European history

Pieter Geyl (1887—1966) remains one of the most internationally renowned Dutch historians of the twentieth century, but also one of the most controversial. Having come to the UK as a journalist, he started his academic career at the University of London in the aftermath of World War I (1919) and played an important role in the early days of the Institute of Historical Research. Known in this time for his re-interpretation of the 16th-century Dutch Revolt against the Habsburgs, that challenged existing historiographies of both Belgium and the Netherlands but was also linked to his political activism in favour of the Flemish movement in Belgium, Geyl left his stamp on the British perception of Low Countries history before moving back to...


First published in 2008, European Religious Cultures is now reissued as an Open Access edition with a new...

When the Victorian journalist and critic, George Henry Lewes invited George Eliot and Charles Dickens to dinner in 1859, few imagined it would lead to one of the greatest creative exchanges in literary history.
From the non-traditional ‘marriage’ of Eliot and Lewes, to the unconventional eye Lewes cast over Dickens’ work, this book throws fresh light on the chief subject of their critical interest by looking at the complex relationships between Dickens, Eliot and Lewes. It contends that Lewes saw something in Dickens and Eliot that his contemporaries could not grasp, and traces the birth of ‘psychological realism’ as a literary device in English literature.
The book is based on a lecture given as part...


Stendhal et la Hollande présente au lecteur quelque 200 documents inédits rédigés par Stendhal. Accompagnés de notes et commentaires autographes ils illustrent une étape essentielle de la genèse de son style. Elaine Williamson, qui a découvert ces documents, montre dans son introduction comment les techniques de composition utilisées par Stendhal dans son travail administrative préfigurent son œuvre de romancier. Ces documents datent du temps où Stendhal, auditeur au Conseil d’Etat, était chargé de l’administration des domaines et des bâtiments de la Couronne en Hollande, territoire réuni à la France en 1810 par Napoléon. Ils situent son œuvre dans l’univers du Premier Empire et s’appuient sur des notes identifiant ses sources, matière...