All Episodes
Close Readings — 214 episodes
Who’s afraid of realism? ‘Seize the Day’ by Saul Bellow
London Revisited: The Road to Civil War
Narrative Poems: ‘The Ruined Cottage’ and ‘Michael’ by William Wordsworth
Nature in Crisis: ‘Braiding Sweetgrass’ by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Who’s afraid of realism? ‘Voyage in the Dark’ by Jean Rhys
London Revisited: Shakespeare’s City
Narrative Poems: ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ by Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Nature in Crisis: ‘Is a River Alive?’ by Robert Macfarlane
Who’s afraid of realism? ‘Mrs Dalloway’ by Virginia Woolf
London Revisited: The Protestant Capital
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Narrative Poems: ‘Tam o’ Shanter’ by Robert Burns and ‘Peter Grimes’ by George Crabbe
Nature in Crisis: 'Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth' by James Lovelock
Who’s afraid of realism? ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’ by Leo Tolstoy
The Man Behind the Curtain: ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley
London Revisited: Plague, Rebellion and Guilds
Narrative Poems: ‘The Rape of the Lock’ by Alexander Pope
Nature in Crisis: ‘The Burning Earth’ by Sunil Amrith
Who’s afraid of realism? Three stories by Anton Chekhov
London Revisited: The Medieval Capital
Narrative Poems: ‘Paradise Lost’ (Book 9) by John Milton
Nature in Crisis: ‘Blue Machine’ by Helen Czerski
Who’s afraid of realism? ‘Notes from Underground’ by Fyodor Dostoevsky
London Revisited: Mosaics, Archers and a Walled Garden
Narrative Poems: 'Venus and Adonis' and 'The Rape of Lucrece' by William Shakespeare
Nature in Crisis: ‘The Light Eaters’ by Zoë Schlanger
Who’s afraid of realism? ‘Madame Bovary’ by Gustave Flaubert (part two)
London Revisited: Roman Beginnings
Narrative Poems: 'Hero and Leander' by Christopher Marlowe
Nature in Crisis: ‘Silent Spring’ by Rachel Carson
Who's afraid of realism? 'Madame Bovary' by Gustave Flaubert (part one)
The Man Behind the Curtain: ‘Don Quixote’ by Miguel de Cervantes
Novel Approaches: ‘New Grub Street’ by George Gissing
Novel Approaches: ‘A Christmas Carol’ by Charles Dickens
Love and Death: Samuel Johnson, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Mick Imlah
Fiction and the Fantastic: A Taxonomy
Conversations in Philosophy: 'To the Lighthouse' by Virginia Woolf
Novel Approaches: ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’ by Thomas Hardy
Next Year on Close Readings: Realism, Nature, Narrative Poems and a history of London
Love and Death: Thom Gunn and Paul Muldoon
Fiction and the Fantastic: Two Novels by Ursula K. Le Guin
Conversations in Philosophy: 'The Sovereignty of Good' by Iris Murdoch
Novel Approaches: ‘Kidnapped’ by Robert Louis Stevenson
Love and Death: Elegies for Poets by Auden, Arnold and Schuyler
Fiction and the Fantastic: J.G. Ballard and Angela Carter
Conversations in Philosophy: 'The Fall' by Albert Camus
Novel Approaches: ‘The Portrait of a Lady’ by Henry James
Love and Death: 'Surge' by Jay Bernard and 'In Nearby Bushes' by Kei Miller
Fiction and the Fantastic: ‘The Hearing Trumpet’ by Leonora Carrington
Conversations in Philosophy: 'The Ethics of Ambiguity' by Simone de Beauvoir
Novel Approaches: ‘The Last Chronicle of Barset’ by Anthony Trollope
Love and Death: ‘Poems of 1912-13’ by Thomas Hardy
Fiction and the Fantastic: Stories by Jorge Luis Borges
Conversations in Philosophy: 'Sketch for a Theory of the Emotions' by Jean-Paul Sartre
Novel Approaches: 'Our Mutual Friend' by Charles Dickens
Love and Death: Family Elegies by Wordsworth, Lowell, Riley and Carson
Fiction and the Fantastic: ‘Frankenstein’ by Mary Shelley
Conversations in Philosophy: 'The Thing' by Martin Heidegger
Novel Approaches: ‘The Mill on the Floss’ by George Eliot
