Barbara Vinken is Professor of Romance Languages and Comparative Literature at Munich University. Her books include Die deutsche Mutter. Der lange Schatten eines Mythos (The German Mother: The Long Shadow of a Myth, 2011) and Eine Legende der Moderne. Flauberts einfaches Herz (A Legend of Modernity: Flaubert’s Simple Heart, 2009). Her latest book (Dressed: The Secret of Fashion) is published by Klett-Cotta Verlag in September 2013.