Podcasts about Bleak House

A new week means new questions! Hope you have fun with these!Including half-siblings, how many U.S. Presidents have been an only child?What is mixed with chocolate to make a ganache?Which chemical element, under standard conditions, is the least dense metal and the least dense solid element?I can hear it now! What song by Stealers Wheel, originally released in 1972, was made ‘infamous' in Quentin Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs?Our eyes can detect more shades of which color than any other?The first novel to ever mention a dinosaur was Bleak House in 1853 by which Victorian Author?What is the only franchise to win the Oscar for Best Animation twice?The largest asteroid in the solar system is which Dwarf planet?What is the capital of Turkey?On the Golden Girls, which golden girl was a year younger than her TV daughter in real life?Name either the men's or women's single open champion from 2025?King Edward the first bestowed what title on his son in 1301, beginning the tradition of giving the title to the heir apparent?Which cat is the biggest of the big cats, growing much longer than its parent species.MusicHot Swing, Fast Talkin, Bass Walker, Dances and Dames, Ambush by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Don't forget to follow us on social media:Patreon – patreon.com/quizbang – Please consider supporting us on Patreon. Check out our fun extras for patrons and help us keep this podcast going. We appreciate any level of support!Website – quizbangpod.com Check out our website, it will have all the links for social media that you need and while you're there, why not go to the contact us page and submit a question!Facebook – @quizbangpodcast – we post episode links and silly lego pictures to go with our trivia questions. Enjoy the silly picture and give your best guess, we will respond to your answer the next day to give everyone a chance to guess.Instagram – Quiz Quiz Bang Bang (quizquizbangbang), we post silly lego pictures to go with our trivia questions. Enjoy the silly picture and give your best guess, we will respond to your answer the next day to give everyone a chance to guess.Twitter – @quizbangpod We want to start a fun community for our fellow trivia lovers. If you hear/think of a fun or challenging trivia question, post it to our twitter feed and we will repost it so everyone can take a stab it. Come for the trivia – stay for the trivia.Ko-Fi – ko-fi.com/quizbangpod – Keep that sweet caffeine running through our body with a Ko-Fi, power us through a late night of fact checking and editing!

Ahead of a new series Dominic re-shares the most popular episode of this show so far! Bleak House with the inimitable Stephen Fry who takes the listener on an intricate journey through the fog and mystery of Dickens' thrilling masterpiece.And reading extracts from Esther's narrative is the brilliant Sally ScottAnd here is a link to Miriam Margolyes' unabridged audiobook of Bleak House mentioned in the episodeSupport the showIf you'd like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrardThank you so much!Host: Dominic GerrardSeries Artwork: Léna GibertOriginal Music: Dominic GerrardThank you for listening!

Gillian Anderson's breakthrough television role in the sci-fi series The X Files made her a global star in 1993, and she played cool-headed Agent Dana Scully for nearly a decade. She also starred in period dramas, including an acclaimed film adaptation of Edith Wharton's novel The House Of Mirth and, on television, in Bleak House, Great Expectations and War and Peace. Her theatre credits include A Doll's House, A Streetcar Named Desire and All About Eve, all of which saw her nominated for Olivier Awards. Gillian Anderson has won Golden Globe and Emmy Awards for the X Files, and also for The Crown in which she played Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. More recently, she found a new generation of fans for role as a sex therapist in the series Sex Education. Her latest film is The Salt Path, adapted from the bestselling memoir by Raynor Wynn.Gillian Anderson tells John Wilson how, after being born in Chicago, she moved with her parents to Crouch End, London, when she was five, and then to Michigan at the age of 11. After what she describes as ‘rebellious' teenage years, she studied at Chicago's DePaul University with drama teacher Ric Murphy, whom she cites as a major influence on her early acting ambitions. After a series of minor stage roles in New York, she auditioned for The X Files and the role of Agent Scully changed her life. She also chooses the actor Meryl Streep as a major inspiration after seeing her with Robert Redford in the 1985 romantic drama film Out Of Africa. Gillian also reveals how the work of the Serbian-born conceptual performance artist Marina Abramović has also been an influential cultural figure for her.Producer: Edwina Pitman

End of the rainbow: Pride's fallWhat ‘started half a century ago as an afternoon's little march for lesbians and gay men', argues Gareth Roberts, became ‘a jamboree not only of boring homosexuality' but ‘anything else that its purveyors consider unconventional'. Yet now Reform-led councils are taking down Pride flags, Pride events are being cancelled due to lack of funds, and corporate sponsors are ‘withdrawing their cold tootsies from the rainbow sock'. Has Pride suffered from conflation with ‘genderism'? Gareth joined the podcast to discuss, alongside diversity consultant Simon Fanshawe, one of the six original co-founders of Stonewall. (0:59)Next: people are forgetting how to readPhilip Womack ‘can hear the rumblings of disaster, as if the foundations of western culture, eroded for decades, are teetering into collapse'. The reason? We are forgetting how to read. Today's children ‘hardly read; their tech-blinded parents don't care; their teachers don't have the resources'. American students participating in a study requiring them to parse the first paragraph of Bleak House ‘were unable to elicit a scintilla of sense' from Charles Dickens's prose. What or who is to blame? Philip joined the podcast to discuss. (23:29)And finally: the social minefield of swimming pool seasonArabella Byrne writes in the magazine this week that while she has ‘always loved English swimming pools', the arrival of the summer season always presents her ‘with an annual etiquette conundrum'. If you're lucky enough to know one of the 200,000 Brits who have a private swimming pool, she asks: how acceptable is it - really - to ask to use a friend's pool? Arabella joined the podcast, alongside the Spectator's very own Dear Mary, Mary Killen. (32:46)Hosted by William Moore and Gus Carter.Produced by Patrick Gibbons. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