Love and Death: War Elegies by Whitman, Owen, Douglas and more
Fiction and the Fantastic: Mikhail Bulgakov and James Hogg
Conversations in Philosophy: 'The Will to Believe' by William James
Novel Approaches: 'Aurora Leigh' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Love and Death: ‘In Memoriam’ by Tennyson
Fiction and the Fantastic: Tales by Jan Potocki and Isak Dinesen
Conversations in Philosophy: 'Schopenhauer as Educator' by Friedrich Nietzsche
Novel Approaches: ‘North and South’ by Elizabeth Gaskell
Love and Death: Self-Elegies by Plath, Larkin, Hardy and more
Fiction and the Fantastic: Stories by Franz Kafka
Conversations in Philosophy: 'My Station and Its Duties' by F.H. Bradley
Novel Approaches: 'Vanity Fair' by William Makepeace Thackeray
Love and Death: Elegies for Poets by Berryman, Lowell and Bishop
Fiction and the Fantastic: ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll
Conversations in Philosophy: 'Autobiography' by John Stuart Mill
Novel Approaches: ‘Wuthering Heights’ by Emily Brontë
Love and Death: ‘Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard’ by Thomas Gray
Fiction and the Fantastic: ‘Invisible Cities’ by Italo Calvino
Conversations in Philosophy: 'Circles' and other essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Novel Approaches: 'Crotchet Castle' by Thomas Love Peacock
Love and Death: Elegies for children by Ben Jonson, Anne Bradstreet, Geoffrey Hill and Elizabeth Bishop
Fiction and the Fantastic: ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ by Jonathan Swift
Conversations in Philosophy: 'The Essence of Christianity' by Ludwig Feuerbach
Novel Approaches: ‘Mansfield Park’ by Jane Austen
Love and Death: Milton's 'Lycidas'
Fiction and the Fantastic: ‘The Thousand and One Nights’
Conversations in Philosophy: 'Fear and Trembling' by Søren Kierkegaard
Introducing ‘Novel Approaches’
Introducing ‘Love and Death’
Introducing ‘Fiction and the Fantastic’
Introducing 'Conversations in Philosophy'
Political Poems: ‘Little Gidding’ by T.S. Eliot
Among the Ancients II: Marcus Aurelius
Medieval LOLs: Gwerful Mechain’s ‘Ode to the Vagina’
Coming next year on Close Readings
Human Conditions: ‘Sister Outsider’ by Audre Lorde
On Satire: 'A Far Cry from Kensington' by Muriel Spark
Political Poems: ‘Station Island’ by Seamus Heaney
Among the Ancients II: Apuleius
Medieval LOLs: 'Tales of Count Lucanor' by Juan Manuel
Human Conditions: ‘Black Music’ by Amiri Baraka
On Satire: 'A Handful of Dust' by Evelyn Waugh
Political Poems: 'The Prelude' (books 9 and 10) by William Wordsworth
Among the Ancients II: Juvenal
Medieval LOLs: Boccaccio’s ‘Decameron’, Part Two
Human Conditions: ‘Discourse on Colonialism’ by Aimé Césaire
On Satire: 'The Importance of Being Earnest' by Oscar Wilde
Political Poems: 'Autumn Journal' by Louis MacNeice
Among the Ancients II: Tacitus
Medieval LOLs: Boccaccio's 'Decameron', Part One
Human Conditions: ‘The Souls of Black Folk’ by W.E.B. Du Bois
On Satire: Byron's 'Don Juan'
Political Poems: 'Goblin Market' by Christina Rossetti, feat. Shirley Henderson and Felicity Jones
Among the Ancients II: Lucan
Medieval LOLs: 'Sir Gawain and the Carle of Carlisle'
Human Conditions: ‘Hope against Hope’ by Nadezhda Mandelstam
On Satire: Jane Austen's 'Emma'
Political Poems: 'When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd' by Walt Whitman
Among the Ancients II: Plautus and Terence
Medieval LOLs: Solomon and Marcolf
Human Conditions: ‘The Golden Notebook’ by Doris Lessing
On Satire: 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman' by Laurence Sterne
Political Poems: 'Strange Meeting' by Wilfred Owen
Among the Ancients II: Lucian
Medieval LOLs: The Second Shepherds' Pageant
Human Conditions: ‘The Intimate Enemy’ by Ashis Nandy
On Satire: 'The Dunciad' by Alexander Pope
