Save Me From My Shelf

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our eighty-fifth episode, we finish our month-long miniseries on short narrative poems with Christina Rossetti's frustratingly UNambiguous and yet multi-layered sexual assault poem, 'Goblin Market' (1862). THIS is truly Abby's favourite poem, Daniel learns what a Labubu is, and we both get turned on by fruit.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: 'The Goblin and the Mosquito' by Florence Price. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our eighty-fourth episode, we continue our month-long miniseries on short narrative poems with Alfred Lord Tennyson's Arthurian retelling, 'The Lady of Shalott'. Abby thinks it's a banger, Daniel is generally unimpressed and concerned with toilet issues, and we get some very thinly-veiled sexual awakenings.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Wagner, Parsifal, Act I - 'Transformation Music'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our eighty-third episode, we continue a weekly, month-long miniseries on short narrative poems. Today we cover Samuel Taylor Coleridge's 1798 Gothic-Romantic-philosophical epic sea yarn, 'Rime of the Ancient Mariner'. We get amused by a bassoon and confused by the gloss, just as Coleridge intended. Probably.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Mendelssohn, 'Hebrides Overture'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our eighty-second episode, we start a weekly, month-long miniseries on short narrative poems, beginning with Alexander Pope's 1714 mock-epic, 'The Rape of the Lock'. Daniel is determined to not have wig-face, both our hosts share childhood hair-cutting trauma, and we learn that this is where fairies with wings comes from!Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Vivaldi, Concerto in D Major 1. 'Allegro'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The thirty-third episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Woman in White episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our eighty-first episode, we cover our first (and THE first) sensation novel, Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White (1860). Daniel gets pissed off at the narrative structure and the lack of concertinas, while Abby basks in the glow of some real bad biddies.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: 'Figaro' performed on the concertina by Daniel Jenkin-Smith Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The thirty-second episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Picnic at Hanging Rock episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our eightieth episode, we go to a new continent for the podcast (Australia) with Joan Lindsay's 1967 horror-mystery, Picnic at Hanging Rock. We do a combination Valentine's Day, summer, and Halloween episode as we talk about various teen lusts, revolting late-Victorian food, more revolting nature, and most revolting fake Australian accents.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Royalty-Free Didgeridoo Music, courtesy of YouTube. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The thirty-first episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Anne of Green Gables episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our seventy-ninth episode, we go to P.E.I. to cover some children's lit: Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables (1908). In this episode, we cover what might be our queerest text to date, are in raptures about 'puffy' sleeves, Gilbert Blythe, and the CBC adaptation from 1985, and slip the emotional Daniel a Prozac.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: George Grant-Schaefer, 'Tales of the Red Man'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The thirtieth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Vanity Fair episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our seventy-eighth episode, we cover Part Two of our possibly most requested text: William Makepeace Thackeray's satirical silver fork novel, Vanity Fair (1848). We address Daniel's unhealthy obsession with the posh 'ain't' accent, both hosts' loathing of George Osborne, and hear a surprisingly amount about curries.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Beethoven, 'Overture, Op. 72', Fidelio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our seventy-eighth episode, we cover Part One of our possibly most requested text: William Makepeace Thackeray's satirical silver fork novel, Vanity Fair (1848). We address Daniel's unhealthy obsession with the posh 'ain't' accent, both hosts' loathing of George Osborne, and hear a surprisingly amount about curries.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Beethoven, 'Overture, Op. 72', Fidelio. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The twenty-ninth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Lysistrata episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our seventy-seventh episode and International Women's Day Special, we cover one of the randiest, bawdiest texts we've had on the show: Aristophanes's sex-strike comedy, Lysistrata (411BC). We notice a dildo discrepancy, get a surprise visit from wee Donalbain, and get a lot of help from friend of the podcast (and Ancient Greek scholar) Fabio!Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Γω στα ξένα περπατούσα Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The twenty-eighth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Much Ado About Nothing episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our seventy-six episode and Valentine's Day Special, we go back to basics with a Shakespeare romcom: Much Ado About Nothing (i.e., a lot of fuss about a vagina). We lament the lack of effort given to masquerade balls, Daniel makes endless fart jokes (to Abby's increasing annoyance), grow weary of the Beatrice and Benedick schtick, and give some massive side-eye to Claudio and Hero's twisted relationship.