End of the rainbow: Pride's fallWhat ‘started half a century ago as an afternoon's little march for lesbians and gay men', argues Gareth Roberts, became ‘a jamboree not only of boring homosexuality' but ‘anything else that its purveyors consider unconventional'. Yet now Reform-led councils are taking down Pride flags, Pride events are being cancelled due to lack of funds, and corporate sponsors are ‘withdrawing their cold tootsies from the rainbow sock'. Has Pride suffered from conflation with ‘genderism'? Gareth joined the podcast to discuss, alongside diversity consultant Simon Fanshawe, one of the six original co-founders of Stonewall. (0:59)Next: people are forgetting how to readPhilip Womack ‘can hear the rumblings of disaster, as if the foundations of western culture, eroded for decades, are teetering into collapse'. The reason? We are forgetting how to read. Today's children ‘hardly read; their tech-blinded parents don't care; their teachers don't have the resources'. American students participating in a study requiring them to parse the first paragraph of Bleak House ‘were unable to elicit a scintilla of sense' from Charles Dickens's prose. What or who is to blame? Philip joined the podcast to discuss. (23:29)And finally: the social minefield of swimming pool seasonArabella Byrne writes in the magazine this week that while she has ‘always loved English swimming pools', the arrival of the summer season always presents her ‘with an annual etiquette conundrum'. If you're lucky enough to know one of the 200,000 Brits who have a private swimming pool, she asks: how acceptable is it - really - to ask to use a friend's pool? Arabella joined the podcast, alongside the Spectator's very own Dear Mary, Mary Killen. (32:46)Hosted by William Moore and Gus Carter.Produced by Patrick Gibbons. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I was delighted to talk to the historian Helen Castor (who writes The H Files by Helen Castor) about her new book The Eagle and the Hart. I found that book compulsive, and this is one of my favourite interviews so far. We covered so much: Dickens, Melville, Diana Wynne Jones, Hilary Mantel, whether Edward III is to blame for the Wars of the Roses, why Bolingbroke did the right thing, the Paston Letters, whether we should dig up old tombs for research, leaving academia, Elizabeth I, and, of course, lots of Shakespeare. There is a full transcript below.Henry: Is there anything that we fundamentally know about this episode in history that Shakespeare didn't know?Helen: That's an extremely good question, and I'm tempted now to say no.Helen told me what is hardest to imagine about life in the fourteenth century.I think it's relatively easy to imagine a small community or even a city, because we can imagine lots of human beings together, but how relationships between human beings happen at a distance, not just in terms of writing a letter to someone you know, but how a very effective power structure happens across hundreds of miles in the absence of those things is the thing that has always absolutely fascinated me about the late Middle Ages. I think that's because it's hard, for me at least, to imagine.Good news to any publishers reading this. Helen is ready and willing to produce a complete edition of the Paston Letters. They were a bestseller when they were published a hundred years ago, but we are crying out for a complete edition in modern English.Henry: If someone wants to read the Paston Letters, but they don't want to read Middle English, weird spelling, et cetera, is there a good edition that they can use?Helen: Yes, there is an Oxford World's Classic. They're all selected. There isn't a complete edition in modern spelling. If any publishers are listening, I would love to do one. Henry: Yes, let's have it.Helen: Let's have it. I would really, really love to do that.Full TranscriptHenry: Today I am talking to the historian, Helen Castor. Helen is a former fellow of Sydney Sussex College in Cambridge. She has written several books of history. She is now a public historian, and of course, she has a Substack. The H Files by Helen CastorWe are going to talk mostly about her book, The Eagle and the Hart, which is all about Richard II and Henry IV. I found this book compulsive, so I hope you will read it too. Helen, welcome.Helen: Thank you very much for having me, Henry.Henry: You recently read Bleak House.Helen: I did.Henry: What did you think?Helen: I absolutely loved it. It was a long time since I'd read any Dickens. I read quite a lot when I was young. I read quite a lot of everything when I was young and have fallen off that reader's perch, much to my shame. The first page, that description of the London fog, the London courts, and I thought, "Why have I not been doing it for all these years?"Then I remembered, as so often with Dickens, the bits I love and the bits I'm less fond of, the sentimentality, the grotesquerie I'm less fond of, but the humour and the writing. There was one bit that I have not been able to read then or any of the times I've tried since without physically sobbing. It's a long time since a book has done that to me. I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it, but--Henry: I'm sure I know what you mean. That's quite a sentimental passage.Helen: It is, but not sentimental in the way that I find myself objecting to. I think I really respond viscerally to this sentimentalising of some of his young women characters. I find that really off-putting, but I think now I'm a parent, and particularly I'm a parent of a boy [laughter]. I think it's that sense of a child being completely alone with no one to look after them, and then finding some people, but too late for a happy ending.Henry: Too late.Helen: Yes.Henry: You've been reading other classic novels, I think, Moby Dick?Helen: I'm in the middle of Moby Dick as we speak. I'm going very slowly, partly because I'm trying to savour every sentence. I love the sentence so much as a form. Melville is just astonishing, and also very, very funny in a way I hadn't expected to keep laughing out loud, sometimes because there is such humour in a sentence.Sometimes I'm just laughing because the sentence itself seems to have such audacity and that willingness to go places with sentences that sometimes I feel we've lost in the sort of sense of rules-based sentences instead of just sticking a semicolon and keep going. Why not, because it's so gorgeous and full of the joy of language at that point? Anyway, I'm ranting now, but--Henry: No, I think a lot of rules were instituted in the early 20th century that said you can and cannot do all these things, and writers before that point had not often followed those rules. I think what it has led to is that writers now, they can't really control a long sentence, in the sense that Melville and Dickens will do a long sentence, and it is a syntactically coherent thing, even though it's 60, 70 longer words. It's not just lots of stuff, and then, and then. The whole thing has got a beautiful structure that makes sense as a unit. That's just not obvious in a lot of writing now.Helen: I think that's exactly right. Partly, I've been reading some of the Melville out loud, and having just got onto the classification of whales, you can see I'm going very slowly. Those sentences, which are so long, but it's exactly that. If you read them out loud, and you follow the sense, and the punctuation, however irregular it might be in modern terms, gives you the breathing, you just flow on it, and the excitement of that, even or perhaps especially when one is talking about the classification of whales. Just joyful.Henry: Will we be seeing more very long sentences in your next book?Helen: I think I have to get a bit better at it. The habit that I was conscious of anyway, but became acutely so when I had to read my own audiobook for the first time is that I think I write in a very visual way. That is how I read because mostly it's silent.I discovered or rediscovered that often what I do when I want to write a very long sentence is I start the sentence and then I put a diversion or extra information within em dashes in the middle of the sentence. That works on the page because you can see spatially. I love that way of reading, I love seeing words in space.A lot of different kinds of text, both prose and poetry, I read in space like that. If you're reading to be heard, then the difficulty of breaking into a sentence with, whether it's brackets or em dashes or whatever, and then rejoining the sentence further down has its own challenges. Perhaps I ought to try and do less of that and experiment more with a Melvillian Dickensian onward flow. I don't know what my editor will think.Henry: What has brought you back to reading novels like this?Helen: I was wondering that this morning, actually, because I'm very aware having joined Substack, and of course, your Substack is one of the ones that is leading me further in this direction, very inspiringly, is discovering that lots of other people are reading and reading long novels now too. It reminded me of that thing that anyone with children will know that you have a baby and you call it something that you think only you have thought of, and then four years later, you call and you discover half the class is called that name. You wonder what was in the water that led everybody in that direction.I've just seen someone tweet this morning about how inspired they are by the builder next door who, on the scaffolding, is blasting the audiobook Middlemarch to the whole neighborhood.Henry: Oh my god. Amazing.Helen: It's really happening. Insofar as I can work out what led me as opposed to following a group, which clearly I am in some sense, I think the world at the moment is so disquieting, and depressing, and unnerving, that I think for me, there was a wish to escape into another world and another world that would be very immersive, not removed from this world completely. One that is very recognizably human.I think when I was younger, when I was in my teens and 20s, I loved reading science fiction and fantasy before it was such a genre as it is now. I'm a huge fan of Diana Wynne Jones and people like that.Henry: Oh, my god, same. Which one is your favorite?Helen: Oh, that is an impossible question to answer, partly because I want to go back and read a lot of them. Actually, I've got something next to me, just to get some obscurity points. I want to go back to Everard's Ride because there is a story in here that is based on the King's square. I don't know if I'm saying that right, but early 15th century, the story of the imprisoned King of Scotland when he was in prison in England. That one's in my head.The Dalemark Quartet I love because of the sort of medieval, but then I love the ones that are pure, more science fantasy. Which is your favorite? Which should I go back to first?Henry: I haven't read them all because I only started a couple of years ago. I just read Deep Secret, and I thought that was really excellent. I was in Bristol when I read it quite unwittingly. That was wonderful.Helen: Surrounded by Diana Wynne Jones' land. I only discovered many years into an obsession that just meant that I would read every new one while there were still new ones coming out. I sat next to Colin Burrow at a dinner in--Henry: Oh my god.Helen: I did sort of know that he was her son, but monstered him for the whole time, the whole course of sitting together, because I couldn't quite imagine her in a domestic setting, if you like, because she came up with all these extraordinary worlds. I think in days gone by, I went into more obviously imaginary worlds. I think coming back to it now, I wanted something big and something that I really could disappear into. I've been told to read Bleak House for so many decades and felt so ashamed I hadn't. Having done that, I thought, "Well, the whale."Henry: Have you read Diana Wynne Jones' husband's books, John Burrow? Because that's more in your field.Helen: It is, although I'm ashamed to say how badly read I am in medieval literary scholarship. It's weird how these academic silos can operate, shouldn't, probably don't for many, many people. I always feel I'm on horribly thin ground, thin ice when I start talking about medieval literature because I know how much scholarship is out there, and I know how much I haven't read. I must put John Burrow on my list as well.Henry: He's very readable. He's excellent.Helen: I think I can imagine, but I must go into it.Henry: Also, his books are refreshingly short. Your husband is a poet, so there's a lot of literature in your life at the moment.Helen: There is. When we met, which was 10 years ago-- Again, I don't think of myself as knowledgeable about poetry in general, but what was wonderful was discovering how much we had in common in the writing process and how much I could learn from him. To me, one of the things that has always been extremely important in my writing is the sentence, the sound of a sentence, the rhythm of a sentence folded into a paragraph.I find it extremely hard to move on from a paragraph if it's not sitting right yet. The sitting right is as much to do with sound and rhythm as it is to do with content. The content has to be right. It means I'm a nightmare to edit because once I do move on from a paragraph, I think it's finished. Obviously, my editor might beg to differ.I'm very grateful to Thomas Penn, who's also a wonderful historian, who's my editor on this last book, for being so patient with my recalcitrance as an editee. Talking to my husband about words in space on the page, about the rhythm, about the sound, about how he goes about writing has been so valuable and illuminating.I hope that the reading I've been doing, the other thing I should say about going back to big 19th-century novels is that, of course, I had the enormous privilege and learning curve of being part of a Booker jury panel three years ago. That too was an enormous kick in terms of reading and thinking about reading because my co-judges were such phenomenal reading company, and I learned such a lot that year.I feel not only I hope growing as a historian, but I am really, really focusing on writing, reading, being forced out of my bunker where writing is all on the page, starting to think about sound more, think about hearing more, because I think more and more, we are reading that way as a culture, it seems to me, the growth of audiobooks. My mother is adjusting to audiobooks now, and it's so interesting to listen to her as a lifelong, voracious reader, adjusting to what it is to experience a book through sound rather than on the page. I just think it's all fascinating, and I'm trying to learn as I write.Henry: I've been experimenting with audiobooks, because I felt like I had to, and I sort of typically hate audio anything. Jonathan Swift is very good, and so is Diana Wynne Jones.Helen: Interesting. Those two specifically. Is there something that connects the two of them, or are they separately good?Henry: I think they both wrote in a plain, colloquial style. It was very capable of being quite intellectual and had capacity for ideas. Diana Wynne Jones certainly took care about the way it sounded because she read so much to her own children, and that was really when she first read all the children's classics. She had developed for many years an understanding of what would sound good when it was read to a child, I think.Helen: And so that's the voice in her head.Henry: Indeed. As you read her essays, she talks about living with her Welsh grandfather for a year. He was intoning in the chapel, and she sort of comes out of this culture as well.Helen: Then Swift, a much more oral culture.Henry: Swift, of course, is in a very print-heavy culture because he's in London in 1710. We've got coffee houses and all the examiner, and the spectator, and all these people scribbling about each other. I think he was very insistent on what he called proper words in proper places. He became famous for that plain style. It's very carefully done, and you can't go wrong reading that out loud. He's very considerate of the reader that you won't suddenly go, "Oh, I'm in the middle of this huge parenthesis. I don't know how--" As you were saying, Swift-- he would be very deliberate about the placement of everything.Helen: A lot of that has to do with rhythm.Henry: Yes.Helen: Doesn't it? I suppose what I'm wondering, being very ignorant about the 18th century is, in a print-saturated culture, but still one where literacy was less universal than now, are we to assume that that print-saturated culture also incorporated reading out loud —Henry: Yes, exactly so. Exactly so. If you are at home, letters are read out loud. This obviously gives the novelists great opportunities to write letters that have to sort of work both ways. Novels are read out loud. This goes on into the 19th century. Dickens had many illiterate fans who knew his work through it being read to them. Charles Darwin's wife read him novels. When he says, "I love novels," what he means is, "I love it when my wife reads me a novel." [laughs]You're absolutely right. A good part of your audience would come from those listening as well as those reading it.Helen: Maybe we're getting back towards a new version of that with audiobooks expanding in their reach.Henry: I don't know. I saw some interesting stuff. I can't remember who was saying this. Someone was saying, "It's not an oral culture if you're watching short videos. That's a different sort of culture." I think, for us, we can say, "Oh yes, we're like Jonathan Swift," but for the culture at large, I don't know. It is an interesting mixed picture at the moment.Helen: Yes, history never repeats, but we should be wary of writing off any part of culture to do with words.Henry: I think so. If people are reporting builders irritating the neighbourhood with George Eliot, then it's a very mixed picture, right?Helen: It is.Henry: Last literary question. Hilary Mantel has been a big influence on you. What have you taken from her?Helen: That's quite a hard question to answer because I feel I just sit at her feet in awe. If I could point to anything in my writing that could live up to her, I would be very happy. The word that's coming into my head when you phrase the question in that way, I suppose, might be an absolute commitment to precision. Precision in language matters to me so much. Her thought and her writing of whatever kind seems to me to be so precise.Listening to interviews with her is such an outrageous experience because these beautifully, entirely formed sentences come out of her mouth as though that's how thought and language work. They don't for me. [chuckles] I'm talking about her in the present tense because I didn't know her, but I find it hard to imagine that she's not out there somewhere.Henry: She liked ghosts. She might be with us.Helen: She might. I would like to think that. Her writing of whatever genre always seems to me to have that precision, and it's precision of language that mirrors precision of thought, including the ability to imagine herself into somebody else's mind. That's, I suppose, my project as a historian. I'm always trying to experience a lost world through the eyes of a lost person or people, which, of course, when you put it like that, is an impossible task, but she makes it seem possible for her anyway and that's the road I'm attempting to travel one way or another.Henry: What is it about the 14th and 15th centuries that is hardest for us to imagine?Helen: I think this speaks to something else that Hilary Mantel does so extraordinarily well, which is to show us entire human beings who live and breathe and think and feel just as we do in as complex and contradictory and three-dimensional a way as we do, and yet who live in a world that is stripped of so many of the things that we take so much for granted that we find it, I think, hard to imagine how one could function without them.What I've always loved about the late Middle Ages, as a political historian, which is what I think of myself as, is that it has in England such a complex and sophisticated system of government, but one that operates so overwhelmingly through human beings, rather than impersonal, institutionalized, technological structures.You have a king who is the fount of all authority, exercising an extraordinary degree of control over a whole country, but without telephones, without motorized transport, without a professional police service, without a standing army. If we strip away from our understanding of government, all those things, then how on earth does society happen, does rule happen, does government happen?I think it's relatively easy to imagine a small community or even a city, because we can imagine lots of human beings together, but how relationships between human beings happen at a distance, not just in terms of writing a letter to someone you know, but how a very effective power structure happens across hundreds of miles in the absence of those things is the thing that has always absolutely fascinated me about the late Middle Ages. I think that's because it's hard, for me at least, to imagine.Henry: Good. You went to the RSC to watch The Henriad in 2013.Helen: I did.Henry: Is Shakespeare a big influence on this book? How did that affect you?Helen: I suppose this is a long story because Richard II and The Henriad have been-- there is Richard II. Richard II is part of The Henriad, isn't it?Henry: Yes.Helen: Richard II. Henry, see, this is-Henry: The two Henry IVs.Helen: -I'm not Shakespearean. I am. [laughs]Henry: No, it's Richard II, the two Henry IVs, and Henry V. Because, of course, Henry Bolingbroke is in Richard II, and it--Helen: Yes, although I never think of him as really the same person as Henry IV in the Henry IV plays, because he changes so dramatically between the two.Henry: Very often, they have a young actor and an old actor, and of course, in real life, that's insane, right?Helen: It's absolutely insane. I always separate Henry IV, parts I and II, and Henry V off from Richard II because it feels to me as though they operate in rather different worlds, which they do in lots of ways. My story with the Henry ad, now that we've established that I actually know what we're talking about, goes back to when I was in my teens and Kenneth Branagh was playing Henry V in Stratford. I grew up very near Stratford.At 15, 16, watching the young Branagh play Henry V was mind-blowing. I went a whole number of times because, in those days, I don't know how it is now, but you could go and get standing tickets for a fiver on the day. More often than not, if there were spare seats, you would get moved into some extraordinary stall seats at-- I was about to say halftime, I'm a football fan, at the interval.Henry V was the play I knew best for a long time, but at the same time, I'd studied Richard II at school. The Henry IV plays are the ones I know least well. I'm interested now to reflect on the fact that they are the ones that depart most from history. I wonder whether that's why I find them hardest to love, because I'm always coming to the plays from the history. Richard II and Henry V actually have a lot to show us about those kings. They bear very close relationships with a lot of the contemporary chronicles, whereas the Henry IV ones is Shakespeare doing his own thing much more.Particularly, as you've just said, making Henry IV way too old, and/or depending which angle we're looking at it from, making Hotspur way too young, the real Hotspur was three years older than Henry IV. If you want to make Hotspur and how-- your young Turks, you have to make Henry IV old and grey and weary with Northumberland.Back in 2013, the really intense experience I had was being asked to go for a day to join the RSC company on a school trip to Westminster Hall and Westminster Abbey at the beginning of their rehearsal process, so when David Tennant was playing Richard II and Greg Doran was directing. That was absolutely fascinating. I'd been thinking about Richard and Henry for a very long time. Obviously, I was a long way away from writing the book I've just written.Talking to actors is an extraordinary thing for a historian because, of course, to them, these are living characters. They want to know what's in their character's mind. They want to know, quite rightly, the chronological progression of their character's thought. That is something that's become more and more and more and more important to me.The longer I go on writing history, the more intensely attached I am to the need for chronology because if it hasn't happened to your protagonist yet, what are you doing with it? Your protagonist doesn't yet know. We don't know. It's very dramatically clear to us at the moment that we don't know what's happening tomorrow. Any number of outrageous and unpredictable things might happen tomorrow.The same certainly was true in Richard II's reign, goes on being true in Henry IV's reign. That experience, in the wake of which I then went to see Henry IV, parts 1 and 2 in Stratford, was really thought-provoking. The extent to which, even though I'd been working on this period for a long time, and had taught this period, I still was struggling to answer some of those questions.Then I'd just had the similarly amazing experience of having a meeting with the Richard II cast and director at the Bridge Theatre before the Nicholas Heitner production with Jonathan Bailey as Richard went on stage. That was actually towards the end of their rehearsal process. I was so struck that the actor playing Bolingbroke in this production and the actor playing Bolingbroke in the production back in 2013 both asked the same excellent first question, which is so hard for a historian to answer, which is at what point does Bolingbroke decide that he's coming back to claim the crown, not just the Duchy of Lancaster?That is a key question for Bolingbroke in Richard II. Does he already know when he decides he's going to break his exile and come back? Is he challenging for the crown straight away, or is he just coming back for his rightful inheritance with the Duchy of Lancaster? That is the million-dollar question when you're writing about Bolingbroke in 1399.It's not possible to answer with a smoking gun. We don't have a letter or a diary entry from Henry Bolingbroke as he's about to step on board ship in Boulogne saying, "I'm saying I'm coming back for the Duchy of Lancaster." The unfolding logic of his situation is that if he's going to come back at all, he's going to have to claim the crown. When he admits that to himself, and when he admits that to anybody else, are questions we can argue about.It was so interesting to me that that's the question that Shakespeare's Richard II throws up for his Bolingbroke just as much as it does for the historical one.Henry: Is there anything that we fundamentally know about this episode in history that Shakespeare didn't know?Helen: That's an extremely good question, and I'm tempted now to say no.Henry: When I left your book, the one thing I thought was that in Shakespeare, the nobles turn against Richard because of his excesses. Obviously, he really dramatizes that around the death of Gaunt. From your book, you may disagree with this, I came away thinking, well, the nobles wanted more power all the time. They may not have wanted the king's power, but there was this constant thing of the nobles feeling like they were owed more authority.Helen: I think the nobles always want more power because they are ambitious, competitive men within a political structure that rewards ambition and competition. The crucial thing for them is that they can only safely pursue ambition and competition if they know that the structure they're competing within will hold.The thing that keeps that structure rooted and solidly in place is the crown and the things that the crown is there to uphold, namely, particularly, the rule of law because if the rule of law starts to crumble, then the risk is that the whole structure collapses into anarchy. Within anarchy, then a powerful man cannot safely compete for more power because an even more powerful man might be about to roll into his estates and take them over. There have to be rules. There has to be fair competition. The referee is there on a football pitch for a reason.The king, in some senses, whether you want to see him as the keystone in an arch that supports a building or whether he's a referee on a football pitch, there are reasons why powerful men need rules because rules uphold their power. What goes wrong with Richard is that instead of seeing that he and the nobles have a common interest in keeping this structure standing, and that actually he can become more powerful if he works with and through the nobles, he sees them as a threat to him.He's attempting to establish a power structure that will not be beholden to them. In so doing, he becomes a threat to them. This structure that is supposed to stand as one mutually supportive thing is beginning to tear itself apart. That is why Richard's treatment of Bolingbroke becomes such a crucial catalyst, because what Richard does to Bolingbroke is unlawful in a very real and very technical sense. Bolingbroke has not been convicted of any crime. He's not been properly tried. There's been this trial by combat, the duel with Mowbray, but it hasn't stopped arbitrarily, and an arbitrary punishment visited upon both of them. They're both being exiled without having been found guilty, without the judgment of God speaking through this duel.Richard then promises that Bolingbroke can have his inheritance, even though he's in exile. As soon as Gaunt dies, Richard says, "No, I'm having it." Now, all of that is unlawful treatment of Bolingbroke, but because Bolingbroke is the most powerful nobleman in the country, it is also a warning and a threat to every other member of the political classes that if the king takes against you, then his arbitrary will can override the law.That diagnosis is there in Shakespeare. It's the Duke of York, who in reality was just a completely hopeless, wet figure, but he says, and I've got it written down, keep it beside me.Henry: Very nice.Helen: Kind of ridiculous, but here it is. York says to Richard, "Take Herford's rights away and take from time his charters and his customary rights. Let not tomorrow then ensue today. Be not thyself, for how art thou a king, but by fair sequence and succession?" In other words, if you interfere with, and I know you've written about time in these plays, it's absolutely crucial.Part of the process of time in these plays is that the rules play out over time. Any one individual king must not break those rules so that the expected process of succession over time can take place. York's warning comes true, that Richard is unseating himself by seeking to unseat Bolingbroke from his inheritance.Henry: We give Shakespeare good marks as a historian.Helen: In this play, yes, absolutely. The things he tinkers with in Richard II are minor plot points. He compresses time in order to get it all on stage in a plausible sequence of events. He compresses two queens into one, given that Richard was married to, by the time he fell, a nine-year-old who he'd married when he was six. It's harder to have a six-year-old making speeches on stage, so he puts the two queens into one.Henry: You don't want to pay another actor.Helen: Exactly.Henry: It's expensive.Helen: You don't want children and animals on stage. Although there is a wonderful account of a production of Richard II on stage in the West End in 1901, with the Australian actor Oscar Asche in it, playing Bolingbroke. The duel scene, he had full armour and a horse, opening night. It was a different horse from the one he rehearsed with. He gives an account in his autobiography of this horse rearing and him somersaulting heroically off the horse.Henry: Oh my god.Helen: The curtain having to come down and then it going back up again to tumultuous applause. You think, "Oscar, I'm wondering whether you're over-egging this pudding." Anyway, I give Shakespeare very good marks in Richard II, not really in the Henry IV plays, but gets back on track.Henry: The Henry IV plays are so good, we're forgiven. Was Richard II a prototype Henry VIII?Helen: Yes. Although, of course, history doesn't work forwards like that. I always worry about being a historian, talking about prototypes, if you see what I mean, but--Henry: No, this is just some podcast, so we don't have to be too strict. He's over-mighty, his sense of his relationship to God. There are issues in parliament about, "How much can the Pope tell us what to do?" There are certain things that seem to be inherent in the way the British state conceives of itself at this point that become problematic in another way.Helen: Is this pushing it too far to say Richard is a second son who ends up being the lone precious heir to the throne who must be wrapped in cotton wool to ensure that his unique God-given authority is protected? Also describes Henry VIII.Henry: They both like fancy clothes.Helen: Both like fancy clothes. Charles I is also a second son who has to step up.Henry: With wonderful cuffs and collars. He's another big dresser.Helen: And great patrons of art. I think we're developing new historical--Henry: No, I think there's a whole thing here.Helen: I think there is. What Henry does, of course, in rather different, because a lot has changed thanks to the Wars of the Roses, the power of the nobility to stand up independently of the crown is significantly lessened by the political effects of the Wars of the Roses, not at least that a lot of them have had their heads cut off, or died in battle, and the Tudors are busy making sure that they remain in the newly subjected place that they find themselves in.Henry then finds to go back to Hilary Mantel, a very, very able political servant who works out how to use parliament for him in rejecting those extra English powers that might restrain him. I do always wonder what Richard thought he was going to do if he'd succeeded in becoming Holy Roman Emperor, which I take very seriously as a proposition from Richard.Most other historians, because it's so patently ridiculous, if you look at it from a European perspective, have just said, "Oh, he got this idea that he wanted to become Holy Roman Emperor," but, of course, it was never going to happen. In Richard's mind, I think it was extremely real. Whether he really would have tried to give the English crown to Rutland, his favorite by the end of the reign, while he went off in glory to be crowned by the Pope, I don't know what was in his head. The difference with Henry is that the ambitions he eventually conceives are very England-focused, and so he can make them happen.Henry: Is there some sort of argument that, if the king hadn't won the Wars of the Roses, and the nobility had flourished, and their sons hadn't been killed, the reformation would have just been much harder to pull off here?[silence]Helen: I wonder what that would have looked like, because in a sense, the king was always going to win the Wars of the Roses, in the sense that you have to have a king. The minute you had someone left standing after that mess, that protracted mess, if he knew what he was doing, and there are arguments about the extent to which Henry VII knew what he was doing, or was doing something very different, whether or not he knew it was different, but there was always going to be an opportunity for a king to assert himself after that.Particularly, the extent to which the lesser landowners, the gentry had realized they couldn't just rely on the nobility to protect them anymore. They couldn't just follow their lord into battle and abdicate responsibility.Henry: Okay.Helen: That's an interesting--Henry: How much should we blame Edward III for all of this?Helen: For living too long and having too many sons?Henry: My argument against Edward is the Hundred Years' War, it doesn't actually go that well by the end of his reign, and it's cost too much money. Too many dukes with too much power. It's not that he had too many sons, he elevates them all and creates this insane situation. The war itself starts to tip the balance between the king and parliament, and so now you've got it from the dukes, and from the other side, and he just didn't manage the succession at all.Even though his son has died, and it really needs some kind of-- He allowed. He should have known that he was allowing a vacuum to open up where there's competition from the nobles, and from parliament, and the finances are a mess, and this war isn't there. It's just… he just leaves a disaster, doesn't he?Helen: I think I'd want to reframe that a little bit. Perhaps, I'm too much the king's friend. I think the political, and in some senses, existential dilemma for a medieval king is that the best of all possible worlds is what Edward achieves in the 1340s and the 1350s, which is, fight a war for reasons that your subjects recognize as in the common interest, in the national interest. Fight it over there so that the lands that are being devastated and the villages and towns that are being burned are not yours. Bring back lots of plunder. Everybody's getting richer and feeling very victorious.You can harness parliament. When things are going well, a medieval king and a parliament are not rivals for power. An English king working with parliament is more powerful than an English king trying to work without parliament. If things are going well, he gets more money, he can pass laws, he can enforce his will more effectively. It's win-win-win if you're ticking all those boxes.As you're pointing out, the worst of all possible worlds is to be fighting a war that's going badly. To fight a war is a big risk because either you're going to end up winning and everything's great, or if it's going badly, then you'd rather be at peace. Of course, you're not necessarily in a position to negotiate peace, depending on the terms of the war you've established.Similarly, with sons, you want heirs. You want to know the succession is safe. I think Edward's younger sons would argue with you about setting up very powerful dukes because the younger ones really-- York and Gloucester, Edmund of Langley and Thomas of Woodstock, really didn't have much in the way of an estate given to them at all, and always felt very hard done by about that. John of Gaunt is set up very well because he's married off to the heir of the Duke of Lancaster who's handily died, leaving only daughters.Henry: That's the problem, isn't it, creating that sort of impact? John of Gaunt is far too rich and powerful.Helen: You say that, except he's unfeasibly loyal. Without Gaunt, disaster happens much, much, much earlier. Gaunt is putting all those resources into the project of propping up the English state and the English crown for way longer than Richard deserves, given that Richard's trying to murder him half the time in the 1380s.Henry: [laughs] For sure. No, I agree with you there, but from Edward III's point of view, it's a mistake to make one very powerful son another quite powerful son next to-- We still see this playing out in royal family dynamics.Helen: This is the problem. What is the perfect scenario in a hereditary system where you need an heir and a spare, but even there, the spare, if he doesn't get to be the heir, is often very disgruntled. [laughs] If he does get to be the heir, as we've just said, turns out to be overconvinced of his own-Henry: Oh, indeed, yes.Helen: -specialness. Then, if you have too many spares, you run into a different kind of problem. Equally, if you don't have a hereditary system, then you have an almighty battle, as the Anglo-Saxons often did, about who's actually going to get the crown in the next generation. It's a very tricky--Henry: Is England just inherently unstable? We've got the Black Death, France is going to be a problem, whatever happens. Who is really going to come to a good fiscal position in this situation? It's no one's fault. It's just there wasn't another way out.Helen: You could say that England's remarkably-- See, I'm just playing devil's advocate the whole time.Henry: No, good.Helen: You could say England is remarkably stable in the sense that England is very unusually centralized for a medieval state at this point. It's centralized in a way that works because it's small enough to govern. It's, broadly speaking, an island. You've got to deal with the Scotts border, but it's a relatively short border. Yes, you have powerful nobles, but they are powerful nobles who, by this stage, are locked into the state. They're locked into a unified system of law. The common law rules everyone. Everyone looks to Westminster.It's very different from what the King of France has been having to face, which has been having to push his authority outward from the Île-de-France, reconquer bits of France that the English have had for a long time, impose his authority over other princes of the realm in a context where there are different laws, there are different customs, there are different languages. You could say that France is in a much more difficult and unstable situation.Of course, what we see as the tide of the war turns again in the early 15th century is precisely that France collapses into civil war, and the English can make hay again in that situation. If Henry V had not died too young with not enough sons in 1423, and particularly, if he'd left a son who grew up to be any use at all, as opposed to absolutely none-- what am I saying? I'm saying that the structure of government in England could work astonishingly well given the luck of the right man at the helm. The right man at the helm had to understand his responsibilities at home, and he had to be capable of prosecuting a successful war abroad because that is how this state works best.As you've just pointed out, prosecuting a successful war abroad is an inherently unstable scenario because no war is ever going to go in your direction the entire time. That's what Richard, who has no interest in war at all is discovering, because once the tide of war is lapping at your own shores, instead of all happening over there, it's a very, very different prospect in terms of persuading parliament to pay for it, quite understandably.You talk about the Black Death. One of the extraordinary things is looking at England in 1348, 1349, when the Black Death hits. Probably, something approaching half the population dies in 18 months. If you're looking at the progress of the war, you barely notice it happened at all. What does the government do? It snaps into action and implements a maximum wage immediately, in case [chuckles] these uppity laborers start noticing there are fewer of them, and they can ask for more money.The amount of control, at that stage at least, that the government has over a country going through an extraordinary set of challenges is quite remarkable, really.Henry: Did Bolingbroke do the right thing?Helen: I think Bolingbroke did the only possible thing, which, in some senses, equates to the right thing. If he had not come back, he would not only have been abandoning his own family, his dynasty, his inheritance, everything he'd been brought up to believe was his responsibility, but also abandoning England to what was pretty much by that stage, clearly, a situation of tyranny.The big argument is always, well, we can identify a tyrant, we have a definition of tyranny. That is, if a legitimate king rules in the common interest and according to the law, then a tyrant rules not in the common interest, and not according to the law. But then the thing that the political theorists argue about is whether or not you can actively resist a tyrant, or whether you have to wait for God to act.Then, the question is, "Might God be acting through me if I'm Bolingbroke?" That's what Bolingbroke has to hope, because if he doesn't do what he does in 1399, he is abandoning everything his whole life has been devoted to maintaining and taking responsibility for. It's quite hard to see where England would then end up, other than with somebody else trying to challenge Richard in the way that Henry does.Henry: Why was he anointed with Thomas Becket's oil?Helen: Because Richard had found it in the tower, [chuckles] and was making great play of the claims that were made for Thomas. This is one of the interesting things about Richard. He is simultaneously very interested in history, and interested in his place in history, his place in the lineage of English kings, going all the way back, particularly to the confessor to whom he looks as not only a patron saint, but as in some sense, a point of identification.He's also seeking to stop time at himself. He doesn't like to think about the future beyond himself. He doesn't show any interest in fathering an heir. His will is all about how to make permanent the judgments that he's made on his nobles. It's not about realistically what's going to happen after his death.In the course of his interest in history, he has found this vial of oil in the tower somewhere in a locked drawer with a note that says, "The Virgin gave this to Thomas Becket, and whoever is anointed with this oil shall win all his battles and shall lead England to greatness," et cetera. Richard has tried to have himself re-anointed, and even his patsy Archbishop of Canterbury that he's put in place after exiling the original one who'd stood up to him a bit.Even the new Archbishop of Canterbury says, "Sire, anointing doesn't really work like that. I'm afraid we can't do it twice." Richard has been wearing this vial round his neck in an attempt to claim that he is not only the successor to the confessor, but he is now the inheritor of this holy oil. The French king has had a holy oil for a very long time in the Cathedral of Reims, which was supposedly given to Clovis, the first king of France, by an angel, et cetera.Richard, who is always very keen on emulating, or paralleling the crown of France, is very, very keen on this. If you were Henry coming in 1399 saying, "No, God has spoken through me. The country has rallied to me. I am now the rightful king of England. We won't look too closely at my justifications for that," and you are appropriating the ceremonial of the crown, you are having yourself crowned in Westminster Abbey on the 13th of October, which is the feast day of the confessor, you are handed that opportunity to use the symbolism of this oil that Richard has just unearthed, and was trying to claim for himself. You can then say, "No, I am the first king crowned with this oil," and you're showing it to the French ambassadors and so on.If we are to believe the chroniclers, it starts making his hair fall out, which might be a contrary sign from God. It's a situation where you are usurping the throne, and what is questionable is your right to be there. Then, any symbolic prop you can get, you're going to lean on as hard as you can.Henry: A few general questions to close. Should we be more willing to open up old tombs?Helen: Yes. [laughs]Henry: Good. [laughs]Helen: I'm afraid, for me, historical curiosity is-- Our forebears in the 18th and 19th century had very few qualms at all. One of the things I love about the endless series of scholarly antiquarian articles that are-- or not so scholarly, in some cases, that are written about all the various tomb openings that went on in the 18th and 19th century, I do love the moments, where just occasionally, they end up saying, "Do you know what, lads? Maybe we shouldn't do this bit." [chuckles]They get right to the brink with a couple of tombs and say, "Oh, do you know what? This one hasn't been disturbed since 1260, whatever. Maybe we won't. We'll put it back." Mostly, they just crowbar the lid off and see what they can find, which one might regret in terms of what we might now find with greater scientific know-how, and et cetera. Equally, we don't do that kind of thing anymore unless we're digging up a car park. We're not finding things out anyway. I just love the information that comes out, so yes, for me.Henry: Dig up more tombs.Helen: Yes.Henry: What is it that you love about the Paston Letters?Helen: More or less everything. I love the language. I love the way that, even though most of them are dictated to scribes, but you can hear the dictation. You can hear individual voices. Everything we were saying about sentences. You can hear the rhythm. You can hear the speech patterns. I'm no linguistic expert, but I love seeing the different forms of spelling and how that plays out on the page.I love how recognizable they are as a family. I love the fact that we hear women's voices in a way that we very rarely do in the public records. The government which is mainly what we have to work with. I love Margaret Paston, who arrives at 18 as a new bride, and becomes the matriarch of the family. I love her relationship with her two eldest boys, John and John, and their father, John.I do wish they hadn't done that because it doesn't help those of us who are trying to write about them. I love the view you get of late medieval of 15th-century politics from the point of view of a family trying to survive it. The fact that you get tiny drops in letters that are also about shopping, or also about your sisters fall in love with someone unsuitable. Unsuitable only, I hasten to add, because he's the family bailiff, not because he isn't a wonderful and extremely able man. They all know those two things. It's just that he's a family bailiff, and therefore, not socially acceptable.I love that experience of being immersed in the world of a 15th-century gentry family, so politically involved, but not powerful enough to protect themselves, who can protect themselves in the Wars of the Roses in any case.Henry: If someone wants to read the Paston Letters, but they don't want to read Middle English, weird spelling, et cetera, is there a good edition that they can use?Helen: Yes, there is an Oxford World's Classic. They're all selected. There isn't a complete edition in modern spelling. If any publishers are listening, I would love to do one. [chuckles]Henry: Yes, let's have it.Helen: Let's have it. I would really, really love to do that. There are some very good selections. Richard Barber did one many years ago, and, of course, self-advertising. There is also my book, now more than 20 years old, about the Paston family, where I was trying to put in as much of the letters as I could. I wanted to weave the voices through. Yes, please go and read the Paston Letters in selections, in whatever form you can get them, and let's start lobbying for a complete modernized Paston.Henry: That's right. Why did you leave academia? Because you did it before it was cool.Helen: [laughs] That's very kind of you to say. My academic life was, and is very important to me, and I hate saying this now, because the academic world is so difficult now. I ended up in it almost by accident, which is a terrible thing to say now, people having to-- I never intended to be an academic. My parents were academics, and I felt I'd seen enough and wasn't sure I wanted to do that.I couldn't bear to give up history, and put in a PhD application to work with Christine Carpenter, who'd been the most inspiring supervisor when I was an undergraduate, got the place, thought, "Right, I'm just going to do a PhD." Of course, once you're doing a PhD, and everyone you know is starting to apply for early career jobs, which weren't even called early career jobs in those days, because it was a million years ago.I applied for a research fellowship, was lucky enough to get it, and then applied for a teaching job, utterly convinced, and being told by the people around me that I stood no chance of getting it, because I was way too junior, and breezed through the whole process, because I knew I wasn't going to get it, and then turned up looking for someone very junior.I got this wonderful teaching job at Sidney Sussex in Cambridge and spent eight years there, learned so much, loved working with the students. I was working very closely with the students in various ways, but I wasn't-- I'm such a slow writer, and a writer that needs to be immersed in what I was doing, and I just wasn't managing to write, and also not managing to write in the way I wanted to write, because I was becoming clearer and clearer about the fact that I wanted to write narrative history.Certainly, at that point, it felt as though writing narrative history for a general audience and being an early career academic didn't go so easily together. I think lots of people are now showing how possible it is, but I wasn't convinced I could do it. Then, sorry, this is a very long answer to what's [crosstalk] your question.Henry: That's good.Helen: I also had my son, and my then partner was teaching at a very different university, I mean, geographically different, and we were living in a third place, and trying to put a baby into that geographical [chuckles] setup was not going to work. I thought, "Well, now or never, I'll write a proposal for a book, a narrative, a book for a general readership, a narrative book about the Paxton family, because that's what I really want to write, and I'll see if I can find an agent, and I'll see if I," and I did.I found the most wonderful agent, with whose help I wrote a huge proposal, and got a deal for it two weeks before my son was due. At that point, I thought, "Okay, if I don't jump now, now or never, the stars are aligned." I've been a freelance medieval historian ever since then, touching every wood I can find as it continues to be possible. I am very grateful for those years in Cambridge. They were the making of me in terms of training and in terms of teaching.I certainly think without teaching for those years, I wouldn't be anywhere near as good a writer, because you learn such a lot from talking to, and reading what students produce.Henry: How do you choose your subjects now? How do you choose what to write about?Helen: I follow my nose, really. It's not very scientific.Henry: Why should it be?Helen: Thank you. The book, bizarrely, the book that felt most contingent, was the one I wrote after the Paston book, because I knew I'd written about the Pastons in my PhD, and then again more of it in the monograph that was based on my PhD. I knew having written about the Pastons in a very academic, analytical way, contributing to my analysis of 15th-century politics. I knew I wanted to put them at the center and write about them. That was my beginning point.The big question was what to do next, and I was a bit bamboozled for a while. The next book I ended up writing was She-Wolves, which is probably, until now, my best-known book. It was the one that felt most uncertain to me, while I was putting it together, and that really started from having one scene in my head, and it's the scene with which the book opens. It's the scene of the young Edward VI in 1553, Henry VIII's only son, dying at the age of 15.Suddenly, me suddenly realizing that wherever you looked on the Tudor family tree at that point, there were only women left. The whole question of whether a woman could rule was going to have to be answered in some way at that point, and because I'm a medievalist, that made me start thinking backwards, and so I ended up choosing some medieval queens to write about, because they've got their hands on power one way or another.Until very close to finishing it, I was worried that it wouldn't hang together as a book, and the irony is that it's the one that people seem to have taken to most. The next book after that grew out of that one, because I found myself going around talking about She-Wolves, and saying repeatedly, "The problem these queens faced was that they couldn't lead an army on the battlefield."Women couldn't do that. The only medieval woman who did that was Joan of Arc, and look what happened to her. Gradually, I realized that I didn't really know what had happened to her. I mean, I did know what--Henry: Yes, indeed.Helen: I decided that I really wanted to write about her, so I did that. Then, having done that, and having then written a very short book about Elizabeth I, that I was asked to write for Penguin Monarchs, I realized I'd been haunted all this time by Richard and Henry, who I'd been thinking about and working on since the very beginning of my PhD, but I finally felt, perhaps, ready to have a go at them properly.It's all been pretty organic apart from She-Wolves, which was the big, "What am I writing about next?" That took shape slowly and gradually. Now, I'm going to write about Elizabeth I properly in a-Henry: Oh, exciting.Helen: -full-scale book, and I decided that, anyway, before I wrote this last one, but I-- It feels even righter now, because I Am Richard II, Know Ye Not That, feels even more intensely relevant having now written about Richard and Henry, and I'm quite intimidated because Elizabeth is quite intimidating, but I think it's good, related by your subjects.[laughter]Henry: Have you read the Elizabeth Jenkins biography?Helen: Many, many years ago. It's on my shelf here.Henry: Oh, good.Helen: In fact, so it's one of the things I will be going back to. Why do you ask particularly? I need--Henry: I'm a big Elizabeth Jenkins fan, and I like that book particularly.Helen: Wonderful. Well, I will be redoubled in my enthusiasm.Henry: I look forward to seeing what you say about it. What did you learn from Christine Carpenter?Helen: Ooh. Just as precision was the word that came into my head when you asked me about Hilary Mantel, the word that comes into my head when you ask about Christine is rigor. I think she is the most rigorous historical thinker that I have ever had the privilege of working with and talking to. I am never not on my toes when I am writing for, talking to, reading Christine. That was an experience that started from the first day I walked into her room for my first supervision in 1987.It was really that rigor that started opening up the medieval world to me, asking questions that at that stage I couldn't answer at all, but suddenly, made everything go into technicolor. Really, from the perspective that I had been failing to ask the most basic questions. I would sometimes have students say to me, "Oh, I didn't say that, because I thought it was too basic."I have always said, "No, there is no question that is too basic." Because what Christine started opening up for me was how does medieval government work? What are you talking about? There is the king at Westminster. There is that family there in Northumberland. What relates the two of them? How does this work? Think about it structurally. Think about it in human terms, but also in political structural terms, and then convince me that you understand how this all goes together. I try never to lose that.Henry: Helen Castor, thank you very much.Helen: Thank you so much. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk/subscribe

