Podcasts about Samuel Richardson

My colleague Oliver Traldi recently published an essay called ‘Jane Austen's Virtuous Liberalism'. It's a very nice discussion of the ways in which Austen understand the challenges of character formation.Virtue, as Austen sees it, faces two tough challenges. First, people whose characters are not yet formed must see how to be virtuous rather than vicious. Then, the virtuous must somehow find a way to succeed in their struggles against the vicious without adopting vicious means.In this episode, Oliver and I discussed Austen's ideas of virtue, what that has to do with liberalism, the relationship between philosophy and literature more broadly, as well as poetry and ideas about the Great Books. We also talked about the Keira Knightly Pride and Prejudice. Yes, we both liked it. Here is why Oliver thinks Jane Austen is so popular among philosophers.TRALDI: And so I do think that even though she's not making arguments, she's not laying out philosophical theories, there is a level of precision in her thinking about virtue, which I do think is something that it took me a little aback.And I think it's part of why—one person who quote-tweeted my article was Daniel Kodsi, who's a friend of our colleague John Maier and his coauthor often. And he runs this magazine called The Philosophers' Magazine, which I had written before. And Daniel quote-tweeted my article with something like, “Add Oliver to the list of all the philosophers who love Austen.”OLIVER: And it's a long list.TRALDI: And I think it's a long list. And I do think this precision is part of it that she does, that it is—again, it's not like a philosophy journal article, but it is an intellectual sophistication that is often not present in novelists that we really appreciate.And here is an extract about Austen, Smith, and the wonderfully fertile period at the end of the eighteen century.TRALDI: But yes, I think it's obvious—without knowing the background, I'm sure there are scholarly questions about, how much Smith did Austen read? And they're both 250th—a lot was happening in 1775 and 1776.OLIVER: Those were great years. Those were the good old days.TRALDI: They were great years. In the great books syllabus, you get to the end of the 1700s and suddenly there's this—you have Smith, you have Kant, you have the American Revolution, you have the French Revolution, you have Burke. Rousseau is right before, Montesquieu is right before. I mean, it was a real—OLIVER: It's a great time.TRALDI: It was a great time. A lot was being done. And obviously, you know, I love the 1800s. I love the Romantics. But you could teach a whole great books course from 1750 to 1800, probably.OLIVER: You've also got all the dictionaries and all that kind of work going on as well. It's a very, very fertile—explorations.TRALDI: Yes, yes. There's all sorts of—yes, it was an amazing time.OLIVER: So did you, having read these two, Austen and Smith, close together—TRALDI: Yes, and I should say that my reading of Austen was much more careful than my reading of Smith.OLIVER: Sure, but you wrote this before you read Smith.TRALDI: Yes, absolutely.OLIVER: Or at least you fully conceived it. Do you see a lot of Smith in Austen?TRALDI: “A lot” might be—This was my favourite bit.TRALDI: Yes. But this is one of the great—I know we talked about this, but it's one of the great—you see this in Smith, you see this in Austen—commerce has its own virtues, and they are very traditional virtues. You have to be trustworthy. You have to be pleasant. You can't really be wholly self-interested in every moment because people have to be willing to deal with you given your—I mean, think about Yelp reviews or even just word of mouth. “Oh, that person screwed me over.”OLIVER: There's a discussion in one of Hayek's papers, which is—it's a very Smithian point he makes about, the nature of the knowledge problem means that it's not so much that I'm trying to get information about the thing you're trying to sell me, but I'm really trying to get information about you and whether you are someone I should be buying from. Which is exactly the project that the novelists and Smith—there's a sort of period between Smith and the early novelists, running through Austen to George Eliot, when they're all working on that problem together.TRALDI: Yes. I do think in Austen, it's often—the real puzzle is, how do you make out somebody else's character?OLIVER: Exactly.TRALDI: This is a phrase that Lizzy Bennet does use with regard to Darcy. And how do we actually figure out who the trustworthy and untrustworthy people are?OLIVER: And if you're too philosophical about that, in the sort of analytic sense, I think you can end up not paying enough attention to the particulars of that question.TRALDI: Yes.OLIVER: Because when you actually try and do it, it's really, really hard.TRALDI: Yes. And I think this is the sort of—reading Austen, you get a sense of—and there are very few philosophy papers on things like this. Reading Austen, you get a sense of, what sorts of details in a normal life are the ones that I can extract information from to make out somebody else's character?Oliver is an analytical, political philosopher. You can find out more about his work here. Here he is on Twitter. His Substack is orting. You can watch the episode on YouTube here.TranscriptHENRY OLIVER: Today I am talking to Oliver Traldi. Oliver is an assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Toledo in Ohio. He is my colleague on the Emerging Scholars Program at the Mercatus Center, and he's written a book about political beliefs as well as many other articles for magazines, online.He's got a Substack. He's maybe the most prominent political and epistemological young philosopher of his generation. [laughter] But most importantly for us, he is interested in Jane Austen and the idea of virtue. Oliver, welcome.OLIVER TRALDI: Thank you so much for having me.Reading Austen as a PhilosopherOLIVER: Let's just start—before we get to this article you've written, tell me about being a philosopher but reading Jane Austen, because she's often read and commented on by people who are not philosophers or who are only philosophers by acquaintance or whatever.TRALDI: Right.OLIVER: Is it different reading as a philosopher, do you think?TRALDI: I think yes and no. One thing as a philosopher, there are—contemporary philosophy, we have very exacting standards of rigor and clarity. And when we look for a theory, we want something that's been improved by hundreds of people and thousands of journal articles.And so, if you were to simply extract a theory of virtue from a novel and say, “Does this—is this the end-all, be-all of moral thinking?” obviously you're going to be disappointed. So I think as a philosopher, you have to look for other types of things, other types of sensitivities rather than logical sensitivity.You have to say, how sensitive is the author to the different types of situations where people's virtue can be exhibited or challenged? Or how sensitive is the author to the different types of pressures that a character's convictions can be put under, or the different sorts of compromises that they might have to make, or the different sorts of people who might not be virtuous who they might have to interact with and sort of, you know, contract with or avoid? And what are going to be the impacts of different kinds of choices in those situations?So the novelists, I think, tend—if they do it well, a novelist who's interested in morality will understand living morally probably better than a philosopher, while maybe not understanding, say, arguments about whether morality supervenes on reality or vice versa, or what grounds morality, or different theories of meta-ethics or whatever.OLIVER: I mean, there are obviously some novelists who do have a better appreciation of those things than others, we should say.TRALDI: Yes, I think that's absolutely true. And as I wrote in my article, I do think Austen in particular had an appreciation for this issue that you might call moral disarming or unilateral disarming. You know, does the moral person put themselves at a disadvantage relative to the immoral person? And then how do we actually help—how does morality survive?So that's a kind of philosophical question, but I tend to think—I taught last year—I think we've talked about this a bit. I taught in a great books program at Tulsa.OLIVER: This is the Jennifer Frey program.TRALDI: This is the ill-fated Jennifer Frey program. Jennifer—I don't know if you've met her, but she's an incredibly charismatic person. But somehow the program, despite being enormously successful, did not survive. You know, I was there for a year, and they decided that was long enough.OLIVER: [laughs] You don't think your arrival was the—TRALDI: No, no. I hope not. I most certainly hope not.OLIVER: No. General problems of higher education prevailed. Yes.TRALDI: Yes, many, many problems of higher education these days. But yes, so I think—what was I saying?OLIVER: Well, I think we're getting to this question of, you are not just a philosopher; you teach the great books.TRALDI: Right, exactly. The great books. That's where I was. Yes.Philosophy and the Great BooksOLIVER: So, one thing I'm interested in is that, you know, reading as a philosopher, you get a slightly different perspective on Austen. When you read other fiction, poetry, whatever, is there a benefit to you as a philosopher? Does it broaden you in some way?TRALDI: Yes. I think absolutely, it's broadening, but it's also focusing in a different way. You know, contemporary philosophy is often described or captured with the word epicycles. So what we mean when we say epicycles is, you have some major theory, which is supposed to answer some big question. And then your career as a philosopher—you're like three layers deep in the theory, in some sub-debate, and you're making some really fine-grained distinctions.And if you can make those distinctions successfully, you've had a really great career. But I think it's easy to forget, why are we doing—you know, what attracted us to philosophy? Why are we doing this to begin with?And the great novels, great books in general—one example I always use is the Book of Job. It doesn't really—it's not doing clear philosophy on the question of why do bad things happen to good people. But when you read it, you feel the question, why do bad things happen to good people? You get it, you know? You get why this is a question that people have worried about for thousands of years. You get why it calls out for an answer.You know, there's a lot of truth out there. I'm looking at a set of coat hangers, and I could count the coat hangers. But if you were given the decision, would I rather have an answer to how many coat hangers are across the room from me, or why do bad things happen to good people? You'd probably go with the latter one. There's somehow some kind of depth or importance to that question, right?And I think there's—a great novelist can often generate some vividity to these questions. They can show how these questions are part of a good life, asking these questions, trying to have these questions answered—or a not-so-good life.Certainly in Austen there are a lot of characters who learn to be more virtuous. Probably Emma is the clearest example. But you might also think of Marianne Dashwood. Really—OLIVER: Lizzy Bennet.TRALDI: Lizzy Bennet really learns to be a better person. I actually think her character is rather close to Emma in a lot of ways.OLIVER: Yes, I think Emma's sort of a clear rewrite of Lizzy in some—yes, yes.TRALDI: Yes, and in some ways more evocative, actually. Yes. I mean, we can talk about all these books. But yes, I think there's these things, even—obviously qua literature, they have other virtues, right? Which much philosophy doesn't have; very little philosophy has the literary virtues.But the philosophical virtue that a lot of literature does have is you see, okay, these are the—this is what a life is like. This is what making choices is like. These are the big questions when you decide how to live your life and what kinds of choices to make.And I think Austen—these questions are all through Austen, even though nobody has to murder anybody in Austen. Nobody has to make decisions about war and peace or about, you know, civilizational decline or civilizational progress or anything like that. These people making these small choices in a lot of ways. But those are the lives that most of us lead. And when you read Austen, you think, “Oh, okay, there's a virtuous and a vicious way to lead this kind of rather normal life.”The Good LifeOLIVER: The question of what is a good life, or what is a good life in a commercial society, maybe, is the sort of bedrock of what she's doing.TRALDI: Yes, I think so. And that's why I think Austen—you know, Austen wasn't on our syllabus at Tulsa, but she was certainly discussed. And the “what is a good life” question—to me, it's the big question that a great books program for college students should always come back to.If I didn't know what else to talk about, I would just say, “Well, we just read this book.” You know, we read these old biographies of Charlemagne from, like, Einhard—Notker the Stammerer and Einhard, his adopted son or whatever. I don't remember. But this is like 800s. I'm sure you know more about this stuff than I do.And I wasn't quite sure what to do with them because what do I know about Charlemagne? So I just said, “Does it seem like Charlemagne lived a good life?” And you know, you're off to the races. And I think that's important at that age, because that's the age at which—OLIVER: For the undergraduates?TRALDI: Yes. I think that's the age at which you're starting to make your own big decisions about what sort of life to lead. And I think for me, looking back to myself at that age, I think one thing I did wrong—at Tulsa I was in some ways as much a student as a teacher. I was rereading a lot of this stuff for the first time in decades. And some of it I was reading for the first time. As I told you, I was reading a lot of Austen for the first time for this essay.OLIVER: Right, right.TRALDI: And yes, it was stuff that I had thought about at a theoretical level, you know, like what are the ins and outs of this theory or this philosophical move or something like that. But you feel the question a bit differently when you're like, “Okay, I'm an adult. I have to decide whether to live in this way or that way.”The world is open to you. You could convert to Thomism [laughter] like so many have tried to have me do, or you could become a merchant after reading The Wealth of Nations. Or you could become a revolutionary after reading Marx, or you could become a Nietzschean. You know, there are all these choices open to you.OLIVER: Please don't become a Nietzchean.TRALDI: No, no. That is, I'm a—OLIVER: Keep your children out of school if that's going to be the result. [laughs]TRALDI: Yes. I'm a committed moralist, so I cannot, but he is—he made a comeback, that's for sure.Philosophy and PoetryOLIVER: Now, there's this obviously sort of long-running question in philosophy about, what is the relationship between philosophy and poetry? Are they antagonists, or are they in some way, you know, twins, and each provides one half of what is needed for a complete way of understanding the world? Do you have a position on this?TRALDI: Yes, I mean, I think they're what the kids call twinning.OLIVER: Twinning? [laughs]TRALDI: I think they're twinning. No, no, I think that means something different. I think that means when you're wearing the same outfit or something like that.OLIVER: So we're almost twinning with our stripes—yes, I see.TRALDI: We're almost. We actually—we are stripes and blue. Yes, we're closer than I would've expected.I would say closer to twins. There are a lot of claims that philosophy is at odds somehow with this or that. There's also this—certain people will say, “Well, ever since Socrates, philosophy has been at odds with politics.” And a big part of philosophy is, how do you survive? Well, I don't know. Nobody's trying to kill me. I think of myself as a decently committed philosopher.OLIVER: It seems to me this changed fundamentally in the Enlightenment and with the Romantics, and they see it all much more joined up. It's a sort of ancient-and-modern dynamic.TRALDI: Yes, there may be an ancient-and-modern distinction there. But yes, for me I don't see any kind of contradiction. Now, there are—and I think this comes out of what I said before—philosophical attempts to understand poetry. And certain kinds of literary and aesthetic devices do sometimes fall a little flat.The philosophical literature on metaphor, for instance—I think some theories of metaphor really don't get why people use metaphors. [laughter] So one of the most important theories of metaphor is that they're all just false, that it's like everybody who uses a metaphor is lying. This isn't the full theory. There are bells and whistles added.OLIVER: Sure, sure.TRALDI: But yes, so I think there's no contradiction. But at the same time, they are different modes in some ways, and people who do the one are often trying to do something different than the other.I do think that the desire for rigor and precision and clarity that philosophers have can be a little maddening to nonphilosophers, who see the pull of philosophical questions like, “What sort of life I should lead?” and then see, what do philosophers actually do?And we're doing all this modal logic and all these truth tables and all this very technical stuff that looks like math. And they say, “That can't possibly be the right way to think about how to live.” And it's true that there are these studies of—that suggest ethicists aren't actually very good people and things like that, although you have to wonder what is the background ethical theory that went into evaluating them.So yes, I don't think there's really a contradiction between philosophy and anything else. But certainly, there was a point in my life where I always come back to trying to write poetry and do poorly and then stop. But it was always something where I would say, “Okay, if I'm doing philosophy in the afternoon, I better wait till the evening to write poetry.” You have to sort of reboot and get into a different mode.OLIVER: Iris Murdoch used to write philosophy in the morning and novels in the afternoon. That kind of thing.TRALDI: Yes, I think that's very sensible.OLIVER: And she was upstairs for the one and downstairs for the other.TRALDI: Yes. That's even better, you know?Favorite PoetsOLIVER: Which poets do you like?TRALDI: Geez, I guess for an American, I like Wallace Stevens. I wasn't expecting this question. For a Brit, you know, I actually like Philip Larkin a lot.OLIVER: Oh, yes?TRALDI: I know—what is the opinion of Larkin? Is he considered—OLIVER: Very high.TRALDI: Very high? Okay.OLIVER: Some—there are some dissenters, but basically he's the guy.TRALDI: He's the guy, okay. Yes.OLIVER: Twentieth-century English poetry is like Auden, Larkin, Betjeman.TRALDI: Yes, Auden is—actually, my friend Jane Cooper just wrote something about Auden.OLIVER: Yes, Jane is excellent.TRALDI: Yes, Jane is really great.OLIVER: That was in the New Statesman if you want to look it up.TRALDI: That was in the New Statesman. Yes, yes, yes. But Auden, I don't know quite as well.I mean, poetry is—I think it's interesting the way that we receive poetry now. I think you were talking about this a few days ago, about things like poems appearing as inspirational quotes on social media or something like that, and whoever is the most quotable. And you felt like maybe Dostoevsky is very quotable.OLIVER: Dostoevsky has a sort of screenshot quality.TRALDI: Yes, yes.OLIVER: As does Martin Amis.TRALDI: Yes. So I—OLIVER: Whereas Philip Larkin in a funny way—you know, he has very short poems. You can get the whole poem on Twitter. Like, Robert Frost has that. But something like “The Whitsun Weddings,” it's quite hard to just take three lines out. The whole thing works as a—and that, so that poem gets less—TRALDI: Yes. Which is what you would expect from a good poem, really, that it would form a kind of whole.OLIVER: Exactly. If it's a three-page ode, it should have a continuous quality.TRALDI: Yes, it should have a kind of internal structure. Yes.OLIVER: There are some one-line things and—but I think it's notable that a poet like Wordsworth doesn't seem to get a lot of social media play. And I think probably that's one reason.TRALDI: So yes, I think Larkin is somebody who, I did see some shorter references to him, and I thought I'd better just go and look up a ton of poems by this guy. And Stevens was the same way.Death and Philip LarkinOLIVER: So, which Larkin do you like?TRALDI: You're really putting me on the spot here. [laughter] It has been a little while.OLIVER: I lied to you and said it would be about Jane Austen.TRALDI: Yes, now I'm completely screwed. Well, he has a bunch about death. He has one where death is a ship following you. And he has one where death is, like, a fruit that gets picked or something.OLIVER: Apple?TRALDI: Might be an apple.OLIVER: He decides not to throw the apple.TRALDI: There's one with sweetbreads in it. And now I'm really—OLIVER: The ship one, “Next, Please”—that's excellent.TRALDI: Yes.OLIVER: He sees the—it's like hearing the music coming, and then the ship.TRALDI: I forgot that that was the title. I forgot that that was the title.OLIVER: And then as the ship goes past, it