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AMS Press

Titles appearing in Reference — Research Book News — August 2007
Arrangement is by title.

Affected sensibilities; romantic excess and the genealogy of the novel, 1680-1810.

Ahern, Stephen. (AMS studies in the eighteenth century; no.49)
AMS Press, ©2007    239 p.    $82.50    PR858
0-404-63549-0

Ahern (English and writing, Acadia U., Nova Scotia, Canada) examines representative texts of the early novel as it moved from a culture of libertinism during the Restoration and its aftermath, through a culture of sentimentalism from the mid-18th century, to the beginnings of Romanticism. Among the authors he considers are Aphra Behn, Laurence Sterne, and Matthew Lewis. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Comparative excellence; new essays on Shakespeare and Johnson.

Ed. by Eric Raasmussen and Aaron Santesso. (AMS studies in the eighteenth century; no.52)
AMS Press, ©2007    245 p.    $76.50    PR2965
0-404-64852-5

Five each Shakespeare scholars and Samuel Johnson scholars met in Nevada in April 2005 to consider the relationship between the two Renaissance British playwrights. They consider Shakespeare's (1564-1616) influence on Johnson (1709-84) of course, but also Johnson's influence on the theatrical, cultural, and textual reputation of Shakespeare. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

An essay on the history and reality of apparitions; Stoke Newington Daniel Defoe edition.

Defoe, Daniel. Ed. by Kit Kincade. (The works of Daniel Defoe; AMS series in the eighteenth century; v.56)
AMS Press, ©2007    463 p.    $158.50    BF1461
0-404-64856-8

The book was first published in 1727 anonymously, and only attributed to Defoe 22 years after his death. In it he argues that apparitions do indeed exist but not in the way that simple people of earlier times believed; and he explains why they are in the world and how people should behave regarding them. It was one of three books on the supernatural that he wrote toward the end of his life. Kincade contributes a headnote, textual notes, notes to lines, and an outline of materials and story types discussed. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

In and after the beginning; inaugural moments and literary institutions in the long eighteenth century.

Cope, Kevin L. (AMS studies in the eighteenth century; no.57)
AMS Press, ©2007    379 p.    $93.50    PR441
978-0-404-64857-2

The notion that dispersions and convergences of different parts — literary, social, historical, philosophical — can lead to fundamentally new beginnings across arcs of possibility was central to the thought of the long 18th century, contends this work of historical-cultural analysis. The author aims to demonstrate this contention through the analysis of a broad range of texts, from novels such as Robinson Crusoe to texts on political philosophy and philosophical empiricism. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

A singular duality; literary relations between France and England in the eighteenth century.

Frail, Robert J. (AMS studies in the eighteenth century; no.48)
AMS Press, ©2007    163 p.    $74.50    PR129
0-404-63548-2

Frail (French and English, Centenary College of New Jersey) presents nine essays on those cross-channel literary relations, suggesting a common interest in travel books, memoirs novels, and other genres that surfaced as prose literature pushed against poetic discourses and philosophical tracts. His field of vision is wide, and includes the US revolution, Dutch publishers, and Islam. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)