In this episode of High Theory Nasser Mufti talks with us about Brutalism. A twentieth century architectural style featuring imposing structures made of a lot of concrete, brutalist structures tend to provoke strong reactions. People either love it or they hate it – you never get a middling conversation about brutalism. Often used for government buildings, university libraries, and hospitals, Nasser suggests it represents the architecture of the state itself, massive bureaucratic structures in which we get lost, but also perhaps, nostalgia for a state that actually takes care of its citizens. Before we recorded the episode, Nasser sent me this article about the Brutalist campus at the University of Illinois where he works, which is full of beautiful black and white images. In the episode he refers to a line in Charles Dickens's Bleak House (1853), which describes Chesney Wold as “seamed by time.” And he reminds us that verb form “decolonizing” is quite new, even Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986) only uses the gerund in the title. The neologism “decolonizing” is distinct from the world historical project of decolonization and the historiographic method of decolonial analysis that comes from Latin American studies. Nasser Mufti is an associate professor of English at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where his research and teaching focuses on nineteenth century British and postcolonial literature and theory. He is especially interested in literary approaches to the study of nationalism. His first book, Civilizing War: Imperial Politics and the Poetics of National Rupture (Northwestern University Press, 2018) argues that narratives of civil war energized and animated nineteenth-century British imperialism and decolonization in the twentieth century. You can read it online, open access, which is pretty damn cool! He is working on two new projects, the first, tentatively titled Britain's Nineteenth Century, 1963-4, looks at how anticolonial and postcolonial thinkers from the Anglophone world turned to nineteenth century British literature and culture as a way to think decolonization. The second, titled “Colonia Moralia,” examines the dialectics of postcolonial Enlightenment through comparative readings of T.W. Adorno and V.S. Naipaul. The image for this episode is a photograph of Boston City Hall, a Brutalist building mentioned in the episode. The black and white photograph shows an interior courtyard of the building, a large concrete structure with many windows, located at One City Hall Square, Boston, Suffolk County, MA. It comes from the US Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Collections. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In this episode of High Theory Nasser Mufti talks with us about Brutalism. A twentieth century architectural style featuring imposing structures made of a lot of concrete, brutalist structures tend to provoke strong reactions. People either love it or they hate it – you never get a middling conversation about brutalism. Often used for government buildings, university libraries, and hospitals, Nasser suggests it represents the architecture of the state itself, massive bureaucratic structures in which we get lost, but also perhaps, nostalgia for a state that actually takes care of its citizens. Before we recorded the episode, Nasser sent me this article about the Brutalist campus at the University of Illinois where he works, which is full of beautiful black and white images. In the episode he refers to a line in Charles Dickens's Bleak House (1853), which describes Chesney Wold as “seamed by time.” And he reminds us that verb form “decolonizing” is quite new, even Ngũgĩ Wa Thiong'o Decolonizing the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature (1986) only uses the gerund in the title. The neologism “decolonizing” is distinct from the world historical project of decolonization and the historiographic method of decolonial analysis that comes from Latin American studies. Nasser Mufti is an associate professor of English at the University of Illinois, Chicago, where his research and teaching focuses on nineteenth century British and postcolonial literature and theory. He is especially interested in literary approaches to the study of nationalism. His first book, Civilizing War: Imperial Politics and the Poetics of National Rupture (Northwestern University Press, 2018) argues that narratives of civil war energized and animated nineteenth-century British imperialism and decolonization in the twentieth century. You can read it online, open access, which is pretty damn cool! He is working on two new projects, the first, tentatively titled Britain's Nineteenth Century, 1963-4, looks at how anticolonial and postcolonial thinkers from the Anglophone world turned to nineteenth century British literature and culture as a way to think decolonization. The second, titled “Colonia Moralia,” examines the dialectics of postcolonial Enlightenment through comparative readings of T.W. Adorno and V.S. Naipaul. The image for this episode is a photograph of Boston City Hall, a Brutalist building mentioned in the episode. The black and white photograph shows an interior courtyard of the building, a large concrete structure with many windows, located at One City Hall Square, Boston, Suffolk County, MA. It comes from the US Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Online Collections. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/architecture