leaves nothing in its wake. It's very sort of—very gloomy.TRALDI: It's very gloomy, yes. I think I read Larkin in a gloomy phase; it was like Larkin and Radiohead or something.OLIVER: But he's a good example of what you were saying before, that he won't think propositionally. He's logical in the sense that he's sort of orderly, and he goes from one thing to the next. But he's not being a philosopher.TRALDI: No, of course. Yes.OLIVER: But he's very preoccupied with the sorts of questions that philosophers are probing, but has a sort of very meaningful treatment of them.TRALDI: Yes.OLIVER: And I think in a way, the sharp response that you want from the reader in those questions, Larkin is better at provoking than someone like Bertrand Russell or some other contemporary of his.TRALDI: Yes, yes.OLIVER: Bertrand Russell's a bit earlier, but you know what I mean.TRALDI: No, I think that's exactly right. And I think that is why I'm a fan of the great books pedagogically and not—I don't know if Larkin will be called a great, you know, like, who knows? I don't really understand that designation, but tings like poetry and novels.OLIVER: The biggest dissenter was Harold Bloom, who said Philip Larkin's just a period piece. And he doesn't understand why everyone likes him.TRALDI: Oh, yes, well, I'm not on board with everything. Oh, I've also been—OLIVER: No, you're not very Bloomian.TRALDI: I'm not very Bloomian, I don't think.OLIVER: Either Allan or Harold.TRALDI: Yes. Well, I actually—this is very embarrassing, but I've actually never read The Closing of the American Mind, which I know is—OLIVER: But why should you? I'm not sure it's retained its—TRALDI: Well, it's certainly been received into my circle. But it is like a classic of anti-ideological—OLIVER: Sure. Have you read Adler, How to Read a Book, that kind of great books stuff?TRALDI: No. There's so many things that I haven't read. I mean, I'm just learning how to read. I learned how to read in Tulsa last year, [laughter] in Oklahoma, which is not where most people would go to learn how to read.Jane Austen and the Problem of MoralityOLIVER: So let's move to Jane Austen. Your thesis basically is, many moral theories face this problem that if I believe XYZ theory and you don't believe it, you can get the advantage of me. Because I'll always stick to my principles and you can just be a bad guy.TRALDI: Yes.OLIVER: So is morality screwed? This is what people say about liberalism. This is what you're arguing. And you think Jane Austen's got an answer to that?TRALDI: Yes, I think she has a kind of answer. And again, one decision I had to make while writing the essay was, am I going to go super—this is a completely philosophically rigorous and respectable answer? Or am I just going to kind of sketch it?OLIVER: Slum it in literary criticism? [laughter]TRALDI: Yes, I wouldn't put it quite that way, but—and I think I went for the latter, where I just wanted to kind of evoke the answer. And I think the answer has something to do with living in a large enough society where—and Austen I think is not the only person to give this answer. But you live in a large enough society where, when people see you acting well and somebody else acting poorly, the disadvantage that you have in that one interaction is outweighed by the advantages you have from the society that you gain from being seen to act well by many others.So one thing I didn't mention here, but a connection I made when I was first coming up with this idea, is that it's actually a lot like what Martin Luther King Jr. says about civil disobedience. So he says, you might think, if you're out there and the police are coming at you with bats, or the white supremacists are coming at you with bats or whatever, weapons or whatever, you might think, “I'm on the losing end of this interaction.”But actually what will happen is that this interaction will be seen by many others. And you, by keeping your calm, will be seen to be the virtuous one, and they, by being violent, will be seen to be the vicious ones. And this can only help your political cause. I'm probably abstracting some of the details of King's presentation.OLIVER: In a vulgar sense, this is the sort of “be the change you want to see” approach.TRALDI: Yes, but also, be the change you want other people to see. You know? Because that's how it gets saved from—and again, one of the ways in which this is not quite philosophically rigorous is because the philosopher can say, “Well, what about an example where nobody's going to see it? Or what about an example where the situation is set up that in doing the right thing, you're perceived to have done the wrong thing?” And you get back into tough problems. And that's why we have philosophy. You know, there's always going to be these puzzles.OLIVER: But we don't get the—I think this is what the novelists are helpful for. We don't get to set the conditions in our lives. You know, when you're doing a philosophical problem, you can just say, “Well, these are the conditions. What happens then?” And what Jane Austen is so good at is saying, “I'm going to take her and drop her in this house, and that's life. And she's just going to—she won't even know what the conditions are for a long time.” That's the novelist's preoccupation.TRALDI: Yes. Yes. It's interesting what you said about not even knowing what the conditions are. It's one thing I love, which is there in, I think, a lot of Austen—and it's done by a lot of my favorite novelists. I think Kazuo Ishiguro is really good at this. It's just novels where you see the characters' growing awareness of their circumstances and—OLIVER: Like in Klara and the Sun or something.TRALDI: Yes, or I think certainly in Never Let Me Go and in Remains of the Day, a lot of the action is in a situation where you understand what's going on better than the characters do.Clues and GamesTRALDI: And I think we talked about this the other day. In Austen, Emma, for example, is this sort of, like, halfway detective where she sees a lot of clues that could help her understand the nature of the life she's leading and the circumstances she's in, but she always misinterprets the clues. But on the other hand, it's not like she misses them entirely. She's kind of on the right track, and at least she's trying.OLIVER: And what I think Austen does so well in that book—I think it's her most important book—is that by putting us, without quite realizing it, with Emma's blinkers on, as it were, and only allowing our perspective to be her perspective, she makes us the detective.But whereas in a detective novel, you know, there's a funny little man and he is a detective, and he says, “Oh, there's a clue in this novel,” the read of—on the first read very often goes straight past what they must later realize to be a clue. And that is such a normal condition of life, that, “Oh, actually, that was one of the conditions, but you couldn't have known it. Sorry.” And you can only work it out in retrospect.TRALDI: Yes. In modern love, these are sometimes called red flags. [laughter] I think it's not quite a precise analogy, but yes, I think it's right. And I certainly—I had read Emma years ago and didn't really notice. As you say, on my first read, I didn't really notice, even having watched—I think it was the, what is it, the Kate Beckinsale version maybe, from ITV in like 1996 or something.It was really in reading it for this essay that I noticed that this feature that, starting on page 30 or 40 or so, there's a—and they're often in games. The clues are often in games. So very early on, Elton is playing some sort of poem game with Emma.OLIVER: The riddles, yes.TRALDI: The riddle game. And you know, Emma already misinterprets his riddles as being about Harriet rather than about her. But then there's also—the riddles also have some relation to things that happen much later.OLIVER: Then there's the anagram game at the end.TRALDI: There's the anagram game at the end. Yes, it's the—and I don't think there are many games like that in any of the other Austen.OLIVER: People play games, but we're not taken into them and have them narrated in that way.TRALDI: And they're not word games in general. There's card games and things like that. And you know, in Pride and Prejudice, Wickham has all these gambling debts and things like that.OLIVER: Yes.TRALDI: You know, in—I don't know if you know Whit Stillman, but for the same magazine a couple years ago I wrote about Whit Stillman, who's a sort of conservative filmmaker who's a huge Austen fan and brings in Austenian themes to a lot of his movies, but writes them about characters in the 1960s and '70s. And one of them was called The Last Days of Disco, for example, about—and some of the broader social themes he talks about are also there in Austen.So one thing that was just on the edges of my consciousness as I read through the novels for this essay was the question of the noble man versus the working man, which I think is very present in Austen and has something to do with her conception of virtue: that the virtuous person will be engaging in commerce in some way.OLIVER: Those moments of the noble and the virtuous man or whatever often take place in a shop, like the drapier in Emma or the jewelry shop in Sense and Sensibility.TRALDI: That's interesting. That's interesting.OLIVER: She's very careful to take us into a commercial situation and contrast.TRALDI: See, that is the sort of detail that I think a philosopher—I think we—the mere—the vibe of, “You're in a shop, and this means something.” I think this is something philosophers are—we can watch for the action; we can judge the characters' actions. But then there are these questions of atmosphere and milieu. And certain things happen in a shop; certain things happen at the seaside. In Persuasion there's an injury by the seaside.OLIVER: Yes. That's one of the most exciting scenes in Austen. Very dramatic.TRALDI: Yes, yes. I think actually Persuasion in some ways is quite different than her other books. It has a sort of—you know, in some ways it feels a little more like Frankenstein or Wuthering Heights at points. There's a little bit of a windblown, dark quality to it at times. It's a little bit bleaker. It's a little hard to explain why, but that's just a feeling that I had reading it that maybe had changed with some of the other literary tastes of the time.Artlessness in Austen's HeroinesOLIVER: Now, the quality that you focus on in the heroines, in this question of virtue defending itself against bad actors who break the rules, is artlessness.TRALDI: Yes. So this is a term Austen uses quite a bit, and almost always, she very much picks and chooses the characters who are going to receive this term. And I thought that this is like—it's not only her artless characters who face this question about how can morality survive, or how can virtue prevail, but I think they're the limit point.Like, if you really are unwilling to use—and I mentioned in the essay, when Darcy describes—I forget what; maybe it's him describing how he found Lydia and Wickham, or it's something to do with Wickham—he said, “I had to resort to arts.” So it must be, the “arts” back then means—one of the meanings of the term is dishonesty or subterfuge or something.OLIVER: Yes, if someone was artful, it could have—TRALDI: Yes, like the Artful Dodger.OLIVER: Exactly. Could have negative connotations for sure.TRALDI: Yes. And so the artless one, you know, they're missing something.So it's the question of, if you view—morality in a way means you're missing something, right? You've taken arts out of your arsenal. You've taken tools that could deal with certain situations, and you've just decided not to use them. So the question is, how can it be an advantage to have less tools?You know, we're here at Mercatus; the economists would tell you it's never advantageous to have fewer choices, right? There's no paradox of choice. It's never advantageous to have fewer choices. And so I think this is the—if morality is a kind of unilateral disarmament, artlessness is the clearest case of that.OLIVER: And you're seeing that in Fanny Price, Elinor—TRALDI: You see that in Fanny Price. You see that in Elinor. Harriet Smith is described as artless over and over again. And then there are these other characters who are described as artful, or other things that are mentioned as arts.I think Harriet, in a lot of ways, is the one who's most often described this way. And it's interesting because you think of Emma changing a lot in Emma, but Knightley actually shifts in his evaluation of Harriet, who he thought of as sort of an unserious person. And Knightley himself comes to recognize her artlessness as a kind of seriousness which makes her a good match, not ultimately for him, but for his dude, Robert.OLIVER: The farmer.TRALDI: The farmer, yes.OLIVER: He doesn't change his view of her social position, though.TRALDI: No, certainly not. But he does change his view of her character, basically. You know, her artlessness is not silliness. It has a sort of depth to it.And yes, certainly Fanny. In the Whit Stillman movie Metropolitan that's part of what set me on this, there's this whole discussion of the book Mansfield Park and this old Lionel Trilling essay about it where he says, how is it—there's this question about how modern people can even like Mansfield Park because we've sort of lost the notion of virtue being exciting or something.One of the most provocative lines to me in Austen was in Sense and Sensibility where it says that Elinor glories in Edward's integrity, which is an odd thing to glory in. You don't glory—nobody is on Instagram showing off their integrity, you know?OLIVER: It's like that René Gerard quote people like to pass around: “Everyone is on diet pills and nobody wants to be a saint.”TRALDI: I like that. That is very Instagrammable.OLIVER: Exactly. Exactly.TRALDI: That's very good, actually. I like that. Yes, so there's something provocative about the notion that virtue can be exciting, and in particular can be romantically exciting.The Importance of IntegrityOLIVER: Or even less than that. One thing I think is difficult for people interpreting Austen today is that virtue, whether it's exciting or romantically exciting, or the notion of integrity is of interest for its own sake.There's a lot of—you know, we have integrity as an organization. It's very important for me to have integrity as a professional. But there's not as much a sense of, just having integrity is the good life. We don't need to be complicated about this. That's just—you should just do that. And Austen's very firm on that all the way through.And criticism wants to pull her towards sometimes feminism, sometimes discussions of slavery, sometimes various other things. And she's just constantly sort of resisting that by saying, “I like integrity. I like good people. I don't think it's that hard.” It's a good line you've picked up on, I think.TRALDI: There's a character in The Wire who says, “A man's gotta have a code.” I think he's Omar, who murders the drug dealers and steals from them.OLIVER: I haven't seen it.TRALDI: So he says, “A man's gotta have a code.” And I think there is a—even in a character who in some ways is bad, we admire the integrity of having a code and sticking to it.There is this debate, I guess in moral philosophy, or at least on the outskirts of moral philosophy, about, “Well, if your code is wrong, maybe it's better not to stick to it.” I don't share that perspective. I think part of the good life is holding yourself to certain standards. And if those standards turn out to be wrong, the holding yourself is still of moral value, right? Not allowing yourself—OLIVER: It doesn't mean they're not adjustable.TRALDI: Yes, no, of course. If you decide the standards are wrong, and in Austen—OLIVER: It's sort of implicit in the idea of having standards that you will be honest and therefore accept when your standards need to be improved or whatever. Right?TRALDI: Yes, I think that's absolutely right. And in Austen we certainly see people shifting their standards. And I think one thing that I—of course, modern readers and watchers of Austen do not quite understand some of these things. But I think in Pride and Prejudice in particular, we're supposed to feel that Lizzy Bennet is quite hard on people and has to learn to improve herself in that way.OLIVER: We're delighted with her when she does that because we think it's sassy.TRALDI: Yes, exactly. If you go on YouTube, you can see all these, like, “Lizzy Bennet owning people's lives for 50 minutes,” these compilations of clips from the various movies or whatever. And she's obviously very, very clever.But she realizes—after coming to understand who Wickham is and feeling that she might not have another chance with Darcy, she comes to realize that she has had certain prejudices, which have made her blind to the realities of the world and blind to what might be her best options.So yes, I was saying I believe in integrity; that's all I was saying. And integrity obviously is adjustable, but I tend to think that it's better—even if the rule is wrong, it's better for the person who has it to hold themselves to it, rather than to adjust to try to get an advantage.And in philosophy, we have all sorts of terminology for these sorts of questions: “Are you an internalist or an externalist about reasons or about rules or whatever?” I think the more literary way to say it would just be that integrity is a virtue. And people should stick to their codes unless they see a good reason to change them.Austen and Adam SmithOLIVER: Now, you have recently been reading Adam Smith.TRALDI: Yes, I did read a lot of Adam Smith for this debate we had last week. Although I did a poor job because I had forgotten that the debate was about whether Smith was a philosopher or an economist. [laughter] I thought it was simply, is he a philosopher or not? So I put myself in the odd position of arguing that Adam Smith is not an economist.But yes, I think it's obvious—without knowing the background, I'm sure there are scholarly questions about, how much Smith did Austen read? And they're both 250th—a lot was happening in 1775 and 1776.OLIVER: Those were great years. Those were the good old days.TRALDI: They were great years. In the great books syllabus, you get to the end of the 1700s and suddenly there's this—you have Smith, you have Kant, you have the American Revolution, you have the French Revolution, you have Burke. Rousseau is right before, Montesquieu is right before. I mean, it was a real—OLIVER: It's a great time.TRALDI: It was a great time. A lot was being done. And obviously, you know, I love the 1800s. I love the Romantics. But you could teach a whole great books course from 1750 to 1800, probably.OLIVER: You've also got all the dictionaries and all that kind of work going on as well. It's a very, very fertile—explorations.TRALDI: Yes, yes. There's all sorts of—yes, it was an amazing time.OLIVER: So did you, having read these two, Austen and Smith, close together—TRALDI: Yes, and I should say that my reading of Austen was much more careful than my reading of Smith.OLIVER: Sure, but you wrote this before you read Smith.TRALDI: Yes, absolutely.OLIVER: Or at least you fully conceived it. Do you see a lot of Smith in Austen?TRALDI: “A lot” might be—OLIVER: Primarily from Theory of Moral Sentiments.TRALDI: So I would say that the notion of sympathy as being fundamentally part of how you recognize a good person seems to me to be there in Austen. The characters are—OLIVER: And this is the thing about awareness of other people and learning from that awareness.TRALDI: Awareness of other people and learning from other people and feeling other people's emotions. One thing that is related to sympathy in an odd way—and I think actually Austen and Smith conceive of it a bit differently, but that is there for both of them, in particular in Sense and Sensibility—is this notion of self-control or self-command.OLIVER: Self command. Yes. Yes.The Importance of Self-CommandTRALDI: Now, Smith gives a really odd argument about self command, which is that if you don't have control over your emotions, you will end up feeling or expressing something that other people can't sympathize with. And this is bad because sympathy is good, or something like that. I actually think it's a rather confused argument.OLIVER: I think what he's saying is that if you display a lack of self-command, then no matter what you are feeling, people find it difficult to deal with that sort of uncontrolled behavior. It's not the particular expression of feeling; it's the fact that you are a little unstable or—TRALDI: Yes, I think that's right.OLIVER: —a bit extra.TRALDI: I think what Smith doesn't do is explain quite how that's bad. But what I think is that actually, in Sense and Sensibility, it's a little bit the reverse, where actually Elinor and their mother, they do sympathize with Marianne. They do feel what she's feeling after—who's the other, the w guy in Sense and Sensibility? They're all w's.OLIVER: Oh, Willoughby.TRALDI: Willoughby, right, right. Not Wickham, Willoughby. When Willoughby—OLIVER: You can just say “the cad.”TRALDI: The cad. There's always a cad. So when the cad leaves, Marianne has all these emotions, and you really feel them. And Marianne also has a lack of self-command when Willoughby is there. There's this whole episode, which I didn't quite make the most of but felt very important, where they go to the house of this woman. They just sort of barge