Plotting Gothic

A historian of medieval art and architecture with a rich appreciation of literary studies, Stephen Murray brings all those fields to bear on a new approach to understanding the great Gothic churches of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Plotting Gothic positions the rhetoric of the Gothic as a series of three interlocking plots: a spatial plot tied to the material construction of the churches, a social plot stemming from the collaborative efforts that made Gothic output possible, and a rhetorical plot involving narratives that treat the churches as objects of desire. Drawing on the testimony of three witnesses involved in church building—Abbot Suger of Saint-Denis, Gervase of Canterbury, and the image maker Villard de Honnecourt—and a range of secondary sources, Murray traces common patterns in the way medieval buildings were represented in words and images. Our witnesses provide vital information about the way the great churches of Gothic were built and the complexity of their meanings. Taking a fresh approach to Gothic architecture, Plotting Gothic offers an invigorating new way to understand some of the most lasting achievements of the medieval era.

For history readers, travelers, and scholars alike, an indispensable behind-the-scenes guide to the great cathedrals of Paris. “So infectious is R. Howard Bloch’s passion for his subject that even those unable to do the traveling required will find in Paris and Her Cathedrals an inspiring guide to these time-hallowed masterpieces of medieval culture.” —Colin Jones, author of Paris and The Great Nation Over the years, R. Howard Bloch has become renowned for the insider tours of Paris that he gives to students abroad. Long sought after by travelers and history buffs for his near-encyclopedic knowledge of French cathedrals, the eminent French literature scholar finally shares his expertise with a wider audience. In Paris and Her Cathedrals, six of the most sublime cathedrals in the penumbra of Paris—Saint-Denis, Notre-Dame, Chartres, Sainte-Chapelle, Amiens, Reims—are illumined in magnificent detail as Bloch, taking us from the High Middle Ages to the devastating fire that set Notre-Dame ablaze in 2019, traces the evolution of each in turn. Written from the premise that “seeing is enhanced by knowing,” each chapter is organized along the lines of a walk around and then through the space of the cathedral, such that the actual or virtual visitor feels the rich sweep of the church, “the essence of these architectural wonders” (Antonia Felix). Animating the past with lush evocations of architectural splendor—from flying buttresses and jewel-encrusted shrines to hidden burial grounds and secret chambers—Bloch then contextualizes the cathedrals within the annals of French history. Here thrilling tales of kingly intrigue—as in Saint-Chapelle, where the pious King Louis IX amassed relics, including Christ’s crown of thorns—and audacious abbots are interspersed with anecdotes about the meeting of aristocratic and everyday life, culminating in “a rich, colorful narrative that clearly but expertly explains the history and symbolism of some of the world’s most magnificent buildings” (Ross King). To be read in preparation for an enlightened visit or merely to open a window upon the High Middle Ages in France, Paris and Her Cathedrals is a “revelation,” an “indispensable guide” (Garry Wills) to these awe-inspiring structures. Complete with the author’s own photographs, this beautifully illustrated volume vitally enhances our understanding of the history of Paris and its environs.

This book takes an exciting new approach to characterisation and plot in the Victorian novel, examining the vital narrative work performed by disabled characters.

The lithic garden' addresses the formal, symbolic, and ideological functions of foliate ornament in medieval French churches, offering remarkable new insights on the complex relationship between organic and figural sculptures, interior and exterior design, sacred and profane spaces, and artistic form and liturgy.

"Boy meets girl. Boy proposes to girl. Girl refuses proposal. Then what?This provocative scenario provides the frame for a significant countertradition in popular nineteenth-century women's novels: the double-proposal plot, in which the heroine rejects and later accepts proposals from the same suitor. Exploring the American wing of this movement through the novels of Carolyn Hentz, Augusta Evans, Laura J. Curtis Bullard, E. D. E. N. Southworth, and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Karen Tracey investigates how each of these writers is constrained by her historical circumstances and how she uses her fiction to critique those circumstances.Pioneered in Britain by Jane Austen, Charlotte Bront, and Elizabeth Barrett Browning, the double-proposal plot dislodges the myth of Mr. Right and questions the all-powerful notions of true love and happily-ever-after. When the heroine rejects her suitor's initial proposal, she opens up the possibility of renegotiating the terms of the relationship and exploring alternative roles. By considering two possible marriages between the same set of partners, the double-proposal plot interrogates the role of middle-class women in courtship and in public life as well as the quality of married life and the influence a woman potentially brings to it. Tracey charts the genre's evolution from novels that seek answers within renegotiated marriages to those that challenge the efficacy of marriage itself. Reconstructing some of the cultural circumstances that would have influenced the writing, publishing, and reading of the novels, Plots and Proposals examines how changing notions of love and romance both inform and are critiqued by this renegade fiction."

The Oxford Handbook of the Georgian Theatre 1737-1832 provides a comprehensive guide to theatre of the Georgian era across the range of dramatic forms.

Anglo-German Dramatic and Poetic Encounters contains essays focusing on the roles of drama and poetry in Anglo-German exchange in the Sattelzeit. It offers new perspectives on the movement of texts and ideas across genres and cultures, the formation and reception of poetic personae, and the place of illustration in cross-cultural, textual exchange.

Crime at El Escorial presents a comparative social and judicial analysis of an 1892 child murder, drawing from newspaper archives among other historical documents. D.J. Walker discusses the role of Spain’s intellectual elite in crystallizing dissatisfaction with the popular jury and the impact of journalists’ fictionalized representations of the murder.