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Philip Pickeet & Musicians of the Globe, excerpts from 'Nutmeg & Ginger', https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Inleiding_Nutmeg_%26_Ginger_(audio).mp3 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The twenty-seventh episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Phantom of the Opera episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our seventy-fifth episode and opener for Season 7 (a whole year of fan favourites and camp classics), we look at something a bit highbrow (the opera) in the pulpiest, trashiest way (through this book). We introduce our new imaginary producer, Diane, wonder if this should be our first musical episode, and learn that Raoul is more than just the most hated man on all of Broadway: he's also the most hated man in literature.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Verdi, 'Overture' in La Forza Del Destino. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The twenty-sixth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Uncle Tom's Cabin episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our seventy-fourth episode, and last in our season on banned books, we celebrate (?) Christmas with the inappropriately summery Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852). There are ample Simpsons and South Park references, we reveal that everything we knew about this book we both learned from The King and I, and Daniel gets annoyed by a Bookends slight AND by his own previously poor skills in name analysis.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: 'Ol' Man River'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The twenty-fifth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Lord of the Flies episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. This season, we are only looking at banned and controversial texts. In our seventy-third episode, and to celebrate Internation Men's Day, we look at our blokiest book yet: William Golding's Lord of the Flies (1954). Our accents get a workout, we debate the correct pronunciation of 'conch', and learn that they don't teach this kind of thing on Nickelodeon (or, indeed, Nick At Nite).Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Kampen Boys Choir, 'O Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The twenty-fourth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Dante's Inferno episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. This season, we are only looking at banned and controversial texts. In our seventy-second episode, we invite Friend of the Podcast (and Abby's best friend/medieval historian) Justine back to the show to school us on Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy. We focus primarily on the 'Inferno' section and get really caught up on Dante being a civil engineering girlie.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Motet, 'Ypocrite / Velut stelle / Et gaudebit' (14th century) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The twenty-third episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Catcher in the Rye episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. This season, we are only looking at banned and controversial texts. In our seventy-first episode, we look at a controversial text of teenage rebellion and grief-trauma that has attracted a LOT of weird loners over the years: J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye (1951). In this episode, Daniel takes a big L over David Copperfield, we have Buckfast at Tiffany's, spend a long time discussing Howard Hughes's design of the perfect bra, and realise that this should have been our Christmas episode.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Larry Wagner, 'Autopsy on Schubert' (1937). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The twenty-second episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Fahrenheit 451 episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. This season, we are only looking at banned and controversial texts. In our seventieth episode, Ray Bradbury's literary-based dystopia, Fahrenheit 451 (1953), we get one step closer to EGOT-ing, see more of Abby's French-Canadian Vermonter roots, process Daniel's early cinema trauma, and discuss some scholastic terms: fridging, Bowlderisation, and Futurismo.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Tchaikovsky, 'Valse Sentimental' by Clara Rockmore on theramin. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The twenty-first episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Fanny Hill episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. This season, we are only looking at banned and controversial texts. In our sixty-ninth episode (nice) we recap the first (?) known pornographic work to use the novel as its form: John Cleland's Fanny Hill, Or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748). We see a weaponised Measuringworth and learn the joys of giant maypoles, turtlebilling, and plenipontentary instruments.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: John Gay, 'Overture' in The Beggar's Opera (1728). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The twentieth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Streetcar episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. This season, we are only looking at banned and controversial texts. In our sixty-eighth episode, we recap Tennessee Williams's most famous work, A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). Abby stresses out after some massive audio equipment failure and Daniel reveals himself to be both the podcast's Brando AND a thriving gay man.