into this house, Willoughby and Marianne.And this is really supposed to show something about the relationship. If you and your partner barge into somebody's house, it can't be a good relationship somehow because it's leading you into bad actions. That's my sense of what that episode is supposed to show from the highest possible remove.OLIVER: I think, yes, and I think there are several other instances of that: when they ride in the carriage together, unaccompanied.TRALDI: Right, right.OLIVER: And there's a sort of general consternation about this. And Marianne sort of says, “Oh, well, how can it be a problem?” And they—part of the consternation is, you're breaking the rules in a very flagrant way, but also that you are assuming that it's okay because you'll get married. And this assumption is a very big one.TRALDI: Yes. And obviously there is this assumption that—she doesn't recognize quite how—she thinks her position is much more secure than it actually is, which is how it turns out in the book. But I think we're supposed to think that even if she were right about Willoughby's affection, which in a sense, she—Willoughby—OLIVER: No. Even if they do get married, she's broken the rules in a way that—TRALDI: She's broken certain rules in a way that is—but I think what's different from Smith is, there is sympathy from her family even though she lacks self-command. But that is precisely—so it's sort of a different theory of why self-command is good. It's precisely because her emotional state is actually draining for her family.And then Elinor says—when she learns that Elinor has actually been going through something—OLIVER: The same.TRALDI: —very similar, and maybe even rougher, in this whole thing with Lucy Steele telling her about this, you know, blah, blah, blah.OLIVER: Which is a beautiful name—to steal. I mean, it's great.TRALDI: It's an amazing—honestly, in some ways Sense and Sensibility may have been my favorite. I think it's just lovely.OLIVER: If I just wanted to just read one for fun, that's what I go to. I do, yes.TRALDI: Yes. And there's a lot—none of these things are quite perfectly in there. But I think honestly, everything that's in the other novels has a little part to play in Sense and Sensibility. You know, I think if I were to recommend just one, if somebody was like, “I have time for just one,” I might recommend Sense and Sensibility.But in the end, Marianne says—again, it's one of these amazingly evocative lines. Elinor says, “You didn't act that badly. Do you compare your conduct with Willoughby's?” And she says, “No, I compare it with—Elinor, I compare it with your conduct. You have this self-command.”And it's precisely the fact—it's not—and I think this is why philosophers do like Austen, because it's not—it's still literary, but there is a precision to her moral evaluations. It's precisely the fact that Elinor knew that her family loved her and didn't want to burden—it's all quite conscious. She didn't want to burden her family with her emotions. But you actually see that Elinor has this family trait of having very strong sentiment, which Marianne does, and simply also has this virtue of self-command.And that is—there are film adaptations and TV adaptations that demonstrate self-command, but it's a very hard thing to film. It's something you feel inside. It's a very hard—the actors have to be very good for you to see—you see pieces of it in some of the adaptations of Persuasion and some of the adaptations of Sense and Sensibility, but self-command is very hard to find.Austen AdaptationsOLIVER: Which adaptations do you like the best?TRALDI: I'm forgetting—I often like the long ones that I think were for the British ITV. So I like the—I think Kate Beckinsale was in the Emma one. Although I think there was one of Persuasion, which was also quite good. I like the one of Northanger Abbey. I don't think it's that good, but it's kind of cute, which I think it's probably the cutest of her long novels.Whit Stillman did a very loose adaptation of Lady Susan, which is hilariously funny at times, and also has Kate Beckinsale and some other great actors in it.OLIVER: Did you see the new Persuasion on Netflix a couple of years ago?TRALDI: No. No.OLIVER: It has that—is it Dakota Johnson, the actress, who's famous for other non-Austenian—Fifty Shades of Grey or whatever.TRALDI: Yes, and isn't she one of the Avengers or something like that?OLIVER: Something like that. But everyone was very upset that it was this terrible adaptation.TRALDI: Oh, yes.OLIVER: Didn't—it sort of killed all of Austen's words. She looks at the camera; she drinks from the bottle. I actually thought it was quite fun. On the basis that all adaptations are bad—TRALDI: I think if you allow some looseness, it can be quite fun. So for example, the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, I think if you're just sort of like, “Well, this is just somebody who was inspired by Pride and Prejudice,” you can have a lot of fun with the movie.OLIVER: I think as an interpretation of the book, that film is quite bad.TRALDI: Oh, yes. I think it's absolutely missing the mark.OLIVER: But in terms of like, the countryside and the house and the geese and the food, it's fantastic.TRALDI: Oh, yes. It's lovely to look at.OLIVER: The dresses, right? The clothes are amazing.TRALDI: And a lot of the—and the cast is honestly like—OLIVER: Yes, it's great.TRALDI: The cast is really, really great. And the parts as they are—OLIVER: Rosamund Pike is maybe the best Jane on TV.TRALDI: She's terrific. And who's the one who plays Kitty?OLIVER: Yes.TRALDI: Who is in—and the father is the guy from The Hunger Games. I forget his name, but I think the father is excellent in that. But of course, it's not exactly the father from Austen.OLIVER: No, no, no.TRALDI: But as a movie itself—but yes, I like a lot of these longer TV versions.One odd thing—they make these choices. So there is some scholarly apparatus brought to bear on some of them. So I think maybe it's Persuasion that there were multiple versions of, and some of the adaptations use pieces from the unpublished version, which are interesting. And as I was reading it, I had to Google around a bit and figure out these things.Austen's Moral PrecisionTRALDI: I was going to say about Austen's moral precision, the other place where I think this comes in—and I wrote a bit about this in the essay—is near the end of Mansfield Park, when—the names are what I'm worst at—when Edmund, right, is finally disillusioned with—OLIVER: Mary.TRALDI: With Mary Crawford?OLIVER: Mm-hmm.TRALDI: It's because there was this affair. There's always a sibling or a cousin who makes some horrible mistake, you know? So there was this affair, and Mary Crawford can only criticize it by saying that they weren't very prudent, you know, in prudential terms. They took a big risk. They made a bad decision. You know, they really screwed themselves over.OLIVER: They could have made it work. Yes.TRALDI: Yes. And Edmund realizes that she lacks moral fervor because he thinks the appropriate criticism should be a moral one. And as a psychological matter, it shouldn't even enter your head, I think is the idea. I'm extrapolating a bit, but if you see somebody acting this badly, to then say, “Well, geez, you're doing something that isn't in your interest”—for that to be your first thought indicates that your priorities are highly misplaced in a way that, to him, is quite unattractive.And this also struck me as a moment of—this is something we philosophers talk about. What is the distinction between prudence and morality? They both tell you what you should do, in some sense, but there's different—the shoulds have different forces, right? So Edmund has a certain moral precision and sensitivity which, actually, Fanny is basically the only person he knows—not that everybody in the house is a bad person; his father is a decent guy, and one of the aunts is okay, I think.But yes, there's a real sophistication to this evaluation. And it's funny to me that she actually used this as the—I mean, I suspect that even at the time there were readers who were just like, “Wait, I really don't get what the nature of Edmund's problem is here,” because it's not like Mary—Mary's not like, “Oh, yes, I support infidelity.” You know? She's not like— it's if you blinked, you might miss it, the mistake that Mary has made.And so I do think that even though she's not making arguments, she's not laying out philosophical theories, there is a level of precision in her thinking about virtue, which I do think is something that it took me a little aback.And I think it's part of why—one person who quote-tweeted my article was Daniel Kodsi, who's a friend of our colleague John Maier and his coauthor often. And he runs this magazine called The Philosophers' Magazine, which I had written before. And Daniel quote-tweeted my article with something like, “Add Oliver to the list of all the philosophers who love Austen.”OLIVER: And it's a long list.TRALDI: And I think it's a long list. And I do think this precision is part of it that she does, that it is—again, it's not like a philosophy journal article, but it is an intellectual sophistication that is often not present in novelists that we really appreciate.Every Word MattersOLIVER: I mean, one way people talk about the great books is to say that every word matters. And a lot of novelists will say that about their own. Well, you know, Elizabeth Bowen used to say, “What you're doing is to make everything count.” Austen is one of the examples where it's actually true. Every word is being used carefully.TRALDI: Yes. It's funny, this bears on another Twitter argument I had recently about this phrase logographic necessity. Basically, every word in a great book is there for a reason. I think that's right. Although you have to be careful about—if you were to say, “Well, every word in Plato is there for a reason, so you can't really say he's wrong about every—” you would be kind of abandoning the philosophical mission.OLIVER: I mean it in the sense of what you might call the artistic or structural integrity of the book. Not everything has to tell in the meaning sense. But it all holds as a unit for some—TRALDI: Yes. I think everything is there—there is what we could call an internal reason for everything to be there. Everything is there to hold together—OLIVER: Like the making of a piece of furniture or something.TRALDI: And I think you hear—I think this is one thing that—and not all classical music, but I think it's one thing that distinguishes classical music even from very good contemporary pop music or jazz or rock music, is that you have this sense of, “Yes, every note I hear basically is holding up a larger structure of some sort.”OLIVER: Yes. And Jane Austen is very Mozart in that way.TRALDI: Yes, I think that's right. Yes.Austen's Place in Great Books ProgramsOLIVER: So should Jane Austen have a bigger place on great books programs, based on all these things you've said about her?TRALDI: Yes, this is—so, there was actually a debate—I did not write the piece in response to this debate, but this is—OLIVER: Tanner Greer.TRALDI: Yes, there was—Tanner Greer weighed in on this, and my friend Circe. I think—OLIVER: I think they're just desperately wrong.TRALDI: You think they don't—that she—OLIVER: I think Emma is obviously a book that should be on one of these syllabuses. Maybe Sense and Sensibility.TRALDI: Yes. I think the ones I would consider are Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Mansfield Park. I do think they're actually longer than I realized, which is always—I mean, there are these very practical concerns with putting together a syllabus.OLIVER: Sure, sure. Although I want to ask you about that, because my response to a lot of these debates, which is maybe just because of where I studied, but just make them read more. And if they don't do the reading, that's their, you know—TRALDI: That's true. Well, I don't want to get into this too much. We already make them read a lot compared to—so for example, a year ago, I had my students read two novels in a week, which is more than most courses make college students read.OLIVER: But that's by no means unreasonable.TRALDI: No, no, of course, of course.OLIVER: You know.TRALDI: Well, exigencies of the teenage mind aside—OLIVER: Because I often think this, when people debate how things should be taught and why it's so important to keep these programs, and they'll talk about the importance of writing essays. And then it turns out the students maybe write one essay a semester. And I sort of think, well, who cares? All this rhetoric for one essay.TRALDI: Yes. I don't know if I'm really ever going to assign essays again. It just is—the age of AI is upon us.OLIVER: Sure. But you see what I mean.TRALDI: No, yes, I know exactly what you mean. And I do think reading a lot is the main part of—and certainly, you know, when I read all seven of these in two weeks, that's much more reading than I normally do, as well, to write this essay.OLIVER: But you didn't have to lie on the sofa afterwards with a cold compress. You were fine.TRALDI: In a way it was a really good two weeks. If you get to read—I mean, this is why we have good lives, right? If you get to read Jane Austen and you call that work, it's a nice life.OLIVER: So yes, will you be putting Emma on your program?TRALDI: I would definitely consider Emma. I would definitely consider Sense and Sensibility. I would consider Mansfield Park. I think these are the ones that have—the moral element is very prominent. But it's obviously there in all of her books.OLIVER: You can have a really good moral discussion about Mansfield Park, which is a bigger, broader thing than Pride and Prejudice, for example.TRALDI: Yes, I think so. I would definitely consider—in the 1800s there were—obviously the British novel of the 1800s was a big deal, and there's—OLIVER: [laughs] We did quite well, yes.TRALDI: You all did quite well. So the ones we did at Tulsa—we had Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights and The Picture of Dorian Gray. And then we had one Irish, The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. And I don't think anybody—if you replaced one of those with Emma or Mansfield Park, I don't think anybody would say, “Oh, you made a horrible call.”OLIVER: I think Tanner's point was that you simply don't have that many slots for an English novel that deals with these sorts of ideas, and that it should obviously be Middlemarch because that is the bigger novel. It's about bigger questions of society. It's about the whole—it's got more greatness in it, whereas Austen is sort of more about the individual.TRALDI: So I do think that this question of greatness—I think there are some people who read Austen and they think, “Well, this is—obviously it has all these sorts of themes, but it's not great. It has this littleness to it. It has this smallness to it.”OLIVER: It's domestic.TRALDI: That is not my reading of it. I think if that's the question, I don't feel that way. I think it pulls out these great themes about the nature of virtue and the nature of moral learning, becoming a better person, the nature of love. We read Sappho. We read the Symposium.To me, you read Wuthering Heights and you say, “Oh, this is a really big book because it's about society and how trauma gets passed down, and it has these horror elements, and it's very dark.” But actually, it's quite hard to figure out, how do we turn Wuthering Heights in a discussion about how to live? With Austen, it's just completely straightforward.OLIVER: [laughs] How not to live, maybe.TRALDI: Yes. In Austen, it's just completely straightforward. This is the discussion. This is what she had in mind as well, this question of how to live. So to me, Austen is completely—in terms of her successes as an artist, she belongs. In terms of her themes, she belongs. So I would not rule her out. I think she is absolutely a great, and who knows what that means, but I think she would be completely appropriate on any of these syllabi.Reading PlansOLIVER: Very good. And what will you read next?TRALDI: What will I read next? I mean, our—from the beginning, I'm thinking I should read some more poetry. It's been a while. Actually, speaking of—this is funny. Well, I want to get into William Empson. He had an odd life, which I think somebody should do like a movie about him or something.OLIVER: Yes, he'd make a great movie.TRALDI: I think Empson would be a good movie. So that might be—OLIVER: Are you going to read the poems or the criticism?TRALDI: Probably a little of both, but that's for a while from now. I think, you know, at the moment I'm back to reading philosophy. So what novel will I read next? That's a good question. What should I read next?OLIVER: If you like Jane Austen?TRALDI: Yes.OLIVER: Maybe read one of the people that she admired, like Samuel Richardson or Fanny Burney, someone like that.TRALDI: You know, I do think—you saying Samuel Richardson reminded me, I've read very little Samuel Johnson. I think reading some of the great critics, I think, writing this piece—OLIVER: Oh, Johnson, yes. You would like Johnson.TRALDI: I think I would like Johnson. I think I would like Empson. The history of literary criticism is something I have very, very little idea of.OLIVER: Oh, well, then, Johnson. I mean, he's the best.TRALDI: Yes, I think I should, I should definitely read Johnson.OLIVER: English literary criticism begins and ends with Samuel Johnson.TRALDI: You know what, this is a little different, but—I might have talked about this with you a little bit—I want to read The Fable of the Bees, Mandeville, because reading about Smith—a lot of the ideas that we think of as Smithian are actually Mandevillian, and he kind of moderated them.OLIVER: Well, he hated Mandeville.TRALDI: Yes.OLIVER: Very hard on him.TRALDI: Yes. So a lot—like the invisible hand, it's only a small part of Smith's thinking, but it was like the entirety of Mandeville's thinking, this sort of dynamic.OLIVER: Well, I think it means different things for them. I think Mandeville, in a funny way, is more philosophical in the sense you were saying, and trying to make these propositions. And Smith was saying, “Well, what about feelings? What about all these funny things that we can't account for? Like, look around. It's too messy.”TRALDI: No, that makes sense to me. Yes, I think between Mandeville and Smith, Mandeville is somebody who thought virtue was sort of like a con.OLIVER: A fool's game.TRALDI: Exactly. You're sort of a sucker if you try to be virtuous.OLIVER: I think he also just assumed that if you were commercial, you were obviously on the get.TRALDI: Yes. But this is one of the great—I know we talked about this, but it's one of the great—you see this in Smith, you see this in Austen—commerce has its own virtues, and they are very traditional virtues. You have to be trustworthy. You have to be pleasant. You can't really be wholly self-interested in every moment because people have to be willing to deal with you given your—I mean, think about Yelp reviews or even just word of mouth. “Oh, that person screwed me over.”OLIVER: There's a discussion in one of Hayek's papers, which is—it's a very Smithian point he makes about, the nature of the knowledge problem means that it's not so much that I'm trying to get information about the thing you're trying to sell me, but I'm really trying to get information about you and whether you are someone I should be buying from. Which is exactly the project that the novelists and Smith—there's a sort of period between Smith and the early novelists, running through Austen to George Eliot, when they're all working on that problem together.TRALDI: Yes. I do think in Austen, it's often—the real puzzle is, how do you make out somebody else's character?OLIVER: Exactly.TRALDI: This is a phrase that Lizzy Bennet does use with regard to Darcy. And how do we actually figure out who the trustworthy and untrustworthy people are?OLIVER: And if you're too philosophical about that, in the sort of analytic sense, I think you can end up not paying enough attention to the particulars of that question.TRALDI: Yes.OLIVER: Because when you actually try and do it, it's really, really hard.TRALDI: Yes. And I think this is the sort of—reading Austen, you get a sense of—and there are very few philosophy papers on things like this. Reading Austen, you get a sense of, what sorts of details in a normal life are the ones that I can extract information from to make out somebody else's character?In philosophy, we do ask, what is a good character and what is the good action in this sort of situation? What is the bad action in this sort of situation? But it's not for the philosopher to say, “Okay, in the sorts of situations you're likely to be in, what do you pay—where do you direct your attention to try to figure out these things about?”And it's not—I don't think Austen—it's not super subtle either. In Persuasion—I mentioned in the essay—in Persuasion, it starts out by saying Anne really cared about paying off the family's debts, and the rest of her family didn't give a s**t, you know? And it's sort of like, okay, so we just immediately are like, Anne's the sort of person who you might want to have a business transaction with because if she has a debt to you, she might actually pay it. And I forget if that's the exact detail, but it's something like that, you know?OLIVER: And there's also the novelist—Jane Austen is very good at what you don't see, which aga

