Dr. Edmund Birch

Biography

Edmund Birch’s research interests are centered on literature and cultural history in nineteenth-century France. His work focuses on the novel within the press context and the cultural and political history of the period. He has written on a range of authors including Honoré de Balzac, Delphine de Girardin, Alexandre Dumas, Gustave Flaubert, and Guy de Maupassant, and is interested in comparative literature, having published on the connections between British and French fiction. His book 'Fictions of Press in Nineteenth-Century France' (2018) is a study of the French novel's relationship with journalism, and he is the co-editor of a special issue of the journal Dix-Neuf (2017) that gathers essays on the interplay between literary and journalistic culture in the nineteenth century. His articles have appeared in journals such as PMLA, French Studies, Romanic Review, and Revue critique et génétique. Currently, he is working on a book about empire, nationhood, and the novels of Alexandre Dumas, alongside writing an introduction for a new edition of Flaubert’s 'Tales'. Edmund completed his PhD in French literature at the University of Cambridge in 2015. Before his current position, he was a Research Fellow at Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and he has contributed to BBC Radio programmes such as 'Time' and 'Opening Lines'. His research has been recognized with prizes from the Nineteenth-Century French Studies Association and the Société des Dix-Neuviémistes. In 2024, he was awarded a Leverhulme Research Fellowship to further his work on Dumas.

Research Interests

Experience