Podcasts about Virginia Woolf

In this episode of Biographers in Conversation, Mark Hussey chats with Gabriella Kelly-Davies about Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel. Here's what you'll discover in this episode: Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel was published exactly 100 years after Virginia Woolf's famous novel appeared. Why Mark Hussey portrayed Virginia Woolf's novel Mrs Dalloway as a living subject with its own life story. Why Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel is considered as an object biography. Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel follows Woolf's story chronologically from its first creative stirrings in her diary through conception, writing, drafting, revision, publication, early reviews, and onward throughout its extraordinary afterlife, which continues today. How Woolf's earliest notes from 6 October 1922 reveal she knew from the outset that ‘all must converge upon the party at the end'. How Mrs Dalloway inspired creative works such as novels set on a single day, films, an opera, plays, cartoons, memes, tattoos and songs.

BUGONIA screenwriter Will Tracy talks to The Movies That Made Me podcast hosts Josh Olson and Joe Dante about his 10 favorite "held captive" movies! Show Notes: Movies Referenced In This Episode Invasion of the Saucer Men (1957) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) You Only Live Twice (1967) Bugonia (2025) Save the Green Planet! (2003) The Menu (2022) Murder, He Says (1945) After Hours (1985) Something Wild (1986) The Ghost Breakers (1940) Hold That Ghost (1941) Ace in the Hole (1951) Young Frankenstein (1974) Haunted Honeymoon (1986) Videodrome (1983) Arsenic and Old Lace (1944) The Naked Spur (1953) Reign of Terror, a.k.a. The Black Book (1949) El Cid (1961) A Man Escaped (1956) Phone Booth (2002) Lifeboat (1944) Devil (2010) Zone of Interest (2023) The Exterminating Angel (1962) The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) No Exit (1962) Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Abigail's Party (1977) Rio Bravo (1959) Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) The Last Detail (1973) Innerspace (1987) Dog Day Afternoon (1975) The King of Comedy (1982) Misery (1990) Gerald's Game (2017) Funny Games (1997) Funny Games (2007) The Last House on the Left (1972) The Vanishing (1988) The Vanishing (1991) The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934) The Man Who Knew Too Much (1956) Rear Window (1954) Vertigo (1958) North By Northwest (1959) Captive Wild Woman (1943) Captive Women (1952) The Petrified Forest (1936) Last Stop in Yuma County (2023) Key Largo (1948) The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (1974) The Incident (1967) Collateral (2004) One Battle After Another (2025) A History of Violence (2005) Brokeback Mountain (2005) Other Notable Items Our Patreon!  The Hollywood Food Coalition Phillip Kaufman Beverly Garland Yorgos Lanthimos  James Bond TFH Guru Illeana Douglas Stavros Halkias The Cum Town podcast Our Chapo Trap House podcast episode Matt Christman Our Andrew Hickie podcast episodes A History of Rock in 500 Songs podcast Daniel Waters Our Ari Aster podcast episodes Our Brian Helgeland podcast episode George Marshall  Fred MacMurray Marjorie Main  The Ma and Pa Kettle movies Bob Hope Paulette Godard Pauline Kael Helen Walker Bonnie Parker Peter Whitney The Rifleman TV series (1958-63) Gene Wilder Robert Ryan James Stewart Ralph Meeker  Anthony Mann John Ford William Cameron Menzies Robert Bresson  TFH Guru Larry Cohen M. Night Shyamalan  Jonathan Glazer Luis Buñuel  Lee Grant Joseph Strick John Carpenter Dean Martin Hal Ashby Robert Towne Jack Nicholson Randy Quaid Dennis Quaid Jesse Plemons Aidan Delbis Sandra Bernhardt Robert De Niro Jerry Lewis Rob Reiner Stephen King William Goldman James Caan Kathy Bates Mike Flanagan Carla Gugino Misery novel by Stephen King (1987) Gerald's Game novel by Stephen King (1992) Michael Haneke Elmer Fudd Jang Joon-hwan  Alfred Hitchcock Peter Lorre Orson Welles Ingmar Bergman Woody Allen Charlie Chaplin Michelangelo Antonioni Cary Grant Larry Peerce Paul Thomas Anderson Larry McMurtry Diana Ossana Clint Eastwood Lauren Bacall William Hurt This list is also available on Letterboxd. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this week's episode, Kayla and Taylor discuss Madeline L'Engle's 1962 classic A Wrinkle in Time Topics include Disney Channel classic Johnny Tsunami, the idiocy of teenage boys, there's Jesus in my science!, the clunkiness of the plot, how the series continues, realizing your parents don't have all the answers, Meg as a great example for young girls, and the power of love. Plus, we go on a slight tangent about the state of Disney animated movies today.This week's drink: Maple Orange Spritz via Thirsty TalesINGREDIENTS 2 fresh oranges, juiced 2 tablespoons of maple syrup½ cup of sparkling waterIce cubes for servingOrange slices for garnishINSTRUCTIONS:Juice the orangesStir the juice and maple syrup in a glassAdd the ice cubes and sparkling water, stirring gentlyGarnish with orange slices and serve immediatelyCurrent/recommended reads, links, etc.:Project Hail Mary by Andy WeirThe Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer Follow us on Instagram @literatureandlibationspod.You can email us at literatureandlibationspod@gmail.com.Please leave us a review and/or rating! It really helps others find our podcast…and it makes us happy!Purchase books via bookshop.org or check them out from your local public library. Join us next time as we read Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf

O ciclo de filmes do sueco continua no Nimas; o quarto só da autora britânica tem uma nova edição; e esta semana também há séries e música para descobrir. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Kevin Lewis and Oliver Trevena are the director and producer duo behind Misdirection, a contained neo noir thriller with Frank Grillo that builds a surprisingly big world inside a single location. Misdirection follows a couple driven to carry out a series of high-end heists to pay off a dangerous mob debt. When their latest break-in spirals out of control, the pair find themselves caught in a web of secrets, deception, and deadly consequences. Misdirection is now available on Digital from Cineverse. Shot in Serbia over fifteen nights on a small budget, the film is a case study in fast prep, actor focused directing, and the kind of persistence it takes to pull an indie feature across the finish line.Here, without further ado, are Kevin Lewis and Oliver Trevena.Key TakeawaysRelentlessness is a producing skill, not a personality trait. Misdirection went through consistent bouts of turbulence. Funding gaps, broken promises, Murphy's Law persisted all the way up to roughly five days before shooting. Oliver was told by multiple people to forget about the project and let it go, but he didn't. The takeaway is that persistence isn't just motivational jargon, it's a core production competency. If the producer stops pushing, the movie collapses. Misdirection took years to get off the ground, and the film only exists because Oliver and Kevin refused to let it die. Many people think movies are bought and sold based on the market itself, but that's not always the case. Sometimes beating a movie into production through sheer will and force is the only path forward.Speed unlocks instinct. Shooting in fifteen nights removed hesitation. With no time to overthink, decisions became intuitive and committed. That urgency created momentum and helped performances and directorial choices feel alive rather than labored. It's always ideal to have more time, but there's creativity in limitations, and some casts and crews work better under pressure.Prep is freedom: obsess early so you can adapt fast later. Thrillers demand airtight logic. Kevin mapped character movement, information reveals, and physical continuity in advance so nothing unraveled under pressure. Thorough prep made the fast pace possible. Kevin calls himself a “big prepper”—months of notes, multiple contingency plans (A/B/C/D), then recalibrating once they were on set. He also describes basically hermitting in his hotel room instead of socializing because every hour on set equals money. The lesson isn't to “be rigid”—it's the opposite: deep prep lets you pivot without breaking story logic when the location or constraints change. As Churchill said, plans can be useless but the act of planning can be priceless.Show NotesMovies and Projects MentionedMisdirectionParadox EffectJohn WickWick Is Pain (John Wick documentary)Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?DriveWerewolvesFollow Kevin Lewis at:IMBd: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0507425/

A new week means new questions! Hope you have fun with these!Launched in 2009, what was the first cryptocurrency ever created?Which team just set a record for most Field Goals in a Super Bowl and for two extra points what was the name of the kicker?Though it may seem illogical, who directed three men and a baby?How many karats of gold represents 50% purity?What is a group of zebras called, a name that Ricahrd Gere can halfway get behind?The Hyaline cartilage is a flexible connective tissue that is in several parts of the body, but forms the lower two-thirds of what body part?"Yes, she thought, laying down her brush in extreme fatigue, I have had my vision." - is the last line of which Virginia Woolf novel?Which major consumer product was the first to be publicly unveiled via a Super Bowl commercial in Apple's now‑legendary “1984” ad?Fair-skinned Greek goddess Selene was the personification of which celestial object?Located in the Uffizi, what is the title of Botticelli's painting whose name means "spring" in Italian?Who was the first black woman to win an Lead Actress Emmy for her role in "How to Get Away with Murder"?Which was the first Disney Princess to have a tattoo?A park ranger stated "There is significant overlap between the most intelligent bears and least intelligent humans" to explain the difficulty of making what invention?MusicHot Swing, Fast Talkin, Bass Walker, Dances and Dames, Ambush by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/Don't forget to follow us on social media:Patreon – patreon.com/quizbang – Please consider supporting us on Patreon. Check out our fun extras for patrons and help us keep this podcast going. We appreciate any level of support!Website – quizbangpod.com Check out our website, it will have all the links for social media that you need and while you're there, why not go to the contact us page and submit a question!Facebook – @quizbangpodcast – we post episode links and silly lego pictures to go with our trivia questions. Enjoy the silly picture and give your best guess, we will respond to your answer the next day to give everyone a chance to guess.Instagram – Quiz Quiz Bang Bang (quizquizbangbang), we post silly lego pictures to go with our trivia questions. Enjoy the silly picture and give your best guess, we will respond to your answer the next day to give everyone a chance to guess.Twitter – @quizbangpod We want to start a fun community for our fellow trivia lovers. If you hear/think of a fun or challenging trivia question, post it to our twitter feed and we will repost it so everyone can take a stab it. Come for the trivia – stay for the trivia.Ko-Fi – ko-fi.com/quizbangpod – Keep that sweet caffeine running through our body with a Ko-Fi, power us through a late night of fact checking and editing!Quiz, trivia, games, pub+trivia, pub+quiz, competition, education, comedy

Wanting to talk about this film for years, Hurdy Gurdy Men Josh and Andrew sing their songs of love for David Fincher's serial-killer thriller Zodiac. Falling down the numerous rabbit holes Fincher provides in his retelling of the unsolved investigation, our hosts work to solve how Zodiac works its addictive magic. Grab an Aqua Velva and unravel the mysteries surrounding this chilling piece of true crime, such as what exactly constitutes a comfort movie, which actor should stay human in a muppet-led version, and where the hell did Jim Emerson go?Next, Josh and Andrew have One More Thing, serving up Cocktails with George and Martha, Phillip Gefter's dishy making-of tome on Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, and Sofia Coppola's underrated father-daughter drama Somewhere (also shot by the same DP as Zodiac). Until then, read on at thetake-up.com and follow us @thetakeupstl on Instagram, Twitter, Letterboxd, and Facebook. Special thanks to Social Media Manager Kayla McCulloch and Contributor Ethan Tarantella. Theme music by AMP.

LinksMarty Supreme | Official Trailer (A24)Josh Safdie's new film about a ping-pong hustler, starring Timothée Chalamet.How A24 Created a Viral Marty Supreme Spectacle (Vogue)The jacket drops, the Balenciaga collab, and the marketing machine behind the film.Orlando (1992, Sally Potter)Tilda Swinton as Virginia Woolf's time-traveling, gender-shifting nobleman — this week's mini-challenge.Watch Orlando free on TubiGo watch it. It's right here.Quentin CrispPlays Queen Elizabeth I in Orlando; Merlin imprinted on that image.Tony Zhou, "Edgar Wright: How to Do Visual Comedy" (Every Frame a Painting)The video essay that made everyone realize Wright is doing something nobody else does.The Wicker Man (1973)The original folk horror — the thread connecting Hot Fuzz, Midsommar, and The Witch.Off Menu podcastFlorence Pugh's episode, in which she reveals she does not drink water.Off Menu — Lucia Keskin (Chi With a C)BAFTA-winning comedian, discussed in the member show. "The quietest guest we've ever had."Claire Foy had intestinal worms from filming The Crown (Yahoo News)The truly disgusting reason she no longer drinks caffeine.Man throws shoes at BushThey all throw their shoes.Sarrasine — Balzac (Project Gutenberg)The Balzac novella about a sculptor who falls in love with a castrato — the text Barthes famously dismantled.S/Z — Roland BarthesBarthes's semiotic disassembly of Sarrasine — Merlin's "oh fuck you, you should read Sarrasine" recommendation.Gender: An Ethnomethodological Approach — Kessler & McKenna (U of Chicago Press)The book that changed Merlin's life in a 1988 Gender Studies class: what if there weren't just two genders?Gender Trouble — Judith Butler (PDF)The definitive text — Alex's rec that Merlin bought a beautiful copy of and still hasn't read. Here's a free one.Who's Afraid of Gender? — Judith Butler (Bookshop.org)Butler's newest book — the one Alex was actually talking about. Why are we weird about gender again?"A Question and Three Answers" — Merlin MannThree perspectives on one question about being trans in America.Claude Code (Anthropic)Alex is getting into it and making $200; Merlin's teaching his to not watch Tommy read the paper.Good Time (A24)The Safdie Brothers' sweaty Robert Pattinson thriller — context for understanding what Safdie does.Uncut Gems (A24)Adam Sandler in a diamond district panic attack — the other essential Safdie before Marty Supreme.The Curse (Paramount+)Safdie and Nathan Fielder's deeply uncomfortable TV series.Ricky JayMagician, card sharp, actor, historian of the unusual — referenced during the shoe-throwing bit.Baby Driver — Opening Titles / Coffee Run (feat. "Harlem Shuffle")The scene that is its own argument. Edgar Wright syncing every footstep, every door, every beat.Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, "Bellbottoms"The song that opens Baby Driver and never lets go.Ayoade on Top — Richard Ayoade (Bookshop.org)Ayoade wrote an entire book about the Gwyneth Paltrow movie View from the Top. It's called Ayoade on Top. Of course it is.Olivia Colman is hooked on Ayoade's book premise | Graham NortonThe specific clip — Ayoade explaining View from the Top to a delighted Olivia Colman. Truly one of the great things.Can I Ask You a Question? by Jennifer Venditti (A24 Shop)Venditti's casting book — the woman who found the faces for Good Time, Uncut Gems, and Marty Supreme.Billy the Kid (2007, Jennifer Venditti) — watch free on TubiThe documentary that led to her casting work with the Safdies.Defunctland, "Journey to EPCOT Center: A Symphonic History"A feature-length orchestral documentary about EPCOT Center that has no business being this good.Defunctland, "Disney's Animatronics: A Living History"Bonus Defunctland for the curious.

Miranda Prein is acteur en theatermaker. Ze is sinds 1993 onderdeel van toneelgezelschap Maatschappij Discordia, waarmee ze op de planken stond in voorstellingen als ‘Je me souviens', ‘Monolog' en de serie ‘Weiblicher Akts'. In deze reeks over vrouwen en hun denkbeelden verschenen eerder voorstellingen als ‘Weiblicher Akt 11: Love Sontag' en ‘Weiblicher Akt 10: Liebe Jelinek'. Nu verschijnt ‘Weiblicher Akt 14: Woolf-Zadie-en-Wij'. In 1929 gaf Virginia Woolf het pleidooi ‘A Room of one's own', voor ruimte, onafhankelijkheid en een eigen stem. Nu wordt zij uitgenodigd in de theatrale ruimte van de ‘Weiblicher Akt', om in gesprek te gaan over hoe het is om kunstenaar en vrouw te zijn. Teddy Tops gaat met Miranda Prein in gesprek.