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Daniel Jenkin-Smith, 'Trolley Problem'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The ninteenth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Ulysses episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. This season, we are only looking at banned and controversial texts. In our sixty-seventh episode, we examine the second half of James Joyce's 800-page inscruitable Modernist Masterpiece, Ulysses. Here we recap the 'Nausicaa' chapter, which got the book banned in the first place, and speculate on if such an achievement in literature angered the gods.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: 'The Rocky Road to Dublin'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. This season, we are only looking at banned and controversial texts. In our sixty-seventh episode, we examine the first half of James Joyce's 800-page inscruitable Modernist Masterpiece, Ulysses. We make lots of connections to the Odyssey and wonder if Joyce--the filthy bugger--might have put his penis (or something worse, given his pecadillos) in a popcorn tub at Dublin's first cinema.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: 'The Rocky Road to Dublin'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The eighteenth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Kite Runner episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal.This season, we are only looking at banned and controversial texts. In our sixty-sixth episode, we examine Khaled Hosseini's 2003 redemption-and-brotherhood melodrama, The Kite Runner. In this episode, Daniel feels seen, gives a shout out to his friends in the Taliban, and tells us what he'd do if ever gifted a copy of Hitler's biography. Abby, meanwhile, becomes the angriest she's been since the Pamela episode.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Ustad_Gada_Mohammad_-_RababaEpisode Theme: Ustad Gada Mohammad, 'Rababa'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The fifteenth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Handmaid's Tale episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal.This season, we are only looking at banned and controversial texts. In our sixty-fifth episode (which coincides with International Women's Day), we examine Margaret Attwood's dystopia about far-right misogyny, The Handmaid's Tale (1985). Turkey basters and Orwell klaxons at the ready!Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Gabriel Faure, 'Pie Jesu', Requiem. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The fifteenth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Duchess of Malfi episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal.This season, we are only looking at banned and controversial texts. In our sixty-fourth episode and Valentine's Day special, we spent some sexy time with Gustave Flaubert's adulteress, Madame Bovary (1856), which was immediately banned for offenses against morality under the conservative rule of Napoleon III. We also play 'Spot the "Big F*ck"', develop the hashtag #NotAllNuns, and watch a character go through a C19th French version of It's Always Sunny's 'The D.E.N.N.I.S. System'.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Charles Gounod, 'La nuit de Walpurgis' (Act V), Faust (1859), Performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The fifteenth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Duchess of Malfi episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our sixty-third episode, we open Season 6 with a look at banned and controversial books with John Webster's hyper-violent Jacobean revenge tragedy, The Duchess of Malfi (1614). This play gives us our first authentic himbo sting in a while, as well as an Oscars-worthy In Memoriam.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Carlo Gesualdo, Moro lasso al mio duolo (1611), Performed by the MIT Chamber Chorus. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The fourteenth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Little Women episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our sixty-second episode and Christmas Special, we plunge through the ice into Louisa May Alcott's bildungsroman and first strong example of girls' YA fiction, Little Women (1869). We declare an ethno-feud on the Germans, figure out which March sister is the Wario, and discuss which is worse (in Alcott's universe): hitting or hitting on a minor.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Émile Waldteufel, 'The Skaters' Waltz', Op. 183 (1882) Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The thirteenth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Heart of Darkness episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our sixty-first episode, we finally cover the most glaring omission on the show: Joseph Conrad's 1899 pre-modernism Imperial Gothic novella, Heart of Darkness. We close the circuit on our Things Fall Apart episode from S2 and get a cool International Man of Mystery sting which can sadly never be used in another episode.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Karol Szymanowski, 'Nocturne and Tarantella, Op. 28', 1915. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The twelfth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our The Bloody Chamber episode. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our sixtieth episode and Halloween special, we examine Angela Carter's feminist novella and Bluebeard retelling (which is NOT an adult version of a fairy tale), The Bloody Chamber (1979). In this episode, Daniel expresses Carter-fatigue and we praise Carter's depiction of sex with someone gross.Cover art © Catherine Wu.Episode Theme: Bela Bartok, Duke Bluebeard's Castle, an Opera in One Act, 1965. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.