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      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        December 2024

        Anna of Denmark

        by Jemma Field

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        June 2020

        Anna of Denmark

        by Jemma Field, Christopher Breward

      • Trusted Partner
        March 2026

        Marks she made

        The art and architecture of Begum Samru

        by Mrinalini Rajagopalan

        Begum Samru (b. circa 1750-d. 1836) was a north Indian woman ruler who used art and architecture to facilitate her social, political, and financial station in early modern India. Rising from the ranks of courtesans in Mughal Delhi to become the commander of her own mercenary army, she later became the ruler of an independent territory of Sardhana (60 km northwest of Delhi). The begum (Urdu/ Hindustani title for noblewoman) was a trusted ally to the Mughal emperor and the English East India Company, two of the dominant political powers in north India at the time. As a sovereign ruler, she corresponded with two popes and King Louis Philippe of France, exchanging portraits, architectural drawings, and letters with these powerful men in addition to her Mughal counterparts in India. Art and architecture played a key role in establishing Begum Samru as a powerful but non-threatening ruler; as an upholder and patron of the Catholic faith in India; as a political ally to several European and Indian factions that were vying for power; and as ruling matriarch of a cosmopolitan household, court, and army. In narrating the story of a single woman in nineteenth-century India, this book offers a path to think of the creative ways in which women participated in public and political spheres. It also illustrates how women without pedigree, women who did not bear biological children or produce male heirs, and women who lived in contravention of gendered norms found alternative methods of recognition, dignity, power, and sometimes, as in the case of Begum Samru, global visibility.

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        October 2023

        Spectral Dickens

        The uncanny forms of novelistic characterization

        by Alexander Bove

        Drawing on the recent ontological turn in critical theory, Spectral Dickens explores an aspect of literary character that is neither real nor fictional, but spectral. This work thus provides an in-depth study of the inimitable characters populating Dickens' illustrated novels using three hauntological concepts: the Freudian uncanny, Derridean spectrality, and the Lacanian real. Thus, while the current discourse on character studies, which revolves around values like realism, depth, and lifelikeness, tends to see characters as mimetic of persons, this book invents new critical concepts to account for non-mimetic forms of characterization. These spectral forms bring to light the important influence of developments in nineteenth-century visual culture, such as the lithography and caricature of Daumier and J.J. Grandville. The spectrality of novelistic characters developed here paves the way for a new understanding of fictional characters in general.

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        Literature & Literary Studies
        May 2022

        The wood engravers' self portrait

        by Bethan Stevens

      • Trusted Partner
        January 1993

        Das künstlerische Portrait in der Gesellschaft

        Das Bildnis und seine Geschichte in Italien von 1300 bis heute

        by Castelnuovo, Enrico / Italienisch Kempter, Martina

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        January 1987

        Literarische Portraits

        Von Grimmelshausen bis Brecht

        by Herausgegeben von Hinderer, Walter

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        Biography & True Stories
        November 2024

        Family Romance

        by Jean Strouse

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        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2025

        The Strand

        A biography

        by Geoff Browell, Eileen Chanin

        The first history of one of London's most extraordinary streets. Running along the Thames's northern shore and spanning three-quarters of a mile from Trafalgar Square to Temple Bar, the Strand has been a witness to London's growth and change from the earliest years of the city's existence. In The Strand: A biography, Geoff Browell and Eileen Chanin uncover the deep history of this remarkable street. Tracing its origins in the Roman era, they reveal how it grew in importance as authority shifted from church to aristocracy, then to commerce, media and law. Over time, everything that mattered converged on the Strand: tradition and ceremony clashed with rebellion and destitution. By 1910, the street was known as the 'centre of the world'. Drawing on remarkable archival discoveries, Browell and Chanin present the most complete and compelling history of the Strand ever written. Filled with surprising, untold stories, The Strand: A biography is a must-read for lovers of one of the world's greatest cities.

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