexican documentary filmmaker and photographer and has produced an extremely thorough and impactful study of Maya Goded’s work.’ — Erica Segre, Bulletin of Spanish Visual Studies 5.1, 2021, 186-87 (full text online)

Form and Reform in Eighteenth-Century Spain: Utopian Narratives and Socio-Political Debate
Carla Almanza-Gálvez
Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone Cultures 33

Published April 2019

Writing the Landscape: Exposing Nature in French Women's Fiction 1789–1815
Christie Margrave
Legenda (General Series)

  • ‘The book is meticulously researched and packed with critical responses from a variety of different fields, showing Margrave’s interdisciplinary intentions. This book opens the door for yet more focused work to be carried out on this understudied yet highly formative period in French literary and social history.’ — Stacie Allan, Modern Language Review 115.2, 2020, 470-71 (full text online)
  • ‘Writing the Landscape’s strengths lie in its close literary analyses of lesser-known works by women... The book rightly calls our attention to a corpus of women’s writing that deserves more critical attention, and it renews our understanding of how - far from being insignificant green backdrops - landscape descriptions could serve as focal points within a novel.’ — Giulia Pacini, H-France 20, May 2018, no. 77
  • ‘Scholars of European Romanticism have almost entirely overlooked the influence of French women writers of the First Republic and First Empire. In reaction to this oversight, Margrave's excellent monograph resituates the dominant themes of French Romanticism, firstly, as developing earlier than the 1820s and, secondly, as much more than a male phenomenon... This well-researched and beautifully written book provides fresh contributions to the fields of Women's Studies and French Romanticism by demonstrating the vital importance of these largely forgotten women writers of the First Republic and First Empire.’ — Julianna Starr, Women in French Studies 28, 2020, 147-48 (full text online)
  • ‘Christie Margrave’s analysis of women writers’ feminist engagement with the Romantic vogue for natural landscape not only offers a fresh perspective on Romantic luminary Germaine de Staël; it also sheds light on the novels of Félicité de Genlis, Sophie Cottin, Barbara von Krüdener, and Adélaïde de Souza... This is an insightful, valuable, and timely study bound to inform and inspire future scholarship in French women’s writing of the Romantic era.’ — Laura Kirkley, French Studies 77.1, January 2023, 135-36 (full text online)