Welcome to Season 26 of Scholé Sisters! At the risk of sound like grumpy old ladies, we are kicking off this season with a conversation about homeschool history and how you can tap in to some of homeschool culture's strengths. You're going to love this conversation! *** If you've considered upgrading your Sistership membership from FREE to Sophie level, now is the time to do that! Our 2025 book clubs are underway and they are fantastic! Modern Times, Norms and Nobility, Bleak House, and more! There is something for everyone. And in March, Abby, along with Jami Marstall, will be teaching a workshop on leading homeschool co-op classes that you do NOT want to miss. To join us, all you have to do is make sure you are a Sophie level member of the Sistership! Just go to scholesisters.com/join and sign up. *** Click here to access today's show notes. Click here to join the FREE area of the Sistership.

Bleak House è il boxed set che chiuse il Ravenloft dell'era TSR.

Mark and Gray ring in the New Year with a discussion of the 1960s trend for… actually not being very 1960s at all! But just how much of Christie's 1960s writing harks back to the Edwardian and Victorian eras? Did they even ‘swing' back then?? You can listen to our guest spot on the All About Agatha podcast, here. You can read our special article for the Agatha Christie website here. You can read Mark's paper about Agatha Christie's Charles Dickens's Bleak House here. And tickets and info for The Mirror Crack'd at the Tower Theatre can be found here! You can find us on Instagram (as well as X) @Christie_Time. We are on BlueSky at christietime.bsky.social. Please do rate and review us wherever you get your podcasts. Our website is ChristieTime.com. The Swinging Christies is a Christie Time project by Mark Aldridge and Gray Robert Brown. Next episode: wait and see… 00:00:00 - Opening titles 00:00:51 - Introductory chat 00:04:29 - The Sixties weren't Swinging for everyone 00:15:38 - Old-new locations 00:58:02 - The Next Generation 01:04:28 - Servants and service 01:14:44 - Reviving the greats: Shakespeare, Tennyson, Austen, Brontë 01:22:37 - Bleak House by Agatha Christie 01:33:57 - Brave monkey puzzle: remembering Christie's childhood home 01:37:22 - Next episode, how to get in touch 01:38:33 - Closing titles 01:39:01 - Coda Solutions revealed! - The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side, At Bertram's Hotel

“A Merry Christmas to us all; God bless us, everyone!” A Christmas Carol is a huge success and Dickens is an international celebrity. There's lots of money coming in – Bleak House, Hard Times, David Copperfield all do well - but he has a big family and a lavish lifestyle to fund, as well as his Home for Homeless Women. Plus, there's trouble in his marriage when Dickens' eye is caught by the turn of a pretty ankle.Listen to Legacy on the Wondery App or wherever you get your podcasts. You can binge episodes early and ad-free on Wondery+. Join Wondery+ in the Wondery App, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Start your free trial by visiting wondery.com/links/legacy now.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In this episode we chat with the man who gave us the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice—for many, the definitive Austen adaptation. A prolific author and screenwriter, Andrew Davies is also responsible for the 1996 ITV adaptation of Emma, Northanger Abbey (2007), Sense and Sensibility (2008), and the recent dramatization of Sanditon—not to mention adaptations of a host of other classic novels. Join us as we discuss Andrew's thoughts on adapting Austen's novels to film and, of course, Mr. Darcy in a wet shirt. Andrew Davies, prominent author and screenwriter, began his career writing radio plays and eventually moved into writing for television, film, and theater. He is also the author of several novels and children's books. In addition to the screen adaptations of Austen's novels mentioned above, he has dramatized television series such as Bleak House, House of Cards (ITV), Mr. Selfridge, Little Dorrit, To Serve Them All My Days, Vanity Fair, and War & Peace, in addition to films such as Bridget Jones's Diary, and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Andrew's work has garnered dozens of nominations and awards, and in 2002, he received the highest honor bestowed by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, a BAFTA Fellowship, in recognition of his “outstanding achievement in the art forms of the moving image.” For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep18.Visit our website: www.jasna.orgFollow us on Instagram and FacebookSubscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channelEmail: podcast@jasna.org

Drawing upon St. Theophan the Recluse's commentary, Fr. Seraphim Rose briefly discusses how souls formed in the "emotional and spiritual wasteland of our times" can become aware of this reality and how to live spiritually profitable lives in the Orthodox Church. Sometimes, as a stepping stone, even the best of the secular arts can be used to form the soul in godliness.

Born in Yorkshire, Anna Maxwell Martin is an actress celebrated for her versatility across theatre, television and film. After studying history at Liverpool University, she trained at LAMDA, launching her career at the Royal Shakespeare Company. Her breakthrough role came in 2005, when she portrayed Esther Summerson in the BBC adaptation of Bleak House, earning her the Bafta TV Award for Best Actress. Since then, Anna has delighted audiences playing Julia in sitcom Motherland, and the unsavoury DCS Patricia Carmichael in Line of Duty. Anna's new show Ludwig, also starring David Mitchell, is on BBC iPlayer now. Nick pours a round of margaritas, while Angela concentrates her efforts on a hearty pot-roasted lamb with flageolet beans. The experts at Waitrose pair this with a Côte des Roses organic rosé Anna Maxwell Martin is a tonic. Her sense of humour is infectious and Nick and Angela enjoy comedic tales about cooking for her teenage daughters, meeting Tom Cruise and her absolute aversion to sandwiches. You can watch full episodes of Dish now on Youtube  All recipes from this podcast can be found at waitrose.com/dishrecipes A transcript for this episode can be found at waitrose.com/dish We can't all have a Michelin star chef in the kitchen, but you can ask Angela for help. Send your dilemmas to dish@waitrose.co.uk and she'll try to answer them in a future episode. Dish is a S:E Creative Studio production for Waitrose Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey HBs! We're here with a brand new historical era: Dickens' Times! Elizabeth Hoyt came out swinging with WICKED INTENTIONS, the first book in her Maiden Lane series. We've got a do-gooding heroine who needs cash for her orphanage, a bad boy aristocrat who needs entree into London's worst neighborhood, a murder mystery, a vigilante hero clown, and some BIG SWOONS. We're super into it.Bonus Content: Mel is having legal dreams because we're in Dickens' Times and Bleak House left it's mark on her soul, new Times alert! Dickens' Times! Is there an urchin? Are people starving in the gutters? Are babies being rescued from the arms of their corpse mother? You might be in Dickens' Times!, atoning for your clitoris, filming with a gray filter to account for the soot and misery, and so much more! Lady Loves: Mel: Microfiber gloves! Lots of people use them for dusting, but I like to use them to give my houseplants a periodic mashashge! I spray a little water on the leaves and then wipe them down while wearing my gloves to remove dust, promote shine, make sure they can photosynthesize efficiently, and know they're loved!Sabrina: STORYGRAPH CHARTS ARE NOW EDITABLE!!!!!!!!!!! That's right, you can get your books and tags all organized and graphed and then you can fine-tune them!Make sure to check out Mel's new podcast Bonkers Romance! Subscribe! Rate! Review! Tell all your friends :)Get more content on PATREON!!Sign up for our Newsletter! MERCH! Teepublic, Chicaloo Kate, RedbubbleInstagram: @heavingbosomsTwitter: @heaving_bosoms*Disclaimer: the above contains Amazon affiliate links. That means that if you click a link and decide to make a purchase the podcast will receive a commission at no extra cost to you.

‘London. Michaelmas Term lately over and the Lord Chancellor sitting in Lincoln's Inn Hall…' This week, Sally has been reading and teaching Charles Dickens' Bleak House (1852). Follow her on a journey through his London, in the company of its climate, characters, and the bewildering legal bureaucracy not very far from our own…. Music used throughout includes ‘Tuesday' and ‘Thursday' by Paul Sebastian. This episode was edited and produced by James Bowen. Special thanks to Andrew Smith, Violet Henderson, Kris Dyer, and Maeve Magnus.

On the latest episode of Feckin' Metal, I chat to Graham Killin, one of the two guitarists of NWOBHM band, Bleak House. If you're not familiar with the band, this is the perfect place to start. Formed in the early 1970s, in Hertfordshire, England, they survived many name changes, and the emergence of punk, to release two critically-acclaimed, but relatively-obscure EPs in the 1980s, then disappeared. That was until singer Graham Shaw received a phonecall from Oliver Weinsheimer, organiser of the Keep It True Festival, in early 2021. Since then, they've been on the up and up, and we cover all bases in between.

