"[A] bold and compelling exercise in close reading and comparative analysis. . . . Clear, thoughtful, and theoretically astute, this will be a valuable addition to collections in medieval English, Italian, and comparative literatures."
—Choice
— S. Botterill, Univ of California, Berkeley, Choice
"Suzanne Hagedorn's book on abandoned women enters a critical conversation that already possesses a strong and determinant shape."
—Modern Philology
— Robert R. Edwards, Penn State, Modern Philology
"Hagedorn's writing is crisp and engaging throughout, her close readings consistently sensitive. This is a book—like those of Hagedorn's acknowledged critical influences, Winthrop Wetherbee and John Fleming—that unabashedly treats literary negotiations as the product of a dialogue of governing intelligences...Those who are skeptical of this critical approach are not likely to be converted by this fine book (nor, I think, is that its intent) but will nonetheless find within its pages a lucid, sometimes dazzling reanimation of medieval writers' literary responses to a classical topos that emerges as a capacious, elastic measure of the problematics of literary influence."
—Jamie C. Fumo, Speculum
— Jamie C. Fumo, McGill University, Speculum