Eighteenth-Century Fiction publishes reviews of books and other media.
Publishers, please email ecf@mcmaster.ca about getting a scholarly book reviewed in the journal.
ECF publie des critiques pertinentes (les comptes rendus analytiques) sur des livres d’érudition. Les maisons d’édition peuvent envoyer un courriel à ecf@mcmaster.ca, afin de faire réviser un de leurs livres dans la revue.
Newest reviews: free to read. / Lire les comptes rendus du prochain numéro gratuitement et à l’avance:
Books reviewed in ECF 36.4
Reading It Wrong: An Alternative History of Early Eighteenth-Century Literature by Abigail Williams. Princeton University Press, 2023. 328pp. $37. ISBN 978-0691170688.
Review by Melanie Holm, Indiana University of Pennsylvania, US
Lesage ou l’invention comique, dir. Christelle Bahier-Porte et Christophe Martin. Sorbonne Université Presses, 2023. 358p. 22€. ISBN 979-1023107579.
Critique littéraire par Hélène Cussac, Université Toulouse-Jean Jaurès, France
Corrosive Solace: Affect, Biopolitics, and the Realignment of the Repertoire, 1780–1800 by Daniel O’Quinn. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022. 376pp. $74.95. ISBN 9781512823110.
Review by Julie A. Carlson, University of California, Santa Barbara
Orienting Virtue: Civic Identity and Orientalism in Britain’s Global Eighteenth Century by Bethany Williamson. University of Virginia Press, 2022. 248pp. $35. ISBN 978-0813947617.
Review by Sonja Lawrenson, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Regenerating Romanticism: Botany, Sensibility, and Originality in British Literature, 1750–1830 by Melissa Bailes. University of Virginia Press, 2023. 282pp. $32.50. ISBN 978-0813949413.
Review by Claire Knowles, La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia
The Queerness of Water: Troubled Ecologies in the Eighteenth Century by Jeremy Chow. University of Virginia Press, 2023. 254pp. $29.50. ISBN 978-0813949512.
Review by Shelby Johnson, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater
Literature and the Arts: Interdisciplinary Essays in Memory of James Anderson Winn, ed. Anna Battigelli. University of Delaware Press, 2023. 244pp. $42.95. ISBN 978-1644533116.
Review by Alison Conway, University of British Columbia, Okanagan, Canada
Quantitative Literary Analysis of the Works of Aphra Behn: Words of Passion by Laura L. Runge. Anthem Press, 2023. 294pp. OA. ISBN 978-1839982019.
Review by Heather Froehlich, University of Arizona, Tucson
Mary Wollstonecraft: Cosmopolitan by Laura Kirkley. Edinburgh University Press, 2022. 288pp. $120. ISBN 978-1399503099.
Review by Catherine Packham, University of Sussex, UK
Publishing the Woman Writer in England, 1670–1750 by Leah Orr. Oxford University Press, 2023. 352pp. $100. ISBN 978-0192886293.
Review by Melanie Bigold, Cardiff University, UK
Vol. 36, no. 3, July 2024
Click here to read the reviews in this issue.
England Re-Oriented: How Central and South Asian Travelers Imagined the West, 1750–1857 by Humberto Garcia
Review by Eun Kyung Min, Seoul National University
Literary Authority: An Eighteenth-Century Genealogy by Claude Willan
Review by Paul Keen, Carleton University
Backlash: Libel, Impeachment, and Populism in the Reign of Queen Anne by Rachel Carnell
Review by Nicola Parsons, University of Sydney
Death and the Body in the Eighteenth-Century Novel by Jolene Zigarovich
Review by Heather Meek, Université de Montréal
Daniel Defoe in Context, ed. Albert J. Rivero and George Justice
Review by Kit Kincade, Indiana State University
Women and Property Ownership in Jane Austen by Rita J. Dashwood
Review by Lise Gaston, Concordia University
Romantic Fiction and Literary Excess in the Minerva Press Era by Hannah Doherty Hudson
Review by Elizabeth Neiman, University of Maine
Romanticism and the Biopolitics of Modern War Writing by Neil Ramsey
Review by Matthew Reznicek, University of Minnesota
Decoding Anne Lister: From the Archives to “Gentleman Jack,” ed. Chris Roulston and Caroline Gonda
Review by Ula Lukszo Klein, University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
Theology in the Early British and Irish Gothic, 1764–1834 by Sam Hirst
Review by Jarlath Killeen, Trinity College Dublin
Vol. 36, no. 2, April 2024
Click here to read the reviews in this issue.