Die Literaturagentinnen sprechen diesmal mit Lina Muzur über ihr Buch "Frauenprobleme" – ein so komisches wie scharfes Protokoll weiblicher Realitäten. Mit der Comic-Künstlerin Anke Feuchtenberger tauchen sie ein in ihren neuen Essay-Band "Der Spalt", und Designer Alex Ziegler verrät anlässlich des Buchcover Awards, warum wir manche Bücher sofort in die Hand nehmen wollen, nur weil sie gut aussehen. Außerdem in der Sendung: Ein Wiederhören mit Virginia Woolfs feministischem Klassiker "Ein Zimmer für sich allein" als Hörstück, eine Rezension zu Verena Güntners neuem Roman "Medulla" und ein norwegischer "Wirkungstreffer" von Tarjei Vesaas. Und in der Rubrik "Autoren sind auch nur Leser" erzählt der isländisch-deutsche Schriftsteller und Übersetzer Kristof Magnusson, welches Buch ihn gerade beschäftigt.

Arthur Marchetto e Cecilia Garcia Marcon discutem Mrs. Dalloway, de Virginia Woolf. A apresentação do livro inclui pontos de seu contexto de publicação, situando a obra dentro do modernismo e do período entreguerras.A conversa analisa os principais temas da narrativa, como a experiência subjetiva do tempo, a investigação da consciência através do fluxo de pensamento e as tensões sociais e psicológicas da Inglaterra pós-Primeira Guerra. O episódio também comenta o livro e o filme "As Horas", que dialogam diretamente com a obra de Woolf. Então, aperta o play e conta pra gente: já leu o livro? vai ler? VOCÊ TEM MEDO DE VIRGINIA WOOLF?

Madame de Sévigné föddes den 5 februari 1626 och hennes klassiska brev har påverkat författare som Marcel Proust mycket. Men hur ska man förstå den idealiska bild hon målar upp av sin älskade dotter? Emi-Simone Zawall undersöker saken. Lyssna på alla avsnitt i Sveriges Radios app. ESSÄ: Detta är en text där skribenten reflekterar över ett ämne eller ett verk. Åsikter som uttrycks är skribentens egna. Ursprungligen publicerad 2018-09-03.Av alla himlakroppar i vårt planetsystem är solen tyngst. Ändå blir solen hela tiden lite lättare. De väteatomer i stjärnans mittpunkt som förenas med helium, förvandlas nämligen också till helium, som i sin tur är lättare än väte, och följden av det livsljus som uppstår är att solen förtär sig själv med fyra miljoner ton per sekund.Är ett älskande människohjärta som solen?När Madame de Sévigné talar om kärlek i mitten av 1600-talet vänder hon återkommande blicken mot sitt eget hjärta. I ett brev från den 1 juni 1669 beskriver hon det som ett hjärta med resurser som den älskade inte kan förstå. Den 18 september 1679 skriver hon: ”Mitt hjärta är nu en gång skapat så, i förhållande till dig, att jag må vara överkänslig när det gäller allt som har med dig att göra, men det räcker med ett ord, minsta tecken på tillgivenhet, en kram, ett ömhetsbevis för att jag ska falla till föga. Jag blir genast botad, det är nästan övernaturligt, mitt hjärta återfår genast all den ömma känsla som aldrig minskar utan bara fogar sig efter omständigheterna. Det har jag sagt till dig åtskilliga gånger och jag säger det igen för det är ju sant. Jag kan inte tro att du skulle missbruka detta. Säkert är att du är den som sätter mitt hjärta i rörelse, på vilket sätt det vara må.”Den 12 januari 1676 funderar hon, inte helt olikt kartografen som står under sin stjärnhimmel, på vilken färg hennes kärleksfulla hjärta skulle kunna ha. Hon skriver: ”Jag glömde säga dig att jag, som du, har tänkt på olika sätt att framställa människohjärtat, några i vitt, andra i svartaste svart. Mitt för dig har en vacker färg.”Vem var det som gjorde Madames hjärta så antänt?Madame de Sévigne föddes som Marie de Rabutin Chantal i Paris 1626 i en av Frankrikes förnämaste familjer. Redan som barn förlorade hon sina föräldrar och togs därför omhand av sina morföräldrar och sin morbror som såg till att ge henne en fin utbildning. 18 år gammal gifte hon sig med markis Henri de Sévigné och fick två barn, François-Marguerite och Charles. I övrigt var äktenskapet en katastrof. Maken var slösaktig och otrogen – dödades till slut i en duell om en älskarinna – och gjorde Madame till änka vid 25 års ålder. Därefter var intresset för män ett avslutat kapitel för hennes del. Hon gifte sig aldrig igen och hade inga älskare heller, även om hon var beundrad av många. All den kärlekskraft hon var i stånd att uppbåda koncentrerade hon istället till dottern; inte ens sonen Charles kom i närheten av hennes beundran.hennes första svenska översättare, Stig Ahlgren, konstaterar att Madames kyskhet var ”sensationell” för att sedan fråga sig: ”Var Madame de Sévigné frigid?”När dottern flyttade till Provence 1671 där hennes make, greve de Grignan, blivit utsedd till guvernör, sammanfattade Madame sin skilsmässa från henne med orden: ”Jag grät och det kändes som om jag skulle dö.” En månad senare skrev hon till dottern: ”Varenda fläck i detta hus angriper mig; hela ditt rum tar död på mig. Jag har ställt en skärm mitt i för att rubba perspektivet; jag vill slippa se det fönster varifrån jag såg dig stiga upp i d'Hacquevilles vagn och försökte ropa dig tillbaka. Jag blir ju rädd när jag tänker på att jag kunde ha kastat mig ut genom fönstret, ibland blir jag ju som galen.” Ett år senare, den 12 februari 1672, skrev hon: ”Tycker du inte att vi varit ifrån varandra väldigt länge nu? Det smärtar mig och skulle vara outhärdligt om jag inte älskade att älska dig som jag gör, hur många bedrövelser det än måtte medföra.”Sedan dess, eller åtminstone sedan 1745 när ett första urval av hennes brev gavs ut, har Madames livslånga lidelse för sin dotter ekat genom litteraturen. Virginia Woolf liknar henne i en av sina essäer vid en äldre man som har en ung älskarinna som bara plågar honom, medan hennes första svenska översättare, Stig Ahlgren, konstaterar att Madames kyskhet var ”sensationell” för att sedan fråga sig: ”Var Madame de Sévigné frigid?”I Marcel Prousts "På spaning efter den tid som flytt" är hon inte bara den författare som nämns flest gånger. Hon får också fungera som estetiskt föredöme och en påminnelse om faran i att dra för snäva gränser kring livet och kärleken. Ska man tro den amerikanska litteraturprofessorn Elizabeth Ladenson är hon till och med en nyckel till romanens själva kärleksideal. Det visar sig genom att Proust ständigt låter huvudpersonens mormor gå omkring med en volym av Madames brev i sin ficka. Efter mormoderns död blir det istället huvudpersonens mor som alltid vill ha breven tillhands och det band som Sévigné upprättar mellan mormodern och hennes dotter, håller huvudpersonen Marcel utestängd från en gemenskap han inte kan återfinna ens i sina egna kärleksrelationer. På samma sätt, menar Ladenson, visar flera av romanens kvinnor att kärleksrelationer faktiskt kan vara lyckliga, så länge som de äger rum mellan likar, bortom svartsjuka och erotiska maktspel, kort sagt: mellan kvinnor som älskar kvinnor.Det kan hända att Madames så kallade ”frigiditet” och kärlek till sin dotter var ett sätt att slippa älska män. Men det ligger närmare till hands att tro något annat. Man vet helt enkelt för lite om dottern François-Marguerite de Grignan. Visserligen brände hennes egen dotter, Pauline, alla brev som François-Marguerite skrev till Madame, och visserligen har en samtida författare beskrivit henne som fåfäng och kallsinnig. Men det som mest av allt borde utgöra källan till ett närgånget porträtt av henne – Madames alla brev och kärleksförklaringar – låter henne egentligen aldrig framträda som person. Alla omdömen som Madame fäller om henne – som att hennes skrivkonst är ”gudomlig” och att hon är ”vackrare än en ängel” – är så idealiserade att de blir meningslösa.Är Madame de Sévignés brev i själva verket ett narcissistiskt monument?I ”Kärlekens samtal” skriver Roland Barthes om hur kärleksbrevet utmärker sig från andra brev genom att vara uttryckt på ett ”hängivenhetens språk” som saknar alla biavsikter, och Madames brev till sin dotter liknar i det hänseendet en älskandes brev till sin älskade. Men lika mycket som Madame älskade sin dotter, älskade hon att älska sin dotter, och man kan tänka sig att hon älskade sig själv som älskande eftersom det i förlängningen gjorde henne älskansvärd.”Jag skulle ju bli bedrövad om du inte älskade mig lika mycket som jag älskar dig”, skriver hon den 6 april 1672. Istället för att betrakta sin dotter som en människa i egen rätt verkar det alltså som om hon förblev ett objekt för Madames eviga tillbedjan, en idol, och ytterst ett redskap för Madames kärlek till sig själv.”Detta behov av att vara två för att kunna etablera en öm dialog med sig själv”, skriver Simone de Beauvoir i ”Det andra könet” när hon kartlägger den kvinnliga narcissistens behov av att rikta kärleken till en annan mot sig själv för att uppleva sig själv som älskad. Är Madame de Sévignés brev i själva verket ett narcissistiskt monument?Nej, att betrakta Madame som en människa blind för allt och alla andra än sig själv är att gå för hårt åt henne. Trots allt finns det ingen som är som solen, fullkomligt självförbrännande och oegennyttig. Det är det som är älskandets paradox: att man inte kan ge utan att samtidigt ta något.Då är det bättre att läsa Madames brev som betraktelser över alla de uttryck en passion kan ha, och låta henne vara precis det hon är: en kärlekens uppenbarelse.Emi-Simone Zawall, litteraturkritiker och översättareSamtliga citat ur breven är hämtade ur ”Madame de Sévignés brev” i urval och översättning av Arne Melberg, Atlantis 2018.