"That there was not a uniform position on the subject of religious liberty, can be demonstrated by an examination of the writings and lives of three of the signers: John Spilsbury, Samuel Richardson, and William Kiffen. These men illustrate the fact that although there was basic agreement about liberty of conscience, there were significant differences among them, especially as to liberty's limits." - Ron MillerFor more information, visit CBTSeminary.org

"A study of the individual signer's writings and personal histories shows that there were differences concerning how far freedom of conscience should extend. John Spilsbury confessed a simple, broad belief in soul liberty. Samuel Richardson argued for full religious liberty for everyone. The four events we examined last time from William Kiffen's life shows that he believed that there were limits to freedom of religious expression. Now let's look at more cases of conscience from the life of William Kiffen."-Ron MillerFor more information, visit CBTSeminary.org

"A study of the individual signer's writings and personal histories shows that there were differences concerning how far freedom of conscience should extend. John Spilsbury confessed a simple, broad belief in soul liberty. Samuel Richardson argued for full religious liberty for everyone. The four events we examined last time from William Kiffen's life shows that he believed that there were limits to freedom of religious expression. Now let's look at more cases of conscience from the life of William Kiffen." -Ron Miller For more information, visit CBTSeminary.org

"A study of the individual signer's writings and personal histories shows that there were differences concerning how far freedom of conscience should extend. John Spilsbury confessed a simple, broad belief in soul liberty. Samuel Richardson argued for full religious liberty for everyone. The four events we examined last time from William Kiffen's life shows that he believed that there were limits to freedom of religious expression. Now let's look at more cases of conscience from the life of William Kiffen." -Ron Miller For more information, visit CBTSeminary.org

"That there was not a uniform position on the subject of religious liberty, can be demonstrated by an examination of the writings and lives of three of the signers: John Spilsbury, Samuel Richardson, and William Kiffen. These men illustrate the fact that although there was basic agreement about liberty of conscience, there were significant differences among them, especially as to liberty's limits." - Ron Miller For more information, visit CBTSeminary.org

"That there was not a uniform position on the subject of religious liberty, can be demonstrated by an examination of the writings and lives of three of the signers: John Spilsbury, Samuel Richardson, and William Kiffen. These men illustrate the fact that although there was basic agreement about liberty of conscience, there were significant differences among them, especially as to liberty's limits." - Ron Miller For more information, visit CBTSeminary.org

Eighteenth century prison break artist and folk hero Jack Sheppard is among history's most frequently adapted rogues: his exploits have inspired Daniel Defoe, John Gay, Bertolt Brecht, and most recently, Jordy Rosenberg, whose first novel, Confessions of the Fox (2018), rewrites Sheppard as a trans man and Sheppard's partner Bess as a South Asian lascar and part of the resistance movement in the Fens. Rosenberg embeds the manuscript tracing their love story within a satirical frame narrative of a professor whose discovery of it gets him caught up in an absurd and increasingly alarming tussle with neoliberal academic bureaucracy and corporate malfeasance. Jordy is joined here by Annie McClanahan, a scholar of contemporary literature and culture who describes herself as an unruly interloper in the 18th century.  Like Jordy's novel, their conversation limns the 18th and 21st centuries, taking up 18th century historical concerns and the messy early history of the novel alongside other textual and vernacular forms, but also inviting us to rethink resistance and utopian possibility today through the lens of this earlier moment. Jordy and Annie leapfrog across centuries, reading the 17th century ballad “The Powtes Complaint” in relation to extractivism and environmental justice, theorizing the “riotous, anarchic, queer language of the dispossessed” that characterizes Confessions of the Fox as a kind of historically informed cognitive estrangement for the present, and considering the work theory does (and does not) do in literary works and in academic institutions. Mentioned in this Episode Peter Linebaugh, The London Hanged John Bender, Imagining the Penitentiary Dean Spade Samuel Delany's Return to Nevèrÿon series (Tales of Nevèrÿon, Neveryóna, Flight from Nevèrÿon, Return to Nevèrÿon) Samuel Richardson's Pamela Sal Nicolazzo Greta LaFleur “The Powtes Complaint,” first printed in William Dugdale's The history of imbanking and drayning of divers fenns and marshes, both in forein parts and in this kingdom, and of the improvements thereby extracted from records, manuscripts, and other authentick testimonies (1662) Fred Moten Saidiya Hartman Jordy Rosenberg, “Gender Trouble on Mother's Day” and “The Daddy Dialectic” Amy De'Ath, “Hidden Abodes and Inner Bonds,” in After Marx, edited by Colleen Lye and Christopher Nealon Aziz Yafi, “Digging Tunnels with Pens” Jasbir Puar 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

Eighteenth century prison break artist and folk hero Jack Sheppard is among history's most frequently adapted rogues: his exploits have inspired Daniel Defoe, John Gay, Bertolt Brecht, and most recently, Jordy Rosenberg, whose first novel, Confessions of the Fox (2018), rewrites Sheppard as a trans man and Sheppard's partner Bess as a South Asian lascar and part of the resistance movement in the Fens. Rosenberg embeds the manuscript tracing their love story within a satirical frame narrative of a professor whose discovery of it gets him caught up in an absurd and increasingly alarming tussle with neoliberal academic bureaucracy and corporate malfeasance. Jordy is joined here by Annie McClanahan, a scholar of contemporary literature and culture who describes herself as an unruly interloper in the 18th century.  Like Jordy's novel, their conversation limns the 18th and 21st centuries, taking up 18th century historical concerns and the messy early history of the novel alongside other textual and vernacular forms, but also inviting us to rethink resistance and utopian possibility today through the lens of this earlier moment. Jordy and Annie leapfrog across centuries, reading the 17th century ballad “The Powtes Complaint” in relation to extractivism and environmental justice, theorizing the “riotous, anarchic, queer language of the dispossessed” that characterizes Confessions of the Fox as a kind of historically informed cognitive estrangement for the present, and considering the work theory does (and does not) do in literary works and in academic institutions. Mentioned in this Episode Peter Linebaugh, The London Hanged John Bender, Imagining the Penitentiary Dean Spade Samuel Delany's Return to Nevèrÿon series (Tales of Nevèrÿon, Neveryóna, Flight from Nevèrÿon, Return to Nevèrÿon) Samuel Richardson's Pamela Sal Nicolazzo Greta LaFleur “The Powtes Complaint,” first printed in William Dugdale's The history of imbanking and drayning of divers fenns and marshes, both in forein parts and in this kingdom, and of the improvements thereby extracted from records, manuscripts, and other authentick testimonies (1662) Fred Moten Saidiya Hartman Jordy Rosenberg, “Gender Trouble on Mother's Day” and “The Daddy Dialectic” Amy De'Ath, “Hidden Abodes and Inner Bonds,” in After Marx, edited by Colleen Lye and Christopher Nealon Aziz Yafi, “Digging Tunnels with Pens” Jasbir Puar Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

In this week's bonus episode, Eleanor talks us through the surprisingly saucy history of glove making!Part of the "Dying Arts" series, we start by discussing where Eleanor's interest in the topic first arose, specifically in Renaissance drama, clothing and costume, before we then explore the truly ancient relationships humans have had with gloves, from Ice Age mittens to Tutankhamen's riding gloves, references to gloves in Classical texts and art, and the important positions gloves occupied in Northern European life, from medieval gauntlets to poisoned gloves, love tokens, and more.After chatting through the processes involved in actually making a pair of gloves, much of which involves some very silly terminology, we then explore how gloves appear in literature and culture, from Beowulf to the novels of Samuel Richardson and beyond, before ending in our current era of mass produced gloves, where their purposes are still surprisingly specific - not least if you're a soldier at war in the Middle East...The Three Ravens is an English Myth and Folklore podcast hosted by award-winning writers Martin Vaux and Eleanor Conlon.Released on Mondays, each weekly episode focuses on one of England's 39 historic counties, exploring the history, folklore and traditions of the area, from ghosts and mermaids to mythical monsters, half-forgotten heroes, bloody legends, and much, much more. Then, and most importantly, the pair take turns to tell a new version of an ancient story from that county - all before discussing what that tale might mean, where it might have come from, and the truths it reveals about England's hidden past...Bonus Episodes are released on Thursdays (Magic and Medicines about folk remedies and arcane spells, Three Ravens Bestiary about cryptids and mythical creatures, Dying Arts about endangered heritage crafts, and Something Wicked about folkloric true crime from across history) plus Local Legends episodes on Saturdays - interviews with acclaimed authors, folklorists, podcasters and historians with unique perspectives on that week's county.With a range of exclusive content on Patreon, too, including audio ghost tours, the Three Ravens Newsletter, and monthly Three Ravens Film Club episodes about folk horror films from across the decades, why not join us around the campfire and listen in?Learn more at www.threeravenspodcast.com, join our Patreon at www.patreon.com/threeravenspodcast, and find links to our social media channels here: https://linktr.ee/threeravenspodcast Get bonus content on Patreon Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Relique d'Amour by Oriza L. Legrand (2012) + Pamela; or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson (1740) 12/16/23 S6E3 To hear the complete continuing story of The Perfume Nationalist please subscribe on Patreon. 

You may think that Mary Trump needs no introduction, because you believe you know who she is in relation to a certain distasteful someone who shares her surname. Or you have read her first bestselling book:  Too much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man. Or her equally stellar second, The Reckoning: Our Nation's Trauma and Finding a Way to Heal. But what an author produces or shares with the public, as well as the degrees they collect (in Mary's case a BA and MA in English literature as well as a doctorate PhD in clinical psychology) is only a part of who they are. And, it should go without saying that our family of origin is a piece, but not all of us. In today's episode, Mary and Jen get lost in a conversation about books. They start with Mary's childhood favorite, Sylvester and the Magic Pebble, a children's picture book written and illustrated by William Steig that won a Caldecott Medal in 1970. And the conversation continued into weightier tomes like the more than 1,534 page epistolary novel Clarissa, by Samuel Richardson. The 1748 work's rather lengthly alternative title reveals a bit about the story, but hardly as much as Mary does: The History of a Young Lady: Comprehending the Most Important Concerns of Private Life. And Particularly Shewing, the Distresses that May Attend the Misconduct Both of Parents and Children, In Relation to Marriage Contact Booked Up: You can email Jen & the Booked Up team at: BOOKEDUP@POLITICON.COM or by writing to:  BOOKED UP  P.O. BOX 147 NORTHAMPTON, MA 01061 Get More from Mary Trump Twitter | The Good in Us Substack | Author of TOO MUCH AND NEVER ENOUGH and THE RECKONING Get More from Jen Taub: Twitter | Follow the Money Substack | Author of BIG DIRTY MONEY 

Summary:   "There's no glory for a robot." We're catching up on our Oscar movies and this week we're talking about Cate Blanchett's wonderous performance in Tár. Also discussed: Season 4 of You, the Scamfluencers podcast and Lisa's new year-long read.      Show notes: The 100 best novels: No 4 – Clarissa by Samuel Richardson (1748) (The Guardian)   Recommendations: Andrea W.:  Glitter Up the Dark: How Pop Music Broke the Binary by Sasha Greffen (book) Lisa: You (Season 4) (Netflix) Andrea G:  Scamfluencers (podcast)   Music credits "Electrodoodle" by Kevin MacLeod From: incompetech.com Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License   Theme song "Pyro Flow" by Kevin Macleod From: incompetech.com Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License   "Flutterbee" by Podington Bear From:  Free Music Archive Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License     Pop This! Links: Pop This! on TumblrPop This! on iTunes (please consider reviewing and rating us!) Pop This! on Stitcher (please consider reviewing and rating us!) Pop This! on Google PlayPop This! on TuneIn radioPop This! on TwitterPop This! on Instagram Logo design by Samantha Smith Intro voiced by Morgan Brayton Pop This! is a podcast featuring three women talking about pop culture. Lisa Christiansen is a broadcaster, journalist and longtime metal head. Andrea Warner is a music critic, author and former horoscopes columnist. Andrea Gin is a producer and an avid figure skating fan. Press play and come hang out with your new best friends. Pop This! podcast is produced by Andrea Gin.  

On this episode of The Literary Life podcast, our hosts Angelina Stanford, Cindy Rollins, and Thomas Banks open a new series of discussions about Aristotle's work on story, Poetics. After sharing this week's commonplace quotes, Thomas gives us some background on Aristotle and his time. Angelina points out the importance of differentiating between Aristotle's work Rhetoric and Poetics and how they are applied. She and Thomas also talk about the problem of translating the Greek word “mimesis.” They discuss Aristotle's thoughts on the characters in comedy and tragedy, as well as the complex concept of “arete.” Thomas will be teaching a webinar on Jean Jacques Rousseau on February 24th. You can learn more and register at houseofhumaneletters.com. Register now for our 5th Annual Literary Life Online Conference coming up in mid-April, Shakespeare: The Bard for All and for All Time. Get all the details and sign up today at houseofhumaneletters.com. Commonplace Quotes: The supreme imaginative literature of the world is a survival of the fittest ink blots of the ages, and nothing reveals a man with more precision than his reaction to it. The men who have loved Shakespeare best and have kept him most alive have all been Cadwals. Harold Goddard When we are young we all think we are going to remake the world…But in the end it is the world which remakes most of us. Bruce Marshall It is astonishing how little attention critics have paid to Story considered in itself. Granted the story, the style in which it should be told, the order in which it should be disposed, and (above all) the delineation of the characters, have been abundantly discussed. But the Story itself, the series of imagined events, is nearly always passed over in silence, or else treated exclusively as affording opportunities for the delineations of character. There are indeed three notable exceptions. Aristotle in the Poetics constructed a theory of Greek tragedy which puts Story in the centre and relegates character to a strictly subordinate place. In the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, Boccaccio and others developed an allegorical theory of Story to explain the ancient myths. And in our own time Jung and his followers have produced their doctrine of Archetypes. Apart from these three attempts the subject has been left almost untouched… C. S. Lewis The Dead of Athens at Chalcis by Simonides, trans. by F. L. Lucas We died in the glen of Dirphys. Here by our country's giving This tomb was heaped above us high on Euripus' shore. Twas earned, for young we lost the loveliness of living. We took instead upon us the bursting storm of war. Book List: The Meaning of Shakespeare, Vol. 1 by Harold Goddard The Fair Bride by Bruce Marshall On Stories by C. S. Lewis Northrop Frye Tom Jones by Henry Fielding Pamela by Samuel Richardson (not recommended) An Experiment in Criticism by C. S. Lewis 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

Masoquisme intel·lectual. Crítica teatral de l'obra «Quan ens haguem torturat prou (When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other: 12 Variations on Samuel Richardson's Pamela», de Martin Crimp. Traducció de Víctor Muñoz Calafell. Intèrprets: Anna Alarcón, Alba Gallén, Cristi Garbo, Quim Oliver, Xavi Sáez i Neus Soler. Escenografia i vestuari: Pep Duran i Nina Pawlowsky. Il·luminació: Ganecha Gil. Espai sonor i composició: Gerard Marsal. Moviment: David Climent. Direcció de producció: Júlia Simó Puyo. Ajudant de producció i distribució: Guillem Albasanz. Estudiant en pràctiques de l'Institut del Teatre: Leonardo Vicente. Producció: Cassandra Projectes Artístics i Teatre Nacional de Catalunya. Agraïments: Dressart, Época, Gasull Fotografia, Sombrerería MIL, Q-ARS Teatre. Equips tècnics i de gestió del TNC. Ajudanta de direcció: Sadurní Vergés. Direcció: Magda Puyo. Sala Petita, Teatre Nacional de Catalunya, Barcelona, 26 gener 2023. Veu: Andreu Sotorra. Música: Goodbye Cruel World. Intèrpret: Burn The Ballroom. Composició: Gloria. Shayne. Àlbum: Goodbye Cruel World, 2022.