In Which Murderer's 46th episode of Season 6, the girls cover Boobytrap Murders. Mel starts us off with the explosive case involving Ronan Kerr, before Holly goes over the crazy story of Anthony Edward Martin and Bleak House. Emma Jo suggested this week's topic - thanks so much! In this week's episode there is far too much weather related moaning, we learn Holly has a background in Boobytraps, some sweeping (and likely inaccurate) terrorist statements are made and dental traumas are recounted. Production, recording and post production completed by Holly who is currently building a boobytrap for Consulting Producer Craig where he will spend all of eternity editing podcast episodes. Holly edited this week. All complaints should be sent directly to Mel while Consulting Producer Craig watches Holly try to dig a hole and give up after approximately 3.5 seconds of effort.Big thank you to all our listeners for subscribing, leaving fantastic reviews and sending in great theme suggestions. WE HAVE MERCH!  www.whichmurderer.com - CLICK ON THE MERCHANDISE TAB FOR A LINK!WARNING - Explicit language, content and themes (plus whatever else will cover us legally).All opinions stated are our own and case information was gathered from legitimate sources within the public realm. Pre-recorded in Scotland

Welcome to the Instant Trivia podcast episode 1183, where we ask the best trivia on the Internet. Round 1. Category: Dickens Book By Character 1: Bob Cratchit. A Christmas Carol. 2: Bill Sikes. Oliver Twist. 3: Esther Summerson. Bleak House. 4: Dr. Alexandre Manette. A Tale of Two Cities. 5: Uriah Heep. David Copperfield. Round 2. Category: All Hail The Creator 1: This Mindy of "The Mindy Project" was named after Mindy in "Mork and Mindy". Mindy Kaling. 2: Its creator Phil Rosenthal summed it up as "a guy with this family who lives across the street from his parents". Everybody Loves Raymond. 3: In 1998 this man played up "Sports Night"; the next year, he came up with "The West Wing". Sorkin. 4: The initials of this creator of "Alias", also a big-time movie director, stand for Jeffrey Jacob. Abrams. 5: Ronald D. Moore co-created the 2005 version of this frakkin' awesome sci-fi show featuring Adama and Starbuck. Battlestar Galactica. Round 3. Category: In The Mouth 1: Muscle which extends up and forward from the hyoid bone to, and sometimes past, the lips. the tongue. 2: They're "set" in the mouths of fish. hooks. 3: This company claimed they had 50% of the chewing gum market's sales in 1986. Wrigley's. 4: 3 of the 4 general types of teeth in the adult human mouth. (3 of) molars, incisors, cuspids, or bicuspids. 5: Comprised of a hard and soft portion, it's the roof of the mouth. the palate. Round 4. Category: Which Time Zone? 1: Portland, Oregon. Pacific. 2: Medford, Oregon. Pacific. 3: Vancouver, British Columbia. Pacific. 4: Wichita, Kansas. Central. 5: Omaha, Nebraska. Central. Round 5. Category: Ron Howard Films 1: He reprised the role of Robert Langdon in "Angels and Demons". Tom Hanks. 2: He played math genius John Nash in "A Beautiful Mind". Russell Crowe. 3: He's worked with Ron Howard twice, playing astronaut Jack Swigert in "Apollo 13" and Jack Brennan in "Frost/Nixon". Kevin Bacon. 4: Ron Howard was on fire with this film in which Kurt Russell and William Baldwin starred as firefighting brothers. Backdraft. 5: This actor and Nicole Kidman light out for the Oklahoma territory in 1992's "Far and Away". Tom Cruise. Thanks for listening! Come back tomorrow for more exciting trivia!Special thanks to https://blog.feedspot.com/trivia_podcasts/ AI Voices used

Retired teacher Chris Starling shares a few of his favourite works of literature that inspired him as a linguaphile and educator. We hope Chris' book list inspires you to continue the conversation by sharing your favourite titles with your teaching community and in the comments section on the TESOL Pop website.KEY TALKING POINTSDiscussion of "Slouching Towards Bethlehem" by Joan Didion:"Slouching Towards Bethlehem" is a collection of 1960s journalism by Joan Didion, offering a critical look at the counterculture movement.Chris appreciates Didion's style and personal approach to journalism, which invites readers into her world and provides insightful commentary.Favourite quote: "This is the California where it is possible to live and die without ever eating an artichoke…"Discussion of "Fugitive Pieces" by Anne Michaels:Chris describes "Fugitive Pieces" as a powerful exploration of memory, personal history, and self-construction set against the backdrop of the Holocaust.He praises Anne Michaels' poetic writing style and the depth of insight each reading offers.Favorite quote: "The past is never dead, it's never even past."Discussion of "Bleak House" by Charles Dickens:Chris highlights Charles Dickens' storytelling prowess in "Bleak House," emphasising its intricate plot and rich character development.He discusses Dickens' use of symbolism, particularly the fog, to represent societal issues and interconnectedness.Favourite quote: "Fog everywhere... Fog in the eyes and throats of ancient Greenwich pensioners."ABOUTChris qualified as a librarian and then as a teacher of English, careers he followed with pleasure for over 30 years although he was drawn away from the librarianship side quite early. His longest service, over 20 years, was in a school where the students had over sixty home languages.REFERENCESDidion, J. (1968) Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Farrar, Straus and GirouxMichaels, A. (1996) Fugitive Pieces. McClelland & Stewart Ltd.Dickens, C. (1852-1853) Bleak House. Bradbury & EvansLinks to later editions of these title can be found on the TESOL Pop website.TRANSCRIPTWatch with closed captions.SUPPORTWe'd love to record more special episodes like this one for you.Please support us to make this possible by buying us a coffee here.JOIN OUR EVENTSUpcoming lives and workshopsCREDITSProducer Laura WilkesEditor Haven TsangThanks to our charming guest, Chris Starling. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bible Study – Job Class Six: Job 8:1-11:1; 11:1-42:22  From the Orthodox Study Bible.  JOB 8: [Bildad's nonsense] TO THE EARS OF BILDAD, JOB'S SECOND RESPONDENT, a man even less tolerant than Eliphaz, the foregoing lament seems to be an attack on the justice of God and the entire moral order. Unlike Eliphaz, however, Bildad is able to make no argument on the basis of his own personal experience. He is obliged to argue, rather, solely from the moral tradition, which he does not understand very well. Indeed, Bildad treats the moral structure of the world in a nearly impersonal way. To the mind of Bildad, the effects of sin follow automatically, as the inevitable effects of a sufficient cause. The presence of the effect, that is, implies the presence of the cause. If Eliphaz's argument had been too personal, bordering on the purely subjective, the argument of Bildad may be called too objective, bordering on the purely mechanical. In the mind of Bildad the principle of retributive justice functions nearly as a law of nature, or what the religions of India call the Law of Karma. Both Eliphaz and Job show signs of knowing God personally, but we discern nothing of this in Bildad. Between Bildad and Job, therefore, there is even less of a meeting of minds than there was between Eliphaz and Job. We should remember, on the other hand, that Job himself has never raised the abstract question of the divine justice; he has shown no interest, so far, in the problems of theodicy. Up to this point in the story, Job has been concerned only with his own problems, and his lament has been entirely personal, not theoretical. Bildad, for his part, does not demonstrate even the limited compassion of Eliphaz. We note, for example, his comments about Job's now perished children. In the light of Job's own concern for the moral wellbeing of those children early in the book (1:5), there is an especially cruel irony in Bildad's speculation on their moral state: “If your sons have sinned against [God], He has cast them away for their transgression” (8:4). What a dreadful thing to say to a man who loved his sons as Job did! Like Eliphaz before him, Bildad urges Job to repent (8:5–7), for such, he says, is the teaching of traditional morality (8:8–10). Clearly, Bildad is unfamiliar with the God worshipped by Job, the God portrayed in the opening chapters of this book. Bildad knows nothing of a personal God who puts man to the test through the trial of his faith. Bildad's divinity is, on the contrary, a nearly mechanistic adjudicator who functions entirely as a moral arbiter of human behavior, not a loving, redemptive God who shapes man's destiny through His personal interest and intervention. Nonetheless, in his comments about Job's final lot Bildad speaks with an unintended irony, because in fact Job's latter end will surpass his beginning (8:7), and “God will not cast away the blameless” (8:20—tam; cf. 1:1, 8; 2:3). On our first reading of the story, we do not know this yet, of course, because we do not know, on our first reading, how the story will end (for example 42:12). So many comments made by Job's friends, including these by Bildad in this chapter, are full of ironic, nearly prophetic meaning, which will become clear only at the story's end, so the reader does not perceive this meaning on his first trip through the book. As Edgar Allen Poe argued in his review of Bleak House by Charles Dickens, the truly great stories cannot be understood on a single reading, because the entire narrative must be known before the deeper significance of the individual episodes can become manifest. As Poe remarked, we do not understand any great story well until our second reading of it. This insight is preeminently helpful in the case of the Book of Job. JOB 11 [Zophar's nonsense] WE NOW COME TO THE FIRST SPEECH OF ZOPHAR, Job's most strident critic, a man who can appeal to neither personal religious experience (as did Eliphaz) nor inherited moral tradition (as did Bildad). Possessed of neither resource, Zophar's contribution is what we may call “third-hand.” He bases his criticism on his own theory of wisdom. Although he treats his theory as self-evidently true, we recognize it as only a personal bias. Moreover, Zophar seems to identify his own personal perception of wisdom as the wisdom of God Himself. Whereas Bildad had endeavored to defend the divine justice, Zophar tries to glorify “divine” wisdom in Job's case. If it is difficult to see justice verified in Job's sufferings, however, it is even harder to see wisdom verified by those sufferings. Like the two earlier speakers, Zophar calls on Job to repent in order to regain the divine favor. (This is a rather common misunderstanding that claims, “If things aren't going well for you, you should go figure out how you have offended God, because He is obviously displeased with you.”) Zophar also resorts to sarcasm. Although this particular rhetorical form is perfectly legitimate in some circumstances (and the prophets, beginning with Elijah, use it often), sarcasm becomes merely an instrument of cruelty when directed at someone who is suffering incomprehensible pain. In the present case, Job suffers in an extreme way, pushed to the very limits of his endurance. It is such a one that Zophar has the vile temerity to call a “man full of talk” (11:2), a liar (11:3), a vain man (11:11–12), and wicked (11:14, 20). The final two verses (19–20) contain an implied warning against the “death wish” to which Job has several times given voice. This very sentiment, Zophar says, stands as evidence of Job's wickedness. The author of the Book of Job surely understands this extended criticism by Zophar as an exercise in irony. Though the context of his speech proves the speaker himself insensitive and nearly irrational in his personal cruelty, there is an undeniable eloquence in his description of the divine wisdom (11:7–9) and his assertion of the moral quality of human existence (11:10–12). Moreover, those very rewards that Zophar promises to Job in the event of his repentance (11:13–18) do, in fact, fall into Job's life at the end of the book. In this story of Job, men are not divided into those who have wisdom and those who don't. In the Book of Job no one is really wise. There is no real wise man, as there is in, say, the Book of Proverbs. While wisdom is ever present in the plot of the story, no character in the story has a clear grasp of it. True wisdom will not stand manifest until God, near the end of the narrative, speaks for Himself. Even then God will not disclose to Job the particulars of His dealings with him throughout the story. From St. Gregory the Great Ver. 3. Doth God pervert judgment? Or doth the Almighty pervert justice? xxxvi. 59. These things blessed Job had neither in speaking denied, nor yet was ignorant of them in holding his tongue. But all bold persons, as we have said, speak with big words even well known truths, that in telling of them they may appear to be learned. They scorn to hold their peace in a spirit of modesty, lest they should be thought to be silent from ignorance. But it is to be known that they then extol the rectitude of God's justice, when security from ill uplifts themselves in joy, while blows are dealt to other men; when they see themselves enjoying prosperity in their affairs, and others harassed with adversity. For whilst they do wickedly, and yet believe themselves righteous, the benefit of prosperity attending them, they imagine to be due to their own merits; and they infer that God does not visit unjustly, in proportion as upon themselves, as being righteous, no cloud of misfortune falls. But if the power of correction from above touches their life but in the least degree, being struck they directly break loose against the policy of the Divine inquest, which a little while before, unharmed, they made much of in expressing admiration of it, and they deny that judgment to be just, which is at odds with their own ways; they canvass the equity of God's dealings, they fly out in words of contradiction, and being chastened because they have done wrong, they do worse. Hence it is well spoken by the Psalmist against the confession of the sinner, He will confess to Thee, when Thou doest well to him. Ps. 49:18. For the voice of confession is disregarded, when it is shaped by the joyfulness of prosperity. But that confession alone possesses merit of much weight, which the force of pain has no power to part from the truth of the rule of right, and which adversity, the test of the heart, sharpens out even to the sentence of the lips. Therefore it is no wonder that Bildad commends the justice of God, in that he experiences no hurt therefrom. 60. Now whereas we have said that the friends of blessed Job bear the likeness of heretics, it is well for us to point out briefly, how the words of Bildad accord with the wheedling ways of heretics. For whilst in their own idea they see the Holy Church corrected with temporal visitations, they swell the bolder in the bigness of their perverted preaching, and putting forward the righteousness of the Divine probation, they maintain that they prosper by virtue of their merits; but they avouch that she is rewarded with deserved chastisements, and thereupon without delay they seek by beguiling words a way to steal upon her, in the midst of her sorrows, and they strike a blow at the lives of some, by making the deaths of others a reproach, as if those were now visited with deserved death, who refused to hold worthy opinions concerning God. We have heard what Job, his wife, and his three friends have to say.  They cycle through similar things several times.  Next week, we will briefly see what a new speaker, Elihuh has to say and spend most of the class – the last one before Great Lent – to look at God's conversation with Job.  During Great Lent, we will work through chapters of Tito Coriander's Way of Ascetics.     Scriptural review  Mentioned historically as Jobab in Genesis (4), Joshua (1), and 1 Chronicles (5) Ezekial 14:20. Though Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, saith the Lord God, they shall deliver neither son nor daughter; they shall but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.  James 5:11. Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy. Liturgical review Mentioned (through James) at Holy Unction; “You have heard of the patience of Job.” From the Funeral for a Priest Beatitudes: Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.   “Why do you lament me bitterly, O men? Why do you murmur in vain?” he that has been translated proclaims unto all. For death is rest for all. Therefore, let us listen to the voice of Job saying, “Death is rest unto man.” But give rest with Thy Saints, O God, unto him whom Thou hast received. Ode Six:   I remind you, O my brethren, my children, and my friends, that you forget me not when you pray to the Lord. I pray, I ask, and I make entreaty, that you remember these words, and weep for me, day and night. As said Job unto his friends, so I say unto you: Sit again and say: Alleluia.   Forsaking all things, we depart, and naked and afflicted we become. For beauty withers like grass, but only we men delude ourselves. Thou wast born naked, O wretched one, and altogether naked shall you stand there. Dream not, O man, in this life, but only groan always with weeping: Alleluia.   If thou, O man, hast been merciful to a man, he shall be merciful there unto thee. And if thou hast been compassionate to any orphan, he shall deliver you there from need. If in this life thou hast covered the naked, there he shall cover thee, and sing the psalm: Alleluia. Triodion Wednesday of Cheesfare Week; Matins Canticle Eight Let us preserve these virtues: the fortitude of Job, the singlemindedness of Jacob, the faith of Abraham, the chastity of Joseph and the courage of David. Saturday of Cheesefare Week; Matins; Canticle Two … a second Job was Benjamin in his constancy … Thursday of Clean Week (and Thursday of the Fifth Week); Great Canon Ode 4 Thou hast heard, O my soul, of Job justified on a dung-hill, but thou hast not imitated his fortitude. In all thine experiences and trials and temptations, thou hast not kept firmly to thy purpose but hast proved inconstant.          Have mercy on me, Oh God, have mercy on me. Once he sat upon a throne, but now he sits upon a dung-hill, naked and covered with sores. Once he was blessed with many children and admired by all, but suddenly he is childless and homeless. Yet he counted the dung-hill as a palace and his sores as pearls.          Have mercy on me, Oh God, have mercy on me. A man of great wealth and righteous, abounding in riches and cattle, clothed in royal dignity, in crown and purple robe, Job became suddenly a beggar, stripped of wealth, glory and kingship.          Have mercy on me, Oh God, have mercy on me. If he who was righteous and blameless above all men did not escape the snares and pits of the deceiver, what wilt thou do, wretched and sin-loving soul, when some sudden misfortune befalls thee?          Have mercy on me, Oh God, have mercy on me. I have defiled my body, I have stained my spirit, and I am all covered with wounds: but as physician, O Christ, heal both body and spirit for me through repentance. Wash, purify and cleanse me, O my Saviour, and make me whiter than snow. Read at Vespers/PSL on Monday of Holy Week: Job 1:1–12. Read at Vespers/PSL on Tuesday of Holy Week: Job 1:13–22. Read at Vespers/PSL on Wednesday of Holy Week: Job 2:1–10. Read at Vespers/Vesperal Liturgy on Thursday of Holy Week: Job 38:1–21; 42:1–5. Read at Vespers on Friday of Holy Week: Job 42:12–17 (LXX ending) --- Job 38  FROM FR. PATRICK REARDON NOW THE LORD HIMSELF WILL SPEAK, for the first time since chapter 2. After all, Job has been asking for God to speak (cf. 13:22; 23:5; 30:20; 31:35), and now he will get a great deal more than he anticipated. With a mere gesture, as it were, God proceeds to brush aside all the theories and pseudoproblems of the preceding chapters. … [Whirlwind, Lord] … At this point, all philosophical discussion comes to an end. There are questions, to be sure, but the questions now come from the Lord. Indeed, we observe in this chapter that God does not answer Job's earlier questions. The Lord does not so much as even notice those questions; He renders them hopelessly irrelevant. He has His own questions to put to Job. The purpose of these questions is not merely to bewilder Job. These questions have to do, rather, with God's providence over all things. The Lord is suggesting to Job that His providence over Job's own life is even more subtle and majestic than these easier questions which God proposes and which Job cannot begin to answer, questions about the construction of the world (verses 4–15), the courses of the heavenly bodies (verses 31–38), the marvels of earth and sea (verses 16–30), and animal life (38:39–39:30). Utterly surrounded by things that he cannot understand, will Job still demand to know mysteries even more mysterious? If the world itself contains creatures that seem improbable and bewildering to the human mind, should not man anticipate that there are even more improbable and bewildering aspects to the subtler forms of the divine providence? God will not be reduced simply to an answer to Job's shallow questions. Indeed, the divine voice from the whirlwind never once deigns even to notice Job's questions. They are implicitly subsumed into a mercy vaster and far richer. Implicit in these questions to Job is the quiet reminder of the Lord's affectionate provision for all His creatures. If God so cares for the birds of the air and the plants of the fields, how much more for Job! 39 - 41. On the Behemoth and the Leviathan Both behemoth and Leviathan are God's household pets, as it were, creatures that He cares for with gentle concern, His very playmates (compare Psalms 104[103]:26). God is pleased with them. Job cannot take the measure of these animals, but the Lord does. What, then, do these considerations say to Job? Well, Job has been treading on some very dangerous ground through some of this book, and it is about time that he manifest a bit more deference before things he does not understand. Behemoth and Leviathan show that the endeavor to transgress the limits of human understanding is not merely futile. There is about it a strong element of danger. A man can be devoured by it. It is remarkable that God's last narrative to Job resembles nothing so much as a fairy tale, or at least that darker part of a fairy tale that deals with dragons. Instead of pleading His case with Job, as Job has often requested, the Lord deals with him as with a child. Job must return to his childhood's sense of awe and wonder, so the Lord tells him a children's story about a couple of unimaginably dangerous dragons. These dragons, nonetheless, are only pets in the hands of God. Job is left simply with the story. It is the Lord's final word in the argument. 42.  Finale THE TRIAL OF JOB IS OVER. This last chapter of this book contains (1) a statement of repentance by Job (verses 1–6), (2) the Lord's reprimand of Eliphaz and his companions (verses 7–8), and (3) a final narrative section, at the end of which Job begins the second half of his life (verses 9–17). The book begins and ends, then, in narrative form. First, one observes in Job's repentance that he arrives at a new state of humility, not from a consideration of his own sins, but by an experience of God's overwhelming power and glory. (Compare Peter in Luke 5:1–8.) When God finally reveals Himself to Job, the revelation is different from anything Job either sought or expected, but clearly he is not disappointed. All through this book, Job has been proclaiming his personal integrity, but now this consideration is not even in the picture; he has forgotten all about any alleged personal integrity. It is no longer pertinent to his relationship to God (verse 6). Job is justified by faith, not by any claims to personal integrity. All that is in the past, and Job leaves it behind. Second, the Lord then turns and deals with the three comforters who have failed so miserably in their task. Presuming to speak for the Almighty, they have fallen woefully short of the glory of God. Consequently, Job is appointed to be the intercessor on their behalf. Ironically, the offering that God prescribes to be made on behalf of the three comforters (verse 8) is identical to that which Job had offered for his children out of fear that they might have cursed God (1:5). The Book of Job both begins and ends, then, with Job and worship and intercession. In just two verses (7–8) the Lord four times speaks of “My servant Job,” exactly as He had spoken of Job to Satan at the beginning of the book. But Job, for his part, must bear no grudge against his friends, and he is blessed by the Lord in the very act of his praying for them (verse 10). Ezekiel, remembering Job's prayer more than his patience, listed him with Noah and Daniel, all three of whom he took to be men endowed with singular powers of intercession before the Most High (Ezekiel 14:14–20). The divine reprimand of Job's counselors also implies that their many accusations against Job were groundless. Indeed, Job had earlier warned them of God's impending anger with them in this matter (13:7–11), and now that warning is proved accurate (verse 7). Also, ironically, whereas Job's friends fail utterly in their efforts to comfort him throughout almost the entire book, they succeed at the end (verse 11). Third, in the closing narrative we learn that Job lives 140 years, exactly twice the normal span of a man's life (cf. Psalm 90[89]:10). Each of his first seven sons and three daughters is replaced at the end of the story, and all of his original livestock is exactly doubled (Job 1:3; 42:12). St. John Chrysostom catches the sense of this final section of Job:   His sufferings were the occasion of great benefit. His substance was doubled, his reward increased, his righteousness enlarged, his crown made more lustrous, his reward more glorious. He lost his children, but he received, not those restored, but others in their place, and even those he still held in assurance unto the Resurrection (Homilies on 2 Timothy 7). ___ Saint Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, vol. 1 (Oxford; London: John Henry Parker; J. G. F. and J. Rivington, 1844), 83. Robert Charles Hill.  St. John Chrysostom Commentaries on the Sages, Volume One – Commentary on Job.  Holy Cross Orthodox Press. Patrick Henry Reardon, The Trial of Job: Orthodox Christian Reflections on the Book of Job (Chesterton, IN: Ancient Faith Publishing, 2005), 22. Manlio Simonetti and Marco Conti, eds., Job, Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2006), 4–5. Orthodox Church, The Lenten Triodion, trans. Kallistos Ware with Mother Mary, The Service Books of the Orthodox Church (South Canaan, PA: St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, 2002), 222. Mother Mary, Metropolitan Kallistos of Diokleia, trans., The Lenten Triodion: Supplementary Texts, The Service Books of the Orthodox Church (South Canaan, PA: St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, 2007), 60. Orthodox Church, The Lenten Triodion, trans. Kallistos Ware with Mother Mary, The Service Books of the Orthodox Church (South Canaan, PA: St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, 2002), 559. St. Tikhon's Monastery, trans., The Great Book of Needs: Expanded and Supplemented, vol. III (South Canaan, PA: St. Tikhon's Seminary Press, 2002), 283.        