Hermione Lee is the renowned biographer of Virginia Woolf, Edith Wharton, Penelope Fitzgerald, and, most recently, Tom Stoppard. Stoppard died at the end of last year, so Hermione and I talked about the influence of Shaw and Eliot and Coward on his work, the recent production of The Invention of Love, the role of ideas in Stoppard's writing, his writing process, rehearsals, revivals, movies. We also talked about John Carey, Brian Moore, Virginia Woolf as a critic. Hermione is Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford. Her life of Anita Brookner will be released in September.TranscriptHenry Oliver: Today I have the great pleasure of talking to Professor Dame Hermione Lee. Hermione was the first woman to be appointed Goldsmiths' Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford, and she is the most renowned and admired living English biographer. She wrote a seminal life of Virginia Woolf. She's written splendid books about people like Willa Cather, Edith Wharton, and my own favorite, Penelope Fitzgerald. And most recently she has been the biographer of Tom Stoppard, and I believe this year she has a new book coming out about Anita Brookner. Hermione, welcome.Hermione Lee: Thank you very much.Oliver: We're mostly going to talk about Tom Stoppard because he, sadly, just died. But I might have a few questions about your broader career at the end. So tell me first how Shavian is Stoppard's work?Lee: He would reply “very close Shavian,” when asked that question. I think there are similarities. There are obviously similarities in the delighting forceful intellectual play, and you see that very much in Jumpers where after all the central character is a philosopher, a bit of a bonkers philosopher, but still a very rational one.And you see it in someone like Henry, the playwright in The Real Thing, who always has an answer to every argument. He may be quite wrong, but he is full of the sort of zest of argument, the passion for argument. And I think that kind of delight in making things intellectually clear and the pleasure in argument is very Shavian.Where I think they differ and where I think is really more like Chekov, or more like Beckett or more in his early work, the dialogues in T. S. Elliot, and less like Shaw is in a kind of underlying strangeness or melancholy or sense of fate or sense of mortality that rings through almost all the plays, even the very, very funny ones. And I don't think I find that in Shaw. My prime reading time for Shaw was between 15 and 19, when I thought that Shaw was the most brilliant grownup that one could possibly be listening to, and I think now I feel less impressed by him and a bit more impatient with him.And I also think that Shaw is much more in the business of resolving moral dilemmas. So in something like Arms and the Man or Man and Superman, you will get a kind of resolution, you will get a sort of sense of this is what we're meant to be agreeing with.Whereas I think quite often one of the fascinating things about Stoppard is the way that he will give all sides of the question; he will embody all sides of the question. And I think his alter ego there is not Shaw, but the character of Turgenev in The Coast of Utopia, who is constantly being nagged by his radical political friends to make his mind up and to have a point of view and come down on one side or the other. And Turgenev says, I take every point of view.Oliver: I must confess, I find The Coast of Utopia a little dull compared to Stoppard's other work.Lee: It's long. Yes. I don't find it dull. But I think it may be a play to read possibly more than a play to see now. And you're never going to get it put on again anyway because the cast is too big. And who's going to put on a nine-hour free play, 50 people cast about 19th-century Russian revolutionaries? Nobody, I would think.But I find it very absorbing actually. And partly because I'm so interested in Isaiah Berlin, who is a very strong presence in the anti-utopianism of those plays. But that's a matter of opinion.Oliver: No. I like Berlin. One thing about Stoppard that's un-Shavian is that he says his plays begin as a noise or an image or a scene, and then we think of him as this very thinking writer. But is he really more of an intuitive writer?Lee: I think it's a terribly good question. I think it gets right at the heart of the matter, and I think it's both. Sorry, I sound like Turgenev, not making my mind up. But yes, there is an image or there is an idea, or there are often two ideas, as it were, the birth of quantum physics and 18th-century landscape gardening. Who else but Stoppard would put those two things in one play, Arcadia, and have you think about both at once.But the image and the play may well have been a dance between two periods of time together in one room. So I think he never knew what the next play was going to be until it would come at him, as it were. He often resisted the idea that if he chose a topic and then researched it, a play would come out of it. That wasn't what happened. Something would come at him and then he would start doing a great deal of research usually for every play.Oliver: What sort of influence did T. S. Elliot have on him? Did it change the dialogue or, was it something else?Lee: When I was working with him on my biography, he gave me a number of things. I had extraordinary access, and we can perhaps come back to that interesting fact. And most of these things were loans he gave them to me to work on. Then I gave them back to him.But he gave me as a present one thing, which was a black notebook that he had been keeping at the time he was writing Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and also his first and only novel Lord Malquist and Mr. Moon, which is little known, which he thought was going to make his career. The book was published in the same week that Rosencrantz came up. He thought the novel was going to make his career and the play was going to sink without trace. Not so. In the notebook there are many quotations from T. S. Elliot, and particularly from Prufrock and the Wasteland, and you can see him working them into the novel and into the play.“I am not Prince Hamlet nor was meant to be.” And that sense of being a disconsolate outsider. Ill at ease with and neurotic about the world that is charging along almost without you, and you are having to hang on to the edge of the world. The person who feels themself to be in internal exile, not at one with the universe. I think that point of view recurs over and over again, right through the work, but also a kind of epigrammatical, slightly mysterious crypticness that Elliot has, certainly in Prufrock and in the Wasteland and in the early poems. He loved that tone.Oliver: Yes. When I read your paper about that I thought about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern quite differently. I've always disliked the idea that it's a sort of Beckett imitation play. It seems very Elliotic having read what you described.Lee: There is Beckett in there. You can't get away from it.Oliver: Surface level.Lee: Beckett's there, but I think the sense of people waiting around—Stoppard's favorite description of Rosencrantz was: “It's two journalists on a story that doesn't add up, which is very clever and funny.”Yes. And that sense of, Vladimir going, “What are we supposed to be doing and how are we going to pass the time?” That's profoundly influential on Stoppard. So I don't think it's just a superficial resemblance myself, but I agree that Elliot just fills the tone of that play and other things too.Oliver: In the article you wrote about Stoppard and Elliot, the title is about biographical questing, and you also described Arcadia as a quest. How important is the idea of the quest to the way you work and also to the way you read Stoppard?Lee: I took as the epigraph for my biography of Stoppard a line from Arcadia: “It's wanting to know that makes us matter, otherwise we're going out the way we came in.” So I think that's right at the heart of Stoppard's work, and it's right at the heart of any biographical work, whether or not it's mine or someone else's. If you can't know, in the sense of knowing the person, knowing what the person is like, and also knowing as much as possible about them from different kinds of sources, then you might as well give up.You can't do it through impressions. You've got to do it through knowledge. Of course, a certain amount of intuition may also come into play, though I'm not the kind of biographer that feels you can make things up. Working on a living person, this is the only time I've done that.It was, of course, a very different thing from working on a safely dead author. And I knew Penelope Fitzgerald a little bit, but I had no idea I was going to write her biography when I had conversations with her and she wouldn't have told me anything anyway. She was so wicked and evasive. But it was a set up thing; he asked me to do it. And we had a proper contract and we worked together over several years, during which time he became a friend, which was a wonderful piece of luck for me.I was doing four things, really. One was reading all the material that he produced, everything, and getting to know it as well as I could. And that's obviously the basic task. One was talking to him and listening to him talk about his life. And he was very generous with those interviews. I'm sure there were things he didn't tell me, but that's fine. One was talking to other people about him, which is a very interesting process. And with someone like him who knew everyone in the literary, theatrical, cultural world, you have to draw a halt at some point. You can't talk to a thousand people, or I'd have still been doing it, so you talk to particularly fellow playwrights, directors, actors who've worked with him often, as well as family and friends. And then you start pitting the versions against each other and seeing what stands up and what keeps being said.Repetition's very important in that process because when several people say the same thing to you, then you know that's right. And that quest also involves some actual footsteps, as Richard Holmes would say. Footsteps. Traveling to places he'd lived in and going to Darjeeling where he had been to school before he came to England, that kind of travel.And then the fourth, and to me, in a way, almost the most exciting, was the opportunity to watch him at work in rehearsal. So with the director's permissions, I was allowed to sit in on two or three processes like that, the 50th anniversary production of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at the Old Vic with David Lavoie. And Patrick Marber's wonderful production of Leopoldstadt and Nick Hytner's production of The Hard Problem at the National. So I was able to witness the very interesting negotiations going on between Tom and the director and the cast.And also the extraordinary fact that even with a play like Rosencrantz, which is on every school syllabus and has been for 50—however many years—he was still changing things in rehearsal. I can't get over that. And in his view, as he often said, theater is an event and not a text, and so one could see that actual process of things changing before one's very eyes, and that for a biographer, it's a pretty amazing privilege.Oliver: How much of the plays were written during rehearsal do you think?Lee: Oh, 99% of the plays were written with much labor, much precision, much correction alone at his desk. The text is there, the text is written, and everything changes when you go into the rehearsal room because you suddenly find that there isn't enough time with that speech for the person to get from the bed to the door. It's physics; you have to put another line in so that someone can make an entrance or an exit, that kind of thing.Or the actors will say quite often, because they were a bit in awe—by the time he became well known—the actors initially would be a bit in awe of the braininess and the brilliance. And quite often the actors will be saying, “I'm sorry, I don't understand. I don't understand this.” You'd often get, “I don't really understand.”And then he would never be dismissive. He would either say, “No, I think you've got to make it work.” I'm putting words into his mouth here. Or he would say, “Okay, let's put another sentence or something like that.”Oliver: Between what he wrote at his desk and the book that's available for purchase now, how much changed? Is it 10%, 50? You know what I mean?Lee: Yes. You should be talking to his editor at Faber, Dinah Wood. So Faber would print a relatively small number for the first edition before the rehearsal process and the final production. And then they would do a second edition, which would have some changes in it. So 2%. Okay. But crucial sometimes.Oliver: No, sure. Very important.Lee: And also some plays like Jumpers went through different additions with different endings, different solutions to plot problems. Travesties, he had a lot of trouble with the Lenins in Travesties because it's the play in which you've got Joyce and you've got Tristan Tzara and you've got the Lenins, and they're all these real people and he makes him talk.But he was a little bit nervous about the Lenin. So what he gave him to say were things that they had really said, that Lenin had really said. As opposed to the Tzara-Joyce stuff, which is all wonderfully made up. The bloody Lenins became a bit of a problem for him. And so that gets changed in later editions you'll find.Oliver: How closely do you think The Real Thing is based on Present Laughter by Noël Coward?Lee: Oh, I think there's a little bit of Coward in there. Yes, sure. I think he liked Coward, he liked Wilde, obviously. He likes brilliant, witty, playful entertainers. He wants to be an entertainer. But I think The Real Thing, he was proud of the fact that The Real Thing was one of the few examples of his plays at that time, which weren't based on something else. They weren't based on Hamlet. They weren't based on The Importance of Being Earnest. It's not based on a real person like Housman. I think The Real Thing came out of himself much more than out of literary models.Oliver: You don't think that Henry is a bit like the actor character in Present Laughter and it's all set in his flat and the couples moving around and the slight element of farce?The cricket bat speech is quite similar to when Gary Essendine—do you remember that very funny young man comes up on the train from Epping or somewhere and lectures him about the social value of art. And Gary Essendine says, “Get a job in a theater rep and write 20 plays. And if you can get one of them put on in a pub, you'll be damn lucky.” It's like a model for him, a loose model.Lee: Yes. Henry, I think you should write an article comparing these two plays.Oliver: Okay. Very good. What does Stoppardian mean?Lee: It means witty. It means brilliant with words. It means fizzing with verbal energy. It means intellectually dazzling. The word dazzling is the one that tends to get used. My own version of Stoppardian is a little bit different from, as it were, those standard received and perfectly acceptable accounts of Stoppardian.My own sense of Stoppardian has more to do with grief and mortality and a sense of not belonging and of puzzlement and bewilderment, within all that I said before, within the dazzling, playful astonishing zest and brio of language and the precision about language.Oliver: Because it's a funny word. It's hard to include Leopoldstadt under the typical use of Stoppardian, because it's an untypical Stoppard.Lee: One of the things about Leopoldstadt that I think is—let's get rid of that trope about Stoppardian—characteristic of him is the remarkable way it deals with time. Here's a play like Arcadia, all set in the same place, all set in the same room, in the same house, and it goes from a big hustling room, late 19th-century family play, just like the beginning of The Coast of Utopia, where you begin with a big family in Russia and then it moves through the '20s and then into the terrible appalling period of the Anschluss and the Holocaust.And then it ends up after the war with an empty room. This room, is like a different kind of theater, an empty room. Three characters, none of whom you know very well, speaking in three different kinds of English, reaching across vast spaces of incomprehension, and you've had these jumps through time.And then at the very end, the original family, all of whom have been destroyed, the original family reappears on the stage. I'm sorry to tell this for anyone who hasn't seen Leopoldstadt. Because when it happens on the stage, it's an absolutely astonishing moment. As if the time has gone round and as if the play, which I think it was for him, was an act of restitution to all those people.Oliver: How often did he use his charm to get his way with actors?Lee: A lot. And not just actors. People he worked with, film people, friends, companions. Charm is such an interesting thing, isn't it? Because we shouldn't deviate, but there's always a slightly sinister aspect to the word charm as in, a magic charm. And one tends to be a bit suspicious of charm. And he knew he had charm and he was physically very magnetic and good looking and very funny and very attentive to people.But I think the charm, in his case, he did use it to get the right results, and he did use it, as he would say, “to look after my plays.” He was always, “I want to look after my plays.” And that's why he went back to rehearsal when there were revivals and so on. But he wasn't always charming. Patrick Marber, who's a friend of his and who directed Leopoldstadt, is very good on how irritable Stoppard could be sometimes in rehearsal. And I've heard that from other directors too—Jack O'Brien, who did the American productions of things like The Invention of Love.If Stoppard felt it wasn't right, he could get quite cross. So this wasn't a sort of oleaginous character at all. It's not smooth, it's not a smooth charm at all. But yes, he knew his power and he used it, and I think in a good way. I think he was a benign character actually. And one of the things that was very fascinating to me, not only when he died and there was this great outpouring of tributes, very heartfelt tributes, I thought. But also when I was working on the biography, I was going around the world trying to find people to say bad things about him, because what I didn't want to do was write a hagiography. You don't want to do that; there would be no point. And it was genuinely quite hard.And I don't know the theater world; it's not my world. I got to know it a little bit then. But I have never necessarily thought of the theater world as being utterly loving and generous about everybody else. I'm sure there are lots of rivalries and spitefulness, as there is in academic life, all the rest of it. But it was very hard to find anyone with a bad word to say about him, even people who'd come up against the steeliness that there is in him.I had an interview with Steven Spielberg about him, with whom he worked a lot, and with whom he did Empire of the Sun. And I would ask my interviewees if they could come up with two or three adjectives or an adjective that would sum him up, that would sum Stoppard up to them. And when I asked Spielberg this question, he had a little think and then he said, intransigent. I thought, great. He must be the only person who ever stood up to him.Oliver: What was his best film script? Did he write a really great film.Lee: That one. I think partly the novel, I don't know if you know the Ballard novel, the Empire of the Sun, it's a marvelous novel. And Ballard was just a magical and amazing writer, a great hero of mine. But I think what Stoppard did with that was really clever and brilliant.I know people like Brazil, the Terry Gilliam sort of surrealist way. And there's some interesting early work. Most of his film work was not one script; it was little bits that he helped with. So there's famously the Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, he did most of the dialogue for Harrison Ford.But there are others like the One Hundred and One Dalmatians, where I think there's one line, anonymously Stoppardian in there. One of the things about the obituaries that slightly narked me was that there, I felt there was a bit too much about the films. Truly, I don't think the film work was—he wanted it to be right and he wanted to get it right—but it wasn't as close to his heart as the theater work. And indeed the work for radio, which I thought was generally underwritten about when he died. There was some terrific work there.Oliver: Yes. And there aren't that many canonical writers who've been great on the radio.Lee: Absolutely. He did everything. He did film, he did radio. He wrote some opera librettos. He really did everything. And on top of that, there was the great work for the public good, which I think is a very important part of his legacy, his history.Oliver: How much crossover influence is there between the different bits of his career? Does the screenwriting influence the theater writing and the radio and so on? Or is he just compartmentalized and able to do a lot of different things?Lee: That's such an interesting question. I don't think I've thought about it enough. I think there are very cinematic aspects to some of the plays, like Night and Day, for instance, the play about journalism. That could easily have been a film.And perhaps Hapgood as well, although it could be a kind of John le Carré type film thriller, though it's such a set of complicated interlocking boxes that I don't know that it would work as a film. It's not one of my favorite players, I must say. I struggle a little bit with Hapgood. But, yes, I'm sure that they fed into each other. Because he was so busy, he was often doing several things at once. So he was keeping things in boxes and opening the lid of that box. But mentally things must have overlapped, I'm sure.Oliver: He once joked that rather than having read Wittgenstein from cover to cover, he had only read the covers. How true is that? Because I know some people who would say he's very clever in everything, but he's not as clever as he looks. It's obviously not true that he only read the covers.Lee: I think there was a phase, wasn't there, after the early plays when people felt that he was—it's that English phrase, isn't it—too clever by half. Which you would never hear anyone in France saying of someone that they were too clever by half. So he was this kind of jazzy intellectual who put all his ideas out there, and he was this sort of self-educated savant who hadn't been to Oxford.There was quite a lot of that about in the earlier years, I think. And a sense that he was getting away with it, to which I would countermand with the story of the writing of The Invention of Love. So what attracted him to the figure of Housman initially was not the painful, suppressed homosexual love story, but the fact that here was this person who was divided into a very pernickety, savagely critical classical editor of Latin and a romantic lyric poet. In order to work out how to turn this into a play, he probably spent about six years taking Latin lessons, reading everything he could read on the history of classical literature. Obviously reading about Housman, engaging in conversation with classical scholars about Housman's, finer points of editorial precision about certain phrases. And what he used from that was the tip of the iceberg. But the iceberg was real.He really did that work and he often used to say that it was his favorite play because he'd so much enjoyed the work that went into it. I think he took what he needed from someone like Wittgenstein. I know you don't like The Coast of Utopia very much, but if you read his background to Coast of Utopia, what went into it, and if you compare what's in the plays, those three plays, with what's in the writing about those revolutionaries, he read everything. He may have magpied it, but he's certainly knows what he's talking about. So I defend him a bit against that, I think.Oliver: Good, good. Did you see the recent production at the Hamstead Theatre of The Invention of Love?Lee: I did, yes.Oliver: What did you think?Lee: I liked it. I thought it was rather beautifully done. I liked those boats rowing around that clicked together. I thought Simon Russell Beale was extremely good, particularly very moving. And very good in Housman's vindictiveness as a critic. He is not a nice person in that sense. And his scornfulness about the women students in his class, that kind of thing. And so there was a wonderful vitriol and scorn in Russell Beale's performance.I think when you see it now, some of the Oxford context is a little bit clunky, those scenes with Jowett and Pater and so on, it's like a bit of a caricature of the context of cultural life at the time, intellectual life at the time. But I think that the trope of the old and the young Housman meeting each other and talking to each other, which I still think is very moving. I thought it worked tremendously well.Oliver: What are Tom Stoppard's poems like?Lee: You see them in Indian Ink where he invents a poet, Flora Crewe, who is a poet who was died young, turn of the century, bold feminist associated with Bloomsbury and gets picked up much later as a kind of Sylvia Plath-type, HD type heroine. And when you look at Stoppard's manuscripts in the Harry Ransom Center in the University of Austin, in Texas, there is more ink spent on writing and rewriting those poems of Flora Crewe than anything else I saw in the manuscript. He wrote them and rewrote them.Early on he wrote some Elliot—they're very like Elliot—little poems for himself. I think there are probably quite a lot of love poems out there, which I never saw because they belong to the people for whom he wrote them. So I wouldn't know about those.Oliver: How consistently did Stoppard hold to a kind of liberal individualism in his politics?Lee: He was accused of being very right wing in the 1980s really, 1970s, 1980s, when the preponderant tendency for British drama was radicalism, Royal Court, left wing, all of that. And Stoppard seemed an outlier then, because he approved of Thatcher. He was a friend of Thatcher. He didn't like the print union. It was particularly about newspapers because he'd been a newspaper man in his youth. That was his alternative university education, working in Bristol on the newspapers. He had a romance heroic feeling about the value of the journalist to uphold democracy, and he hated the pressure of the print unions to what he thought at the time was stifling that.He changed his mind. I think a lot about that. He had been very idealistic and in love with English liberal values. And I think towards the end of his life he felt that those were being eroded. He voted lots of different ways. He voted conservative, voted green. He voted lib dem. I don't if he ever voted Labour.Oliver: But even though his personal politics shifted and the way he voted shifted, there is something quite continuous from the early plays through to Rock ‘n' Roll. Is there a sort of basic foundation that doesn't change, even though the response to events and the idea about the times changes?Lee: Yes, I think that's right, and I think it can be summed up in what Henry says in The Real Thing about politics, which is a version of what's often said in his plays, which is public postures have the configuration of private derangement. So that there's a deep suspicion of political rhetoric, especially when it tends towards the final solution type, the utopian type, the sense that individual lives can be sacrificed in the interest of an ultimate rationalized greater good.And then, he's worked in the '70s for the victims of Soviet communism. His work alongside in support of Havel and Charter 77. And he wrote on those themes such as Every Good Boy Deserves Favour and Professional Foul. Those are absolutely at the heart of what he felt. And they come back again when he's very modest about this and kept it quiet. But he did an enormous amount of work for the Belarus exile, Belarus Free Theater collective, people in support of those trying to work against the regime in Belarus.And then the profound, heartfelt, intense feeling of horror about what happened to people in Leopoldstadt. That's all part of the same thing. I think he's a believer in individual freedom and in democracy and has a suspicion of political rhetoric.Oliver: How much were some of his great parts written for specific actors? Because I sometimes have a feeling when I watch one of his plays now, if I'd been here when Felicity Kendal was doing this, I would be getting the whole thing, but I'm getting most of it.Lee: I'm sure that's right. And he built up a team around him: Peter Wood, the director and John Wood who's such an extraordinary Henry Carr in in in Travesties. And Michael Hordern as George the philosopher in Jumpers. And he wrote a lot for Kendal, in the process of becoming life companions.But he'd obviously been writing and thinking of her very much, for instance, in Arcadia. And also I think very much, it's very touching now to see the production of Indian Ink that's running at Hampstead Theatre in which Felicity Kendal is playing the older woman, the surviving older sister of the poet Flora Crewe, where of course the part of Flora Crewe was written for her. And there's something very touching about seeing that now. And, in fact, the first night of that production was the day of Stoppard's funeral. And Kendal couldn't be at the funeral, of course, because she was in the first night of his play. That's a very touching thing.Oliver: Why did he think the revivals came too soon?Lee: I don't really know the answer to that. I think he thought a play had to hook up a lot of oxygen and attract a lot of attention. If you were lucky while it was on, people would remember the casting and the direction of that version of it, and it would have a kind of memory. You had to be there.But people who were there would remember it and talk about it. And if you had another production very soon after that, then maybe it would diminish or take away that effect. I think he had a sort of loyalty to first productions often. What do you think about that? I'm not quite sure of the answer to that.Oliver: I don't know. To me it seems to conflict a bit with his idea that it's a living thing and he's always rewriting it in the rehearsal room. But I think probably what you say is right, and he will have got it right in a certain way through all that rehearsing. You then need to wait for a new generation of people to make it fresh again, if you like.Lee: Or not a generation even, but give it five years.Oliver: Everyone new and this theater's working differently now. We can rework it in our own way. Can we have a few questions about your broader career before we finish?Lee: Depends what they are.Oliver: Your former colleague John Carey died at a similar time to Stoppard. What do you think was his best work?Lee: John Carey's best work? Oh. I thought the biography of Golding was pretty good. And I thought he wrote a very good book on Thackery. And I thought his work on Milton was good. I wasn't so keen on The Intellectuals and the Masses. He and I used to have vociferous arguments about that because he had cast Virginia Woolf with all the modernist fascists, as it were. He'd put her in a pile with Wyndham Lewis and Ezra Pound and so on. And actually, Virginia Woolf was a socialist feminist. And this didn't seem to have struck him because he was so keen to expose her frightful snobbery, which is what people in England reading Woolf, especially middle class blokes, were horrified by.And she is a snob, there's no doubt about it. But she knew that and she lacerated herself for it too. And I think he ignored all the other aspects of her. So I was angry about that. But he was the kind of person you could have a really good argument with. That was one of the really great things about John.Oliver: He seems to be someone else who was amenable and charming, but also very steely.Lee: Yes, I think he probably was I think he probably was. You can see that in his memoir, I think.Oliver: What was Carmen Callil like?Lee: Oh. She was a very important person in my life. It was she who got me involved in writing pieces for Virago. And it was she who asked me to write the life of Virginia Woolf for Chatto. And she was an enormous, inspiring encourager as she was to very many people. And I loved her.But I was also, as many people were, quite daunted by her. She was temperamental, she was angry. She was passionate. She was often quite difficult. Not a word I like to use about women because there's that trope of difficult women, but she could be. And she lost her temper in a very un-English way, which was quite a sight to behold. But I think of her as one of the most creative and influential publishers of the 20th century.Oliver: Will there be a biography of her?Lee: I don't know. Yes, it's a really interesting question, and I've been asking her executors whether they have any thoughts about that. Somebody said to me, oh, who wants a biography of a publisher? But, actually, publishers are really important people often, so I hope there would be. Yes. And it would need to be someone who understood the politics of feminism and who understood about coming from Australia and who understood about the Catholic background and who understood about her passion for France. And there are a whole lot of aspects to that life. It's a rich and complex life. Yes, I hope there will be someday.Oliver: Her papers are sitting there in the British Library.Lee: They are. And in fact—you kindly mentioned this to start with—I've just finished a biography of the art historian and novelist, Anita Brookner, who won the Booker prize in 1984 for a novel called Hotel du Lac.And Carmen and Anita were great buddies, surprisingly actually, because they were very different kinds of characters. And the year before she died, Carmen, who knew I was working on Anita, showed me all her diary entries and all the letters she'd kept from Anita. And that's the kind of generous person that she was.That material is now sitting in the British Library, along with huge reams of correspondence between Carmen and many other people. And it's an exciting archive.Oliver: She seems to have had a capacity to be friends with almost anyone.Lee: Yes, I think there were people she would not have wanted to be friends with. She was very disapproving of a lot of political figures and particularly right-wing figures, and there were people she would've simply spat at if she was in the room with them. But, yes, she an enormous range of friends, and she was, as I said, she was fantastically encouraging to younger women writers.And, also, another aspect of Carmen's life, which I greatly admired and was fascinated by: In Virago she would often be resuscitating the careers of elderly women writers who had been forgotten or neglected, including Antonia White and including Rosamund Lehmann. And part of Carmen's job at Virago, as she felt, was not just to republish these people, some of whom hadn't had a book published for decades, but also to look after them. And they were all quite elderly and often quite eccentric and often quite needy. And Carmen would be there, bringing them out and looking after them and going around to see them. And really marvelous, I think.Oliver: Yes, it is. Tell me about Brian Moore.Lee: Breean, as he called himself.Oliver: Oh, I'm sorry.Lee: No, it's all right. I think Brian became a friend because in the 1980s I had a book program on Channel 4, which was called Book Four. It had a very small audience, but had a wonderful time over several years interviewing lots and lots of writers who had new books out. We didn't have a budget; it was a table and two chairs and not the kind of book program you see on the television anymore. And I got to know Brian through that and through reviewing him a bit and doing interviews with him, and my husband and I would go out and visit him and his wife Jean.And I loved the work. I thought the work was such a brilliant mixture of popular cultural forms, like the thriller and historical novel and so on. And fascinating ideas about authority and religion and how to be free, how to break free of the bonds of what he'd grown up with in Ireland, in Northern Ireland, the bombs of religious autocracy, as it were. And very surreal in some ways as well. And he was also a very charming, funny, gregarious person who could be quite wicked about other writers.And, he was a wonderfully wicked and funny companion. What breaks my heart about Brian Moore is that while he was alive, he was writing a novel maybe every other year or every three years, and people would review them and they were talked about, and I don't think they were on academic syllabuses but they were really popular. And when he died and there were no more books, it just went. You can think of other writers like that who were tremendously well known in their time. And then when there weren't any more books, just went away. You ask people, now you go out and ask people, say, “What about The Temptation of Eileen Hughes or The Doctor's Wife or Black Robe? And they'll go, “Sorry?”Oliver: If anyone listening to this wants to try one of his novels, where do you say they should start?Lee: I think I would start with The Doctor's Wife and The Temptation of Eileen Hughes. And then if one liked those, one would get a taste for him. But there's plenty to choose from.Oliver: What about Catholics?Lee: Yes. Catholics is a wonderful book. Yes. Wonderful book. Bit like Muriel Spark's The Abbess of Crewe, I think.Oliver: How important is religion to Penelope Fitzgerald's work?Lee: She would say that she felt guilty about not having put her religious beliefs more explicitly into her fiction. I'm very glad that she didn't because I think it is deeply important and she believes in miracles and saints and angels and manifestations and providence, but she doesn't spell it out.And so when at the end of The Gate of Angels, for instance, there is a kind of miracle on the last page but it's much better not to have it spelt out as a miracle, in my view. And in The Blue Flower, which is not my favorite of her books, but it's the book of the greatest genius possibly. And I think she was a genius. There is a deep interest in Novalis's romantic philosophical ideas about a spiritual life, beyond the physical life, no more doctrinally than that. And she, of course, believes in that. I think she believed, in an almost Platonic way, that this life was a kind of cave of shadows and that there was something beyond that. And there are some very mysterious moments in her books, which, if they had been explained as religious experiences, I think would've been much less forceful and much less intense.Oliver: What is your favorite of her books?Lee: Oh, The Beginning of Spring. The Beginning of Spring is set in Moscow just before the revolution. And its concerns an Englishman who runs a print and publishing works. And it's based quite a lot on some factual narratives about people in Moscow at the time. And it's about the feeling of that place and that time, but it's also about being in love with two people at the same time.And, yes, and it's about cultural clashes and cultural misunderstanding, and it is an astonishingly evocative book. And when asked about this book, interviewers would say to Penelope, oh, she must have lived in Moscow for ages to know so much about it. And sometimes she would say, “Yes, I lived there for years.” And sometimes she would say, “No, I've never been there in my life.” And the fact was she'd had a week's book tour in Moscow with her daughter. And that was the only time she ever went to Russia, but she read. So it was a wonderful example of how she would be so wicked; she would lie.Oliver: Yes.Lee: Because she couldn't be bothered to tell the truth.Oliver: But wasn't she poking fun at their silly questions?Lee: Yes. It's not such a silly question. I would've asked her that question. It is an astonishing evocation of a place.Oliver: No, I would've asked it too, but I do feel like she had this sense of it's silly to be asked questions at all. It's silly to be interviewed.Lee: I interviewed her about three times—and it was fascinating. And she would deflect. She would deflect, deflect. When you asked her about her own work, she would deflect onto someone else's work or she would tell you a story. But she also got quite irritable.So for instance, there's a poltergeist in a novel called The Bookshop. And the poltergeist is a very frightening apparition and very strong chapter in the book. And I said to her in interview, “Look, lots of people think this is just superstition. There aren't poltergeists.” And she looked at me very crossly and said they just haven't been there. They don't know what they're talking about. Absolutely factual and matter of fact about the reality of a poltergeist.Oliver: What makes Virginia Woolf's literary criticism so good?Lee: Oh, I think it's a kind of empathy actually. That she has an extraordinary ability to try and inhabit the person that she's writing about. So she doesn't write from the point of view of, as it were, a dry, historical appreciation.She's got the facts and she's read the books, but she's trying to intimately evoke what it felt like to be that writer. I don't mean by dressing it up with personal anecdotes, but just she has an extraordinary way of describing what that person's writing is like, often in images by using images and metaphors, which makes you feel you are inside the story somehow.And she loves anecdotes. She's very good at telling anecdotes, I think. And also she's not soft, but she's not harshly judgmental. I think she will try and get the juice out of anything she's writing about. Most of these literary criticism pieces were written for money and against the clock and whilst doing other things.So if you read her on Dorothy Wordsworth or Mary Wollstonecraft or Henry James, there's a wonderful sense of, you feel your knowledge has been expanded. Knowledge in the sense of knowing the person; I don't mean in the sense of hard facts.Oliver: Sure. You've finished your Anita Brookner biography and that's coming this year.Lee: September the 10th this year, here and in the States.Oliver: What will you do next?Lee: Yes. That's a very good question, though a little soon, I feel.Oliver: Is there someone whose life you always wanted to write, but didn't?Lee: No. No, there isn't. Not at the moment. Who knows?Oliver: You are open to it. You are open.Lee: Who knows what will come up.Oliver: Yes. Hermione Lee, this was a real pleasure. Thank you very much.Lee: Thank you very much. It was a treat. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk

