Review of Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome, ed., 'Monster Theory: Reading Culture', Minneapolis and London, University of Minnesota Press, 1996: ; paper; pp. xiii, 315; R.R.P. US$21.95, US$54.95 (cloth).

This powerful and well integrated collection comprises some fourteen essays by various contributors, together with a framing introduction by Jeffrey Cohen. As we are told at various points (pp. xiii, 24 etc.) many of the ideas in the main text arise initially from Medieval or Renaissance social situations, literatures or 'topoi'. Furthermore, various of the contributors - Ruth Waterhouse, Michael Uebel and William Sayers - have had long and active careers as teachers of the literature of earlier periods of European culture.