All is revealed. Buckle up. Dorothy Sayers, today on The Classic Tales Podcast.  Welcome to The Classic Tales Podcast. Thank you for listening.  The Vintage Episode for the week is “The Man Who Would Be King”, by Rudyard Kipling. Be sure to check it out on Tuesday.  If you've enjoyed the show, please become a monthly supporter, and help us keep doing what we do.  Please go to http://classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a monthly supporter for as little as $5 a month. As a thank you gesture, we'll send you a coupon code every month for $8 off any audiobook order. Give more, and you get more! It's a great way to help us keep producing amazing audiobook content.  Go to http://classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a supporter today.  Mark your calendars for The Classic Tales Book Club! Our first meeting will be at 4:00 Pacific time, 7:00 Eastern time on March 13th. We'll talk over Zoom about the podcast, and what genre you'd like to hear more often. See you then!  I'm pivoting a bit on the Kickstarter for Bleak House. I just think it's too long for our first Kickstarter. So, I'm thinking of the next in the Arsène Lupin series – The Golden Triangle. I'll be making a custom enamel pin only available for supporters of the Kickstarter, among other fun deals. More details coming soon!  And now, Clouds of Witness, Part 9 of 9, by Dorothy Sayers.   Follow this link to become a monthly supporter:   Follow this link to subscribe to our YouTube Channel:   Follow this link to subscribe to the Arsène Lupin Podcast:   Follow this link to follow us on Instagram:   Follow this link to follow us on Facebook:   Follow this link to follow us on TikTok:    

Is an anatomy professor having murder done to secure his specimens? Robert Louis Stevenson, today on The Classic Tales Podcast.  Welcome to this Vintage Episode of The Classic Tales Podcast. Thank you for listening. A new Vintage Episode is released every Tuesday. Clouds of Witness, by Dorothy Sayers will continue episodically every Friday. Please help us to continue producing amazing audiobooks by going to http://classictalesaudiobooks.com, and becoming a supporter. Thank you so much.  Keep an ear open for our coming Kickstarter campaign to fund the audiobook of Bleak House, by Charles Dickens. We've got a ton of special bonuses planned. More details coming soon! And mark your calendar for the Classic Tales Book Club! We'll be meeting on Zoom on March 13th at 4:00PM pacific time. See you then!  Today's story was inspired by true events. William Burke and William Hare committed 16 murders over a period of about 10 months in 1828 in Edinburgh,  Scotland. They sold the bodies to Robert Knox, who used them in his anatomy lessons. Of course, Robert Louis Stevenson puts his wonderful spin on the tale. I hope you like it.  And now, “The Body Snatcher”, by Robert Louis Stevenson.  Follow this link to become a monthly supporter:   Follow this link to subscribe to our YouTube Channel:   Follow this link to subscribe to the Arsène Lupin Podcast:   Follow this link to follow us on Instagram:   Follow this link to follow us on Facebook:    

Peter runs off in a final mad dash to secure a secret testimony. But will it be enough to save his brother?  Dorothy Sayers, today on The Classic Tales Podcast.  Welcome to The Classic Tales Podcast. Thank you for listening.  The Vintage Episode for the week is “The Body Snatcher”, by Robert Louis Stevenson. Be sure to check it out on Tuesday.  If you've enjoyed the show, please become a monthly supporter, and help us keep doing what we do.  Please go to http://classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a monthly supporter for as little as $5 a month. As a thank you gesture, we'll send you a coupon code every month for $8 off any audiobook order. Give more, and you get more! It's a great way to help us keep producing amazing audiobook content. Go to http://classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a supporter today.  The Classic Tales Book Club's first meeting is set! We will be meeting via Zoom on March 13th, at 4:00 Pm Pacific time. That should make it 7:00 Eastern time. I'll be joined by the illustrious Christopher Oulette, and we'll have a fun little chat talking about the show and whatever else comes up. Mark you calendars for March 13th.  I'm working on setting up the Kickstarter project for Dickens' Bleak House. This is a long one, and I can't wait to dive in to an immersive story like this. I'm working on the artwork now, and I'll have more information in the weeks to come. Big thanks to Ammon Anderson for helping me set this up.  And now, Clouds of Witness, Part 8 of 9, by Dorothy Sayers. Follow this link to become a monthly supporter:   Follow this link to subscribe to our YouTube Channel:   Follow this link to subscribe to the Arsène Lupin Podcast:   Follow this link to follow us on Instagram:   Follow this link to follow us on Facebook:    Follow this link to follow us on TikTok:    

Why does Inspector Valentin, while following the track of the thief Flambeau, keep crossing paths with two argumentative priests? G.K. Chesterton, today on The Classic Tales Podcast.  Welcome to this Vintage Episode of The Classic Tales Podcast. Thank you for listening.  A new Vintage Episode is released every Tuesday. Clouds of Witness, by Dorothy Sayers will continue episodically every Friday. Please help us to continue producing amazing audiobooks by going to http://classictalesaudiobooks.com, and becoming a supporter. Thank you so much.  Keep an ear open for our coming Kickstarter campaign to fund the audiobook of Bleak House, by Charles Dickens. We've got a ton of special bonuses planned. More details coming soon!  Gilbert Keith Chesterton was a philosopher, writer, Christian apologist, and a critic of art and literature. He wrote around 80 books, 200 short stories, and  4,000 essays, (most of the essays appeared as newspaper articles). His most famous literary creation was Father Brown, a catholic priest that has heard the confessions of so many thieves, burglars, and law breakers over the course of his holy career, that he can usually anticipate and deduce the solution to any puzzling crime. Today's story is the first Father Brown story, first published on July 23rd, 1910 in The Saturday Evening Post.  And now, “The Blue Cross”, by G.K. Chesterton.  Follow this link to become a monthly supporter:    Follow this link to subscribe to our YouTube Channel:     Follow this link to subscribe to the Arsène Lupin Podcast:   Follow this link to follow us on Instagram:   Follow this link to follow us on Facebook:      

Meg investigates the true story behind John Guare's theatrical masterpiece Six Degrees of Separation. Jessica untangles the cheesy threads of the legendary Ray's Pizza litigation.Please check out our website, follow us on Instagram, on Facebook, and...WRITE US A REVIEW HEREWe'd LOVE to hear from you! Let us know if you have any ideas for stories HEREThank you for listening!Love,Meg and Jessica

How can Wimsey escape the sucking mud pits of Peter's Pot?  Dorothy Sayers, today on The Classic Tales Podcast.  Welcome to The Classic Tales Podcast. Thank you for listening.  The Vintage Episode for the week is “The Blue Cross”, by G.K. Chesterton. Be sure to check it out on Tuesday.  If you've enjoyed the show, please become a monthly supporter, and help us keep the lights on.  Please go to http://classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a monthly supporter for as little as $5 a month. As a thank you gesture, we'll send you a coupon code every month for $8 off any audiobook order. Give more, and you get more! It's a great way to help us keep producing amazing audiobook content.  Go to http://classictalesaudiobooks.com and become a supporter today.  We have a couple of new developments. The first is The Classic Tales Book Club! We're going to be having our first meeting in March! This will be a monthly meeting where we discuss the stories on the podcast, and we want you to come and chat with us. I'll be joined by Classic Tales and classic literature enthusiast Christopher Oulette. Keep an eye on our social media channels for more information. You may have noticed that I haven't been able to record the longer audiobooks like I used to. It's just hard to justify reserving that time in my schedule – taking it away from recording something I could get paid for. But there are still so many books I still want to do. Well, I think I may have found a way around that.  I've been wanting to record Bleak House, by Charles Dickens for some time, now. It's got his outlandish and deep characters, amazing plot twists, and his beautiful prose tying it all together. So, I'm going to do a Kickstarter project for it! This way I can justify reserving time in my schedule to record and produce this audiobook. I'm planning to have TONS of bonus material and specials to make this happen. So get ready for a lot of fun, and some amazing deals in the near future.  And now, Clouds of Witness, Part 7 of 9, by Dorothy Sayers. Follow this link to become a monthly supporter:    Follow this link to subscribe to our YouTube Channel:   Follow this link to subscribe to the Arsène Lupin Podcast:   Follow this link to follow us on Instagram:   Follow this link to follow us on Facebook:   Follow this link to follow us on TikTok:    

Lucy Worsley travels back in time to revisit the unthinkable crimes of 19th century murderesses from the UK, Australia and North America.This episode sees Lucy traverse London, hot on the heels of Maria Manning, the so-called Lady Macbeth of Bermondsey, a woman who confounds expectations of respectable Victorian England. Maria shocked the nation in 1849, when she conspired with her husband to kill her lover, before stealing the dead man's money and making a break for freedom on the all-new intercity rail network. She's the inspiration for a key character in Charles Dickens' famous proto-detective novel Bleak House and her fate leads to a pivotal change in the law.To untangle this remarkable story, Lucy is joined by international literary superstar Kate Mosse, author of historical fiction novels including the Joubert Family Chronicles and founder-director of The Women's Prize for Fiction. Lucy also visits the scene of the crime and recreates Maria's escape across the capital with Lady Killers' in-house historian Professor Rosalind Crone from the Open University. They uncover a bizarre trail of evidence, including the huge stash of belongings Maria deposited at London Bridge Station as she fled London, which included 28 pairs of stockings, 11 petticoats, a teapot, an apron and several items of bloodstained clothing.Together, the team ask why the buttoned-up Victorians had such an appetite for grisly tales of lust, crime and punishment. Are the same impulses behind today's fascination with true crime? Can we respect Maria's independent spirit and sharp mind, despite what she did? Does she deserve her place in history?Produced in partnership with the Open UniversityProducer: Sarah Goodman Readers: Meena Rayann and Jonathan Keeble Sound design: Chris Maclean Series Producer: Julia HayballA StoryHunter production for BBC Radio 4New episodes will be released on Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts. But if you're in the UK, listen to the latest full series of Lady Killers first on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds - Lady Killers with Lucy Worsley - Available Episodes: http://bbc.in/3M2pT0K

Lives hang in the balance in this epic conclusion to Bleak House! Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

VEiiLA (Pronounced Vay-la)  is Vif Nute and Bes Eirid, a "band without a country," the duo fled their homeland of Russia with a couple of suitcases when Russia invaded The Ukraine in 2022 unwilling to support the ugly war and the horrible autocratic regime.  They embarked on a journey without a destination. "VEiiLA" is a stylized reference to a Baltic mountain dwelling demon that lures men into her cave by singing and then devouring them. Currently in Armenia,  VEiiLA released their second studio album in 2023  called "Sentimental Craving For Beauty" and it's available via Projekt Records.  Genres:  Dark Cold Wave, Downtempo, Alternative Pop, Bleak House, Dream Pop, Trip Hop, Witch House, Electronic.https://veiila.comhttps://www.projekt.comQUEEN OF WANDS with DJ Nocturna Every Saturday on ModSnap Radio | KMOD: San Antonio3pm (HST), 5pm (PST), 6pm (MST), 7pm (CST), 8pm (EST)Follow me on my other social media sites :Website: https://djnocturna.comRadio: https://modsnapradio.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/nocturna.remixed/Instagram :  https://www.instagram.com/djnocturna/

Merriam-Webster's Word of the Day for December 23, 2023 is: nobby • NAH-bee • adjective Nobby is a synonym of chic and typically describes people and things that are cleverly stylish. The word is sometimes disapproving in modern use. // The restaurant was a bit too nobby for my tastes, but I did enjoy the food. See the entry > Examples: “If documentaries about famously nobby creatives are your schtick, you should also bookmark Todd Haynes's much-lauded The Velvet Underground, which reconsiders the figure of Lou Reed and premiered in the Grand Théâtre Lumière to rapturous applause.” — Hayley Maitland, British Vogue, 16 July 2021 Did you know? Nobby comes from the noun nob, which is used in British English to mean “one in a superior position in life.” (This nob may have begun as a slang word for “head,” but a possible connection to noble has been suggested as well.) Appearing in English in the 18th century, nobby was first used to describe people in society's upper echelons. In a way similar to that of a more recent coinage, posh, it has extended in usage to describe the places frequented by such people, as well as their genteel customs. Charles Dickens, for example, wrote in his 1853 novel Bleak House of “[r]especting this unfortunate family matter, and the nobbiest way of keeping it quiet.”