Welcome to One Bright Book! Join our hosts Dorian, Rebecca, and Frances as they discuss THE WAY WE LIVE NOW by Anthony Trollope and chat about their current reading. For our next episode, we will discuss ORLANDO by Virginia Woolf, the "joyful romp," the "escapade" that might have you thinking of the author in a new way. We would love to have you read along with us, and join us for our conversation coming to you around the end of February. Want to support the show? Visit us at Bookshop.org or click on the links below and buy some books! Books mentioned: The Way We Live Now by Anthony Trollope Domestic Manners of the Americans by Fanny Trollope The Chronicles of Barsetshire by Anthony Trollope The Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope An Autobiography by Anthony Trollope Tess of the D'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy The Transylvanian Trilogy by Mikos Banffy Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett A Perfect Turmoil: Walter E. Fernald and the Struggle to Care for America's Disabled by Alex Green Mood Machine: The Rise of Spotify and the Costs of the Perfect Playlist by Liz Pelly Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs Head of a Traveler by Nicholas Blake Orlando by Virginia Woolf You may also be interested in: The National Book Critics Circle Awards Further resources and links are available on our website at onebrightbook.com. Browse our bookshelves at Bookshop.org. Comments? Write us at onebrightmail at gmail Find us on Bluesky at https://bsky.app/profile/onebrightbook.bsky.social Frances: https://bsky.app/profile/nonsuchbook.bsky.social Dorian: https://bsky.app/profile/ds228.bsky.social Rebecca: https://bsky.app/profile/ofbooksandbikes.bsky.social Dorian's blog: https://eigermonchjungfrau.blog/ Rebecca's newsletter: https://readingindie.substack.com/ Our theme music was composed and performed by Owen Maitzen. You can find more of his music here: https://soundcloud.com/omaitzen.

What do Michelangelo, Shakespeare, Marie Curie, Ben Franklin, and Virginia Woolf all have in common? They all created long-lasting, humanity-impacting work…without the use of AI.See, there are lots of people who will tell you that you need to use AI or get left behind. Those people are wrong.In fact, I think the way to stand out is to not use AI. At least, not in the way everyone else is using it. While most people are using it to create for them…trying to get ChatGPT to “sound just like” them, I think you what you really need to do is create time and space to do good work.AI can help you do that. I talk about how in this episode.Looking to create even more time and space? Check out my free tools audit so you can make sure the apps and gear you use to run your business are actually helping you, not hurting you: https://streamlinedsolopreneur.com/tools/What do you think? Leave feedback at https://streamlinedfeedback.comAnd finally, if you need Girl Scout Cookies and haven't had someone come to your door, check out the video Teresa made for you at https://teresacasabona.com Simplify your tech stack at  https://streamlined.fm/tools ★ Support this podcast ★

