The European Metropolis: Paris and Nineteenth-Century Irish Women Novelists

The European Metropolis is the first book to explore Irish women’s novels and the representation of Paris, which draws these writers into a recognizably European literary tradition. By reasserting the centrality of Paris, this book draws connections between Irish women writers and European writers, forging new points of contact between Irish literature and canonical figures like Goethe, Balzac, and Zola through the shared interest in the socio-economic development of modernity. The European Metropolis not only expands the critical framework in which scholars situate these novels but also expands the map of Irish Studies.

Matthew L. Reznicek earned his PhD in English at the Queen’s University of Belfast in Northern Ireland, where he studied nineteenth-century Irish women’s literature. This provided the opportunity to access the Somerville and Ross papers at the Queen’s University of Belfast McClay Library, as well as collections of Edgeworth’s papers and Owenson’s novels at the National Library of Ireland.