Sophisticated Ladies in Life and Literature: Selective Portraits

Literature of the 19 th and 20 th centuries at the University of Bucharest, outlines the (literary) portraits of some of the most appreciated female personalities of the fin de sicle, as well as contemporary Anglo-American literature and culture, offering a bird's eye view of her sophisticated(ly chosen) ladies, whilst equally dedicating minute attention to each of their distinctive stylistic repertoires.Her collection, Sophisticated Ladies in Life and Literature: Selective Portraits (2022), consists of 21 short, yet concentrated essays, which, although previously published, had been revised and adapted, in order to place greater emphasis on the women evoked, be they writers, poets, scholars, translators, visual artists, anthropologists, socialites, or even a blend of those at once.Through her carefully-chosen vocabulary and direct(ive) feminine irony, Peiu proves to be a distinguished lady scholar herself, which is, above all, reflected through the keen thematic fidelity of her work.The common denominator between these portraits is, in Peiu's own words, "the best meaning of feminism," understood as "above all, respectable hard work and genuine talent for a particular domain of activity, in which someone specialises after numerous years of devoted endeavour."(X) Attributes such as