Dr Leslie Brook BA, PhD, Cert.Ed

Department of Modern Languages
Honorary Senior Research Fellow

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 6001
Email
l.c.brook@bham.ac.uk
Address
Ashley Building
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

I have published widely in various genres of Medieval literature: epic, romance and translation from Latin to Medieval French, with a particular interest in the translation by Jean de Meun of the Letters of Abelard and Heloise. Latterly I have been working with Prof Glyn Burgess on publishing editions of Old French narrative lays.

Biography

Dr Leslie Brook's research interests are spread over translation from Latin to Medieval French, courtly literature (romance, short story, lyric), and chansons de geste, particularly late versions of the Roland and other poems relative to Charlemagne's campaign in Spain. His publications include articles on the Roman de la Rose, Philippe de Rémi, the courtly short story (lai), Jean de Meun as a translator, late versions of the Roland, the Entrée d'Espagne, a monograph on two late medieval love treatises (edition with introduction), and a couple of electronic publications in conjunction with Glyn S. Burgess on Old French narrative lays, followed more recently by two publications by D. S. Brewer containing a total of fourteen Old French narrative lays.

Publications

The following are my most recent publications since retirement in 2001:

  • The Old French lays of Ignaure, Oiselet and Amours, ed. and transl by Glyn S. Burgess and Leslie C. Brook (Gallica, D. S. Brewer, 2010)
  • ‘Could Gauvain be considered the hero of Escanor?’, Reading Medieval Studies, 35 (2009), 45-53.
  • French Arthurian Literature, IV: Eleven Old French Narrative Lays, ed. and transl. Glyn S. Burgess and Leslie C. Brook, (D. S. Brewer, 2007)
  • ‘Les personnages allégoriques dans le Champion des Dames; analyse des préliminaires d’un conflit moral et historique’, Moyen Français, 60-61 (2007). 103-15.
  • Durmart le Gallois in The Arthur of the French: the Arthurian legend in Medieval French and Occitan literature, ed. Glyn S. Burgess and Karen M. Pratt (Cardiff, Univ. of Wales Press, 2006), pp. 429-32.
  • ‘Malebouche dans le Roman de la Rose et le Champion des Dames, in De la Rose: Texte, Image, Fortune (Peeters, Leuven, 2006), pp. 421-34.
  • ‘The warrior princess: Camilla in the Aeneid and the Roman de la Rose, Medioevo Romanzo, 29 (2005), 404-14.
  • ‘A knight with reservations: the role of Dinadan in Escanor’, Studi Francesi, 147 (2005), 404-14.
  • ‘Illustrating Sallust: Jean le Bègue and the Jugurthan War’, in Etudes de langue et de littérature médiévales offertes à Peter T. Ricketts, ed. Dominique Billy and Ann Buckley (Brepols, Turnhout, 2005), pp. 207-17.
  • ‘L’homme et la bête: leçons de morale dans un livre de chasse’, Moyen Français, 55-6 (2004-5), 57-67.
  • ‘Le monde corrompu: Le Songe de Pestilence’ in Mélanges de Moyen Français offerts à Guiseppe Di Stefano, ed. Maria Colombo Timelli and Claudio Galderisi (Montreal, CERES, 2004), 27-35.
  • ‘Jean le Bègue, interprète iconographique de Salluste’, Moyen Français, 51-3 (2002-3), 103-12.