Sapphic Crossings: Cross-Dressing Women in Eighteenth-Century British Literature, by Ula Lukszo Klein
Review by Robin Runia, Xavier University of Louisiana – p. 347
African Impressions: How African Worldviews Shaped the British Geographical Imagination across the Early Enlightenment, by Rebekah Mitsein
Review by Steven W. Thomas, Wagner College – p. 349
Before Borders: A Legal and Literary History of Naturalization, by Stephanie DeGooyer
Review by David Hollingshead, MacEwan University – p. 352
We Are Kings: Political Theology and the Making of a Modern Individual,by Spencer Jackson
Review by Minji Huh, SUNY Albany – p. 356
British Romanticism and Denmark,by Cian Duffy
Review by Andrew McKendry, Nord University – p. 359
Families of the Heart: Surrogate Relations in the Eighteenth-Century British Novel,by Ann Campbell
Review by Elizabeth Porter, Hostos Community College, CUNY – p. 362
Infinite Variety: Literary Invention, Theology, and the Disorder of Kinds, 1688–1730,by Wolfram Schmidgen
Review by Emma Major, University of York – p. 365
English Theatrical Anecdotes, 1660–1800, ed. Heather Ladd and Leslie Ritchie
Review by Angelina Del Balzo, Bilkent University – p. 367
The Postsecular Restoration and the Making of Literary Conservatism,by Corrinne Harol
Review by Philip Connell, University of Cambridge – p. 370
Croire aux vampires au siècle des Lumières. Entre savoir et fiction, par Stella Louis
Critique littéraire par Emmanuelle Sempere (UR-1337), Université de Strasbourg – p. 372
Des femmes: Observations du préjugé commun sur la difference des sexes,by Louise Dupin, ed. Frédéric Marty
Review by Angela Hunter, University of Arkansas-Little Rock – p. 375
Reading with Austen, www.readingwithausten.com
Review by Sarah Raff, Pomona College – p. 379
Ignatius Sancho’s London: Recovering Black Communities in the 18th Century, https://dcrn.northeastern.edu/ignatius-sanchos-london/
Review by Taylor Schey, North Carolina State University – p. 381
My Life’s Travels and Adventures: An Eighteenth-Century Oculist in the Ottoman Empire and the European Hinterland, by Regina Salomea Pilsztynowa, ed. and trans. Władysław Roczniak
Review by Elizabeth Zold, Winona State University – p. 384
Vol. 36, no. 1, January 2024
Click here for a pdf file of all the reviews in this issue.
British Literature and Technology, 1600–1830, ed. Kristin M. Girten and Aaron R. Hanlon
Review by David Alff, SUNY-Buffalo – p. 169
Old Books and Digital Publishing: Eighteenth Century Collections Online by Stephen H. Gregg
Review by Tonya Howe, George Mason University – p. 172
Owning Performance | Performing Ownership: Literary Property and the Eighteenth-Century British Stage by Jane Wessel
Review by Leslie Ritchie, Queen’s University – p. 175
Romantic Medicine and the Gothic Imagination: Morbid Anatomies by Laura R. Kremmel
Review by James Robert Allard, Brock University – p. 178
Making Ideas Visible in the Eighteenth Century, ed. Jennifer Milam and Nicola Parsons
Review by Louise Voll Box, The Johnston Collection, Melbourne – p. 181
Small Things in the Eighteenth Century: The Political and Personal Value of the Miniature, ed. Chloe Wigston Smith and Beth Fowkes Tobin
Review by Alexandra M. Macdonald, William & Mary – p. 184
Making the Marvelous: Marie-Catherine d’Aulnoy, Henriette-Julie de Murat, and the Literary Representation of the Decorative Arts by Rori Bloom
Review by Allison Stedman, UNC-Charlotte – p. 187
Techno-Magism: Media, Mediation, and the Cut of Romanticism by Orrin N.C. Wang
Review by Lindsey Eckert, Florida State University – p. 190
The Limits of Familiarity: Authorship and Romantic Readers by Lindsey Eckert
Review by Pam Perkins, University of Manitoba – p. 193
American Fragments: The Political Aesthetic of Unfinished Forms in the Early Republic by Daniel Diez Couch
Review by Wendy Lucas, University of Central Arkansas – p. 195
Colonies, traite et esclavage des Noirs dans la presse à la veille de la Révolution 1er janvier 1788–16 juin 1789, par Carminella Biondi
Compte rendu par Lise Andries, CNRS-Université de Paris-Sorbonne – p. 198
Great Books by German Women in the Age of Emotion, 1770–1820 by Margaretmary Daley
Review by Wendy C. Nielsen, Montclair State University – p. 199
Vol. 35, no. 4, October 2023
Click here for a pdf file of all the reviews in this issue.
