Spectacles of Realism: Gender, Body, Genre, edited by Margaret Cohen and Christopher Prendergast, is part of that mid-90s moment when literary criticism turned hard toward the body—toward visibility, representation, and the mechanics of how “reality” gets staged rather than simply described.

The essays move through 19th-century European realism—Balzac, Flaubert, visual culture, fashion, pornography, the museum—tracking how gender and sexuality are not just themes but structuring devices. Realism here isn’t treated as neutral or observational; it’s something constructed, curated, and often complicit in producing the very bodies it claims to depict.

What makes the book work is its range: academic, yes, but not narrow. It sits at the intersection of literary studies, feminist theory, and visual culture, pulling in images, material history, and cultural context. You’re not just reading about novels—you’re reading about the entire apparatus that made “realism” feel real.

Copy has some underlining in the passages in pen, otherwise it's in great condition.