Celeste Callen returns to share her insights on how Henri  Bergson's theories of the 'superficial self' and the 'mechanical man' permeate through Dickens' novels such as The Signal-Man,  Bleak House,  Hard Times, The Chimes,  and Master Humphrey's Clock Celeste Callen holds a BA (Hons) in English Language and Literature from King's College London and an MSc in Enlightenment, Romantic and Victorian Literature from the University of Edinburgh. She is a third year PhD candidate in English Literature at the University of Edinburgh. Her PhD research explores subjective temporal experience in Dickens' fiction,  through the lens of Henri Bergson's philosophy of time. Her other areas of interest include representations of selfhood, memory, subjectivity and temporality, as well as reflections on the novel and the philosophy of time more broadly. Support the showIf you like to make a donation to support the costs of producing this series you can buy 'coffees' right here https://www.buymeacoffee.com/dominicgerrardHost: Dominic GerrardSeries Artwork: Léna GibertOriginal Music: Dominic GerrardThank you for listening!

This week on From the Front Porch, you get a sneak peek at our super-popular Conquer a Classic book club for Patreon supporters! Today's episode is an excerpt from one of Annie and Hunter's Patreon-exclusive discussions about Bleak House, our Conquer a Classic book of 2023. Do you want to Conquer a Classic with us in 2024? Now is the perfect time to join Patreon and read along with our bookish community from across the globe. Join Patreon to unlock exclusive episodes where Annie and Hunter discuss Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, our Conquer a Classic pick for 2024! We'll read this 20th-century American western together over the next year starting in January. If already own Lonesome Dove, you can access the reading tracker for free as a Patreon member, or purchase a digital PDF download here. To conquer Lonesome Dove with us in 2024, follow these three steps: 1. Join our Patreon community at the $5, $20, or $50 levels here. 2. Stop by the store, call us at (229) 228-7767, or order your copy of Lonesome Dove online here. Your purchase includes an exclusive reading tracker and Conquer a Classic sticker. 3. Start reading and discussing this American western with us in January 2024! We can't wait to Conquer a Classic with you and readers from across the world! In other news, friend of The Bookshelf Sean Dietrich (aka Sean of the South) is returning to Thomasville Center for the Arts on Thursday, November 30 for a book launch, performance, and book signing! We're thrilled to partner with this terrific Southern author, storyteller, and musician to launch his heartwarming new novel, Kinfolk, releasing on Tuesday, November 14! Tap below to get tickets to his performance and preorder Kinfolk. Kinfolk by Sean Dietrich - Signed Copy Kinfolk by Sean Dietrich Tickets to the Sean Dietrich event Thank you to this week's sponsor, Visit Thomasville. Fall is a wonderful time to see Thomasville, Georgia!  If it's time to hit the road for a quick getaway, we're exactly what you're looking for! You can rekindle your spark, explore historical sites, indulge in dining out, shop at amazing independent stores, and finally relax and unwind. There's no better getaway than Thomasville!  Whether you live close by or are passing through, we hope you'll visit beautiful Thomasville, Georgia – it's worth the trip! Plan your visit at ThomasvilleGa.com. From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.  A full transcript of today's episode can be found here.  Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.  This week, Annie is reading The Fury by Alex Michaelides. If you liked what you heard in today's episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. You can also support us on Patreon, where you can access bonus content, monthly live Porch Visits with Annie, our monthly live Patreon Book Club with Bookshelf staffers, Conquer a Classic episodes with Hunter, and more. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Our Executive Producers are...Ashley Ferrell, Cammy Tidwell, Chanta Combs, Chantalle C, Kate O'Connell, Kristin May, Laurie Johnson, Linda Lee Drozt, Martha, Nicole Marsee, Stacy Laue, Stephanie Dean, Susan Hulings, and Wendi Jenkins.

A conversation with Dr. Jennifer MacLure, Assistant Professor of English at Kent State University, on the occasion of the publication of her book, The Feeling of Letting Die: Necroeconomics and Victorian Fiction (Ohio State University Press, 2023). (Our conversation is also occasioned by our Library's Classics Book Discussion current tackling of Bleak House, Charles Dickens' massive 1853 masterpiece!)  The Feeling of Letting Die looks at how the Victorian novel addresses a knotty problem at the heart of England's rapidly industrializing society—how does a system that creates so much wealth also intentionally let certain people die in the service of the free market? Dr. MacLure explores the underpinnings of this “necroeconomic” system by looking at how fiction by Harriet Martineau, Elizabeth Gaskell, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, and William Morris can be seen as a “literary laboratory,” as experiments in how the feelings that support and thwart this economic system circulate.   It's both a delightful conversation and about the origins of some of our most pressing issues today—epidemics, workers rights, gender, racism, poverty, charity—and it all builds to an affirmation of the study of literature as an “epistemological tool” for understanding our world today. As Dr. MacLure puts it, the histories of political economy and literature are more intertwined—and weirder—than normally assumed. Whether you are already a fan or not of Victorian literature, this podcast offers an opportunity for thinking anew.  You can check out The Feeling of Letting Die: Necroeconomics and Victorian Fiction here at the library in our podcast collection.  We hope you enjoy our 61st interview episode! Each month (or so), we release an episode featuring a conversation with an author, artist, or other notable guests from Chicagoland or around the world. Learn more about the podcast (and our seven years of archives) on our podcast page. You can listen to all of our episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you listen to podcasts. We welcome your comments and feedback—please send to podcast@deerfieldlibrary.org. You can listen to all of our episodes in the player below.

In this episode, I tell the story of Fred Barras, a 16-year-old boy killed in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk, on August 20, 1999.Fred and his friend, 29-year-old Brendon Fearon, were burgling the isolated farmhouse Bleak House when its owner, 54-year-old farmer Tony Martin, caught them in the act and unloaded his shotgun at them. Both men were hit, but only Fred died due to his injuries.Tony was handed a life sentence in April 2000 after being found guilty of murder. His conviction was later reduced to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility in October 2001 after a successful appeal.Receiving a retrospective five-year prison sentence, Tony served just over three and was released in August 2003.Almost a quarter of a century after the shooting at Bleak House, this case remains one of the most divisive in British history.**The following is NOT a sponsored message**If you are experiencing domestic abuse or are concerned that someone you know is, please consider contacting one of the following charities:Refuge (the largest specialist domestic abuse organisation in the UK): 0808 2000 247Respect (Men's Advice Line): 0808 801 0327Galop (the UK's LGBT+ anti-abuse charity): 0800 999 5428Women's Aid (a national charity working to end domestic abuse against women and children): helpline@womensaid.org.ukREMEMBER - If you are in immediate danger, please call 999!For all things British Murders, please visit my website:⁣britishmurders.com⁣Intro music:⁣David John Brady - 'Throw Down the Gauntlet'⁣linktr.ee/davidjohnbradymusic⁣References:⁣britishmurders.com/fredbarras Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode, I tell the story of Fred Barras, a 16-year-old boy killed in Emneth Hungate, Norfolk, on August 20, 1999. Fred and his friend, 29-year-old Brendon Fearon, were burgling the isolated farmhouse Bleak House when its owner, 54-year-old farmer Tony Martin, caught them in the act and unloaded his shotgun at them. Both men were hit, but only Fred died due to his injuries. Tony was handed a life sentence in April 2000 after being found guilty of murder. His conviction was later reduced to manslaughter by reason of diminished responsibility in October 2001 after a successful appeal. Receiving a retrospective five-year prison sentence, Tony served just over three and was released in August 2003. Almost a quarter of a century after the shooting at Bleak House, this case remains one of the most divisive in British history. **The following is NOT a sponsored message** If you are experiencing domestic abuse or are concerned that someone you know is, please consider contacting one of the following charities: Refuge (the largest specialist domestic abuse organisation in the UK): 0808 2000 247 Respect (Men's Advice Line): 0808 801 0327 Galop (the UK's LGBT+ anti-abuse charity): 0800 999 5428 Women's Aid (a national charity working to end domestic abuse against women and children): helpline@womensaid.org.uk REMEMBER - If you are in immediate danger, please call 999! For all things British Murders, please visit my website:⁣ britishmurders.com⁣ Intro music:⁣ David John Brady - 'Throw Down the Gauntlet'⁣ linktr.ee/davidjohnbradymusic⁣ References:⁣ britishmurders.com/fredbarras Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Episode 152, author Liz Nugent talks about her latest novel, Strange Sally Diamond. Liz is known for her dark and psychological storytelling. Strange Sally Diamond is character-driven, delving deep into psychology and trauma, and despite Sally's damaged nature, Liz portrays her with empathy and nuance. Strange Sally Diamond challenges us to consider the “why” behind someone's behavior. Plus, we get some great book recommendations from Liz. This post contains affiliate links through which I make a small commission when you make a purchase (at no cost to you!). CLICK HERE for the full episode Show Notes on the blog. Highlights Liz shares a spoiler-free summary of Strange Sally Diamond. The literary character who inspired this story. The amazing way Liz wrote the psychological aspects in Strange Sally Diamond. Why Liz finds it easier to write from the male perspective and how that changed (or didn't!) for writing Sally. All about those two different endings (UK vs. US editions) and the reasoning behind it! Liz's philosophy about opening lines. The inspiration behind the opening line for Strange Sally Diamond. Liz shares a little about her next book — including her opening line (though that could change)! We get a little behind-the-scenes scoop about book cover art and an author's role in choosing their book cover. Liz's Book Recommendations [32:45] Two OLD Books She Loves I Know This Much Is True by Wally Lamb | Amazon | Bookshop.org [32:58] Razorblade Tears by S. A. Cosby | Amazon | Bookshop.org  [37:08] Other Books Mentioned: Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen [33:12] Bleak House by Charles Dickens [33:13] She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb [36:02] All the Sinners Bleed by S. A. Cosby [41:05] Two NEW Books She Loves Everyone Here is Lying by Shari Lapena | Amazon | Bookshop.org [41:21] I Will Find You by Harlan Coben | Amazon | Bookshop.org [42:33] Other Books Mentioned: The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena [42:08] One Book She Didn't Love American Psycho by Bret Easton Ellis | Amazon | Bookshop.org [45:17] TWO NEW RELEASES She's Excited About The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose (November 28, 2023) | Amazon | Bookshop.org [47:58] End of Story by A. J. Finn (February 20, 2024) | Amazon | Bookshop.org[49:43] Other Books Mentioned: The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn [49:46] Last 5-Star Book Liz Read The Lost Man by Jane Harper | Amazon | Bookshop.org [50:54] Other Books Mentioned Unraveling Oliver by Liz Nugent [1:44] Lying in Wait by Liz Nugent [1:47] Little Cruelties by Liz Nugent [1:48] To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee [3:27] The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. [10:33] The Maid by Nita Prose [21:52] Other Links Esquire | Book Publishing's Broken Blurb System (September 7, 2023)

(Apologies for the slightly late upload.)It's sequel season, because Hallie has written a second game all about people and characters named Martin! We also talk about cars, American history, and a scandal that hits home for people with our particular hobby.2:24: Q1 (Everything Else): What automaker became popular after its DB5 model was featured in the 1964 film Goldfinger?7:23: Q2 (Movies & TV): In what 1994 film, directed and produced by Robert Redford, does Martin Scorsese play Martin Rittenhome, a business executive involved in the rigging of the 1950s show Twenty-One?13:04: Q3 (Times & Places): In 1840, Martin van Buren lost his reelection bid to what member of the short-lived Whig party?24:32: Q4 (Arts & Literature): Martin Chuzzlewit was one of the least popular novels written by what author, whose other less popular novels include Bleak House and Our Mutual Friend?31:21: Q5 (Sports & Games): Matt Martin is a winger for what National Hockey League team who played at Nassau Coliseum until 2021 when they moved to UBS Arena at Belmont Park?37:32: Q6 (Music): What American singer known as the “King of Cool” is best known for the songs “That's Amore”, “Ain't That a Kick in the Head?”, and “Sway”?Theme music: "Thinking it Over" by Lee Rosevere, licensed under CC BY 2.0E-Mail: quizandhers@gmail.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/quizandhers/Twitter: https://twitter.com/quizandhersInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/quizandhers/Voice from the Underground Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/voice-from-the-underground-politics-pop-culture/id1302884018Cormac on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CormacsThoughts

Guests: Adam Carrington, Kimberley Strassel, & Dwight Lindley Host Scot Bertram talks with Adam Carrington, Associate Professor of Politics and William and Patricia LaMothe Chair in the U.S. Constitution at Hillsdale College, about the impact of the Supreme Court's recent opinion regarding affirmative action on College campuses. Kimberley Strassel, Editorial Board member and Columnist at the Wall Street Journal, discusses the Biden Administration and her new book The Biden Malaise: How America Bounces Back from Joe Biden's Dismal Repeat of the Jimmy Carter Years. And Dwight Lindley, Associate Professor of English at Hillsdale College, continues his series on Charles Dickens, this time focusing on Dickens' masterpiece of political commentary, Bleak House.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Susan Williams (winner of a 2023 Windham-Campbell Prize for Non-Fiction) joins Windham-Campbell Prizes director Michael Kelleher to talk about the majesty and the drudgery of Bleak House, walking through history in the present, and the complicated realities of Charles Dickens the human. Reading List: White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa by Susan Williams David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Charles Dickens: A Life by Claire Tomalin The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin "Do They Know It's Christmas?" -- BandAid 1984 for a full episode transcript, click here. Dr Susan Williams is a senior research fellow in the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Her pathbreaking books include White Malice: The CIA and the Covert Recolonization of Africa; Who Killed Hammarskjöld?, which in 2015 triggered a new, ongoing UN investigation into the death of the UN Secretary-General; Spies in the Congo, which spotlights the link between US espionage in the Congo and the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945; Colour Bar, the story of Botswana's founding president, which was made into the major 2016 film A United Kingdom; and The People's King, which presents an original perspective on the abdication of Edward VIII and his marriage to Wallis Simpson.