What are the odds of an author penning not one, but two, debut novels - and of BOTH being fabulous?! Newly retrenched from a career in aged care, Karen Herbert wrote “The Castaways of Harewood Hall”, a not so gentle comedy featuring elderly people and animals. She quickly followed that with “The River Mouth”, a dark drama set in a small WA town similar to where she grew up. and Dr Diane Velasquez loves reading romance novels. So much so, they propelled her into academia where she's been conducting research into what librarians think of romance novels and the people who borrow them. Diane is a firm believer that all reading, no matter the genre, is important and she's become a crusader for ensuring snobbery doesn't deter people from borrowing the books they love. Guests Karen Herbert, author of “The River Mouth” and “The Castaways of Harewood Hall”. Her next book will be “Vertigo” Dr Diane Velasquez, Program Director for Information Management in the STEM unit at Uni SA Our Random Reader is David Other books that get a mention: Annie mentions John Mortimer “A Summer's Lease” and Cath mentions Mick Herron author of “Slow Horses” Diane mentions: “Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded” was first published in 1740 by English writer Samuel Richardson. Nora Roberts author of the Dragon Heart Legacy Trilogy, “Hideaway” and “Northern Lights”…she also writes futuristic suspense under the pseudonym JD Robb Nalini Singh author of “Archangel's Blade”, “Play of Passion”, “Heart of Obsidian” and others Stephanie Laurens author of “Cynster”, “Bastion Club”, “Black Cobra Quartet” and others Michaela mentions “Anne of Green Gables” by L.M. Montgomery and “Black Moth” by Georgette Heyer David mentions “Lord of the Rings” J.R.R. Tolkien, “Dune” Frank Herbert, “When Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” Philip K Dick and “The Devil's Dictionary” Steven Kotler INSTA - @herbert_whittle INSTA - @fremantlepress    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

What are the odds of an author penning not one, but two, debut novels - and of BOTH being fabulous?! Newly retrenched from a career in aged care, Karen Herbert wrote “The Castaways of Harewood Hall”, a not so gentle comedy featuring elderly people and animals. She quickly followed that with “The River Mouth”, a dark drama set in a small WA town similar to where she grew up. and Dr Diane Velasquez loves reading romance novels. So much so, they propelled her into academia where she's been conducting research into what librarians think of romance novels and the people who borrow them. Diane is a firm believer that all reading, no matter the genre, is important and she's become a crusader for ensuring snobbery doesn't deter people from borrowing the books they love. Guests Karen Herbert, author of “The River Mouth” and “The Castaways of Harewood Hall”. Her next book will be “Vertigo” Dr Diane Velasquez, Program Director for Information Management in the STEM unit at Uni SA Our Random Reader is David Other books that get a mention: Annie mentions John Mortimer “A Summer's Lease” and Cath mentions Mick Herron author of “Slow Horses” Diane mentions: “Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded” was first published in 1740 by English writer Samuel Richardson. Nora Roberts author of the Dragon Heart Legacy Trilogy, “Hideaway” and “Northern Lights”…she also writes futuristic suspense under the pseudonym JD Robb Nalini Singh author of “Archangel's Blade”, “Play of Passion”, “Heart of Obsidian” and others Stephanie Laurens author of “Cynster”, “Bastion Club”, “Black Cobra Quartet” and others Michaela mentions “Anne of Green Gables” by L.M. Montgomery and “Black Moth” by Georgette Heyer David mentions “Lord of the Rings” J.R.R. Tolkien, “Dune” Frank Herbert, “When Androids Dream of Electric Sheep” Philip K Dick and “The Devil's Dictionary” Steven Kotler INSTA - @herbert_whittle INSTA - @fremantlepress    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

https://www.GoodMorningGwinnett.comThe Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office congratulates the following deputies for receiving certificates and service pins: Gary Thurman (35 years — not pictured), Tracey Swift (20 years), Samuel Richardson (15 years), Jimmy Ramirez (10 years), Lakeisha Weary (5 years). Thank you all for your service!_________________________________________________Below are links to my Shopify store as well as other affiliate links. If you've found this episode helpful or inspiring, do me a favor and support my by clicking on the links below. Your support helps me to keep my channel going and sharing my entrepreneurial experience with you.https://www.PillowEnvy.cohttps://try.printify.com/creatorhttp://www.fiverr.com/s2/4af8dc5344https://amzn.to/3AAmujfhttps://www.youtube.com/@TalkBusinessWithAudrey/featured?sub_confirmation=1https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hNTx9bRpHss?sub_confirmation=1

Rendering Unconscious episode 220. Dr. James A. Smith is a literary scholar and political commentator. His literary scholarship focuses on mid eighteenth-century literature, especially the work of Samuel Richardson and the reception of Shakespeare. He also writes about the history of literary criticism and critical theory: in particular the approaches of F.R. Leavis, Walter Benjamin, the British New Left, and the psychoanalysis of Jacques Lacan. Dr. Smith is Senior Lecturer in Literature and Theory, Department of English at Royal Holloway, University of London. https://pure.royalholloway.ac.uk/en/persons/james-smith His first book is Samuel Richardson and the Theory of Tragedy (Manchester University Press). Other People's Politics: Populism to Corbynism was published by Zer0 Books in 2019. Work Want Work: Labour and Desire at the End of Capitalism (co-written with Mareile Pfannebecker) appeared with Zed Books in 2020. James A. Smith is co-host of The Popular Show podcast. Follow at Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepopularpod YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/popularitymedia Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/thepopularpod You can support the podcast at our Patreon. https://www.patreon.com/vanessa23carl Your support is greatly appreciated! This episode available to view at YouTube: https://youtu.be/GWz937ZbXpg Rendering Unconscious Podcast is hosted by Dr. Vanessa Sinclair, a psychoanalyst who lives in Sweden and works internationally: www.drvanessasinclair.net Follow Dr. Vanessa Sinclair on social media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/rawsin_ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rawsin_/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drvanessasinclair23 Visit the main website for more information and links to everything: www.renderingunconscious.org The song at the end of the episode is "Lunacy" by Vanessa Sinclair and Carl Abrahamsson from the album of the same name available from Trapart Films / Highbrow Lowlife: https://vanessasinclaircarlabrahamsson.bandcamp.com/album/lunacy-ost Many thanks to Carl Abrahamsson, who created the intro and outro music for Rendering Unconscious podcast. https://www.carlabrahamsson.com Image: The Popular Show podcast

What and when was the first English language novel?There are some contenders for this honour, but the most plausible for me would be Pamela by Samuel Richardson—first published in 1740 and several times since. Widely accepted as the first English novel, it is a racy, saucy, sexually-orientated story—and , of course, for that reason it was the world's first bestseller.In 1832, the first book covers started to happen. In America and Britain, these books, with designed covers, sold for a penny. They were largely the retelling of gothic horror stories. For that reason these books came to called Penny Dreadful.A significant moment in the history of publishing was the advent of the American brothers Albert and Charles Boni, who started a mail-order publishing company. The pioneering efforts of Albert Boni resulted in the creation of the major publishing company , Random House—so called because they decided that their choice of published literature would be random by nature.Their success was followed in 1935 by Penguin—a hugely successful British publisher that printed clearly branded books that appealed to everyone. And mention of Penguin brings me to my guest today, David Davidar—the best known name in Indian publishingDavid was hired by Penguin in 1985. First as an editor and then very quickly as Publisher, David took Penguin places—from publishing six books in 1987 to 150 titles annually.By the time he moved to Penguin Canada in 2004, David had published a stable of thoroughbreds—here's a sample—Shashi Tharoor, Vikram Seth, Ruskin Bond, Romila Thapar, Salman Rushdie and William Dalrymple.One of my earlier guests on this show, author Pavan Varma made singular mention of having been first published by David.David Davidar is, at once, a publisher, an editor, a novelist of three wonderful books. He runs Aleph Book Company—a top-shelf publishing house, in partnership with Rupa Publications, and continues to battle alongside the gods of academe with weapons of mass typography.Those in the business will not need me to say anything. For those who are readers of books, who might not be familiar with the publishing industry, you can easily attribute a large part of your proud book collection to one man. And I feel privileged to be able to introduce him to you today.ABOUT DAVID DAVIDARDavid Davidar is an Indian novelist and publisher. He is the author of three published novels, The House of Blue Mangoes, The Solitude of Emperors, and Ithaca. In parallel to his writing career, Davidar has been a publisher for over a quarter-century. David Davidar has been around books all his life.Buy A Case Of Indian Marvels: https://amzn.to/3VhkEMOListen to Constantine Cavafy's poem, "ITHACA", the inspiration for David's book by the same name, recited by Sean Connery : https://youtu.be/i8is5ZE4_CUWHAT'S THAT WORD?!Co-host Pranati "Pea" Madhav joins Ramjee Chandran in "What's That Word?!",  where they discuss "#"—which is the "hash" or "pound" symbol.WANT TO BE ON THE SHOW?Reach us by mail: theliterarycity@explocity.com or simply, tlc@explocity.com.Or here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/theliterarycityOr here:  https://www.instagram.com/explocityblr/Cover photo: Rachna Singh

Ever wonder what was the "first" book of Canadian literature? How do we even know how to define what that would be? In this episode, Linda chats with eighteenth-century British literature scholar, Dr. Kathryn Ready, about what is sometimes claimed as the first book of Canadian literature--Frances Brooke's The History of Emily Montague. Linda and Dr. Ready may -- or may not -- have tussled over whether this book is British or Canadian, but what they absolutely do is consider the finer aspects of the novel and its global investments.Linda opens with a consideration of "firsts" (referencing Abbott and Costello's comedy routine, "Who's on First?," 1.05) and then turns to Dr. Ready who speaks about the following:epistolary narratives, tradition of letter-writing (4.25; 5.15)Samuel Richardson's Pamela (4.35, 6.30)Frances Brooke (8.25)travel writing (11.25)aesthetic of the sublime and beautiful (11.40)the Seven Years War (12.05)And so much more .... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cuéntame un libro. Agosto 1. Las mil y una noches - Anónimo 2. La historia de Genji – Murasaki Shikibu 3. El cantar de Mio Cid – Anónimo 4. Libro del buen amor – Juan Ruiz, Arcipreste de Hita 5. El conde Lucanor – Don Juna Manuel 6. Metamorfosis o el Asno de oro – Lucio Apuleyo 7. Tirant lo Blac – Joanot Martorell 8. La Celestina – Fernando Rojas 9. Amadís de Gaula – Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo 10. Anónimo – Lazarillo de Tormes 11. Gargantúa y Pantagruel – François Rabelais 12. Las Lusiadas – Luis Vaz de Camoes 13. Libro de la vida – Teresa de Jesús 14. Guzmán de Alfarache – Mateo Alemán 15. Novelas ejemplares – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 16. Don Quijote de la Mancha – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 17. Los trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 18. El Buscón – Francisco de Quevedo 19. Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España – Bernal Díaz del Castillo 20. La Dorotea – Lope de Vega 21. El Criticón – Baltazar Gracián 22. La princesa de Cléves – Marie-Madelaine Pioche de Lavergne, condesa de La Fayette 23. Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe 24. Love in Excess – Elisa Haywood 25. Moll Flanders – Daniel Defoe 26. Los viajes de Gulliver – Jonathan Swift 27. Una modesta proposición – Jonathan Swift 28. Joseph Andrews – Henry Fielding 29. Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus – Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift 30. Pamela – Samuel Richardson 31. Clarissa – Samuel Richardson --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/irving-sun/message

Cuéntame un libro. Agosto 1. Las mil y una noches - Anónimo 2. La historia de Genji – Murasaki Shikibu 3. El cantar de Mio Cid – Anónimo 4. Libro del buen amor – Juan Ruiz, Arcipreste de Hita 5. El conde Lucanor – Don Juna Manuel 6. Metamorfosis o el Asno de oro – Lucio Apuleyo 7. Tirant lo Blac – Joanot Martorell 8. La Celestina – Fernando Rojas 9. Amadís de Gaula – Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo 10. Anónimo – Lazarillo de Tormes 11. Gargantúa y Pantagruel – François Rabelais 12. Las Lusiadas – Luis Vaz de Camoes 13. Libro de la vida – Teresa de Jesús 14. Guzmán de Alfarache – Mateo Alemán 15. Novelas ejemplares – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 16. Don Quijote de la Mancha – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 17. Los trabajos de Persiles y Segismunda – Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra 18. El Buscón – Francisco de Quevedo 19. Historia verdadera de la conquista de la Nueva España – Bernal Díaz del Castillo 20. La Dorotea – Lope de Vega 21. El Criticón – Baltazar Gracián 22. La princesa de Cléves – Marie-Madelaine Pioche de Lavergne, condesa de La Fayette 23. Robinson Crusoe – Daniel Defoe 24. Love in Excess – Elisa Haywood 25. Moll Flanders – Daniel Defoe 26. Los viajes de Gulliver – Jonathan Swift 27. Una modesta proposición – Jonathan Swift 28. Joseph Andrews – Henry Fielding 29. Memoirs of Martinus Scriblerus – Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift 30. Pamela – Samuel Richardson --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/irving-sun/message

“Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks when she saw what she had done, she gave her father 41”  It's a rhyme that's been around a long time.  Did Lizzie Borden commit the murder of her father and her step-mother? Author Cara Robertson is not the first writer to broach the subject.  Her take on the material is unique, though,  Cara methodically and clearly follows the trial of Lizzie Borden day by day and reports the events by also using the words of reporters at the time, a clever and effective spin.  Cara also studied law and her grasp of the law adds an extra perspective to the trial proceedings.  True crime buffs will love this careful, methodical, expertly-written report with historical background and photos added to round out the story of this mystery.   You can find Cara Robertson at her website: CaraRobertson.comI asked Cara for her favorite book.  Clarissa by Samuel Richardson was her answer.  Claudine Wolk Substack: Get Your Book Seen and SoldClaudine Wolk Website: ClaudineWolk.comClaudine's Instagram - @ClaudineWolkThis episode of Stories and Strategies for Women is brought to you by Eyebobs.  Enter code 'StoriesandStrat10" for a 10% discount at eyebobs.comand by ThriftBooks.com, the fun site to buy and collect used books.

Are villains cardboard characters? If so, why do we enjoy them so much? Drawing examples from film and TV drama, as well as from popular fiction, this lecture will try to explain the satisfaction of villainy for the audience. Using the novels of Wilkie Collins and Thomas Hardy, it will look at the development of the villain in nineteenth-century fiction; and at examples of contemporary literary novelists, like Hilary Mantel, who are willing to unleash the energies of villainy.A lecture by John MullanThe transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website:https://www.gresham.ac.uk/lectures-and-events/novel-villainsGresham College has been giving free public lectures since 1597. This tradition continues today with all of our five or so public lectures a week being made available for free download from our website. There are currently over 2,000 lectures free to access or download from the website.Website: http://www.gresham.ac.ukTwitter: http://twitter.com/GreshamCollegeFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/greshamcollegeInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/greshamcollege

Subscribe to Quotomania on Simplecast or search for Quotomania on your favorite podcast app!Edward Young, (baptized July 3, 1683, Upham, Hampshire, Eng.—died April 5, 1765, Welwyn, Hertfordshire), was an English poet, dramatist, and literary critic, author of The Complaint: or, Night Thoughts (1742–45), a long, didactic poem on death. The poem was inspired by the successive deaths of his stepdaughter, in 1736; her husband, in 1740; and Young's wife, in 1741. The poem is a blank-verse dramatic monologue of nearly 10,000 lines, divided into nine parts, or “Nights.” It was enormously popular.Young's fame in Europe, particularly in Germany, was augmented by a prose work, the Conjectures on Original Composition (1759), addressed to his friend Samuel Richardson. It sums up succinctly and forcefully many strains of thought later regarded as Romantic.From https://www.britannica.com/biography/Edward-Young. For more information about Edward Young:“Love of Fame, The Universal Passion”: http://www.public-domain-poetry.com/edward-young/love-of-fame-the-universal-passion-in-seven-characteristical-satires-34598“Night Thoughts”: https://brooklynrail.org/2005/11/poetry/night-thoughts

Great discussion today with Marty about the real things in life. With a bit of flamboyance of Leopard Skin Pants.

Where the words are restrained.. the eyes often talk a great deal.

We didn't expect a novella from 1741 to be so scandalous, yet in this episode we find ourselves down a rabbit hole of sexual innuendo, prostitution, manipulative women, idiotic and aggressive men, and a whole lot of Mr Booby. An Apology for the Life of Mrs Shamela Andrews by Henry Fielding turns Samuel Richardson's Pamela on its head, and we can't quite believe just how raunchy it gets.

This week, we're continuing our Trailblazer episodes with Vincent Virga—author of the Gaywyck trilogy, the first m/m gothic romance, and one of the first m/m romances ending with a happily ever after. He talks about writing gay romance and about the way reading about love and happiness change readers lives. He also shares rich, wonderful stories about his vibrant life as a picture editor in publishing, about the literary set in New York City in the 70s and 80s, about writing during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s, about the times in a writer's life when the words don't come easily, and about the times when they can't be stopped. We are honored and so grateful that Vincent took the time to speak with us, and we hope you enjoy this conversation as much as we did. There's still time to buy the Fated Mates Best of 2021 Book Pack from our friends at Old Town Books in Alexandria, VA, and get eight of the books on the list, a Fated Mates sticker and other swag! Order the book box as soon as you can to avoid supply chain snafus. Thank you, as always, for listening! If you are up for leaving a rating or review for the podcast on your podcasting app, we would be very grateful! Our next read-alongs will be the Tiffany Reisz Men at Work series, which is three holiday themed category romances. Read one or all of them: Her Halloween Treat, Her Naughty Holiday and One Hot December.Show NotesWelcome Vincent Virga, author of Gaywyck, the first gay gothic romance, and one of the earliest gay romances with a happily ever after. It was published by Avon in 1980. He has written several other novels, including Vadriel Vail and A Comfortable Corner. He was also the premier picture editor in the book industry. He has been with his partner, author James McCourt, author of Mawrdew Czgowchwz, for 56 years. Their collected papers are housed at the Beinecke Library at Yale University. Today is the 41st anniversary of The Ramrod Massacre in New York City, where Vernon Kroening and Jorg Wenz were killed. Six other men were shot and injured inside the bar or on the streets near the Ramrod. Author Malinda Lo and Librarian Angie Manfredi sound the warning bell about the fights that we are facing around access to books and libraries and calls for book banning happening all around the country. Here is what you can do to help support your local library. Check out Runforsomething.net for ideas about local races where you live. Want more Vincent in your life? Here is a great interview from 2019 on a blog called The Last Bohemians, and this 2011 interview on Live Journal. Daisy Buchanan cries that she's never seen such beautiful shirts in The Great Gatsby, and We Get Lettersis a song from the Perry Como show.People Vincent mentioned: Susan Sontag, Maria Callas, opera singer Victoria de los Ángeles, editor Elaine Markson, Jane Fonda, Armistead Maupin, poets John Ashbery and James Merrill, Hillary and Bill Clinton, editor Alice Mayhew, Gwen Edelman at Avon Books, Gwen Verdon and Bob Fosse, publisher Bob Wyatt, John Ehrlichman from Watergate, author Colm Tóibín, poet Mark Doty, Truman Capote, poet and translator Richard Howard, Shelley Winters, John Wayne, Lauren Bacall, and Kim Novak. The museum Vincent was a part of in County Mayo, Ireland, is The Jackie Clarke Collection.The twisty turny secret book that made him a lover of Gothics was Wilkie Collins's Woman in White. Vincent is also a lover of Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, and Henry Bellamann's King's Row.A few short pieces abaout the AIDS epidemic: the impact of the epidemic on survivors in the queer community, and how the American government ignored the crisis.

