Return to publisher list | Printer Friendly

AMS Press

Titles appearing in Reference — Research Book News — November 2008
Arrangement is by title. Visit publisher's website

Acting like a lady; British women novelists and the eighteenth-century theater.

Nachumi, Nora. (AMS studies in the eighteenth century; no.50)
AMS Press, ©2008    347 p.    $94.50    PR858
978-0-404-64850-3

Between 1660 and 1818 about a third of female novelists were actors, playwrights, or part of the theatrical milieu. Nachumi (English, Yeshiva U.) proves this in an extraordinary appendix linking British women to the theater and thereby to participation in a and vigorous debate about female nature and performance that continues today. She applies her research to an analysis of how the theatrical woman, who had in essence moved beyond the issue in their own lives, represented female subjectivity. One of Nachumi's most interesting observations is about how a lady's appearance indicated to her audience her state of mind, and how performance became an integral part of the representation of paragons. In three essays on Elizabeth Inchbald, Frances Burney and Jane Austen, she ably applies her theories about performance in terms of emotion, femininity and perception, respectively. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Aspects of early music and performance.

Davidson, Audrey Ekdahl. (AMS studies in music; no.1)
AMS Press, ©2008    218 p.    $92.50    ML1400
978-0-404-64601-1

This collection contains 12 essays on early music by late musician and scholar Audrey Ekdahl Davidson, on composers such as Palestrina, John Dowland, Henry Lawes, and Hildegard of Bingen; pieces such as the Planctus Mariae and Ludus Daniels by anonymous composers; and discussions of performance practice and English Renaissance texts by Milton, Sir Philip Sydney, and George Herbert. Some essays have not been previously published. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

At the heart of the 1890s; essays on Lionel Johnson.

Paterson, Gary H. (AMS studies in the nineteenth century; no.39)
AMS Press, ©2008    175 p.    $84.50    PR4826
978-0-404-64469-7

Now eclipsed by Wilde and Yeats, Lionel Johnson was in his own time considered a poet of the highest order. Paterson argues for Johnson's return to fame in these 11 essays, firmly placing him within the "end of the age" era. Johnson's personal and poetic approach to religion verged on the mystical, he drew inspiration of sorts from Clough, he invoked interlinked dichotomies of the senses, and he was surely capable of seeing the humor in it all. Extremely interesting is Paterson's chapter on Johnson's attention to Celtic lore and themes at the end of his life. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Companion to emblem studies.

Ed. by Peter M. Daly. (AMS studies in the emblem; no.20)
AMS Press, ©2008    632 p.    $225.00    PN56
978-0-404-63720-0

Generally defined as a combination of image and words that elicit recognition on the part of the observer (occasionally, the image is enough), emblems are on furniture, posters, clothes, and automobiles — almost anything people create. Daly (McGill University, Montreal, Canada) covers the history of emblems in his introduction to this collection of essays, noting that the criteria for emblems are fluid. The essays themselves demonstrate the fluidity and variety of the broad subject, offering a broad spectrum of approaches and ranging from discussion of Neo-Latin emblem books to contemporary uses of emblems as advertising tools. Among the topics are theory, bibliography, the use of emblems in various countries (e.g. Hungary and Spain), their function in different eras (the Italian Renaissance, early modern England), and emblems on flags, in tournaments, and among the Jesuits. This comprehensive reference includes a long list of books for further research. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Dickens studies annual; essays on Victorian fiction; v.39.

Ed. by Stanley Friedman et al. (Dickens studies annual)
AMS Press, ©2008    454 p.    $172.50    PR4592
978-0-404-18939-6

Mostly American scholars of literature offer 14 new views of London writer Charles Dickens and his novels, among them enumeration and exhaustion in The Old Curiosity Shop, Dickens in America, dining and narration in David Copperfield, the Paris morgue in Dickens and Browning, reading and repeating Our Mutual Friend. Wilkie Collins represents his contemporaries with The Moonstone. A bibliography of studies focusing on Dickens and gender published 1992-2007 is included, along with a long bibliographic essay on general Dickens studies published in 2006. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The human imperative; a study of the novels of Graham Greene.

Land, Stephen K.
AMS Press, ©2008    286 p.    $87.50    PR6013
978-0-404-61595-6

In independent scholar Land's refreshing approach to Greene, he considers the entire panel his works and analyzes the author's development alongside that of his themes. He starts, naturally, with Orient Express and The Third Man and works largely chronologically to the more ambitious The power and the Glory and The Quiet American, revealing the threads of theme and character running through. Land explains Greene's ideas about the individual in society, the role of religion in that individual's life and their links to redemption, the theory and practice of choice, and the healing and damning power of love. Fully aware his approach may well catch on, Land provides suggestions for further study in his notes. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Isolation and social change in three Spanish-speaking villages of New Mexico.

Walter, Paul A.F. Ed. by Charles E. Woodhouse. (Immigrant communities & ethnic minorities in the United States & Canada; no.80)
AMS Press, ©2008    281 p.    $147.50    F805
978-0-404-19490-1

Originally submitted as a doctoral dissertation to Stanford U. in 1938, Walter's work has served as an authoritative reference for the study of Spanish American people in New Mexico for decades. Based on one of the earliest projects of sociological research to be done in New Mexico, the text offers a comparative analysis of three Spanish American communities, chosen for their differential proximity to an urban Anglo community — Albuquerque — to explore the degree to which isolation from the dominant culture is a factor affecting social change within Spanish American communities. A detailed introductory essay by Woodhouse provides contextual background and analysis and discussion of Walter's legacy. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Sidney's (re)writing of the Arcadia.

Schneider, Regina. (AMS studies in the Renaissance; no.43)
AMS Press, ©2008    238 p.    $86.00    PR2342
978-0-404-62343-2

It is intriguing to imagine that Sir Phillip Sidney lived to finish The Countess of Pembroke's Arcadia. Perhaps it would not be as interesting to scholars if Sidney had been able to deliver the last word. However, Schneider (literature, U. of Fribourg) finds the differing versions and conjectures about what might have been to be only a starting point as she develops a set of entirely new theories. She finds the development of the text from a collection of lyric poems into a comprehensive prose narrative a precursor of the novel, integrating sixteenth-century forms (amongst them the pastoral eclogue, philosophical dialogue and novella) into a structure build of "ingenious plotting." She characterizes the genesis, development and uses of voice and speeches as entirely innovative, and the form as much more than just a novel in the making. This interdisciplinary approach also serves as a model for future studies. (Annotation ©2008 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)