Political Poems: 'The Masque of Anarchy' by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Among the Ancients II: Plato
Medieval LOLs: Dame Syrith
Human Conditions: ‘A House for Mr Biswas’ by V.S. Naipaul
On Satire: John Gay's 'The Beggar's Opera'
Political Poems: 'The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim's Point' by Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Among the Ancients II: Pindar and Bacchylides
Medieval LOLs: Fabliaux
EHuman Conditions: ‘The Human Condition’ by Hannah Arendt
On Satire: The Earl of Rochester
EPolitical Poems: 'Easter 1916' by W.B. Yeats
Among the Ancients II: Herodotus
Medieval LOLs: Old English Riddles
Human Conditions: ‘Black Skin, White Masks’ by Frantz Fanon
On Satire: Ben Jonson's 'Volpone'
Political Poems: W.H. Auden's 'Spain 1937'
Among the Ancients II: Aesop
Medieval LOLs: The Colloquies of Aelfric Bata
Human Conditions: ‘The Second Sex’ by Simone de Beauvoir
On Satire: John Donne's Satires
Political Poems: Andrew Marvell's 'An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland'
Among the Ancients II: Hesiod
Medieval LOLs: Chaucer's 'Miller's Tale'
Human Conditions: ‘Anti-Semite and Jew’ by Jean-Paul Sartre
On Satire: 'The Praise of Folly' by Desiderius Erasmus
Introducing: Among the Ancients II
Introducing: On Satire
Introducing: Human Conditions
The Long and Short: Elizabeth Bowen
Among the Ancients: Seneca
Medieval Beginnings: The Travels of Sir John Mandeville
The Long and Short: Alice Oswald's ‘Dart’ and ‘Memorial’
Among the Ancients: Ovid
Medieval Beginnings: The Digby Mary Magdalene Play
The Long and Short: Nella Larsen's 'Passing' and Langston Hughes's 'Montage of a Dream Deferred'
Among the Ancients: Horace
Medieval Beginnings: Middle English Lyrics
The Long and Short: Ted Hughes's 'Gaudete'
Among the Ancients: Virgil
Medieval Beginnings: Chaucer's Troilus and Criseyde
The Long and Short: James Joyce's Dubliners
Among the Ancients: Lucretius
Medieval Beginnings: Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Long and Short: Allen Ginsberg’s ‘Howl’ and ‘Kaddish’
Among the Ancients: Catullus
Medieval Beginnings: Havelok the Dane
The Long and Short: D.H. Lawrence's short stories
Among the Ancients: Aristophanes
Medieval Beginnings: Le Roman de Silence
The Long and Short: Hart Crane's 'The Bridge'
Among the Ancients: Euripides
Medieval Beginnings: The Lais of Marie de France
The Long and Short: Katherine Mansfield's short stories
Among the Ancients: Sophocles
Medieval Beginnings: The Ancrene Wisse
The Long and Short: Henry James's short stories
Among the Ancients: Sappho
Medieval Beginnings: Bede's Life of Cuthbert
The Long and Short: Walt Whitman's 'Song of Myself'
Among the Ancients: The 'Odyssey'
Medieval Beginnings: Letters and Laments
The Long and Short: Tennyson's 'Maud'
Among the Ancients: The 'Iliad'
Medieval Beginnings: Beowulf
Modern-ish Poets Live! T. S. Eliot
Modern-ish Poets Series 2: Frank O'Hara and John Ashbery
Modern-ish Poets Series 2: Charlotte Mew
Modern-ish Poets Series 2: W. B. Yeats
Modern-ish Poets Series 2: Emily Dickinson
Modern-ish Poets Series 2: Derek Walcott
Modern-ish Poets Series 2: Louis MacNeice
Modern-ish Poets Series 2: Adrienne Rich
Modern-ish Poets Series 2: Robert Frost
Modern-ish Poets Series 2: Gerard Manley Hopkins
Encounters with Medieval Women: Margery Kempe
Encounters with Medieval Women: The Wife of Bath
Encounters with Medieval Women: Julian of Norwich
Encounters with Medieval Women: Mary of Egypt
Modern-ish Poets Series 1: Robert Lowell
Modern-ish Poets Series 1: Seamus Heaney
Modern-ish Poets Series 1: Sylvia Plath
Modern-ish Poets Series 1: Wallace Stevens
Modern-ish Poets Series 1: A.E. Housman
Modern-ish Poets Series 1: Stevie Smith
Modern-ish Poets Series 1: Thomas Hardy
Modern-ish Poets Series 1: Elizabeth Bishop
Modern-ish Poets Series 1: W.H. Auden
Modern-ish Poets Series 1: Philip Larkin