Episode Notes Full descrptions from the Library of Congress “The Tramp and the Dog” (1896)                                                          "The Tramp and the Dog," a silent film from Chicago's Selig Polyscope Company, is considered director William Selig's most popular early work. Filmed in Rogers Park, it is recognized as the first commercial film made in Chicago. Previously a lost film, it was rediscovered in 2021 at the National Library of Norway. The film depicts a tramp who attempts to steal a pie from a backyard windowsill, only to be met by a broom-wielding housewife and her dog, who foils the crime. The film is one of the first known as “pants humor,” where a character loses (or almost loses) his pants during an altercation. This scene inspired future comedy gags showing drifters and tramps losing their pants to dogs chasing them. “The Oath of the Sword” (1914)                                                                        A three-reel silent drama, "The Oath of the Sword" depicts the tragic story of two young lovers separated by an ocean. Masao follows his ambitions, studying abroad at the University of California, Berkeley, while Hisa remains in Japan, caring for her ill father. This earliest known Asian American film production featured Japanese actors playing Japanese characters and was produced by the Los Angeles-based Japanese American Film Company. Made at a time when Hollywood studios were not yet the dominant storytellers of the American film industry, "The Oath of the Sword" highlights the significance of early independent film productions created by and for Asian American communities. James Card, the founding curator at the George Eastman Museum, acquired “The Oath of the Sword” in 1963. The museum made a black and white photochemical preservation in 1980. In 2023, a new preservation reproducing the original tinting was done in collaboration with the Japanese American National Museum, and the film has since become widely admired. “The Maid of McMillan” (1916)Known to be the first student film on record, this whimsical, silent romance film was shot on campus in 1916 by students in the Thyrsus Dramatic Club at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Club members Donald Stewart (Class of 1917) and George D. Bartlett (Class of 1920) wrote the screenplay. The original nitrate print of “The Maid of McMillan” was rediscovered in 1982, and two 16mm prints were made; the original nitrate was likely destroyed at this time. In 2021, with funding from the National Film Preservation Foundation, one of those 16mm prints was scanned at 4k and reprinted onto 35mm helping to secure the film's survival and legacy. “The Lady” (1925)When “The Lady” debuted in theaters in 1925, the silent film era had hit its stride, and this movie represents a powerhouse of artists at their peak. Director Frank Borzage was a well-established expert in drawing out intense expressions of deep emotion and longing in his actors. He did just that with the film's lead actress, Norma Talmadge, also at the height of her career, both in front of and behind the camera. Talmadge produced “The Lady” through her production company and commissioned one of the most prolific screenwriters, Frances Marion, to deliver a heartfelt story of a woman seeking to find the son she had to give up, to protect him from his evil grandfather. “The Lady” was restored by the Library of Congress in 2022. “Sparrows” (1926)As a silent actress, producer and key founder in the creation of the American film industry, Mary Pickford's performance in “Sparrows” represents her ability to master the genre she helped nourish: sentimental melodramas full of adventure and thrills, with dashes of comedy and heartfelt endings. Pickford plays Molly, the eldest orphan held within the swampy squalor of the Deep South, who moves heaven and earth to save the other orphan children from a Dickensian world of forced labor. The film takes some departures from the visual styles found in Pickford's other films, invoking an unusual tone of despair while deploying camera angles and lighting akin to German Expressionist cinema. “Sparrows” was preserved by the Library of Congress in collaboration with the Mary Pickford Company in 2020. “Ten Nights in a Barroom” (1926)                                                                     Featuring an all-Black cast, “Ten Nights in a Barroom” was produced in 1926 by the Colored Players Film Corporation of Philadelphia and is the earliest of only two surviving films made by the company. This silent film is based on the stage melodrama adapted from the 1854 novel “Ten Nights in a Bar-Room and What I Saw There” by Timothy Shay Arthur. Released in 2015 by Kino Lorber as part of the five-disc set “Pioneers of African-American Cinema,” the compilation was produced by the Library of Congress, in association with the British Film Institute, George Eastman Museum, Museum of Modern Art, National Archives, Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture, Southern Methodist University and the UCLA Film & Television Archive. Preserved by George Eastman Museum. “White Christmas” (1954)                                                           While the chart-topping song "White Christmas" was first performed by Bing Crosby for the 1942 film "Holiday Inn," its composer, Irving Berlin, was later inspired to center the song in the 1954 musical "White Christmas." Crosby, along with Danny Kaye, Rosemary Clooney, Vera-Ellen Rohe and director Michael Curtiz, embedded "White Christmas" in American popular culture as a best-selling single and the top-grossing film of 1954, as well as regular holiday viewing throughout the decades. The story of two World War II veterans-turned-entertainers and a singing sister act preparing a show for a retired general, the film and its grand musical numbers were captured in VistaVision, a widescreen process developed by Paramount Pictures and first used for "White Christmas." “High Society” (1956)                                                                  Often referred to as the last great musical of the Golden Age of Hollywood, “High Society” features an all-star cast including Bing Crosby, Grace Kelly, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong (and his band), along with a memorable score of Cole Porter classics. Set in Newport, Rhode Island, the film showcases the Newport Jazz Festival (established in 1954) and features a remarkable version of Cole Porter's “Now You Has Jazz.” It includes the first big-screen duet by Frank Sinatra and Bing Crosby, singing “Well, Did You Evah?” This was Grace Kelly's last movie before she retired from acting and married the Prince of Monaco; she wore her Cartier engagement ring while filming. “Brooklyn Bridge” (1981)                                               With “Brooklyn Bridge,” Ken Burns introduced himself to the American public, telling the story of the New York landmark's construction. As with later subjects like the Civil War, jazz and baseball, Burns connects the building of the Brooklyn Bridge to American identity, values and aspirations. Released theatrically and nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature, “Brooklyn Bridge” marked the beginning of Burns' influential career in public media*.* More than just a filmmaker, Burns has become a trusted public historian. His storytelling presents facts, but maybe more importantly, invites reflection on what America is, where it's been, and where it's going. His influence is felt not only in classrooms and through public broadcasting, but across generations who see history as something alive and relevant. “Say Amen, Somebody” (1982)George Nierenberg's documentary is a celebration of the historical significance and spiritual power of gospel music. With inspirational music, joyful songs and brilliant singers, the movie focuses on the men and women who pioneered gospel music and strengthened its connections to African American community and religious life. Prior to production, Nierenberg, who is white, spent over a year in African American churches and communities, gaining the trust of the performers. Restored by the Smithsonian's National Museum of African American History and Culture in 2020, the film features archival footage, photographs, stirring performances and reflections from the father of gospel Thomas A. Dorsey and its matron Mother Willie Mae Ford Smith. Nierenberg shows the struggles and sacrifices it takes to make a living in gospel, including criticism endured by women who sought to pursue careers as professional gospel singers while raising their families. “The Thing” (1982)Moody, stark, often funny and always chilling, this science fiction horror classic follows Antarctic scientists who uncover a long-dormant, malevolent extraterrestrial presence. “The Thing” revolutionized horror special effects and offers a brutally honest portrait of the results of paranoia and exhaustion when the unknown becomes inescapable. “The Thing” deftly adapts John W. Campbell's 1938 novella “Who Goes There?” and influenced “Stranger Things” and “Reservoir Dogs.” It remains a tense, thrilling and profoundly unsettling work of cinema. “The Big Chill” (1983)Lawrence Kasdan's best picture-nominated “The Big Chill” offers an intimate portrait of friends reunited after the suicide of one of their own and features actors who defined cinema in the 1980s – Glenn Close, William Hurt, Jo Beth Williams, Kevin Kline, Jeff Goldblum and Meg Tilly. This powerful ensemble portrays American stereotypes of the time – the yuppie, the drug dealer, the TV star – and deftly humanizes them. Through humor, tenderness, honesty and an amazing soundtrack, it shows formerly idealistic Americans making and dealing with the constant compromises of adulthood, while buoying one another with uncompromising love and friendship. “The Karate Kid” (1984)An intimate story about family and friendship, “The Karate Kid” also succeeds as a hero's journey, a sports movie and a teen movie – a feel-good movie, but not without grit. The film offers clearly defined villains, romance and seemingly unachievable goals, but also an elegant character-driven drama that is relatable and touching. A father who has lost his son meets the displaced son of a single mother and teaches him about finding balance and avoiding the pitfalls of violence and revenge. Race and class issues are presented honestly and are dealt with reasonably. Our hero practices a lot, gets frustrated, gets hurt, but still succeeds. It's as American as they come, and it's a classic. “Glory” (1989)“Glory,” described by Leonard Maltin as “one of the finest historical dramas ever made,” portrays a historical account of the 54th Regiment, a unit of African American soldiers who fought for the North in the Civil War. Authorized by the Emancipation Proclamation of 1863, the regiment consisted of an all-Black troop commanded by white officers. Matthew Broderick plays the young colonel who trains the troop, and Denzel Washington (in an Academy Award-winning performance) is among an impressive cast that includes Morgan Freeman, Cary Elwes and Andre Braugher. American Civil War historian James M. McPherson said the film "accomplishes a remarkable feat in sensitizing a lot of today's Black students to the role that their ancestors played in the Civil War in winning their own freedom.” “Philadelphia” (1993)                                                                  “Philadelphia” stars Tom Hanks in one of the first mainstream studio movies to confront the HIV/AIDS crisis. In the film, law partner Andrew Beckett (Hanks) is fired from his firm when they discover that he is gay and has AIDS. He hires personal attorney Joe Miller (Denzel Washington) to help him with litigation against his former employer. Director Jonathan Demme is quoted as saying, “The film is not necessarily just about AIDS, but rather everyone in this country is entitled to justice.” The film won two Oscars: one for Hanks and the other for Bruce Springsteen's original song, “The Streets of Philadelphia.” Through the song's mainstream radio and MTV airplay, it brought the film and its conversation around the HIV/AIDS pandemic to a wider audience. “Before Sunrise” (1995)                                                              Richard Linklater has explored a wide range of narrative storytelling styles while consistently capturing ordinary, everyday American life. However, his innovative use of time as a defining and recurring cinematic tool has become one of his most significant accomplishments. As the first film in his “Before” trilogy – three films, each shot nine years apart – “Before Sunrise” unfolds as one of cinema's most sustained explorations of love and the passage of time, highlighting the human experience through chance encounters and conversation. With his critically acclaimed 12-year production of the film “Boyhood” (2014) and a new 20-year planned production underway, his unique use of the medium of film to demonstrate time passing demonstrates an unprecedented investment in actors and narrative storytelling. “Clueless” (1995)                                                             A satire, comedy and loose Jane Austen literary adaptation dressed in teen movie designer clothing, “Clueless,” directed by Amy Heckerling, rewards both the casual and hyper-analytical viewer. It's impossible to miss its peak-1990s colorful, high-energy, soundtrack-focused on-screen dynamism, and repeated viewings reveal its unpretentiously presented and extraordinarily layered and biting social commentary about class, privilege and power structures. Heckerling and the incredible cast never talk down to the audience, creating main characters that viewers root for, despite the obvious digs at the ultrarich. The film centers on Cher (Alicia Silverstone) as a well-intentioned, fashion-obsessed high school student who is convinced she has life figured out. In the age of MTV, the film's popularity launched Paul Rudd's career and Silverstone's iconic-1990s status. The soundtrack, curated by Karyn Rachtman, helped solidify the film as a time capsule of clothing, music, dialogue and teenage life. “The Truman Show” (1998)Before social media and reality television, there was “The Truman Show.” Jim Carrey breaks from his usual comedic roles to star in this dramatic film about a man who, unbeknownst to him, is living his life on a soundstage filmed for a popular reality show. Adopted at birth by the television studio, Truman Burbank (Carrey) grew up in the (fictitious) town of Seahaven Island with his family and friends playing roles (paid actors). Cameras are all over the soundstage and follow his activities 24/7. Almost 30 years since its release, the film continues to be a study in sociology, philosophy and psychology, and has inspired university classes on media influence, the human condition and reality television. “Frida” (2002)Salma Hayek produced and starred in this biopic of Frida Kahlo, adapted from the book “Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo” by Hayden Herrera. The film explores Kahlo's rise as an artist in Mexico City and the impact disability and chronic pain from an accident as a young adult had on her life and work. The film centers around her tumultuous and passionate relationships, most significantly with her husband, painter Diego Rivera (Alfred Molina). Directed by Julie Taymor, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Actress. It won awards for Best Makeup and Best Original Score for Elliot Goldenthal, who also won a Golden Globe in the same category. “The Hours” (2002)Director Stephen Daldry's “The Hours” weaves the novel “Mrs. Dalloway” into three women's stories of loneliness, depression and suicide. Virginia Woolf, played by Nicole Kidman (who won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for her performance), is working on the novel while struggling with what is now known as bipolar disorder. Laura, played by Julianne Moore (nominated for Best Actress in a Supporting Role), is unfulfilled in her life as a 1950s housewife and mother. Clarissa (played by Meryl Streep) is – like Mrs. Dalloway – planning a party, but for her close friend who is dying of AIDS. The film is based on Michael Cunningham's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. It earned nine Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, and won a Golden Globe for Best Picture. “The Incredibles” (2004)                                                 With an all-star cast and memorable soundtrack, this Academy Award-winning Pixar hit uses thrilling action sequences to tell the story of a family trying to live normal lives while hiding their superpowers. For the first time, Pixar hired an outside director, Brad Bird, who drew inspiration from spy films and comic books from the 1960s. The animation team developed a new design element to capture realistic human anatomy, hair, skin and clothing, which Pixar struggled with in early films like “Toy Story.” The film spawned merchandise, video games, Lego sets and more. The sequel, “Incredibles 2,” was also a huge hit, and together, both films generated almost $2 billion at the box office. “The Wrecking Crew” (2008)                                                     “The Wrecking Crew” is a documentary that showcases a group of Los Angeles studio musicians who played on many hit songs and albums of the 1960s and early 1970s, including “California Dreamin',” “The Beat Goes On,” “You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling” and “These Boots Are Made for Walkin'.” Through interviews, music, footage and his own narration, director Denny Tedesco reveals how the Wrecking Crew members – including his father, guitarist Tommy Tedesco – were the unsung heroes of some of America's most famous songs. Production for the film began in 1996, and the film was completed in 2008. Due to the high cost of song licenses, the official release was delayed until 2015, when a successful Kickstarter campaign raised over $300,000 to pay for the music rights. “Inception” (2010)                                                                         Writer and director Christopher Nolan once again challenges audiences with multiple interconnected narrative layers while delivering thrilling action sequences and stunning visual effects. “Inception” asks the question, “Can you alter a person's thoughts by manipulating their dreams?” Taking almost 10 years to write, the film was praised for its aesthetic significance and Nolan's ability to create scenes using cameras rather than computer-generated imagery. A metaphysical heist film with an emotional core driven by grief and guilt, “Inception” offers a meditation on how dreams influence identity, and it resonates deeply in an age of digital simulation, blurred realities and uncertainty. The film earned $830 million at the box office and won four Academy Awards. “The Loving Story” (2011)Nancy Buirski's acclaimed documentary gives an in-depth and deeply personal look at the true story of Richard Loving (a white man) and Mildred Loving (a Black and Native American woman), who were forbidden by law to marry in the state of Virginia in the 1960s. Their Supreme Court case, Loving vs. Virginia, was one of the most significant in history, and paved the way for future multiracial couples to marry. The movie captures the immense challenges the Lovings faced to keep their family and marriage together, through a combination of 16mm footage, personal photographs, accounts from their lawyers and family members, and audio from the Supreme Court oral arguments. “The Grand Budapest Hotel” (2014)“The Grand Budapest Hotel” stands as one of Wes Anderson's most successful films and demonstrates his own brand of unique craftsmanship, resulting in a visually striking and emotionally resonant story. As one of the most stylistically distinctive American filmmakers of the last half-century, Anderson uses historically accurate color and architecture to paint scenes to elicit nostalgia and longing from audiences, while at the same time weaving in political and social upheaval into the film. The film is an example of Anderson as a unique artist who uses whimsy, melancholy, innovative storytelling and a great deal of historical research, which is on display in this visually rich gem of a movie. Find out more at https://registry-a-podcast.pinecast.co

Theatre and opera director Katie Mitchell talks to John Wilson about her career and formative influences. She is renowned for her experimental storytelling on stage, her feminist perspective, and for contemporary reframing of classic plays, she has directed more than 100 productions over more than 30 years. She has worked at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal Opera House and the National Theatre, where - as associate director - she staged bold new versions of work by a wide range of writers including Aeschylus, Virginia Woolf, Chekhov and Sarah Kane. For many theatre goers, she is one of Britain's most important and innovative living directors.Producer: Edwina Pitman

Welcome to Episode 252, where we share LISTENER TOP TEN READS of 2025! In past years, there hasn't been much of a spread between the first and second place books on the list. But this year there is a 15-point spread between the first and second books! As usual, the first-place book was a novel, but the second-place book was nonfiction—a first ever for that. Usually, nonfiction doesn't show up until well into the list's mid-teens. Thanks to everyone who shared their top tens– you help grow our TBR lists! Reminder that we have a Top 10 shelf on our Bookshop.org page for purchase and for you to learn more about each of the books. We also talk about our 2026 Reading Intentions. These are often works in progress, which is a good thing, because after recording, we both realized we had forgotten a couple of intentions. It had been a longer-than-usual time span since we last recorded a regular episode, so we had some catching up to do in our “Just Read” segment, which includes: BETH IS DEAD by Katie Bernet PRACTICAL MAGIC by Alice Hoffman A BACKWARD GLANCE by Edith Wharton BODYWORK: The Radical Power of Personal Narrative by Melissa Febos POSTMORTEM and BODY OF EVIDENCE by Patricia Cornwell THE AUTHOR WEEKEND by Laura Zigman (release date 5/5/2026) A TANGLE OF OBSIDIAN by Lydia M. Hawke THEO OF GOLDEN by Allen Levi We had some wonderful Couch Biblio Adventures, but we also managed to get out into the world. Emily visited Slackline Press in Branford, Connecticut, and Davoll's General Store in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, where she saw Catherine Newman in conversation with Emily Franklin. Chris was in Huntsville, Alabama, and visited The Snail on the Wall bookstore, named after Virginia Woolf's short story, “The Mark on the Wall.” She also checked out the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library. Happy listening, take care of yourself, and stay safe out there. Until next time, we wish you lots of Happy Reading!