We realized pretty quickly that we had NO IDEA what we were talking about with Spank Me, Mr. Darcy by Lissa Trever. None of us here at What The Smut had even read the original. We knew we needed some serious help! Enter Adrienne the Librarian, a long-time friend of Kandy's a brilliant librarian, and a Jane Austen SUPERFAN that loves Pride and Prejudice. Adrienne shared her experience with Pride and Prejudice, talked about Jane Austen like she is an old friend, shared what she would have been reading herself, discussed some of the customs and fashions of the regency period, and then gave you the BEST mostest Librarianest ever pile of book recommendations. All of which are linked below! What would Jane read? Pride and Prejudice inspiration The Gothic novel like The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole was all the rage back in Jane's day. You can see the influence in her gothic satire Northanger Abbey. Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson which is the story of a young woman that escapes a marriage she doesn't want and ends up a sex slave. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling by Henry Fielding which is a bawdy adventure in which a young man strikes out to the city.   What would Elizabeth Bennet wear? As Adrienne pointed out and we have no doubt noted through the bajillions of Austen movies. Corsets were not really the thing during the Regency period. I found the idea that women would wet the inner layer of fabric on the dress amazing so I wanted more! I found two great online articles and one amazing book. First, check out Lithubs Tight Breeches and Loose Gowns. Then hop over to Fashion Era for a complete rundown of Regency dress and the dropping of the waistline. If you still need more you are going to want Dress in the Age of Jane Austen by Hilary Davidson.   What to read if you love Pride and Prejudice? If you like Regency check out the Queen of Regency Georgette Heyer. For something a bit more smutty try Tessa Dares Regency novels. A recent trend is moving the plot of Pride and Prejudice to a different culture. Adrienne recommends Pride, Prejudice, and Other Flavors by Sonali Dev it's set around an Indian family in Canada. She loves Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith because you can actually forget you are not reading the original. Don't miss The Austen Project's Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld which is a thoroughly modern retelling that places Liz as a magazine writer and Mr. Darcy as a neurosurgeon. She offers a couple of awesome Young Adult (YA) options as well. Pride: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Ibi Zoboi set in the Bronx and discussing cultural identity, class, and gentrification. Pride and Premeditation by Tirzah Price is a Private Eye mystery.    

Perry and David nominate their best reads in the year so far and then go on to discuss their recent reading, ranging from children's books to a strange novel by a Japanese author Locus Awards (03:25) Arthur C. Clarke Award (01:37) Other Awards (01:03) David's top 5 books of the year so far (02:51) Clarissa Harlowe by Samuel Richardson (00:56) The Women in Black by Madeleine St John (00:10) The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (00:13) Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (00:08) Lavengro / Romany Rye by George Borrow (00:25) Perry's top 5 books of the year so far (04:11) Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin (01:24) Dune by Frank Herbert (00:54) The Yield by Tara Jane Winch (00:11) First Love by Ivan Turgenev (00:51) The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (00:17) Emails and Tweets of Comment (01:57) Why You Should Read Children's Books by Katherine Rundell (04:32) The Scarecrow and His Servant by Philip Pullman (06:08) The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (07:15) Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell (07:08) The Labyrinth by Amanda Lowrey (06:26) Lavengro, Romany Rye by George Borrow (06:08) Interlibrary Loan by Gene Wolfe (05:46) Windup (01:11) Illustration: rooftops of Paris.

Perry and David nominate their best reads in the year so far and then go on to discuss their recent reading, ranging from children's books to a strange novel by a Japanese author Locus Awards (03:25) Arthur C. Clarke Award (01:37) Other Awards (01:03) David's top 5 books of the year so far (02:51) Clarissa Harlowe by Samuel Richardson (00:56) The Women in Black by Madeleine St John (00:10) The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (00:13) Norwegian Wood by Haruki Murakami (00:08) Lavengro / Romany Rye by George Borrow (00:25) Perry's top 5 books of the year so far (04:11) Earthsea Trilogy by Ursula K. Le Guin (01:24) Dune by Frank Herbert (00:54) The Yield by Tara Jane Winch (00:11) First Love by Ivan Turgenev (00:51) The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (00:17) Emails and Tweets of Comment (01:57) Why You Should Read Children's Books by Katherine Rundell (04:32) The Scarecrow and His Servant by Philip Pullman (06:08) The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa (07:15) Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell (07:08) The Labyrinth by Amanda Lowrey (06:26) Lavengro, Romany Rye by George Borrow (06:08) Interlibrary Loan by Gene Wolfe (05:46) Windup (01:11) Click here for more info and links. Illustration: rooftops of Paris.

What can we make of the fact that Robinson Crusoe was invoked in an 1835 issue of Mechanics’ Magazine in an article extolling the economic power of labor? Or that Harriet Jacobs patterned parts of her autobiographical slave narrative after Samuel Richardson’s Pamela? Or that The American Sunday School Union issued a cautionary poem about little girls’ tendencies to misread Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress as an adventure tale and strike out on their own unsupervised pilgrimages? “On the Margins” examines how early novelistic fictions made their way into the reading lives of American readers who were disempowered along lines of race, gender, age, and economic status, and argues that we can begin to answer the questions posed above by attending to the material reconfigurations of these works in the emerging mass-print marketplace of the antebellum United States. This project sits at the intersection of novel theory, histories of reading, and histories of the book, and like many transatlantic studies of popular literature, is interested in the way reprinting, editing, and imitation transform a work across time and space. This presentation will focus on the ways abridgements, adaptations, chapbooks, children’s editions, and visual culture invocations of each of these novels influenced their reception, generic status, and canonization in the nineteenth century, and reveal ways readers resisted or subverted prevailing accounts of both the risks and benefits associated with evolving projects of literary inclusion. Emily Gowen is the current Albert M. Greenfield Dissertation Fellow at the Library Company of Philadelphia and a Ph.D. Candidate in Boston University's department of English. Essays adapted from her dissertation project are forthcoming in J19: The Journal of Nineteenth-Century Americanists and American Literature. Her work has also been supported by fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the McNeil Center for Early American Studies, and she will be a 2021-22 Fellow at the Boston University Center for the Humanities. She is also an affiliate at Boston University's Center for Antiracist Research.

Rebecca Christiansen’s novel, We Make Mayhem (2020) can be found here: https://www.wattpad.com/story/212324557-we-make-mayhem-boyxboy Her earlier work, Maybe in Paris (2017) can be found here: https://www.simonandschuster.co.uk/books/Maybe-in-Paris/Rebecca-Christiansen/9781510708808 Rebecca’s Letter exchange with Frank Brosell is here: https://letter.wiki/conversation/153 For more of Rebecca’s wonderful letters: https://letter.wiki/RebeccaChristiansen/conversations Rebecca on Medium: https://medium.com/@rebeccachristiansen Follow Rebecca on Twitter: @rebeccarightnow Further References Markus Zusak, I Am the Messenger (2002) and The Book Thief (2005) David Levithan, Boy Meets Boy (2005) Becky Albertalli, Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda (2015) Laurie Forest, The Black Witch (2021) I know I’m late.. Every so often, a tweet or meme will go… | by Becky Albertalli | Medium: https://medium.com/@rebecca.albertalli/i-know-im-late-9b31de339c62 Black Mirror (TV Series 2011– ) - IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2085059/ Iain Banks, The Business (1999) Joe Rogan interviews Elon Musk: Joe Rogan Experience #1169 - Elon Musk - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycPr5-27vSI Salvation (TV Series 2017–2018) - IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6170874/ Samuel Richardson, Clarissa; or, The History of a Young Lady: Comprehending the Most Important Concerns of Private Life. And Particularly Shewing, the Distresses that May Attend the Misconduct Both of Parents and Children, In Relation to Marriage (1748). An account of how Richardson composed the novel can be found in T. C. Duncan Eaves and Ben D. Kimpel, Samuel Richardson: A. Biography (1971). The 36 Questions That Lead to Love - The New York Times (nytimes.com): https://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/09/style/no-37-big-wedding-or-small.html Timestamps 1:20 We Make Mayhem 7:43 Elon Musk and dating apps 13:27 Rebecca’s development as a writer 16:42 I read the opening chapter of We Make Mayhem 24:29 Wattpad responses to We Make Mayhem 28:58 Young Adult fiction 36:42 The publishing industry 38:58 Rebecca’s main influences as a writer 42:13 Why Rebecca writes in the voice of a young gay man 44:06 More on Maybe in Paris and Rebecca reads an excerpt 49:17 Advice for budding writers

David and Perry talk about the books they've been reading lately, ranging in length from novellas to a nine-volume, almost million-word opus written entirely in the form of letters. And a rather damp theme emerges... World SF Convention and Hugos (04:24) Clarissa Harlowe by Samuel Richardson (05:35) The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (10:48) The Glass Hotel by Emily St.John Mandel (07:17) Shadow in the Empire of Light by Jane Routley (05:54) The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (00:01) The Greenwood Duology by Emily Tesh (07:35) Silver in the Wood (01:31) Drowned Country (04:15) The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison (25:16) Discussion with Lucy Sussex (20:36) Windup (00:55) "Not Waving but Drowning" is the title of a poem by Stevie Smith, written in 1972. Photo by Ayyub Yahaya from Pexels

David and Perry talk about the books they've been reading lately, ranging in length from novellas to a nine-volume, almost million-word opus written entirely in the form of letters. And a rather damp theme emerges... World SF Convention and Hugos (04:24) Clarissa Harlowe by Samuel Richardson (05:35) The Ministry for the Future by Kim Stanley Robinson (10:48) The Glass Hotel by Emily St.John Mandel (07:17) Shadow in the Empire of Light by Jane Routley (05:54) The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson (00:01) The Greenwood Duology by Emily Tesh (07:35) Silver in the Wood (01:31) Drowned Country (04:15) The Sunken Land Begins to Rise Again by M. John Harrison (25:16) Discussion with Lucy Sussex (20:36) Windup (00:55) "Not Waving but Drowning" is the title of a poem by Stevie Smith, written in 1972. Click here for more information and links. Photo by Ayyub Yahaya from Pexels

[CONTENT WARNING: discussions of genre-typical assault.] PAMELA - Part Two is here! This week, Abigail and bookseller Jessica Hernandez get into the nitty-gritty of Pamela and Mr. B’s relationship, the various machinations of a jealous idiot, and Abigail's grand ambitions for both Samuel Richardson’s work and the future of KoT. PAMELA by SAMUEL RICHARDSON: bit.ly/3synSgA PAMELA AUDIOBOOK: amzn.to/3sz7DQi THE WRITTEN WORLD by MARTIN PUCHNER: bit.ly/2MwnQW7 AN INTRODUCTION TO PAMELA, OR VIRTUE REWARDED By MARGARET DOODY: bit.ly/353gJuQ A LITTLE HISTORY OF READING: HOW BOOKS CAME TO BE by THE BOOK TRUST: bit.ly/3iomg4n TWITTER, FACEBOOK, & INSTAGRAM: @kingdomthirst KoT’S BOOKSHOP: bookshop.org/shop/kingdomthirst EMAIL: kingdomofthirst@gmail.com

 In this episode, we read Chapters 12 to 15 of Sense and Sensibility. We talk about how Margaret's contribution to the plot, how Elinor and Marianne's debate on sense vs sensibility moves from the theoretical to the practical, the linking of propriety with morality, how the mystery subplot is quite unusual in Jane Austen, and the nasty tone of some of Willoughby's jokes about Colonel Brandon. We discuss the character of Colonel Brandon, then Harriet's partner Michael talks about the military, with a focus on service in the East Indies. Harriet talks about how adaptations and modernisations treat these chapters, and the presentation of Colonel Brandon.  Things we mention:  References: Jane Nardin, Those Elegant Decorums: The concept of propriety in Jane Austen's novels (1973)Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740)Samuel Richardson, Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady (1748)Horace Walpole, The Castle of Otranto (1764)Sheila Kaye-Smith and G.B. Stern, Talking of Jane Austen (1943) and More Talk of Jane Austen (1950) Marvin Mudrick, Jane Austen: Irony as Defense and Discovery (1974) Adaptations of the book:  BBC, Sense and Sensibility (1971) – starring Joanna David and Ciaran Madden (4 episodes)BBC, Sense and Sensibility (1981) – starring Irene Richard and Tracey Childs (7 episodes)Columbia Pictures, Sense and Sensibility (1995) – starring Emma Thompson and Kate WinsletBBC, Sense and Sensibility (2008) – starring Hattie Morahan and Charity Wakefield (3 episodes)  Modernisations of the book: MGM, Material Girls (2006) – starring Hilary Duff and Haylie DuffJoanna Trollope, Sense & Sensibility (The Austen Project #1) (2013)YouTube, Elinor and Marianne Take Barton (2014) – starring Abi Davies and Bonita Trigg  Variations on the book:  Amanda Grange, Colonel Brandon's Diary (2008)  Creative commons music used: Extract from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Sonata No. 12 in F Major, ii. Adagio. Extract from Joseph Haydn, Piano Sonata No. 38. Performance by Ivan Ilić, recorded in Manchester in December, 2006. File originally from IMSLP.Extract from Wolfgang Amad

It’s here, friends: PAMELA; OR VIRTUE REWARDED by Samuel Richardson! Abigail promised she’d do it and by gum she did! Listen to her go absolutely bonkers about this book from 1740 as bookseller Jessica Hernandez listens dubiously. Gauntlets are thrown and passionate speeches are made. Topics include: the history of publishing, budding feminism in literature, and Pamela stanning. PAMELA by SAMUEL RICHARDSON: bit.ly/3synSgA PAMELA AUDIOBOOK: amzn.to/3sz7DQi THE WRITTEN WORLD by MARTIN PUCHNER: bit.ly/2MwnQW7 AN INTRODUCTION TO PAMELA, OR VIRTUE REWARDED By MARGARET DOODY: bit.ly/353gJuQ A LITTLE HISTORY OF READING: HOW BOOKS CAME TO BE by THE BOOK TRUST: bit.ly/3iomg4n TWITTER, FACEBOOK, & INSTAGRAM: @kingdomthirst KoT’S BOOKSHOP: bookshop.org/shop/kingdomthirst EMAIL: kingdomofthirst@gmail.com

Friend of the pod David Diamond visits us to talk about Henry Fielding’s Joseph Andrews (1742) and join in Tristan and Katie’s nefarious plot to turn Megan into an eighteenth-centuryist. David is assistant professor of English at the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs, a scholar of religion and literature, and a Fielding expert. We discuss the relationship between Calvinist thought and novelistic character, how Joseph Andrews has pretty good class AND gender politics (especially for the time), and why eighteenth-century literature is so raunchy. We also manage a few dunks on Samuel Richardson and that asshole Colley Cibber, and Katie discovers that Joey Andrews is a Jersey guy. We read the Oxford edition edited by Douglas Brooks-Davies and Martin C. Battestin with an introduction by Thomas Keymer. For more on Fielding, theology, and secularism, we highly recommend David’s essay “Secular Fielding,” published in ELH: English Literary History in 2018. Find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @betterreadpod, and email us nice things at betterreadpodcast@gmail.com. Find David on Twitter @david_m_diamond, Tristan on Twitter @tjschweiger, Katie @katiekrywo, and Megan @tuslersaurus.

