Manet’s Ironic Duplicity: Hamlet, Baudelaire, and Masculinity by James H. Rubin

James Rubin is well-established as a major voice in the highly contested field of Manet scholarship, and this book will further our understanding of Manet’s impact on modernism. The text is beautifully written with a well-crafted and original take on Manet and masculinity. His analysis of the history of role playing and pseudonyms in the French tradition solidifies his argument. His insertion of Durkheim is superb and highly innovative without ever lapsing into jargon. His take on the Manet-Morisot relationship is newly intriguing and entirely convincing. He manages to deepen our understanding with his deft and provocative readings of images. The book presents complex research by making particular cases such as his focus on Hamlet visually and thematically emblematic of larger issues.

Dr. Therese Dolan

Tyler School of Art, Department of Art History

Temple University

The author has put forward a remarkably compelling and persuasive argument for the central place of performance, various forms of duplicity and duality, and notions of masculinity in Manet’s work, life, and sense of self. The author’s analysis of Baudelaire’s work, the relationship between Baudelaire’s and Manet’s ideas, and the connections of both to their historical moments are also profoundly meaningful contributions to the existing literature, as is the highly illuminating positioning of Manet’s work in relation to Baudelaire’s writings on acting and their relevance to the writer’s views on visual art. Of great value is also the author’s in-depth, sophisticated, and wonderfully original interpretation of the multi-layered significance of Manet’s representations of Hamlet. While conceptually complex, the author's arguments are articulated in an accessible manner, with clear interpretive threads that run throughout the manuscript that tie the chapters together and make the text as a whole feel argumentatively consistent and cohesive.

Dr. Michelle Foa

Art History, Newcomb Art Department

Tulane University