“Je hoeft niet te haasten, je hoeft niet te schitteren,  je hoeft niemand anders te zijn dan jezelf.” - Stine deelt een levenswijsheid van schrijver Virginia Woolf.

She makes the ordinary radiant.

durée : 00:59:19 - Le Book Club - par : Marie Richeux - La musicienne et productrice Yael Naim déballe pour nous ses rayonnages littéraires dans lesquels nous trouvons Le Portrait de Dorian Gray d'Oscar Wilde, Un lieu à soi de Virginia Woolf en passant par Le deuxième Sexe de Simone de Beauvoir. - réalisation : Vivien Demeyère - invités : Yael Naim Chanteuse

Heidi and Ellen welcome Aquarius, the season of gathering in the name of PROGRESS. This is the sign of HUMANITY. This is the sign of democracy and equality. We are in distressing times. But we are also in a time when huge change and reinvention is possible.  This is a call to gather, a call to make new choices, a call to think outside the box, a call to dig deep. They celebrate the birthdays of Virginia Woolf and Toni Morrison. Heidi read the poem Shedding the Old by Samantha Thornhill. Chart Your Career Instagram: @chartyourcareerpodcast To connect, visit: Ellen Fondiler, Career & Business Strategist: ellenfondiler.com, IG: @elfondiler Heidi Rose Robbins, Astrologer & Poet: heidirose.com, IG: @heidiroserobbins  

Synopsis What exactly is authority? Where does it come from? How do you get it? Can you move authority from St. Paul, MN to the south side of Chicago? Join Em and Jesse for a wide-ranging chat on the subject. Notes 1/ Of course, many people in addition to women have a hard time getting others (i.e. non-group members) to pay attention to their authority. For example, trans and nonbinary people have a hard time getting anyone to listen to them speaking about their own lived experiences. 2/ I’ve published four novels and a novella since this was recorded, and people actually do think I’m an authority on some topics for some reason. 3/ The story about Aristotle’s phony translators comes from here, I think: https://historyofphilosophy.net/translation-movement Pseudopigrapha: from pseudo, false, and epigraphe, name or inscription. A falsely attributed text. U of Michigan’s Galileo text: “After an internal investigation of the findings of Nick Wilding, professor of history at Georgia State University, the library has concluded that its “Galileo manuscript” is in fact a 20th-century forgery. We’re grateful to Professor Wilding for sharing his findings, and are now working to reconsider the manuscript’s role in our collection.” Also, “Wilding concluded that our Galileo manuscript is a 20th-century fake executed by the well-known forger Tobia Nicotra.” (The quotes are from the linked website.) 4/ According to the Virginia Woolf society, the actual quote is: “I would venture to guess that Anon, who wrote so many poems without signing them, was often a woman.” (From ch 3 of A Room of One’s Own.) Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite (5th/6th century CE)) Pseudo-Pseduo-Dionysius is anyone once thought to be Pseudo-Dionysius but now recognized (by modern scholars) to be someone other than Pseudo-Dionysius. Confused? 5/ Pseudo-Bonaventure (14th century CE) wrote Meditations on the Life of Christ. 6/ I’ve become a bit more familiar with copyright law in the three years(!) since we recorded this, since I’ve published three going on four books of my own since then. A really good example of a point I think past Em is trying to make is Sherlock Holmes, who has recently passed into public domain. He’s a neat character and everyone wanted to play with him (look at the adaptations of recent memory: the Robert Downey Jr. films, the BBC’s Sherlock, the American Elementary). But because of copyright law, this was fairly difficult and confusing until very recently, despite the character’s creator having been dead since 1930. These cases raise many questions of authorship vs ownership and how long someone should really be able to make money on an idea. (Patent Law is, if anything, worse, from what I understand.) 7/ It was a photograph of Prince! Since we recorded this, the Supreme Court sided against Andy Warhol’s estate: https://www.npr.org/2023/05/18/1176881182/supreme-court-sides-against-andy-warhol-foundation-in-copyright-infringement-cas Girl Talk is awesome: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSoTN8suQ1o I mention him because there was a really good documentary about copyright called RiP! A Remix Manifesto that discussed his work (including a discussion of it with the head of the copyright office of the Library of Congress). 8/ Just to clarify, “fair use” is kind of a complicated issue. When you are a non-commercial educational podcast (ahem), you can use things (like samples of YouTube performances) without having to pay licensing fees. You can also fairly quote sections of things for criticism, news reporting, and research. You can therefore quote lines from songs or poems in textbooks, but not in novels because they aren’t considered teaching. Parody (hello, Weird Al!) can be a weird gray area, because a parody obviously has to be somewhat transformative but still retain enough of a likeness that people will know what you’re parodying, and on this question hangs a lot of lawsuits. (Not toward Weird Al though, as far as I know. But Margaret Mitchell’s estate did try to sue to block the publication of The Wind Done Gone.) See also: Why does Ulysses (in Em’s novels) wear so many band T-shirts and occasionally mention songs and artists, but there are zero song lyrics in the books? Because you can’t copyright band names or album/song titles. Steamboat Willie has actually entered public domain since we recorded this! [So amazing!–Jesse] Peter Pan actually first appeared in 1902! Also, sorry, “Peter Pan is a psychopomp” is somehow not a sentence I had on my bingo card. I guess it has lost a bit in its translation to the screen… On the plus side, SIDS rates have dropped dramatically since 1902? “I can rewrite Macbeth if I want to.” Or a really complex riff on The Bacchae? Em of 2022 did not know what was coming, lol. 9/ Notably, Spivak also quotes primarily women. The episode on Hrotsvit: Episode 22 10/ For more on Juliana of Cornillion and the Feast of Corpus Christi, see Episode 6. 11/ Wife of Bath’s Prologue and Tale are HERE. (Also, Chaucer was not, as far as we know, toxic like Joss Whedon!) 12/ Incidentally, violent, in-the-moment reactions to mistreatment by another person are called reactive abuse, and they’re often used by abusers to shift the blame onto their victims. If you are being abused or wondering if you are and want to talk to someone, check out the National Domestic Violence Hotline (https://www.thehotline.org/), or look for local programs. Here in Madison, for instance, we have Domestic Abuse Intervention Services (https://abuseintervention.org/).

Sophie B. Hawkins performs “Not Beating Around the Bush” (recording of her original song made exclusively for “This Way Out”) and reads an excerpt from “Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf. SOPHIE B. HAWKINS is a U.S.-born singer-songwriter whose commercial success has been matched by her passionate advocacy for animal rights, and the equality of women and the queer community. In 1925, VIRGINIA WOOLF introduced the world to “MRS. DALLOWAY”, a groundbreaking novel that explores a single day in the life of an upper-class woman in post-World War I England. With its innovative stream-of-consciousness narrative, “Mrs. Dalloway” remains a landmark in modernist literature. In “NewsWrap” 106 people are roughly arrested in a late December raid on a gay nightspot in Baku, the capital city of Azerbaijan; ten people in France are convicted of online bullying for “maliciously” claiming that First Lady Brigitte Macron is transgender; a U.S. federal judge rules that teachers or other school officials can out trans students to their parents without their consent; while a different federal judge decides that “devoutly Christian” parents can prevent their children from learning about the mere existence of LGBTQ people in school; under pressure from the Trump administration and a lawsuit filed by “devoutly Christian” foster parent applicants, Massachusetts replaces policies specifically requiring foster parents to support LGBTQ children in their care with the more innocuous “based on their individual identity and needs”; and her wife Becca remembers Renee Nicole Good (written this week by GREG GORDON, edited by TANYA KANE-PARRY, produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR, and reported by RET and MARCOS NAJERA). (written this week by GREG GORDON and TANYA KANE-PARRY, reported by RET and MARCOS NAJERA, and produced by BRIAN DeSHAZOR).

In this episode, we look ahead to 2026, not with resolutions or reading quotas, but with curiosity about what we're drawn to next. We talk about a handful of upcoming releases we're excited for, and then share some longer, looser reading plans for the year ahead, including big novels, rereads, and ongoing projects we're hoping to live with slowly.Along the way, we acknowledge the heaviness many people are feeling right now and talk about why reading, conversation, and community continue to matter. Whether you're planning your own reading year or just looking for company, we're glad you're here.2026 Novella Book ClubWe have announced the four novellas we will be reading for The Mookse and Gripes Novella Book Club in 2026!* January: Daisy Miller, by Henry James* April: An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter, by César Aira* July: The Hour of the Star, by Clarice Lispector* September: Prelude, by Katherine MansfieldDiscussions will be hosted at The Mookse and the Gripes Discord (see below!).We've got some fantastic author-focused episodes lined up for the foreseeable future, and we want to give you plenty of time to dive in if you'd like to read along with us. These episodes come around every ten episodes, and with our bi-weekly release schedule, you'll have a few months to get ready for each. Here's what we have in store:* Episode 125: Flannery O'Connor* Episode 135: William Faulkner* Episode 145: Elizabeth Taylor* Episode 155: Naguib MahfouzThere's no rush—take your time, and grab a book (or two, or three) so you're prepared for these as they come!ShownotesUpcoming Releases Mentioned* Vigil, by George Saunders* Now I Surrender, by Álvaro Enrigue, translated by Natasha Wimmer* The Glorians: Visitations from the Holy Ordinary, by Terry Tempest Williams* Vilhelm's Room, by Tove Ditlevsen, translated by Jennifer Russell & Sophia Hersi Smith* The Beginnings, by Antonio Moresco, translated by Max Lawton* Theodorus, by Mircea Cărtărescu* Five, by César Aira, translated by Chris Andrews* Ada, by Mark HaberReading Projects & Plans Discussed* The NYRB Classics Big Books project* Currently reading: Bomarzo, by Manuel Mujica Láinez, translated by Gregory Rabassa* On deck: Effingers, by Gabriele Tergit, translated by Sophie Duvernoy* Reading Pilgrimage (Dorothy Richardson's Pilgrimage)* Monthly conversations and resources; videos posted online as a long-term archive by Brad Bigelow* The website* Shakespeare! Up next: King Lear* Trevor's 2026 “in the mix” authors/projects:* Henry James (next up The Ambassadors)* Charles Dickens (Everyman editions; weighing Bleak House vs. other Christmas gifts)* Émile Zola (returning to the Rougon-Macquart project)* Virginia Woolf journals + moving toward Mrs Dalloway* NYRB Women readalong with Kim McNeil (starting with Lolly Willowes)* Library book club (next up: Loved and Missed, by Susie Boyt)* Paul's year-long/slow-burn plans:* Pilgrimage alongside the community project* Continuing Flannery O'Connor and Cormac McCarthy* Deeper into Mircea Cărtărescu, William H. Gass, and Clarice Lispector* Potential Big Classics like The Count of Monte Cristo, by Alexandre Dumas and Vanity Fair, by William Makepeace Thackeray* Bookstore book club focus on translated fiction/small presses* Taiwan Travelogue, by Yang Shuangzi, translated by Lin King* Time Shelter, by Georgi Gospodinov, translated by Angela Rodel* Woman Running in the Mountains, by Yūko Tsushima, translated by Geraldine HarcourtBooks Also Mentioned* In Search of Lost Time, by Marcel Proust* The Magic Mountain, by Thomas Mann* The Comfort of Crows: A Backyard Year, by Margaret Renkl* The Land in Winter, by Andrew MillerJoin the Mookse and the Gripes on DiscordWant to share your thoughts on these upcoming authors or anything else we're discussing? Join us over on Discord! It's the perfect place to dive deeper into the conversation—whether you're reading along with our author-focused episodes or just want to chat about the books that are on your mind.We're also just now in the first novella book club of 2026, where we're reading Daisy Miller, by Henry James. It's a fantastic book, and we'd love to have you join the discussion. It's a great space to engage with fellow listeners, share your insights, and discover new perspectives on the books you're reading.The Mookse and the Gripes Podcast is a bookish conversation hosted by Paul and Trevor. Every other week, we explore a bookish topic and celebrate our love of reading. We're glad you're here, and we hope you'll continue to join us on this literary journey!A huge thank you to those who help make this podcast possible! If you'd like to support us, you can do so via Substack or Patreon. Subscribers receive access to periodic bonus episodes and early access to all new episodes. Plus, each supporter gets their own dedicated feed, allowing them to download episodes a few days before they're released to the public. We'd love for you to check it out! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mookse.substack.com/subscribe

'Las cabras'  son humanas, cabra y cabro es como se denomina a los jóvenes en Chile, porque si algo queda claro en la primera novela de la chilena Pilar Asuero es que el español , gracias a sus más de 600 millones de hablantes en todo el mundo, tiene una riqueza infinita. Pero la novela va de otra cosa., va de cuatro amigas veinteañeras, que se conocen desde los cuatro años y que la madurez le llega de golpe. Una de ellas se queda embarazada,  sin esperarlo, otra, La Cami, la protagonista y narradora, decide venir a España con el objetivo de convertirse en escritora. 'Las cabras' se estructura en tres trimestres. Los primeros nueve meses de La Cami en Madrid y los del embarazo de su amiga La Sofi.  Son dos partos, el que tarda el niño en nacer y lo que tarda Cami en ponerse a escribir. Entre medias la añoranza, la adaptación a un nuevo país, la precariedad, los problemas con el idioma , aunque sea le mismo, y la dificultad que es ser madre por un lado y por otro escribir. Pilar Asuero, además de traer a nuestro biblioteca 'Las Cabras' , nos donó 'Al faro' de Virginia Woolf (DeBolsillo). Y antes de nuestro libro de la semana, nuestro bibliotecario Antonio Martínez Asensio nos contó en tres minutos 'La pulga de acero' de Nikolái Leskov (Impedimenta) y nos anunció para su programa "Un libro, una hora"  'Sin noticias de Gurb' de Eduardo Mendoza (Seix Barral). Pero hubo más entradas bibliográficas en nuestros anaqueles. Pepe Rubio trajo dos novedades: 'Feliz año 365 días-365 diaristas" de Esteban Feune De Colombi (ediciones Uña Rota) y 'Abrazaremos el caos por ti' de Silvia Nanclares y María Hesse (Lunwerg). El rescatador de libros Pascual Donate recuperó de los libros abandonados en la redacción 'Mensajes e una botella: un experimento legendario' de Wolgsang Struck  (Ariel). Y finalmente las primeras donaciones del año de nuestros oyentes: 'La guerra del fin del mundo' de Mario Vargas LLosa (Alfaguara), 'La búsqueda de la felicidad' de Victoria Camp (Arpa) , 'Sábado' de Ian McEwan (Anagrama) y 'Elogio de las manos' de Jesús Carrasco (Seix Barral)

In Into Being Lily Dunn explores the ways in which writing one's life has the potential to transform it; how writing, if done well,  can produce “symbolic repair.” We look at Virginia Woolf's notion of “moments of being” as a means and method to find the form that best fits your specific story to tell. We […] The post Lily Dunn : Into Being : The Radical Craft of Memoir and Its Power to Transform appeared first on Tin House.