The Chancery Court had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including administration of estates, the guardianship of orphans, and disputed property disbursement. In Dickens' time, some cases could take years to be settled, changing the lives of those involved.Esther Summerson, a young woman raised in a tough and unloving atmosphere, is unexpectedly requested to be a companion to two teenage orphans, Richard Carstone and Ada Clare, for whom the court has appointed as guardian, John Jarndyce. They take up residence at Mr. Jarndyce's home, Bleak House. The story of their lives and fortunes is the main thrust of the novel, and is related at times through the eyes of Esther, whose gentle point of view gives the reader a different and more intimate perspective.Richard is sure his fortune is ‘just around the corner' when the case of Jarndyce-v-Jarndyce, of which he and Ada will be beneficiaries, is settled. He tries his hand at a career or two, but he becomes obsessed with hastening the probate of the willed fortune he feels must soon be theirs. Further difficulties arise when he and Ada fall in love, while he, penniless, continues the quest to bring his case to justice.A scriber of legal documents dies, and from his death, questions arise which unearth secrets that the Jarndyce's neighbour, Lady Dedlock, has kept hidden for years. Inspector Bucket enters the case, and begins investigating the disappearance of Lady Dedlock. In the dirt poor part of London comes a young boy called Joe who claims to ‘know noffink' but who has witnessed something very important.Several other colorful characters are wound into the story. Nearly insane Miss Flite, who for years has attended court every day, with her little folder of documents, is ever hopeful of a settlement. Mr. Boythorn is a boisterous friend of Jarndyce who has a vendetta with Sir Leicester Dedlock. The Jellyby Family, invariably on the verge of a disaster, is neglected by their Mother who is obsessed with an overseas project. The Smallweed family is mean and avaricious – squeezing money from poor clients. Mr. Skimpole is the childlike captivating friend of Mr. Jarndyce who sees no harm in living off everybody else. Mr. Guppy fawns after Esther, and plots to steal documents with his friend Weevle. Mr. Woodcourt is a gentle surgeon and family friend, who becomes a hero.Since the writing of Bleak House, the property laws of England were changed, and disbursements were thenceforth conducted in court with the object of swiftly coming to a settlement for the benefit of inheritors.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Chancery Court had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including administration of estates, the guardianship of orphans, and disputed property disbursement. In Dickens' time, some cases could take years to be settled, changing the lives of those involved.Esther Summerson, a young woman raised in a tough and unloving atmosphere, is unexpectedly requested to be a companion to two teenage orphans, Richard Carstone and Ada Clare, for whom the court has appointed as guardian, John Jarndyce. They take up residence at Mr. Jarndyce's home, Bleak House. The story of their lives and fortunes is the main thrust of the novel, and is related at times through the eyes of Esther, whose gentle point of view gives the reader a different and more intimate perspective.Richard is sure his fortune is ‘just around the corner' when the case of Jarndyce-v-Jarndyce, of which he and Ada will be beneficiaries, is settled. He tries his hand at a career or two, but he becomes obsessed with hastening the probate of the willed fortune he feels must soon be theirs. Further difficulties arise when he and Ada fall in love, while he, penniless, continues the quest to bring his case to justice.A scriber of legal documents dies, and from his death, questions arise which unearth secrets that the Jarndyce's neighbour, Lady Dedlock, has kept hidden for years. Inspector Bucket enters the case, and begins investigating the disappearance of Lady Dedlock. In the dirt poor part of London comes a young boy called Joe who claims to ‘know noffink' but who has witnessed something very important.Several other colorful characters are wound into the story. Nearly insane Miss Flite, who for years has attended court every day, with her little folder of documents, is ever hopeful of a settlement. Mr. Boythorn is a boisterous friend of Jarndyce who has a vendetta with Sir Leicester Dedlock. The Jellyby Family, invariably on the verge of a disaster, is neglected by their Mother who is obsessed with an overseas project. The Smallweed family is mean and avaricious – squeezing money from poor clients. Mr. Skimpole is the childlike captivating friend of Mr. Jarndyce who sees no harm in living off everybody else. Mr. Guppy fawns after Esther, and plots to steal documents with his friend Weevle. Mr. Woodcourt is a gentle surgeon and family friend, who becomes a hero.Since the writing of Bleak House, the property laws of England were changed, and disbursements were thenceforth conducted in court with the object of swiftly coming to a settlement for the benefit of inheritors.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Chancery Court had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including administration of estates, the guardianship of orphans, and disputed property disbursement. In Dickens' time, some cases could take years to be settled, changing the lives of those involved.Esther Summerson, a young woman raised in a tough and unloving atmosphere, is unexpectedly requested to be a companion to two teenage orphans, Richard Carstone and Ada Clare, for whom the court has appointed as guardian, John Jarndyce. They take up residence at Mr. Jarndyce's home, Bleak House. The story of their lives and fortunes is the main thrust of the novel, and is related at times through the eyes of Esther, whose gentle point of view gives the reader a different and more intimate perspective.Richard is sure his fortune is ‘just around the corner' when the case of Jarndyce-v-Jarndyce, of which he and Ada will be beneficiaries, is settled. He tries his hand at a career or two, but he becomes obsessed with hastening the probate of the willed fortune he feels must soon be theirs. Further difficulties arise when he and Ada fall in love, while he, penniless, continues the quest to bring his case to justice.A scriber of legal documents dies, and from his death, questions arise which unearth secrets that the Jarndyce's neighbour, Lady Dedlock, has kept hidden for years. Inspector Bucket enters the case, and begins investigating the disappearance of Lady Dedlock. In the dirt poor part of London comes a young boy called Joe who claims to ‘know noffink' but who has witnessed something very important.Several other colorful characters are wound into the story. Nearly insane Miss Flite, who for years has attended court every day, with her little folder of documents, is ever hopeful of a settlement. Mr. Boythorn is a boisterous friend of Jarndyce who has a vendetta with Sir Leicester Dedlock. The Jellyby Family, invariably on the verge of a disaster, is neglected by their Mother who is obsessed with an overseas project. The Smallweed family is mean and avaricious – squeezing money from poor clients. Mr. Skimpole is the childlike captivating friend of Mr. Jarndyce who sees no harm in living off everybody else. Mr. Guppy fawns after Esther, and plots to steal documents with his friend Weevle. Mr. Woodcourt is a gentle surgeon and family friend, who becomes a hero.Since the writing of Bleak House, the property laws of England were changed, and disbursements were thenceforth conducted in court with the object of swiftly coming to a settlement for the benefit of inheritors.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

The Chancery Court had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including administration of estates, the guardianship of orphans, and disputed property disbursement. In Dickens' time, some cases could take years to be settled, changing the lives of those involved.Esther Summerson, a young woman raised in a tough and unloving atmosphere, is unexpectedly requested to be a companion to two teenage orphans, Richard Carstone and Ada Clare, for whom the court has appointed as guardian, John Jarndyce. They take up residence at Mr. Jarndyce's home, Bleak House. The story of their lives and fortunes is the main thrust of the novel, and is related at times through the eyes of Esther, whose gentle point of view gives the reader a different and more intimate perspective.Richard is sure his fortune is ‘just around the corner' when the case of Jarndyce-v-Jarndyce, of which he and Ada will be beneficiaries, is settled. He tries his hand at a career or two, but he becomes obsessed with hastening the probate of the willed fortune he feels must soon be theirs. Further difficulties arise when he and Ada fall in love, while he, penniless, continues the quest to bring his case to justice.A scriber of legal documents dies, and from his death, questions arise which unearth secrets that the Jarndyce's neighbour, Lady Dedlock, has kept hidden for years. Inspector Bucket enters the case, and begins investigating the disappearance of Lady Dedlock. In the dirt poor part of London comes a young boy called Joe who claims to ‘know noffink' but who has witnessed something very important.Several other colorful characters are wound into the story. Nearly insane Miss Flite, who for years has attended court every day, with her little folder of documents, is ever hopeful of a settlement. Mr. Boythorn is a boisterous friend of Jarndyce who has a vendetta with Sir Leicester Dedlock. The Jellyby Family, invariably on the verge of a disaster, is neglected by their Mother who is obsessed with an overseas project. The Smallweed family is mean and avaricious – squeezing money from poor clients. Mr. Skimpole is the childlike captivating friend of Mr. Jarndyce who sees no harm in living off everybody else. Mr. Guppy fawns after Esther, and plots to steal documents with his friend Weevle. Mr. Woodcourt is a gentle surgeon and family friend, who becomes a hero.Since the writing of Bleak House, the property laws of England were changed, and disbursements were thenceforth conducted in court with the object of swiftly coming to a settlement for the benefit of inheritors.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

SPOILERS, SPOILERS, SO MANY SPOILERS ALERT!  8 years worth of spoilers, if we are being truthful.  Sit down with Scarlet and Blackbird as they take you on a journey through one of their most beloved films, The VVitch, directed by Robert Eggers and starring Anya Taylor-Joy, Kate Dickie, Ralph Ineson and Harvey Scrimshaw.   Set in Puritan New England, this folk tale is about so much more than its title.  Join the witches on a frightening, zealot-infested cult hoedown as we find out what TRUE horror really looks like, and what perpetrates it.  Trust, we want to live deliciously at all times, and that does not include traveling back to 1630.  

This week on From the Front Porch, Annie is joined by Hunter McLendon (@shelfbyshelf) to chat about their 2023 reading resolutions! We're thrilled that you can now shop for the books mentioned in this episode on our brand-new website: Annie's reading resolutions last year: Recitatif by Toni Morrison Beloved by Toni Morrison Sula by Toni Morrison Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas Annie's resolutions this year: Jayber Crow by Wendell Berry Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry Standing by Words by Wendell Berry (unavailable to order) Bleak House by Charles Dickens From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.  A full transcript of today's episode can be found here. Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.  This week, Annie is reading Games and Rituals by Katherine Heiny. Hunter is reading The Farewell Tour by Stephanie Clifford. If you liked what you heard in today's episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. Or, if you're so inclined, support us on Patreon, where you can hear our staff's weekly New Release Tuesday conversations, read full book reviews in our monthly Shelf Life newsletter and follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Our Executive Producers are... Donna Hetchler, Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle C, Kate O'Connell, Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, and Laurie Johnson.

This week on From the Front Porch, Annie tells you all about her favorite books ever! Don't forget to join our bookish Patreon community and get your copy of Bleak House if you'd like to join our Conquer a Classic Book Club this year. To purchase the books mentioned in this episode, visit our website: Gilead by Marilynne Robinson A Place for Us by Fatima Farheen Mirza To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee Go Set a Watchman by Harper Lee The Mothers by Brit Bennett The Road by Cormac McCarthy Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner Little Women by Louisa May Alcott An Old-Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott (unavailable to order) Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi The Year of Magical Thinking by Joan Didion Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel From the Front Porch is a weekly podcast production of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in South Georgia. You can follow The Bookshelf's daily happenings on Instagram at @bookshelftville, and all the books from today's episode can be purchased online through our store website, www.bookshelfthomasville.com.  A full transcript of today's episode can be found here. Special thanks to Dylan and his team at Studio D Podcast Production for sound and editing and for our theme music, which sets the perfect warm and friendly tone for our Thursday conversations.  This week, Annie is reading Decent People by De'Shawn Charles Winslow. If you liked what you heard in today's episode, tell us by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts. Or, if you're so inclined, support us on Patreon, where you can hear our staff's weekly New Release Tuesday conversations, read full book reviews in our monthly Shelf Life newsletter and follow along as Hunter and I conquer a classic. Just go to patreon.com/fromthefrontporch. We're so grateful for you, and we look forward to meeting back here next week. Our Executive Producers are... Donna Hetchler, Cammy Tidwell, Chantalle C, Kate O'Connell, Nicole Marsee, Wendi Jenkins, Laurie Johnson and Kate Johnston Tucker.

This week on The Literary Life podcast our hosts introduce the 2023 Reading Challenge! Angelina, Cindy and Thomas are excited to share with you about all the categories on this year's Literary Life Bingo Reading Challenge! You can download your own copy of the challenge here, as well as check out our past reading challenges. Scroll down in the show notes to see a list of the links and books mentioned in this episode. You can use the hashtag #LitLifeBingo on social media so we can all see what everyone is reading in 2023! Don't forget to shop the House of Humane Letters Christmas Sale now through the end of the year. The Literary Life Back to School online conference recordings are also on sale at Morning Time for Moms right now. Commonplace Quotes: Much that we call Victorian is known to us only because the Victorians laughed at it. George Malcolm Young, from Portrait of an Age I think that beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there. Annie Dillard, from Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Reading is to the mind as exercise is to the body. Joseph Addison Thunderstorms by William H. Davies My mind has thunderstorms, That brood for heavy hours: Until they rain me words, My thoughts are drooping flowers And sulking, silent birds. Yet come, dark thunderstorms, And brood your heavy hours; For when you rain me words, My thoughts are dancing flowers And joyful singing birds. Book and Link List: Hercule Poirot's Christmas by Agatha Christie Episode 14: “The Adventures of a Shilling” by Joseph Addison Episode 3: The Importance of Detective Fiction Episode 16: “Why I Write” by George Orwell Reading Challenge Downloads The Letters of Jane Austen by Jane Austen Abigail Adams: Letters ed. by Edith Gelles The Letters of Dorothy Osborne to William Temple ed. by G. C. Moore Smith Few Eggs and No Oranges by Vere Hodgson Letters to an American Lady by C. S. Lewis Letters of C. S. Lewis by C. S. Lewis Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien Habit of Being: Letters of Flannery O'Connor ed. by Sally Fitzgerald Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman by Lord Chesterfield The Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Iliad and the Odyssey by Homer The Aeneid by Virgil The Saga of the Volsungs by Anonymous The Vision of Sir Launfal by James Russell Lowell Evangeline by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow The Ramayana of Valmiki ed. and trans. by Robert and Sally Goldman The Prelude by William Wordsworth Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton P. D. James Edmund Crispin Alan Bradley Patricia Moyes Peter Granger Rex Stout Sir Walter Scott The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson Thinking in Bets by Annie Duke Mythos by Stephen Fry The Silver Chair by C. S. Lewis Homage to Catalonia by George Orwell Coming Up for Air by George Orwell P. G. Wodehouse The Last Days of Socrates by Plato The Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis Champagne for the Soul by Mike Mason Edges of His Ways by Amy Carmichael The Footsteps at the Lock by Ronald Knox Queen Victoria by Lytton Strachey Jane Austen Patrick Leigh Fermor Travels with a Donkey in the Cevennes by Robert Louis Stevenson Heroes by Stephen Fry Troy by Stephen Fry Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman The Mabinogion trans. by Sioned Davies The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table by Roger Lancelyn Green Idylls of the King by Alfred Tennyson Cindy's List of Literature of Honor for Boys (archived webpage) Bleak House by Charles Dickens David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Pickwick Papers by Charles Dickens The Man Who Knew Too Much by G. K. Chesterton The 39 Steps by John Buchan Strangers on a Train by Patricia Highsmith The Well Read Poem An Experiment in Criticism by C. S. Lewis The Truth and the Beauty by Andrew Klavan The Magic Apple Tree by Susan Hill Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill Jacob's Room is Full of Books by Susan Hill The Medieval Mind of C. S. Lewis by Jason Baxter 84, Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff Q's Legacy by Helene Hanff Support The Literary Life: Become a patron of The Literary Life podcast as part of the “Friends and Fellows Community” on Patreon, and get some amazing bonus content! Thanks for your support! Connect with Us: You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford, and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/ Find Cindy at morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy's own Patreon page also! Follow The Literary Life on Instagram, and jump into our private Facebook group, The Literary Life Discussion Group, and let's get the book talk going! http://bit.ly/literarylifeFB

On Today's Trivia Patron Tournament: We are excited to have Round 5 of our Patron Tournament! We have Jeff (from Bequiz I said so) vs Alix in this shortened version of the show. We challenge them to some hard questions like: Who wrote the 1852 novel Bleak House? The degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity is known by what term? On this day in history, Sept. 16th, 1932, who began a hunger strike to protest the government's electoral system decision? Seascape, The Zoo Story, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf were plays written by which American playwright? 8-inch, 5¼-inch, and 3½-inch were the sizes of what now-obsolete computer storage devices? In golf, which type of clubs are used for long shots from the tee or fairway? Commonly symbolizing the concept of enlightenment, which aquatic plant plays a central role in the art of Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism? Which modern day Italian city does Mount Vesuvius, the volcano that destroyed Pompei, overlook? If you liked this episode, check out our last trivia episode! Music Hot Swing, Fast Talkin, Bass Walker, Dances and Dames by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ Don't forget to follow us on social media for more trivia: Patreon - patreon.com/quizbang - Please consider supporting us on Patreon. Check out our fun extras for patrons and help us keep this podcast going. We appreciate any level of support! Website - quizbangpod.com Check out our website, it will have all the links for social media that you need and while you're there, why not go to the contact us page and submit a question! Facebook - @quizbangpodcast - we post episode links and silly lego pictures to go with our trivia questions. Enjoy the silly picture and give your best guess, we will respond to your answer the next day to give everyone a chance to guess. Instagram - Quiz Quiz Bang Bang (quizquizbangbang), we post silly lego pictures to go with our trivia questions. Enjoy the silly picture and give your best guess, we will respond to your answer the next day to give everyone a chance to guess. Twitter - @quizbangpod We want to start a fun community for our fellow trivia lovers. If you hear/think of a fun or challenging trivia question, post it to our twitter feed and we will repost it so everyone can take a stab it. Come for the trivia - stay for the trivia. Ko-Fi - ko-fi.com/quizbangpod - Keep that sweet caffeine running through our body with a Ko-Fi, power us through a late night of fact checking and editing!