The Evolution of Butch as a Lesbian Signifier The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 146 with Heather Rose Jones An investigation across time of how the use of “masculine” clothing developed into a deliberate signal of women's same-sex interests. A slideshow version of this show is available on our YouTube channel. (This version does not have the re-mastered intro and references to TLT are obsolete.) In this episode we talk about: Historic Attitudes Toward Clothing Gender How Gendered Clothing Confers Gender Characteristics Cross-gender Garments Signifying Sexual Unruliness Theatrical Contexts Interpreted as Sexually Desirable to Men but Also to Women Male-coded Garments in Gender Play Combined with Same-Sex Erotics Women with Same-Sex Interests Depicted as Behaving Mannishly The Sartorial Stylings of Amazons and Bluestockings Lesbians in Riding Habits “Mannish” Clothing and the Decadent Movement People and Publications (Links are to LHMP blog posts or podcasts unless otherwise noted)Tournament with Cross-dressing Women 14th c Hic Mulier Mary Frith/Moll Cutpurse (podcast) The Roaring Girl by Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton Julie d'Aubigny Charlotte Cibber Charke Charlotte Cushman (podcast) The Convent of Pleasure by Margaret Cavendish (1668) The New Atalantis by Delarivier Manley (1709) The Travels and Adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu (1744) (podcast) Memoirs of the Life of Count Grammont by Anthony Hamilton (1713) Pamela by Samuel Richardson (1740) Sir Charles Grandison by Samuel Richardson (1753) Belinda by Maria Edgeworth (1801) Diaries of Samuel Pepys (1666) (Wikipedia) Anne Damer (podcast) Ladies of Llangollen: Eleanor Butler & Sarah Ponsonby (podcast) Anne Lister Eupheia by Charlotte Lennox (1790) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844) (Wikipedia) Mademoiselle de Maupin Théophile Gautier (1835) Nana by Émile Zola (1880) Lélia by George Sand (1833) Natalie Clifford Barney (Wikipedia) Colette (Wikipedia) Rosa Bonheur Other References UsedAlbert, Nicole G. 2016. Lesbian Decadence: Representations in Art and Literature of Fin-de-Siècle France. Harrington Park Press. (not yet blogged) Bennett, Judith and Shannon McSheffrey. 2014. “Early, Exotic and Alien: Women Dressed as Men in Late Medieval London” in History Workshop Journal. 77 (1): 1-25. Castle, Terry (ed). 2003. The Literature of Lesbianism: A Historical Anthology from Ariosto to Stonewall. Columbia University Press, New York. ISBN 0-231-12510-0 Donoghue, Emma. 1995. Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801. Harper Perennial, New York. ISBN 0-06-017261-4 Donoghue, Emma. 2010. Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ISBN 978-0-307-27094-8 Faderman, Lillian. 1981.  Surpassing the Love of Men. William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York. ISBN 0-688-00396-6 Lanser, Susan S. 2014. The Sexuality of History: Modernity and the Sapphic, 1565-1830. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 978-0-226-18773-0 Loughlin, Marie H. 2014. Same-Sex Desire in Early Modern England, 1550-1735: An Anthology of Literary Texts and Contexts. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-8208-5 A transcript of this podcast is available here. Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/ Twitter: @LesbianMotif Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon Links to Heather Online Website: http://alpennia.com Email: Heather Rose Jones Twitter: @heatherosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Comrades! It’s our 50th episode!! And what better way to celebrate than wrapping up our discussion of one of the raddest books of all time, Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman (1759-67)? Fear not, we are *far* from exhausting the staggering number of dick jokes you find in these spry nine volumes. But we also talk about the politics and philosophy behind the sentimental novel, how Sterne simultaneously loved that genre and thought it was a prime target for satire, and how discourses of feeling and of the body intersect. In addition, we finally get to the amours of Uncle Toby and the Widow Wadman and discover that reading a goddamn map is apparently an extremely horny thing to do. And, as a teaser to our upcoming Henry Fielding episode, we land a few sick burns on the sentimental novel’s OG himself, Samuel Richardson. We read the Penguin edition, with an introduction by Christopher Ricks and edited by Melvyn New and Joan New. There’s a ton of great scholarship on the sentimental novel on both sides of the Atlantic, but John Mullan’s Sentiment and Sociability: The Language of Feeling in the Eighteenth Century remains a terrific account of the conceptual underpinnings of the genre and has a ton on Sterne’s place within it. Find us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @betterreadpod, and email us nice things at betterreadpodcast@gmail.com. Find Tristan on Twitter @tjschweiger, Katie @katiekrywo, and Megan @tuslersaurus.

megmentors@gmail.com

Today's Big One was sent in by listener, Emma! It comes from the classic novel, Clarissa or the History of a Young Lady by Samuel Richardson. Thanks for sending it to us Emma!PLEASE CLICK HERE TO JOIN OUR PATREON!PLEASE SUBSCRIBE!PLEASE RATE AND REVIEW!CALL US AT (626) 604-6262EMAIL US AT thebigonespodcast@gmail.com See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

In this episode I am joined by Professor Nicholas Thomas, an anthropologist and historian who has been a Director of The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Cambridge since 2006. He is the author of several books including his latest book called The Return of Curiosity: What Museums are Good For in the Twenty-first Century. Nick Thomas gives us fresh perspectives on museums and their potential role in fostering curiosity and open dialogue as key leadership skills in the contemporary VUCA world. What Was Covered: The resurgence of museums and why their importance is growing in contemporary society where everyone is supposedly online Why a visit to a museum is unique and different from other cultural activities and what it can offer to a business leader The importance of encounters with the unknown in a safe setting that a museum can provide a visitor Key Learnings And Takeaways: A museum visit is an unscripted experience and a space for reflection that may be critical for looking at problems from different perspectives and inspiring innovation Asking simple questions of curiosity is a critical skill in today's heterogenous world Anthropological thinking and taking cultural differences into account has become of fundamental importance in business Links and Resources Mentioned in This Episode: The Return of Curiosity: What Museums Are Good For in Twenty-first Century, a book by Professor Nicholas Thomas Connect with Nicholas Thomas by email The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology Tate Modern British Museum Louvre Museum Louvre Abu Dhabi Apartheid Museum Museum of Anthropology at UBC El Anatsui: Triumphant Scale, a past exhibition at Haus Der Kunst in Munich Books by Gillian Tett, author and journalist at Financial Times Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady, a book by Samuel Richardson

The Evolution of Butch as a Lesbian Signifier The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 43d with Heather Rose Jones An investigation across time of how the use of “masculine” clothing developed into a deliberate signal of women’s same-sex interests. In this episode we talk about: Historic Attitudes Toward Clothing Gender How Gendered Clothing Confers Gender Characteristics Cross-gender Garments Signifying Sexual Unruliness Theatrical Contexts Interpreted as Sexually Desirable to Men but Also to Women Male-coded Garments in Gender Play Combined with Same-Sex Erotics Women with Same-Sex Interests Depicted as Behaving Mannishly The Sartorial Stylings of Amazons and Bluestockings Lesbians in Riding Habits “Mannish” Clothing and the Decadent Movement People and Publications (Links are to LHMP blog posts or podcasts unless otherwise noted) Tournament with Cross-dressing Women 14th c Hic Mulier Mary Frith/Moll Cutpurse (podcast) The Roaring Girl by Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton Julie d’Aubigny Charlotte Cibber Charke Charlotte Cushman (podcast) The Convent of Pleasure by Margaret Cavendish (1668) The New Atalantis by Delarivier Manley (1709) The Travels and Adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu (1744) (podcast) Memoirs of the Life of Count Grammont by Anthony Hamilton (1713) Pamela by Samuel Richardson (1740) Sir Charles Grandison by Samuel Richardson (1753) Belinda by Maria Edgeworth (1801) Diaries of Samuel Pepys (1666) (Wikipedia) Anne Damer (podcast) Ladies of Llangollen: Eleanor Butler & Sarah Ponsonby (podcast) Anne Lister Eupheia by Charlotte Lennox (1790) The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas (1844) (Wikipedia) Mademoiselle de Maupin Théophile Gautier (1835) Nana by Émile Zola (1880) Lélia by George Sand (1833) Natalie Clifford Barney (Wikipedia) Colette (Wikipedia) Rosa Bonheur Other References Used Albert, Nicole G. 2016. Lesbian Decadence: Representations in Art and Literature of Fin-de-Siècle France. Harrington Park Press. (not yet blogged) Bennett, Judith and Shannon McSheffrey. 2014. “Early, Exotic and Alien: Women Dressed as Men in Late Medieval London” in History Workshop Journal. 77 (1): 1-25. Castle, Terry (ed). 2003. The Literature of Lesbianism: A Historical Anthology from Ariosto to Stonewall. Columbia University Press, New York. ISBN 0-231-12510-0 Donoghue, Emma. 1995. Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801. Harper Perennial, New York. ISBN 0-06-017261-4 Donoghue, Emma. 2010. Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ISBN 978-0-307-27094-8 Faderman, Lillian. 1981.  Surpassing the Love of Men. William Morrow and Company, Inc., New York. ISBN 0-688-00396-6 Lanser, Susan S. 2014. The Sexuality of History: Modernity and the Sapphic, 1565-1830. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 978-0-226-18773-0 Loughlin, Marie H. 2014. Same-Sex Desire in Early Modern England, 1550-1735: An Anthology of Literary Texts and Contexts. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-8208-5 A transcript of this podcast is available here. Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/ Links to Heather Online Website: http://alpennia.com Email: Heather Rose Jones Twitter: @heatherosejones Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page) If you enjoy this podcast and others at The Lesbian Talk Show, please consider supporting the show through Patreon: The Lesbian Talk Show Patreon The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Is chivalry dead? What is chivalry these days? Is it picking up the bill and opening a door? Is it just up to men or should women be chivalrous too? Podcaster and writer Tolly Shoneye talks about it with Amanda who's dating now. “To say that humans have overthought sex is something of an understatement.” That's according to Dr Kate Lister, a university lecturer who set up the Whore of Yore project in 2015. It tried to start a conversation about the history of sex. Her latest book is called A Curious History of Sex and in it she explores the strange and baffling things human beings have done over the centuries in pursuit and denial of sex. Sexual violence in literature: do we need to find the right language to talk about it properly? And how can reading classic novels like Samuel Richardson’s 18th century, ‘Pamela’, help us understand issues of consent better? Professor Rebecca Bullard and crime writer, Val McDermid join me to discuss. Were you a teenager in the 90s? Went to raves and house parties? We've been delving into archives of the The Museum of Youth Culture. They've got a touring exhibition called “Grown Up in Britain” which is showcasing objects from teenage culture through the decades. Today we hear from Molly, who was part of the party scene in 90s London.

Santa Maria Novella Pot Pourri (1828) + Samuel Richardson's Clarissa, or, the History of a Young Lady (1748) To gain access to the full catalog of TPN content please support us at https://www.patreon.com/perfumenationalist  

Gelah Penn discusses intertextuality, film noir, and Samuel Richardson with Moacir. Penn’s show, Uneasy Terms, opens on Thursday, February 13, at 6pm.Podcast by Adriana Furlong and Moacir P. de Sá Pereira.Ⓒ 2020 CC BY-SA-NC, Undercurrent and 1984 PRODUKTS.

3:38 What attracted Andy to Diderot? 7:09 Diderot’s radical questioning of political and sexual norms: homosexuality; masturbation; incest fantasies 20:55 “My thoughts are my sluts”—intellectual libertinage 25:44 Diderot’s relationships with women 28:00 Diderot as a playwright 30:24 Religious sexual fantasies 31:00 The Literary Correspondence 31:50 Diderot on painting and on acting 39:15 Samuel Richardson and the new focus on humble people 41:32 La Religieuse (The Nun) 45:12 Diderot on slavery 51:08 Diderot’s letters 56:18 Diderot on free will, materialism, atheism 1:00:18 The Encyclopédie 1:18:05 Diderot’s politics 1:22:05 His unfettered joy in life Andy’s books: Diderot and the Art of Thinking Freely (2019); Anatomy of Blackness: Science and Slavery in an Age of Enlightenment (2011, 2013) and Sublime Disorder, Physical Monstrosity in Diderot's Universe (2001) can all be found on Amazon. Follow his author page here: https://www.amazon.com/Andrew-S-Curran/e/B004FOWWD0/ You can find out more about Andy here: https://www.andrewscurran.com/ And here: https://www.wesleyan.edu/academics/faculty/acurran/profile.html Follow Andy on Twitter @AndrewSCurran

We look at rotters in fiction: do women have equal status with men when it comes to being bad in books? Rotters have populated the novel since Robert Lovelace first appeared in Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa nearly two centuries ago. But what exactly is a rotter, how do rotters differ from cads and, when women are rotters, are they given equal treatment by both their writers and their readers? John Mullan, Professor of Literature at UCL and critic Alex Clark discuss the rotter's progress. “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun…” It is 200 years, to the very day, since John Keats wrote To Autumn, distilling the sights, sounds, even smell of the season and capturing its essence in three carefully crafted stanzas that are among the best-loved in the language. We hear a reading and Alison Brackenbury explains how the poem works and her response to it as a poet. The Science Museum and BBC Radio 4 have been collaborating on an exploration of the relationship between art and science over 250 years. The result is The Art of Innovation: From Enlightenment to Dark Matter, which is an exhibition, a book and a 20-part radio series. Dr Tilly Blyth, Principal Curator, and one of the programme presenters tells Stig about Joseph Wright’s famous painting of a scientific lecture; how Turner captured impact of the emerging age of steam and how artists tackle depicting science that can’t be seen. Presenter: Stig Abell Producer: Simon Richardson

5:20 How to begin a story with a moment of unexpected change 5:58 Evolutionary psychology and storytelling 11:46 Status 16:38 Anti-heroes 24:31 Three routes into story: milieu, what if and argument 28:05 The problem with recipes for storytelling 30:01 The broken protagonist 38:37 Loss of control 50:20 What psychology teaches us about stories and vice versa 53:23 Plot-driven versus character-driven novels 57:08 The novel and the advent of human rights 1:00:18 The idea of the ‘trashy’ novel 1:01:48 TV series & soap operas 1:08:04 The story event 1:14:56 Fantasy 1:16:32 Avoiding cliché & other pitfalls Will Storr’s book, The Science of Storytelling is available in the UK here (and is forthcoming in the US): https://www.amazon.co.uk/Science-Storytelling-Will-Storr/dp/0008276943. You can find Will’s The Heretics: Adventures with the Enemies of Science (2014) here: https://www.panmacmillan.com/authors/will-storr/the-heretics/9780330535861 Complete details of all Will’s work can be found here: http://willstorr.com/ You can follow Will on Twitter @wstorr Literary works mentioned: Shakespeare, King Lear and Julius Caesar; T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom (1926); Jane Austen, Emma (1815); J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (1997); Patrick Süskind, Perfume (1985); Hogg, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824); Nabokov, Lolita (1955); Ursula K. Le Guin, The Left Hand of Darkness (1969); Henry Fielding, Tom Jones (1749); Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740) and Clarissa (1748); Ben Jonson, The Alchemist (ca. 1610); J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings (1954–55). TV, radio, film: Game of Thrones; Lost; Twin Peaks; Breaking Bad; The Sopranos; The Archers; Babylon 5; Star Wars; Star Trek Discovery; Six Feet Under. Other references: Amy https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bY9HuVYWn_Y; Tony Tanner, Jane Austen (1986). The critic of Tanner’s I refer to around the 39 minute mark was John Mullan; Roy Baumeister http://www.roybaumeister.com/; James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791); Lynn Hunt, Inventing Human Rights (2007); Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, “The Reasons that Induced Dr. S. to Write a Poem Call’d the Lady’s Dressing Room” (1734). In the podcast, I misattribute lines from this to “Verses Address’d to the Imitator of Horace” (1733).

Though not as well known today as some of her literary contemporaries, Charlotte Lennox wrote numerous works during the mid-18th century that won her critical acclaim and influenced subsequent generations of authors. In Charlotte Lennox: An Independent Mind (University of Toronto Press, 2018), Susan Carlile draws upon Lennox's published works, her surviving correspondence, and the studies of her era to reconstruct the life and times of this remarkable writer. Growing up in Britain's Atlantic empire, young Charlotte Ramsay's preparations for a position in the court were derailed by her marriage to an impecunious Scotsman. In need of an income, the newly married Lennox attempted a career as an actress before turning to her pen for her livelihood. Though her early writing won both a wide audience and the admiration of such influential figures as Samuel Johnson, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding, Lennox faced the continuous challenges common to writers of the era of earning an income sufficient for her family's needs. As Carlile details, this led Lennox to produce both fiction and nonfiction across a range of genres, which demonstrated the scope of her skills and inspired numerous imitators and successors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though not as well known today as some of her literary contemporaries, Charlotte Lennox wrote numerous works during the mid-18th century that won her critical acclaim and influenced subsequent generations of authors. In Charlotte Lennox: An Independent Mind (University of Toronto Press, 2018), Susan Carlile draws upon Lennox’s published works, her surviving correspondence, and the studies of her era to reconstruct the life and times of this remarkable writer. Growing up in Britain’s Atlantic empire, young Charlotte Ramsay’s preparations for a position in the court were derailed by her marriage to an impecunious Scotsman. In need of an income, the newly married Lennox attempted a career as an actress before turning to her pen for her livelihood. Though her early writing won both a wide audience and the admiration of such influential figures as Samuel Johnson, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding, Lennox faced the continuous challenges common to writers of the era of earning an income sufficient for her family’s needs. As Carlile details, this led Lennox to produce both fiction and nonfiction across a range of genres, which demonstrated the scope of her skills and inspired numerous imitators and successors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though not as well known today as some of her literary contemporaries, Charlotte Lennox wrote numerous works during the mid-18th century that won her critical acclaim and influenced subsequent generations of authors. In Charlotte Lennox: An Independent Mind (University of Toronto Press, 2018), Susan Carlile draws upon Lennox's published works, her surviving correspondence, and the studies of her era to reconstruct the life and times of this remarkable writer. Growing up in Britain's Atlantic empire, young Charlotte Ramsay's preparations for a position in the court were derailed by her marriage to an impecunious Scotsman. In need of an income, the newly married Lennox attempted a career as an actress before turning to her pen for her livelihood. Though her early writing won both a wide audience and the admiration of such influential figures as Samuel Johnson, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding, Lennox faced the continuous challenges common to writers of the era of earning an income sufficient for her family's needs. As Carlile details, this led Lennox to produce both fiction and nonfiction across a range of genres, which demonstrated the scope of her skills and inspired numerous imitators and successors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/literary-studies

