Recent Reviews of MHRA Books

MHRA books are regularly reviewed in scholarly journals across the world, and sometimes also in literary papers such as the Times Literary Supplement. From time to time, our books also appear in Europe’s newspapers, from The Independent and the Daily Telegraph to El Imparcial and Gazeta Shqiptare. The following excerpts are from the 20 most recently received reviews:

  • Film Exhibition: The Italian Context — Edited by Damien Pollard and Edward Bowen, ‘The editors acknowledge the partiality of the collection; much work remains to be done on localities they have not treated, grass-roots movements to save historic cinemas from demolition, the fast-changing contemporary exhibition landscape, and many other topics. However, their work provides a light for the path ahead, the volume constituting a gold standard for ground-breaking research in this underexplored area of (Italian) film studies.’ — Stephen Gundle, Modern Language Review 121.4, October 2026, 617-19 (full text online)
  • Communication, Relevance, and Power in Montaigne’s Essais — Marina Perkins, ‘What might we learn if we apply relevance theory to Communication, Relevance, and Power? That it reaffirms Montaigne’s magnitude. That under- specification is a specification. That if Perkins’s intent is to demonstrate her command of Montaignism, she succeeds. And the message? That the Essais “strive to show the reader a mind at work” (91). So, too, does Perkins’s book.’ — Willis Goth Regier, Renaissance and Reformation 49.1, Winter 2026, 399-401 (full text online)
  • Diaspora Reads: Community, Identity, and Russian Literaturocentrism — Angelos Theocharis, ‘In sum, Diaspora Reads offers a valuable ethnographic snapshot of London-based Russian-speaking readers in the years preceding and immediately following the pandemic. Its strengths lie in its detailed account of social practices, such as gift-giving, games, and ritualized literary encounters that illuminate the persistence of Soviet cultural legacies.’ — Natasha Rulyova, Slavic Review 76.3, 2026, 521-23 (full text online)
  • Dante’s Blood — Anne C. Leone, ‘Leone’s excellent and groundbreaking book shows how valuable blood’s “polysemous agency” and “figurative implications” are in the economy of Dante’s Christian poetics and “prophetic idea of authorship” (191). While Dante claims responsibility for the material shape of his text, he also points to the “other voices that speak” through it, thereby creating a continuity between the Commedia and the preceding literary and biblical traditions.’ — Filippo Gianferrari, Symposium 80.3, 2026, 296-99 (full text online)
  • George Moore, Confessions of a Young Man — Edited by Matthew Creasy, ‘Matthew Creasy’s excellent new critical edition of Confessions, the first in half a century, brings this early, provocative Künstlerroman back into focus, complete with a wide-ranging introduction and richly detailed notes. [...] Creasy’s scholarship is first-rate.'’ — Darran McCann, Studia Hibernica 2, 2026, 188-91 (full text online)
  • Regionalisms and Resistance in the Twentieth-Century Portuguese Novel: Spatialized Ideologies — Peter Haysom-Rodríguez, ‘The author supports his careful and persuasive close readings with an impressive command of Portuguese literary scholarship as well as broader critical and literary debates... Regionalisms and Resistance is an original, well-structured monograph providing a strong methodological model. The work significantly advances our understanding of the ideological work performed by regional spaces in Portuguese fiction. It will be of considerable interest to scholars of Lusophone literature, spatial theory, and political aesthetics.’ — Ana Luísa Amaral, Portuguese Cultural Studies 10.1, 2026, 119-22 (full text online)
  • Writing Across Time in the Twelfth Century: Historical Distance and Difference in the Kaiserchronik — Christoph J. Pretzer, ‘Christoph Pretzer sich der Komplexität dieses auch forschungsgeschichtlich herausfordernden Textes auf mehreren Ebenen gestellt hat, um die Spezifik historischen Erzählens in der Kaiserchronikweitergehend zu erforschen und der Forschung wichtige Anstöße zum Weiterdenken zu geben.’ — Uta Goerlitz, Arbitrium 44.2, 2026, 136–40 (full text online)
  • L. Onerva, Mirdja: A Decadent New Woman — Translated by Eva Buchwald with an introduction and notes by Viola Parente-Čapková, ‘Mirdja deserves to be regarded as a classic of early 20th century Finnish literature, and it is a highly interesting instance of experimental Decadent prose in the international context as well. The translation and critical edition published by the MHRA finally makes it available to an international readership and provides readers with detailed analysis, interpretation, and contextualization of the novel.’ — Antti Ahmala, Joutsen Svanen 2026 (full text online)
  • Italo Calvino and Japan: A Journey through the Shallow Depths of Signs — Claudia Dellacasa, ‘Drawing on semiotics, eco-materialism, and comparative philosophy, [Dellacasa] frames this intercultural meeting not as a one-directional absorption of ‘Oriental wisdom’ but as a dynamic, reciprocal exchange between Italian and Japanese intellectual traditions. In her account, Calvino emerges not as a passive admirer of an ‘exotic elsewhere’, but as an active interlocutor who assessed, reworked, and refined his own poetics through sustained engagement.’ — Luca Proietti, Japanese Studies 46.2, 2026, 247-49 (full text online)
  • The Compass of Dignity: Persecution, Literature, and the Law — Jeremy Adler, ‘[Adler] is profoundly aware of how everything touches on everything else, and of how literature and art both depend on and influence society as a whole. It is this clear-sightedness and determined non-parochialism that mark him out as a writer: he never forgets how vulnerable and hard-won culture is.’ — Charlie Louth, Times Literary Supplement 7 August 2026, 35
  • From the Renaissance to Modernism: Goethe and German Poetry — Jeremy Adler, ‘[Adler] is profoundly aware of how everything touches on everything else, and of how literature and art both depend on and influence society as a whole. It is this clear-sightedness and determined non-parochialism that mark him out as a writer: he never forgets how vulnerable and hard-won culture is.’ — Charlie Louth, Times Literary Supplement 7 August 2026, 35