EPISODE 120 -  “REEL REFLECTIONS: STEVE & NAN'S FAVES IN CLASSIC CINEMA” - 12/29/25  As we say goodbye to 2025, Steve and Nan are wrapping up the year and ringing in the new one with much refection. In this fun episode, join the discussion as they talk about some of their favorite films, movie stars, and directors in a series of fun lists. Get to know our intrepid hosts better and find out just who they think was the Best Villain or Best Screen Kiss or Most Beautiful Actress in the golden era of Hollywood. Steve, Nan, Lindsay, and J.P. also want to thank you all for the steadfast support and kindness throughout the year.  May 2026 bring great things to all of you beautiful listeners out there! SHOW NOTES:  Sources: Wikipedia.com; TCM.com; IBDB.com; IMDBPro.com; Movies Mentioned: Ladies of Leisure (1930); Platinum Blonde (1931); Lady for a Day (1933); Alice Adams (1935); Stella Dallas (1936); My Man Godfrey (1936); These Three (1936); Dodsworth (1936); Come and Get It (1936); Mr. Deed Goes to Town (1936); The Awful Truth (1937); Night Must Fall (1937); Stella Dallas (1937); The Adventures of Robin Hood (1938); You Can't Take It With You (1938); Jezebel (1938); Love Affair (1939); Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939); Wuthering Heights (1939); Dark Victory (1939); The Return of Frank James (1940); The Letter (1940); Citizen Kane (1941); Penny Serenade (1941); Suspicion (1941); Western Union (1941); Meet John Doe (1941); The Little Foxes (1941); Mrs. Miniver (1942); Casablanca (1942); Now, Voyager (1942); Talk of the Town (1942); The Spider Woman (1943); Double Indemnity (1944); Going My Way (1944); The Woman in the Window (1944); Phantom Lady (1944); Christmas Holiday (1944); Ministry of Fear (1944); Woman In the Window (1944); Arsenic & Old Lace (1944); The Bells of St. Mary's (1945); Brief Encounter (1945); Leave Her to Heaven (1945); Mildred Pierce (1945); Our Vines Have Tender Grapes (1945); The Great Flamarion (1945); Two O'Clock Courage (1945); The Strange Affair of Uncle Harry (1945); Scarlet Street (1945); The Spiral Staircase (1946); It's a Wonderful Life (1946); Notorious (1946); Gilda (1946); The Best Years of Our Lives (1946); Kiss of Death (1947); The Bishop's Wife (1947); T-Men (1947); Nightmare Alley (1947); I Remember Mama (1948); Raw Deal (1948); Cry of the City (1948); They Live By Night (1948); Come to the Stable (1949); Criss Cross (1949); The Heiress (1949); White Heat (1949); Sunset Boulevard (1950); Harvey (1950); Side Street (1950); Winchester '73 (1950); The File on Thelma Jordan (1950); A Place in the Sun (1951); Clash By Night (1952); In a Lonely Place (1953); From Here to Eternity (1953); The Big Heat (1953); Shane (1953); The Clown (1950); White Christmas (1954); A Star Is Born (1954); The Night of the Hunter (1955); The Man From Laramie (1955); A Face in the Crowd (1957); An Affair to Remember (1957); The Tin Star (1957); Giant (1956); Elmer Gantry (1960); Splendor In the Grass (1961); The Manchurian Candidate (1962); Take Her, She's Mine (1963); The Sound of Music (1965); The Singing Nun (1966); Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966); Once Upon a Time in the West (1968); The Way We Were (1973); The Godfather Part II (1974); Ordinary People (1980); --------------------------------- http://www.airwavemedia.com Please contact sales@advertisecast.com if you would like to advertise on our podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When Jesse Wente was a kid, he was given a stuffed penguin as a gift. He decided to name his penguin Danger Eagle, the stunt performing stuffy. Decades later, Danger Eagle has taken center stage in Jesse's first ever children's book. Since wrapping up his term as chair of the Canada Council for the Arts and with a bestselling memoir under his belt, he joins the show to share the stories that have influenced his own life the most. Plus, musician Girl Ultra recommends A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf.Books discussed on this week's show include:Watership Down by Richard AdamsThe Monster At the End of This Book by Jon StoneSteering the Craft by Ursula K. Le GuinIndian School Days by Basil H. JohnstonDanger Eagle by Jesse WenteA Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf

So many books are published each year; few stand the test of time. Today we devote our whole show to asking which works have shaped the way we behave and how we think. Picks include “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth and “Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien.Full list of books mentioned in the show:The BibleThe Koran“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins“On the Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin“Il Saggiatore” by Galileo Galilei“Two New Sciences” by Galileo Galilei“Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty“Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil PostmanThe novels of Philip PullmanThe Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling“The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley“A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth “Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien “A Room of One's Own” by Virginia Woolf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

So many books are published each year; few stand the test of time. Today we devote our whole show to asking which works have shaped the way we behave and how we think. Picks include “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, “Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen, “A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth and “Lord of the Rings” by JRR Tolkien.Full list of books mentioned in the show:The BibleThe Koran“Pride and Prejudice” by Jane Austen “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins“On the Origin of Species” by Charles Darwin“Il Saggiatore” by Galileo Galilei“Two New Sciences” by Galileo Galilei“Capital in the Twenty-First Century” by Thomas Piketty“Amusing Ourselves to Death” by Neil PostmanThe novels of Philip PullmanThe Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling“The Satanic Verses” by Salman Rushdie“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley“A Suitable Boy” by Vikram Seth “Lord of the Rings” by J.R.R. Tolkien “A Room of One's Own” by Virginia Woolf Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

durée : 00:59:31 - Le Book Club - par : Mathilde Wagman - Le comédien et réalisateur Nicolas Maury déballe pour nous ses rayonnages littéraires. ONous y découvrons ses écrivaines fétiches : Marguerite Duras, Virginia Woolf, Paula Cox ou encore Natalia Ginzburg. - réalisation : Cassandre Puel - invités : Nicolas Maury Cinéaste et comédien

Where have WE been? Where have YOU been!? This week, we sipped another Winc wine as we discussed Season 2 Episode 6: “Who's Afraid of Cory Wolf?” A red blend called “Illusion” paired perfectly with an episode we…sort of wish was just an illusion. If you don't want this one to go right over your head, we recommend watching the 1941 black-and-white film, “The Wolf Man”. Having seen Edward Albee's 1962 play, “Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” won't help—and neither will having read William Golding's 1954 novel, The Lord of the Flies, though both are superficially referenced in this bewildering episode in which Cory believes he's turning into a werewolf. While it's obvious to viewers that it's all an allegory for puberty, no one in the BMW-universe seems to pick up on that… Grab the remote and get ready to be…a little confused!

A Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather w/Tom Libby---00:00 - Welcome and Introduction - A Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather.04:25 - Opening A Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather.08:21 - Willa Cather Wrote at the Crossroads of Modernity.12:43 - Setting Goals and the Vagaries of New Year's Resolutions.18:01 - Check Out Jesan's Time Management Training Videos on YouTube. 25:24 - Joan Didion, Virginia Woolf, and What We Don't Say About the Patriarchy. 31:13 - Leaders Avoid Hiding in the Word Salad. 32:47 - Willa Cather's Story, with Hunger and Envy. 42:12 - Seinfeld's "The Strike," Festivus and The Death of Black Friday.45:04 - Societal Grievances, Commercialism, and Festive Celebration. 51:55 - Leaders Provide the Freedom to Voice Grievances without Repercussions.01:02:13 - Nietzsche, Cather, and the Myth of Eternal Return.01:06:14 - Millennials, Gen-Zers, and Gen X-ers.01:13:10 - The Potential of the Internet Needs to be Reconsidered.  01:20:47 - Drivers For Success When You Have Children vs. When You Don't Have Children 01:32:34 - Leaders Maintain a Consistent Culture on Teams.01:37:06 - Introspection and Goal Setting. 01:43:29 - Leaders Genuinely Care About People, Teams, and Success. 01:44:27 - Staying on the Leadership Path with A Burglar's Christmas by Willa Cather.---Opening and Closing theme composed by Brian Sanyshyn of Brian Sanyshyn Music.---Pick up your copy of 12 Rules for Leaders: The Foundation of Intentional Leadership NOW on AMAZON!Check out the 2022 Leadership Lessons From the Great Books podcast reading list!---Check out HSCT Publishing at: https://www.hsctpublishing.com/.Check out LeadingKeys at: https://www.leadingkeys.com/Check out Leadership ToolBox at: https://leadershiptoolbox.us/Contact HSCT for more information at 1-833-216-8296 to schedule a full DEMO of LeadingKeys with one of our team members.---Leadership ToolBox website: https://leadershiptoolbox.us/.Leadership ToolBox LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ldrshptlbx/.Leadership ToolBox YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJvVbIU_bSEflwYpd9lWXuA/.Leadership ToolBox Twitter: https://twitter.com/ldrshptlbx.Leadership ToolBox IG: https://www.instagram.com/leadershiptoolboxus/.Leadership ToolBox FB: https://www.facebook.com/LdrshpTlb ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

In this heartfelt and reflective episode of Inspiration Nation, Lee and Jose dive deep into the timeless wisdom of Virginia Woolf's quote: “There's no need to hurry. There's no need to sparkle. There's no need to be anyone but oneself.” Together, they unpack the importance of self-acceptance, authentic communication, and staying true to your unique voice—even when societal pressures push for conformity. From Jose's personal growth stories to Lee's musical discovery of “Make Your Own Kind of Music” by Cass Elliot, the duo highlights how embracing your true self not only sparks genuine connection but also fuels innovation, creativity, and inner peace.Whether you're navigating workplace dynamics, tough conversations, or public presentations, this episode offers practical tools and powerful anecdotes on how to stay grounded in your identity while still evolving. As Jose aptly puts it, “You sparkle most when you're not trying.” Packed with leadership insights, emotional intelligence tips, and Jefferson Fisher-inspired communication strategies, this conversation will leave you inspired to show up more confidently as you.

durée : 00:58:33 - Le Souffle de la pensée - par : Géraldine Mosna-Savoye - "Mrs Dalloway" ou comment Virginia Woolf critique subtilement les conventions sociales de la petite bourgeoisie et la société londonienne, à travers la journée d'une femme de la haute société, dans l'Angleterre de l'après Première Guerre mondiale. Une évocation de l'œuvre avec Belinda Cannone. - réalisation : Nicolas Berger - invités : Belinda Cannone Docteur en littérature comparée, romancière et essayiste

Jessica was the good Mitford sister. The English aristocrat who fought against fascism in the Spanish Civil War, then came to America and dedicated her life to social justice. According to her biographer Carla Kaplan, Mitford had the fierce, unruly life of a great muckraker. She was a Troublemaker in the best sense of the word. Unlike prudes like Upton Sinclair or Ralph Nader, she was hysterically funny—her voice as distinctive as Jane Austen's or Virginia Woolf's. She understood that bullies are driven by insecurity and paranoia, and she knew exactly how to punch them in the nose with her sharp upper-class English humor. So where are you now, Jessica Mitford? When the left desperately requires a good dose of humor and the right needs to be laughed at?Keen On America is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe

Did you think we already knew everything there was to know about Virginia Woolf? Think again! In this episode, Jacke talks to scholar and editor Urmila Seshagiri about The Life of Violet: Three Early Stories, which presents three interconnected comic stories chronicling the adventures of a giantess named Violet, which Woolf wrote in 1907, eight years before she published her first novel. The story of Seshagiri's discovery is nearly as fantastical as the stories themselves. PLUS literary biographer Jake Poller (Christopher Isherwood: A Critical Life) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. Join Jacke on a trip through literary England (signup closing soon)! The History of Literature Podcast Tour is happening in May 2026! Act now to join Jacke and fellow literature fans on an eight-day journey through literary England in partnership with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠John Shors Travel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Scheduled stops include The Charles Dickens Museum, Dr. Johnson's house, Jane Austen's Bath, Tolkien's Oxford, Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and more. Find out more by emailing jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com or masahiko@johnshorstravel.com, or by contacting us through our website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠historyofliterature.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Or visit the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠History of Literature Podcast Tour itinerary⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠John Shors Travel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Help support the show at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/literature ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠historyofliterature.com/donate ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 1908, Virginia Woolf wrote that she hoped to revolutionise the novel and ‘capture multitudes of things at present fugitive'. ‘To the Lighthouse' (1927) marks perhaps her fullest realisation of the novel as philosophical enterprise, and not simply because one of its central characters is engaged with the problem of ‘subject and object and the nature of reality'. In the final episode of their series, Jonathan and James consider different ways of reading Woolf's great novel: as a satirical portrait of her father through Mr Ramsay, as a study of creative expression through Lily Briscoe, or as a mystical, Platonic quest in which form and style respond to philosophical propositions, and the truth of human experience is to be found in movement, conversation and laughter. Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and to all our other Close Readings series, subscribe: Directly in Apple Podcasts: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/applecrcip⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ In other podcast apps: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://lrb.me/closereadingscip⁠ Read more in the LRB: Jacqueline Rose: Where's Woolf? https://lrb.me/cipep13woolf1 Virgina Woolf: The Symbol https://lrb.me/cipep13woolf2 John Bayley: Superchild https://lrb.me/cipep13woolf3

SLEERICKETS is a podcast about poetry and other intractable problems. My book Midlife now exists. Buy it here, or leave it a rating here or hereFor more SLEERICKETS, subscribe to SECRET SHOW, join the group chat, and send me a poem for Listener Crit!Leave the show a rating here (actually, just do it on your phone, it's easier). Thanks!Wear SLEERICKETS t-shirts and hoodies. They look good!SLEERICKETS is now on YouTube!For a frank, anonymous critique on SLEERICKETS, subscribe to the SECRET SHOW and send a poem of no more 25 lines to sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] com Some of the topics mentioned in this episode:– Pre-order Brian's book The Optimists! It's so good!– In Future Posts– Minor Tiresias– & Juliet by Max Martin and David West Read– Chicago by John Kander, Fred Ebb, and Bob Fosse– Six by Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss– Beetlejuice the Musical by Eddie Perfect– Little Bear Ridge Road by Samuel D. Hunter– Steppenwolf Theatre Company– Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? by Edward Albee– Horace & PeteFrequently mentioned names:– Joshua Mehigan– Shane McCrae– A. E. Stallings– Ryan Wilson– Morri Creech– Austin Allen– Jonathan Farmer– Zara Raab– Amit Majmudar– Ethan McGuire– Coleman Glenn– Chris Childers– Alexis Sears– JP Gritton– Alex Pepple– Ernie Hilbert– Joanna Pearson– Matt Wall– Steve Knepper – Helena Feder– David YezziOther Ratbag Poetry Pods:Poetry Says by Alice AllanI Hate Matt Wall by Matt WallVersecraft by Elijah Perseus BlumovRatbag Poetics By David Jalal MotamedAlice: In Future PostsBrian: @BPlatzerCameron: Minor TiresiasMatthew: sleerickets [at] gmail [dot] comMusic by ETRNLArt by Daniel Alexander Smith

Actress|Director from New ZealandKiwi actress, Morgan Bradley began her career in New Zealand as a child, fueled by a vivid imagination and a farm upbringing that taught her grit and a love of nature. She opens up to Margie about being bullied for standing out in a culture shaped by “tall poppy syndrome,” and how her curiosity—and refusal to shrink—shaped who she is.Morgan speaks candidly about navigating depression, discovering her self-worth, and learning to elevate her frequency by saying “yes” to life. Her career spans hosting Kid Zone to starring in Closer, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, and Rent, where she lived inside Mimi's fierce yet hopeful spirit.She shares her leap to America, her directing journey, and creating the life of philanthropist Marjorie Merriweather Post.This episode leaves you lifted—reminding you to find your joy, stand tall, and never stop saying yes.