Besieged: Early Modern British Siege Literature, 1642–1722, by Sharon Alker and Holly Faith Nelson
Review by Neil Ramsey, UNSW Canberra – p. 521
Sister Novelists: The Trailblazing Porter Sisters, Who Paved the Way for Austen and the Brontës, by Devoney Looser
Review by Rosetta Young, Dartmouth College – p. 523
Familial Feeling: Entangled Tonalities in Early Black Atlantic Writing and the Rise of the British Novel, by Elahe Haschemi Yekani
Review by Alpen Razi, Cal Poly SLO – p. 527
Stoic Romanticism and the Ethics of Emotion, by Jacob Risinger
Review by Julie Murray, Carleton University – p. 530
Domestic Captivity and the British Subject, 1660–1750, by Catherine Ingrassia
Review by Cynthia Richards, Wittenberg University – p. 532
Eighteenth-Century Environmental Humanities, ed. Jeremy Chow
Review by Charlee Bezilla, George Washington University – p. 535
Political Affairs of the Heart: Female Travel Writers, the Sentimental Travelogue, and Revolution, 1775–1800, by Linda Van Netten Blimke
Review by Leah M. Thomas, Virginia State University – p. 538
The Natural Laws of Plot: How Things Happen in Realist Novels, by Yoon Sun Lee
Review by Alexander Creighton, UC Berkeley – p. 541
British Women Satirists in the Long Eighteenth Century, ed. Amanda Hiner and Elizabeth Tasker Davis
Review by Katherine G. Charles, Washington College – p. 544
The “Lady’s Magazine” (1770–1832) and the Making of Literary History, by Jennie Batchelor
Review by Bethany E. Qualls, California, United States – p. 547
Motherless Creations: Fictions of Artificial Life, 1650–1890, by Wendy C. Nielsen
Review by Sibylle Erle, University of Lincoln – p. 550
The World of Elizabeth Inchbald: Essays on Literature, Culture, and Theatre in the Long Eighteenth Century, ed. Daniel J. Ennis and E. Joe Johnson
Review by Willow White, University of Alberta, Augustana – p. 553
What Pornography Knows: Sex and Social Protest since the Eighteenth Century, by Kathleen Lubey
Review by Jason S. Farr, Marquette University – p. 556
Voices from Beyond: Physiology, Sentience, and the Uncanny in Eighteenth-Century French Literature, par Scott M. Sanders
Critique littéraire par Nathalie Vuillemin, Université de Neuchâtel – p. 559
Le Cinéma des Lumières: Diderot, Deleuze, Eisenstein, by Marc Escola
Review by Guy Spielmann, Georgetown University – p. 562
Vol. 35, no. 3, July 2023
Click here for a pdf file of all the reviews in this issue.
Review essay: “Romantic Reconfigurations in the Poetry of Charlotte Smith, William Wordsworth, and William Gilbert”
Books reviewed: Charlotte Smith and the Sonnet: Form, Place and Tradition in the Late Eighteenth Century, by Bethan Roberts; “The Excursion” and Wordsworth’s Iconography, by Brandon C. Yen; and William Gilbert and Esoteric Romanticism: A Contextual Study and Annotated Edition of “The Hurricane,” by Paul Cheshire
Review essay by Lawrence Evalyn, Northeastern University
Urban Rehearsals and Novel Plots in the Early American City, by Betsy Klimasmith
Review by Rochelle Raineri Zuck, Iowa State University
Queering the Enlightenment: Kinship and Gender in Eighteenth-Century French Literature, by Tracy L. Rutler
Review by Chris Roulston, Western University
Collective Understanding, Radicalism, and Literary History, 1645–1742, by Melissa Mowry
Review by Leah Orr University of Louisiana, Lafayette
Perception and Analogy: Poetry, Science, and Religion in the Eighteenth Century, by Rosalind Powell
Review by Annika Mann, ASU’s New College of Arts and Sciences
Romantic Pasts: History, Fiction and Feeling in Britain, 1790–1850, by Porscha Fermanis
Review by Ina Ferris, University of Ottawa
Mediating Cultural Memory in Britain and Ireland: From the 1688 Revolution to the 1745 Jacobite Rising, by Leith Davis
Review by Daniel Cook, University of Dundee
British Romanticism and Peace, by John Bugg
Review by Paula Yurss Lasanta, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona
Domestic Space in Britain, 1750–1840: Materiality, Sociability and Emotion, by Freya Gowrley
Review by Sara Pennell, University of Greenwich
Frances Burney and the Arts, ed. Francesca Saggini
Review by Katarina O’Briain, York University
Vol. 35, no. 2, April 2023
Click here for a pdf file of all the reviews in this issue.
Vol. 35, no. 1, January 2023
Click here for a pdf file of all the reviews in this issue.
Vol. 34, supplement 1, Fall 2022
Click here for a pdf file of all the reviews in this issue.
For ECF reviews in volumes 1-34, please read the journal on Project MUSE.