  • George Chapman, The Shadow of Night & Ovid’s Banquet of Sense — Edited by Zenón Luis-Martínez, ‘This is an extraordinarily detailed and helpful edition with a long introduction, well-judged summaries of sections of the poem, and full notes. Luis-Martínez argues throughout that Chapman is a convinced neo-Platonist whose work is designed to provide a window to the heavens. One does not have to share this reading of Chapman’s poetry to find the apparatus enlightening and to be grateful to such a diligent editor.’ — Andrew Hadfield, Times Literary Supplement 7 August 2026
  • L. Onerva, Mirdja: A Decadent New Woman — Translated by Eva Buchwald with an introduction and notes by Viola Parente-Čapková, ‘The critical edition comprises the elegant prose translation by Eva Buchwald and an excellent, in-depth Introduction by Viola Parente-Čapková, who has also written the commentary accompanying the text. [...] Onerva’s Mirdja is a key work of Nordic decadence, now available to the English-language reader, furnished with an eminently helpful introduction, scholarly apparatus, and critical texts help situate it in the scholarly reception of fin-de-siècle and decadent literature.'’ — Tiina Ann Kirss, Volupté 9.1, 2026, 181–90
  • The Catalonian Journey of American Drama 1909-2000: From Jimmy Valentine to The Vagina Monologues — Ramón Espejo, ‘For its richness, novelty and style the book is good reading for those in American and Catalonian Studies, and especially for those interested in Theatre, Transnational, Transatlantic, Translation and Adaptation Studies.’ — Noelia Hernando-Real, Revista de estudios norteamericanos 29, 2025, 9-14 (full text online)
  • Imagining Iberia in Medieval German Literature — Doriane Zerka, ‘An impressive contribution to fields ranging from medieval literary studies to Iberian studies, German studies, Mediterranean studies, postcolonial studies, and European cultural history. Zerka’s linguistic dexterity and deft application of actor-network theory allow richly multivalent readings of texts juxtaposed across time, variously connected with Iberia... Finally, the author’s own translations in Imagining Iberia provide greater access to understudied German texts such as Herzog Harpin and Reisen nach der Ritterschaft, thereby considerably expanding opportunities for current and future scholarly networks across medieval studies.’ — Alexandra Sterling-Hellenbrand, Speculum 101.3, 1053-54
  • Ronsard's Epic Clouds and Ghosts: Illusions and Idoles in Early Modern French Literature — Alice Aurelia Roullière, ‘Because of the multiple lines of inquiry it develops, the breadth of the analysis, and its contributions regarding irony and the idole in Ronsard’s works, Ronsard’s Epic Clouds and Ghosts provides important insights for scholars working in a number of disciplines, including the literature and history of early modern France, Ronsard studies, Greco-Roman mythology and philosophy, the Wars of Religion, and networks of literary patronage. It will likewise interest colleagues who conduct research on representations of ghosts, Ronsard’s close interlocutors, and the functions of irony in early modern poetry and literature.’ — Theresa Brock, H-France 26.39, June 2026
  • Chaos and the Clean Line: Writings on Franco-British Modernism — Stephen Romer, ‘Everything here feels of our moment. What’s more, collected in this way, these essays produce a cumulative impact that is both pointed and powerful. A respected poet himself, as well as a scholar whose work has long resisted the dogma of academic fashion, Romer cares deeply about language and poetic form. He writes always as if the future of letters depends on honest assessment, and that the future of our civilization depends on its letters and on poetry in particular.’ — Michael Coyle, Modernism/modernity 33.1, January 2026, 182-84 (full text online)
  • George Chapman, The Shadow of Night & Ovid’s Banquet of Sense — Edited by Zenón Luis-Martínez, ‘A comprehensive, original and richly annotated edition. [...] Luis-Martínez’s critical edition of George Chapman’s early poetic work is outstanding not only for the extent of its support material, but also for the clarity and coherence of its argumentation. [...] Without simplifying the complexity of the verse, Luis-Martínez restores difficulty to its rightful place as the poet’s deliberate choice, offering modern readers a Chapman who is challenging, but also innovative and well established among his Elizabethan peers.’ — Dana Percec, British and American Studies 32, 2026, 331-35
  • The First English Pastor Fido — Edited by Massimiliano Morini, ‘A significant intervention in the study of early modern translation, reception, and theatrical culture. [...] Morini has made the text highly readable, [...] clarifying obsolete words and expressions with a great number of very useful critical notes. [...] The First English ‘Pastor Fido’ should be read not only as a critical edition but also as a case study in the historiography of translation. [...] This volume is indispensable for scholars of early modern translation, comparative literature, and cultural poetics.’ — Emanuel Stelzer, Cahiers Élisabéthains 118.1, 2025, 229–32 (full text online)
  • Standing at the Crossroads: Stories of Doubt in Renaissance Italy — Marco Faini, ‘Il dubbio dunque come parte di una cultura segreta, nascosta, tramandata carsicamente dal Rinascimento di inizio secolo al mondo della Controriforma globale. Il dubbio in fondo come strumento per conoscere, avvicinare e assimilare il diverso, l'altro per eccellenza: in tal senso metodi nuovi di conversione come l'accomodatio formulata da Valignano e da altri gesuiti italiani in Estremo Oriente non sarebbero altro che il frutto di questa cultura del dubbio germogliata nell'Italia di Machiavelli e Castiglione.’ — Guillaume Alonge, Immagini e testi per l’Europa del Rinascimento 2/2025, 2025, 209-16 (full text online)