Spy's Mate: A Conversation with Bradley W. Buchanan About Chess, Cold War Intrigue, and the Stories That Save UsAfter a few months away, I couldn't stay silent. Audio Signals is back, and I'm thrilled that this conversation marks the official return.The truth is, I tried to let it go. I thought maybe I'd hang up the mic and focus solely on my work exploring technology and society. But my passion for storytellers and storytelling—it cannot be tamed. We are made of stories, after all, and some of us choose to write them, sing them, photograph them, or bring them to life on screen. Brad Buchanan writes them, and his story brought me back.I'll admit something upfront: I'm not particularly good at chess. I love the game—the strategy, the mythology, the beautiful complexity of it all—but I'm no grandmaster. That's what made this conversation so fascinating. Brad has created an entire fictional world where chess isn't just a game; it's a matter of life and death, set against the backdrop of Cold War espionage and Soviet propaganda.His debut novel, Spy's Mate, weaves together two worlds I find endlessly intriguing: the intellectual battlefield of competitive chess and the shadow games of international espionage. But what makes this book truly compelling isn't just the plot—it's the man behind it.Brad is a retired English professor from Sacramento State, a two-time blood cancer survivor, and what he calls a "chimera"—someone whose DNA was literally altered by a stem cell transplant from his brother. He was blind for a year and a half. He nearly died multiple times. And through it all, he held onto this story, this passion for chess that manifested in literal dreams where the pieces hunted him across the board.When we spoke, what struck me most was how deeply personal this novel is beneath its spy thriller exterior. The protagonist, Yasha, is an Armenian chess prodigy whose mother teaches him the game before falling gravely ill. In a moment that breaks your heart, young Yasha asks his mother to promise she'll live long enough to see him become world chess champion—an impossible promise that drives the entire narrative.Brad wrote Spy's Mate after his own mother's death from blood cancer in 2021. When he told me he was crying while writing the final pages, I understood something essential about storytelling: we write to process what life won't let us finish. He gave Yasha the closure he wished he'd had with his own mother.But this isn't just a meditation on loss. Brad brings genuine chess expertise and meticulous historical research to create a world where the KGB manipulates tournaments, computers calculate moves at the glacial pace of one per hour, and Soviet chess dominance serves as proof of communist superiority. He recreates famous chess games with diagrams so readers can follow the battlefield. He fictionalizes Soviet leaders (his Gorbachev character is named "Ogar," his Putin figure has "the nose of a proboscis monkey") but keeps the oppressive atmosphere authentic.What I love about Brad's approach is that he wrote this novel almost like a screenplay—action and dialogue, visual and kinematic, built for the screen. Having taught Virginia Woolf while secretly wanting to write page-turning thrillers tells you everything about the tension between academic life and creative passion. Now, finally free to write full-time after early retirement due to his medical challenges, he's doing what he always wanted.We talked about the hero's journey, about Joseph Campbell's mythical structure that still works because it mirrors how our minds work. We reminisced about the 1982 World Cup and Marco Tardelli's iconic scream (we're the same generation, watching from different continents). We discussed whether characters should plot their own paths or whether writers should map everything from the beginning.As someone who writes short, magical stories with my mother, I understand the pull toward something bigger, something that requires more than 1,200 words can contain. Brad waited 55 years to publish his first novel. I'm 56 and still working up to it. There's hope for all of us yet.Spy's Mate is available now, with an audiobook coming after Thanksgiving. And yes, I can absolutely see this as a Netflix series—chess looks incredibly sexy on screen when the stakes are high and the lighting is good.Welcome back to Audio Signals. Let's keep telling stories.Learn more about Bradley and get his book: https://www.bradthechimera.comLearn more about my work and podcasts at marcociappelli.com and audiosignalspodcast.com Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

This is the second episode in a series called THE SPIRIT-ERA & ITS AFTERMATHS in which I look at the way spiritual, technological, and occult flourishings at the turn of the 19th into 20th century are still with us today.In the second installment in the series, I talk with ALLAN JOHNSON Professor of English Literature at University of Surrey, meditation coach, and author of the excellent book, The Sacred Life of Modernist Literature: Immanence, Occultism, and the Making of the Modern WorldIn that book, Allan states: “The occult has always walked the perilous line between desiring a textual form while resisting the possibility that this form can ever be completely achieved.”One of my big frustrations with spiritual influencers is that most of them don't seem to have a good grasp of art, but particularly literature. They do something like this: they read literature that has magical CONTENT and create metaphors and analogies that - all-too conveniently - mirror the lessons of their own esoteric view. And they generally reach for the usual suspects: Tolkien, Le Guin, Coehlo, etc.But the location of esoteric strength in literature is less in the content and much more in its FORMS and STYLES. These forms were brought to us most prominently in modernist fiction - in James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, Franz Kafka, and more. But also by poets like TS Elliot, Ezra Pound, and WB Yeats.In the works of modernist writers, the reader's involvement is demanded to complete the text. These are writers who initiate us as we read their works.This conversation with Allan offered the chance to explore ideas I'd been longing to talk about for years, I'm so excited to share them with you here.SUPPORT THE SHOW ON PATREONBuy Allan's book

Heart the Lover by Lily King is a gripping story of family, identity, life and love from the bestselling author of Writers & Lovers. Lily joined us live at B&N Upper West Side to talk about crafting an emotional arc, writing little moments between characters, details, process, vulnerability and more with host Miwa Messer.  This episode of Poured Over was hosted by Miwa Messer and mixed by Harry Liang.                     New episodes land Tuesdays and Thursdays (with occasional Saturdays) here and on your favorite podcast app. Featured Books (Episode): Heart the Lover by Lily King Writers & Lovers by Lily King The Pleasing Hour by Lily King The English Teacher by Lily King Father of the Rain by Lily King Euphoria by Lily King The Evening of the Holiday by Shirley Hazzard Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf To the Lighthouse by Virginia Woolf  

Drift off to the next chapters of Night and Day by Virginia Woolf. Support the podcast and enjoy ad-free and bonus episodes. Try FREE for 7 days on Apple Podcasts. For other podcast platforms go to https://justsleeppodcast.com/supportOr, you can support with a one time donation at buymeacoffee.com/justsleeppodOrder your copy of the Just Sleep book! https://www.justsleeppodcast.com/book/If you like this episode, please remember to follow on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or your favourite podcast app. Also, share with any family or friends that might have trouble drifting off Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Who were the men who built the Empire State Building? Glenn Kurtz returns to the show to tell their story with MEN AT WORK: The Empire State Building and the Untold Story of the Craftsmen who Built It (Seven Stories Press). We talk about how he accidentally fell into this project, how "turn every page" led him to a key discovery about Lewis Hine's photos of the Empire State construction, how his experience researching and writing THREE MINUTES IN POLAND helped him with this book, his childhood connection with the Empire State, and how identifying their subjects affects the mythic aura of Hine's photographs. We get into the corporate perspective of the building and how it dehumanizes the workers who built it, and similarly how that heroic collectivist notion of The Worker devalues workers as people, whether craftsmanship and artisanship survived the transition into mass production during the skyscraper era, Hine's authorial fallacy and the genius of his portraits, and what the Empire State says about the immigration-dynamics of the workforce and the role of unions, We also discuss the question of context and how the question, "What are we looking at?" can reveal the world, the resonance of Hine's Icarus/Sky Boy pic, the messiness of history, the joy of Virginia Woolf's diaries, why Glenn just wants to write a novel without it inspiring a nonfiction project, and more. Follow Glenn on Instagram and Facebook • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Stripe, Patreon, or Paypal, and subscribe to our e-newsletter

Katherine Mansfield's writing, said Virginia Woolf, "was the only writing I was ever jealous of." In this episode, Jacke talks to author Gerri Kimber about Katherine Mansfield: A Hidden Life, which explores the life and work of one of literary modernism's most significant writers. PLUS Jacke takes a look at the unusual friendship between poet W.H. Auden and the sex worker whom he hired, was robbed by, and befriended. And Kenneth Sacks (Emerson's Civil Wars: Spirit and Society in the Age of Abolition) stops by to discuss his choice for the last book he will ever read. Join Jacke on a trip through literary England (signup closing soon)! The History of Literature Podcast Tour is happening in May 2026! Act now to join Jacke and fellow literature fans on an eight-day journey through literary England in partnership with ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠John Shors Travel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Scheduled stops include The Charles Dickens Museum, Dr. Johnson's house, Jane Austen's Bath, Tolkien's Oxford, Shakespeare's Globe Theater, and more. Find out more by emailing jackewilsonauthor@gmail.com or masahiko@johnshorstravel.com, or by contacting us through our website ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠historyofliterature.com⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Or visit the ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠History of Literature Podcast Tour itinerary⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠John Shors Travel⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. The music in this episode is by Gabriel Ruiz-Bernal. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠gabrielruizbernal.com⁠⁠⁠⁠. Help support the show at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠patreon.com/literature ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠or ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠historyofliterature.com/donate ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the dance which, from when it reached Britain in the early nineteenth century, revolutionised the relationship between music, literature and people here for the next hundred years. While it may seem formal now, it was the informality and daring that drove its popularity, with couples holding each other as they spun round a room to new lighter music popularised by Johann Strauss, father and son, such as The Blue Danube. Soon the Waltz expanded the creative world in poetry, ballet, novellas and music, from the Ballets Russes of Diaghilev to Moon River and Are You Lonesome Tonight. With Susan Jones Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford Derek B. Scott Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Leeds And Theresa Buckland Emeritus Professor of Dance History and Ethnography at the University of Roehampton Producer: Simon Tillotson Reading list: Egil Bakka, Theresa Jill Buckland, Helena Saarikoski, and Anne von Bibra Wharton (eds.), Waltzing Through Europe: Attitudes towards Couple Dances in the Long Nineteenth Century, (Open Book Publishers, 2020) Theresa Jill Buckland, ‘How the Waltz was Won: Transmutations and the Acquisition of Style in Early English Modern Ballroom Dancing. Part One: Waltzing Under Attack' (Dance Research, 36/1, 2018); ‘Part Two: The Waltz Regained' (Dance Research, 36/2, 2018) Theresa Jill Buckland, Society Dancing: Fashionable Bodies in England, 1870-1920 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) Erica Buurman, The Viennese Ballroom in the Age of Beethoven (Cambridge University Press, 2022) Paul Cooper, ‘The Waltz in England, c. 1790-1820' (Paper presented at Early Dance Circle conference, 2018) Sherril Dodds and Susan Cook (eds.), Bodies of Sound: Studies Across Popular Dance and Music (Ashgate, 2013), especially ‘Dancing Out of Time: The Forgotten Boston of Edwardian England' by Theresa Jill Buckland Zelda Fitzgerald, Save Me the Waltz (first published 1932; Vintage Classics, 2001) Hilary French, Ballroom: A People's History of Dancing (Reaktion Books, 2022) Susan Jones, Literature, Modernism, and Dance (Oxford University Press, 2013) Mark Knowles, The Wicked Waltz and Other Scandalous Dances: Outrage at Couple Dancing in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries (McFarland, 2009) Rosamond Lehmann, Invitation to the Waltz (first published 1932; Virago, 2006) Eric McKee, Decorum of the Minuet, Delirium of the Waltz: A Study of Dance-Music Relations in 3/4 Time (Indiana University Press, 2012) Eduard Reeser, The History of the Walz (Continental Book Co., 1949) Stanley Sadie (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 27 (Macmillan, 2nd ed., 2000), especially ‘Waltz' by Andrew Lamb Derek B. Scott, Sounds of the Metropolis: The 19th-Century Popular Music Revolution in London, New York, Paris and Vienna (Oxford University Press, 2008), especially the chapter ‘A Revolution on the Dance Floor, a Revolution in Musical Style: The Viennese Waltz' Joseph Wechsberg, The Waltz Emperors: The Life and Times and Music of the Strauss Family (Putnam, 1973) Cheryl A. Wilson, Literature and Dance in Nineteenth-century Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2009) Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out (first published 1915; William Collins, 2013) Virginia Woolf, The Years (first published 1937; Vintage Classics, 2016) David Wyn Jones, The Strauss Dynasty and Habsburg Vienna (Cambridge University Press, 2023) Sevin H. Yaraman, Revolving Embrace: The Waltz as Sex, Steps, and Sound (Pendragon Press, 2002) Rishona Zimring, Social Dance and the Modernist Imagination in Interwar Britain (Ashgate Press, 2013)

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the dance which, from when it reached Britain in the early nineteenth century, revolutionised the relationship between music, literature and people here for the next hundred years. While it may seem formal now, it was the informality and daring that drove its popularity, with couples holding each other as they spun round a room to new lighter music popularised by Johann Strauss, father and son, such as The Blue Danube. Soon the Waltz expanded the creative world in poetry, ballet, novellas and music, from the Ballets Russes of Diaghilev to Moon River and Are You Lonesome Tonight. With Susan Jones Emeritus Professor of English Literature at the University of Oxford Derek B. Scott Professor Emeritus of Music at the University of Leeds And Theresa Buckland Emeritus Professor of Dance History and Ethnography at the University of Roehampton Producer: Simon Tillotson Reading list: Egil Bakka, Theresa Jill Buckland, Helena Saarikoski, and Anne von Bibra Wharton (eds.), Waltzing Through Europe: Attitudes towards Couple Dances in the Long Nineteenth Century, (Open Book Publishers, 2020) Theresa Jill Buckland, ‘How the Waltz was Won: Transmutations and the Acquisition of Style in Early English Modern Ballroom Dancing. Part One: Waltzing Under Attack' (Dance Research, 36/1, 2018); ‘Part Two: The Waltz Regained' (Dance Research, 36/2, 2018) Theresa Jill Buckland, Society Dancing: Fashionable Bodies in England, 1870-1920 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2011) Erica Buurman, The Viennese Ballroom in the Age of Beethoven (Cambridge University Press, 2022) Paul Cooper, ‘The Waltz in England, c. 1790-1820' (Paper presented at Early Dance Circle conference, 2018) Sherril Dodds and Susan Cook (eds.), Bodies of Sound: Studies Across Popular Dance and Music (Ashgate, 2013), especially ‘Dancing Out of Time: The Forgotten Boston of Edwardian England' by Theresa Jill Buckland Zelda Fitzgerald, Save Me the Waltz (first published 1932; Vintage Classics, 2001) Hilary French, Ballroom: A People's History of Dancing (Reaktion Books, 2022) Susan Jones, Literature, Modernism, and Dance (Oxford University Press, 2013) Mark Knowles, The Wicked Waltz and Other Scandalous Dances: Outrage at Couple Dancing in the 19th and Early 20th Centuries (McFarland, 2009) Rosamond Lehmann, Invitation to the Waltz (first published 1932; Virago, 2006) Eric McKee, Decorum of the Minuet, Delirium of the Waltz: A Study of Dance-Music Relations in 3/4 Time (Indiana University Press, 2012) Eduard Reeser, The History of the Walz (Continental Book Co., 1949) Stanley Sadie (ed.), The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 27 (Macmillan, 2nd ed., 2000), especially ‘Waltz' by Andrew Lamb Derek B. Scott, Sounds of the Metropolis: The 19th-Century Popular Music Revolution in London, New York, Paris and Vienna (Oxford University Press, 2008), especially the chapter ‘A Revolution on the Dance Floor, a Revolution in Musical Style: The Viennese Waltz' Joseph Wechsberg, The Waltz Emperors: The Life and Times and Music of the Strauss Family (Putnam, 1973) Cheryl A. Wilson, Literature and Dance in Nineteenth-century Britain (Cambridge University Press, 2009) Virginia Woolf, The Voyage Out (first published 1915; William Collins, 2013) Virginia Woolf, The Years (first published 1937; Vintage Classics, 2016) David Wyn Jones, The Strauss Dynasty and Habsburg Vienna (Cambridge University Press, 2023) Sevin H. Yaraman, Revolving Embrace: The Waltz as Sex, Steps, and Sound (Pendragon Press, 2002) Rishona Zimring, Social Dance and the Modernist Imagination in Interwar Britain (Ashgate Press, 2013) Spanning history, religion, culture, science and philosophy, In Our Time from BBC Radio 4 is essential listening for the intellectually curious. In each episode, host Melvyn Bragg and expert guests explore the characters, events and discoveries that have shaped our world.