Though not as well known today as some of her literary contemporaries, Charlotte Lennox wrote numerous works during the mid-18th century that won her critical acclaim and influenced subsequent generations of authors. In Charlotte Lennox: An Independent Mind (University of Toronto Press, 2018), Susan Carlile draws upon Lennox’s published works, her surviving correspondence, and the studies of her era to reconstruct the life and times of this remarkable writer. Growing up in Britain’s Atlantic empire, young Charlotte Ramsay’s preparations for a position in the court were derailed by her marriage to an impecunious Scotsman. In need of an income, the newly married Lennox attempted a career as an actress before turning to her pen for her livelihood. Though her early writing won both a wide audience and the admiration of such influential figures as Samuel Johnson, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding, Lennox faced the continuous challenges common to writers of the era of earning an income sufficient for her family’s needs. As Carlile details, this led Lennox to produce both fiction and nonfiction across a range of genres, which demonstrated the scope of her skills and inspired numerous imitators and successors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though not as well known today as some of her literary contemporaries, Charlotte Lennox wrote numerous works during the mid-18th century that won her critical acclaim and influenced subsequent generations of authors. In Charlotte Lennox: An Independent Mind (University of Toronto Press, 2018), Susan Carlile draws upon Lennox’s published works, her surviving correspondence, and the studies of her era to reconstruct the life and times of this remarkable writer. Growing up in Britain’s Atlantic empire, young Charlotte Ramsay’s preparations for a position in the court were derailed by her marriage to an impecunious Scotsman. In need of an income, the newly married Lennox attempted a career as an actress before turning to her pen for her livelihood. Though her early writing won both a wide audience and the admiration of such influential figures as Samuel Johnson, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding, Lennox faced the continuous challenges common to writers of the era of earning an income sufficient for her family’s needs. As Carlile details, this led Lennox to produce both fiction and nonfiction across a range of genres, which demonstrated the scope of her skills and inspired numerous imitators and successors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though not as well known today as some of her literary contemporaries, Charlotte Lennox wrote numerous works during the mid-18th century that won her critical acclaim and influenced subsequent generations of authors. In Charlotte Lennox: An Independent Mind (University of Toronto Press, 2018), Susan Carlile draws upon Lennox’s published works, her surviving correspondence, and the studies of her era to reconstruct the life and times of this remarkable writer. Growing up in Britain’s Atlantic empire, young Charlotte Ramsay’s preparations for a position in the court were derailed by her marriage to an impecunious Scotsman. In need of an income, the newly married Lennox attempted a career as an actress before turning to her pen for her livelihood. Though her early writing won both a wide audience and the admiration of such influential figures as Samuel Johnson, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding, Lennox faced the continuous challenges common to writers of the era of earning an income sufficient for her family’s needs. As Carlile details, this led Lennox to produce both fiction and nonfiction across a range of genres, which demonstrated the scope of her skills and inspired numerous imitators and successors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Though not as well known today as some of her literary contemporaries, Charlotte Lennox wrote numerous works during the mid-18th century that won her critical acclaim and influenced subsequent generations of authors. In Charlotte Lennox: An Independent Mind (University of Toronto Press, 2018), Susan Carlile draws upon Lennox’s published works, her surviving correspondence, and the studies of her era to reconstruct the life and times of this remarkable writer. Growing up in Britain’s Atlantic empire, young Charlotte Ramsay’s preparations for a position in the court were derailed by her marriage to an impecunious Scotsman. In need of an income, the newly married Lennox attempted a career as an actress before turning to her pen for her livelihood. Though her early writing won both a wide audience and the admiration of such influential figures as Samuel Johnson, Samuel Richardson, and Henry Fielding, Lennox faced the continuous challenges common to writers of the era of earning an income sufficient for her family’s needs. As Carlile details, this led Lennox to produce both fiction and nonfiction across a range of genres, which demonstrated the scope of her skills and inspired numerous imitators and successors. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Can You Ever Forgive Me? Melissa McCarthy stars as Lee Israel, the best-selling biographer of celebrities such as Katharine Hepburn, Tallulah Bankhead, Estee Lauder and journalist Dorothy Kilgallen. In the early 1990s - when she was in her early 50s - Lee found herself unable to get published because she had fallen out of step with the marketplace. Unable to pay the rent (or the vet bills for her beloved cat) she turned her art form to deception, aided by her loyal friend Jack Hock (Richard E. Grant). You Know You Want This is the debut collection of short stories from Kristen Roupenian whose short story, Cat Person, became a viral sensation after being published by the New Yorker in December 2017. It became their most read story ever, with more than 2.6 million hits and counting. Included in this collection alongside 11 new stories which are described as examining "the pull and push of revulsion and attraction between people." Winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, Martyna Majok’s Cost of Living receives its highly anticipated UK Premiere at Hampstead Theatre starring Adrian Lester and directed by Ed Hall. John, a wealthy, brilliant, and successful PhD student with cerebral palsy, hires Jess, a recent graduate who has fallen on hard times, as his new carer. Across town, truck driver Eddie attempts to support and re-engage with his estranged wife, Ani, following a terrible accident that has left her quadriplegic. As four very different lives collide and entwine, roles are unapologetically flipped, reversed and exposed - who is actually caring for whom? A Place That Exists Only in the Moonlight: Katie Paterson and JM Turner at the Turner Contemporary Gallery in Margate is the largest UK exhibition of Scottish artist Katie Paterson to date - paired by the artist with a group of works by JMW Turner. Works by Paterson included in the exhibition are Vatnajökull (the sound of), Earth-Moon-Earth and a new work, Cosmic Spectrum, the result of working with scientists Paterson creates a spinning wheel which charts the colour of the universe through each era of its existence. And a look at two recent reality television releases; the BAFTA nominated BBC 3 series Eating With My Ex - in which former couples are reunited over dinner to pick over the bones of their failed relationships - and Channel 4's Flirty Dancing which aims to match singletons based on their love of dance. Each hopeful will learn half a routine, taught by Dancing on Ice judge and Diversity star Ashley Banjo, which they will perform as a couple when they meet for the first time. Podcast extra recommendations Simon: Paul Weller - True Meanings, Fiddler On the Roof at The Menier Chocolate Factory, David Bramwell- The Cult of Water Kate: Pamela by Samuel Richardson and Fleabag on BBC3 Alex: Tessa Hadley -Late In The Day Tom: Peep Show on All 4 and Karl Marlantes -Matterhorn

Kate Maltby, Lucy Powell, Zoe Strimpel join Shahidha Bari. Virtue Rewarded is the subtitle of Samuel Richardson's 1740 novel Pamela, which began as a conduct book before he turned it into the new literary form of the novel. Playwright Martin Crimp has taken this book as the inspiration for his latest work When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other. Shahidha Bari & guests debate consent then and now + news of the £40,000 Artes Mundi 8 Prize which is awarded tonight in Cardiff. The Artes Mundi 8 shortlisted artists are Anna Boghiguian (Canada/Egypt); Bouchra Khalili (Morocco/France); Otobong Nkanga (Nigeria/Belgium); Trevor Paglen (USA); Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand). The exhibition runs at the National Museum Cardiff until Feb 24th 2019. New Generation Thinker Des Fitzgerald reports. Martin Crimp's play When We Have Sufficiently Tortured Each Other is directed by Katie Mitchell and stars Cate Blanchett. It runs at the National Theatre in rep until March 2nd 2019. Producer: Luke Mulhall

Does size really matter? From hefty backbreakers that take months to finish, to slim novellas you can read on a train ride, we delve into what makes a story powerful and... does size matter? As Sarah promised, we looked into the shortest and longest books in the world. Some of them are baffling! Here is an article on mental floss.com called 10 of the Longest Novels Ever Published: http://mentalfloss.com/article/18661/quick-10-10-longest-novels-ever You might have heard that the shortest story in the world is one from Ernest Hemingway… and it goes like this: “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.” And that's it - six words. Here's an article about some of the other shortest stories ever written: https://lithub.com/the-shortest-novels-written-by-20-authors-you-shouldve-read-by-now/ Host: Bronwyn Eley Guests: Sarah McDuling and John Purcell Some of the books mentioned in this podcast: Clarissa by Samuel Richardson: https://bit.ly/2MqRhnj Bridge of Clay by Markus Zusak: https://bit.ly/2Knus6t Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett: https://bit.ly/2lCNvvs King of Ashes by Raymond E. Feist: https://bit.ly/2MlHA9m Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik: https://bit.ly/2yHjCUa Great Expectations by Charles Dickens: https://bit.ly/2N1nrGQ Short stories from Anton Chekhov: https://bit.ly/2Ko09ww Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory: https://bit.ly/2lA2uX5 Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury: https://bit.ly/2KmiSVL Jane Austen: https://bit.ly/2Iv3On6 Silas Marner by George Eliot: https://bit.ly/2lDjMCQ War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy: https://bit.ly/2Knu73H Death in Venice by Thomas Mann: https://bit.ly/2Iuss7o Les Miserables by Victor Hugo: https://bit.ly/2N4bsbB Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan: https://bit.ly/2yMSy5T Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray: https://bit.ly/2K9zzYw Game of Thrones by George RR Martin: https://bit.ly/2KpqbMH Little Women by Louisa May Alcott: https://bit.ly/2MtYcMv Polly and Buster by Sally Rippin by https://bit.ly/2tEvcKb Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling: https://bit.ly/2tA4nY8 The Kingdom of the Lost series by Isobelle Carmody: https://bit.ly/2lBpLIj The Host by Stephanie Meyer: https://bit.ly/2tFYVlW Outlander by Diana Gabaldon: https://bit.ly/2IyFfpC The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas: https://bit.ly/2tH8d14 To All the Boys I've Loved Before by Jenny Han: https://bit.ly/2yKeezD A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness: https://bit.ly/2txwiYS

WHY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT THIS??? The Media Maidenz tackle episodes 5 and 6 of Selector Infected Wixoss! It sure gets ribald in here! Topics include: Pillar of the Strike Witches community; Girls Und Panzer soviet swastika revelations; the Mami decap episode; shitlord poets; [TRIGGER WARNING: RAPE MENTION] as Madiha uses her degree to talk about Samuel Richardson for some reason; Skank Ass Hoes; dub report; lovecraft phase; does this person think Yuzuki is queer???; honk; popular boy Kazuki; buns girl; WIXOSS PARTY; weird scrunchies; a hypperreal hell of normalized incest; a sobering discussion of taboo subjects in media; Shibuya and Akihabara, the anime neighborhoods; The Lament of Hitoe; unveiling the monkey's paw; Yuzuki is the worst; BUNNY'S; dub Akira; NOPEY NOPEY; Iona will smush you all up; analyzing the Akira duel; BUTTHURT BABIES; Arch Aura; Mari Okada's magnifying glass on ants treatment of Hitoe's trauma; anime schoolgirl bullying; Kazuki's sudden popularity; THE REAL FINAL BOSS OF WIXOSS; YUZUKI & HANAYO ARE THE WORST; Madiha's headcanon about Ruuko's broken home, with bonus autistic headcanons; Hitoe's mom; everyone is completely destroyed; This Heart Is Pure White. Sorry for the background noise! Send us questions and 1-sentence game jam submissions!! Rate us on iTunes! Email us at transmediacrity@gmail.com! Check out our TUMBLR and TWITTER. SUPPORT US ON PATREON! Or donate directly to Madiha for hosting costs. Check out our YOUTUBE CHANNEL. Subscribe, and like our videos! Special thanks to Velt for our cover art! Check her art here. (Not worksafe.) You can find us at:  Madiha: Twitter, Tumblr, The Solstice War.Esther: Twitter, Tumblr.

Part three of Lynn Shepherd's This Writing Life podcast mixes business and pleasure: how did a successful city worker become a successful writer? Doctorates on Samuel Richardson, freelance copywriting, and publishing novels all flash past in quick succession. We talk unpublished novels, the challenges of finishing a book and writing for writing's sake. Lynn discusses where her own voice lies in the novels she produces, discusses how to information dump, and how much license to take with historical fact. We end by discussing the complex subject of her latest historical book, A Treacherous Likeness, the Romantic poet Percy Shelley. Part 4 of 4 to follow.

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to another edition of The Avid Reader. Today our guest is Gabriel Tallent, whose debut novel My Absolute Darling will be released tomorrow by Riverhead. Gabriel Received his BA from Williamette University. His stories have been published in Narrative and in the St. Petersburg Review. His thesis at Willamette was on the discursive construction of Pleasure in Samuel Richardson’s Pamela. But he also was a checker at Target, so that gives you a little bit of an idea of how this story could have emerged from his head. My Absolute Darling plumbs the depths of moral depravity and soars to places where a girl’s reach exceeds her grasp and yet she is able to accomplish things that are impossible to imagine. Julia (Turtle) is the 14 year old daughter of Martin. Martin is a very intelligent survivivalist with tons of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition and the ability and the desire to use them all. He is also dangerous and depraved but there is a certain part of us and this is a danger to the reader of the novel, a certain part of us that almost has the capability to comprehend his motives. It’s scary that we have the capability to do so. That is why this book has gotten so much buzz and is such a riveting read. Some reviews suggest that it is not for the faint of heart. Others say read the book with friends and then fight over it.. Trust me--as a book club selection, you will find yourself in fight club rather than the usual casual night out at the book store. It’s not a book to make light of. It’s a book to ponder and one which makes you question your understanding of family relationships and how that can go so wrong and also ponder the strength of someone whose strength was obtained from the very man who is her sworn nemesis and father.

We tackle some of the historical bestsellers that you’ve never heard of and contemporary bestsellers that skipped a few generations before becoming widely known. Selections include Herman Melville’s "Moby Dick", Samuel Richardson’s "Pamela" (with "Harry Potter" and "Fifty Shades of Grey!"), "St. Patrick’s Purgatory," and Charles Reade’s Victorian novels.

Caitlin Kelly, who specializes in the literature and culture of the long eighteenth century, examines the role of private devotion in Samuel Richardson’s landmark epistolary novel Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded (1740). Of particular interest is the public performance of Pamela’s adaptation of Psalm 137, best known by its first verse: “By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion” (KJV). Read more at the Georgia Tech Writing and Communication Program's online journal: http://b.gatech.edu/2mXxPUz

Dr Joe Bray from the School of English looks at Austen’s Style, drawing on examples from Sense and Sensibility (1811), Emma (1816) and Persuasion (1818). It is recommended that you download the accompanying PDF (found separately in this collection) in order to reference whilst watching this video. Joe's profile from the University of Sheffield website: "My main research interests are in literary stylistics, specifically the narrative style of the eighteenth and early nineteenth-century novel. I am also interested in book history, textual culture and experimental literature. I was awarded my PhD by the University of Cambridge in 1997, having previously taken a BA in English and an MPhil in General Linguistics there. The topic of my thesis was the emergence of free indirect discourse in the late eighteenth century, in the period between Samuel Richardson and Jane Austen. I then taught for two years (1997-9) at the University of Strathclyde and for five (2000-5) at the University of Stirling. In both departments I taught on literature and linguistic courses, as well as in the area of literary stylistics. At Strathclyde I taught on the MPhil in Literary Linguistics, and at Stirling I convened the core undergraduate course Language and Literature. In September 2005 I joined the University of Sheffield, where I teach on the Language and Literature undergraduate degree, the MA in English Language and Literature and various Literature modules."

Media Nite Radio welcomes to the airwaves actor Victor Alfieri.  Daytime audiences know him from Days Of Our Lives and Bold and the Beautiful.  Since leaving daytime, Alfieri has kept busy with his roles in Ron Howard's, Angels and Demons, Christopher McQuarrie's, Persons Unknown on FOX, and most recently, Southland on TNT.   But before Southland, Alfieri gained international attention in the European production, The Roman Spring of Mrs. Stone opposite Helen Mirren and Anne Bancroft.  He then completed two very high profile European productions back-to-back, the lead role of Darius, the gladiator,  in the feature film Pompeii, an epic love story produced by DeAngelis Productions and the very popular mini-series entitled Elisa de Rivombrosa.  A classic period piece based on the literary masterpiece Pamela written by Samuel Richardson. Alfieri plays a sword wielding assassin named Zanni La Morte.   Next up for Alfieri, the lead role in the American production titled,  A Secret Promise , a love story shot  in New York City, opposite Ione Skye, Ron Silver and Talia Shire.   ALFIERI just completed production as a writer/director/producer  in the horror/suspense thriller, Looking for Clarissa. In addition, Alfieri will be performing Hollywood Dream Role at the famous ACME Comedy Hollywood on Nov. 17 at 10:30pm. Watch Live on www.hollywooddreamrole.com

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great 18th Century fashion for epistolary literature. From its first appearance in the 17th Century with writers like Aphra Behn, epistolary fiction, fiction in the form of letters, reached its heyday in the 18th Century with works like Clarissa by Samuel Richardson. At over a million words, it's a contender for the longest English novel. It inspired impassioned followers such as Denis Diderot who described reading Richardson's novels like this: “In the space of a few hours I had been through a host of situations which the longest life can scarcely provide in its whole course. I had heard the genuine language of the passions; I had seen the secret springs of self-interest and self-love operating in a hundred different ways: I had become privy to a multitude of incidents and I felt I had gained in experience.”This sense of the reader gaining a privileged peek into the psychology of the protagonists was a key device of the epistolary form and essential to the development of the novel. Its emphasis on moral instruction also propelled the genre into literary respectability. These novels were a publishing sensation. Philosophers like Rousseau and Montesquieu took up the style, using it to convey their ideas on morality and society.So why was letter writing so important to 18th Century authors? How did this style aid the development of the novel? And why did epistolary literature fall out of favour?With John Mullan, Professor of English at University College London; Karen O'Brien, Professor in English at the University of Warwick; and Brean Hammond, Professor of Modern English Literature at the University of Nottingham.

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great 18th Century fashion for epistolary literature. From its first appearance in the 17th Century with writers like Aphra Behn, epistolary fiction, fiction in the form of letters, reached its heyday in the 18th Century with works like Clarissa by Samuel Richardson. At over a million words, it's a contender for the longest English novel. It inspired impassioned followers such as Denis Diderot who described reading Richardson's novels like this: “In the space of a few hours I had been through a host of situations which the longest life can scarcely provide in its whole course. I had heard the genuine language of the passions; I had seen the secret springs of self-interest and self-love operating in a hundred different ways: I had become privy to a multitude of incidents and I felt I had gained in experience.”This sense of the reader gaining a privileged peek into the psychology of the protagonists was a key device of the epistolary form and essential to the development of the novel. Its emphasis on moral instruction also propelled the genre into literary respectability. These novels were a publishing sensation. Philosophers like Rousseau and Montesquieu took up the style, using it to convey their ideas on morality and society.So why was letter writing so important to 18th Century authors? How did this style aid the development of the novel? And why did epistolary literature fall out of favour?With John Mullan, Professor of English at University College London; Karen O’Brien, Professor in English at the University of Warwick; and Brean Hammond, Professor of Modern English Literature at the University of Nottingham.

Jake and Jesse examine Samuel Richardson's thoughts on religious toleration and how Baptists should think about civil religion.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-london-lyceum4672/exclusive-contentAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy