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The Story of My Misfortunes
Autobiographies from remote historical periods can be especially fascinating.Modes of self-presentation vary greatly across the centuries, a…
Farewell
In his startling and tragic novella Farewell (‘Adieu’), Balzac adds to the 19th century’s literature of the hysterical woman: sequestered, c…
Samson Agonistes
“The Sun to me is darkAnd silent as the Moon,When she deserts the nightHid in her vacant interlunar cave.”Milton composes his last extended …
Art and Morality
“Who can help laughing when an ordinary journalist seriously proposes to limit the subject-matter at the disposal of the artist?”“We are dom…
Bel Ami
“He had faith in his good fortune, in that power of attraction which he felt within him - a power so irresistible that all women yielded to …
Confessions
"She was more to me than a sister, a mother, a friend, or even than a mistress, and for this very reason she was not a mistress; in a w…
Hero and Leander
“Who ever lov’d, that lov’d not at first sight?”The wonder-decade of the English drama was suddenly interrupted in 1592, when serious plague…
A Problem in Modern Ethics
“Society lies under the spell of ancient terrorism and coagulated errors. Science is either wilfully hypocritical or radically misinformed.”…
The Mabinogion
Sample a moment of magic realism from the Red Book of Hergest:On one side of the river he saw a flock of white sheep, and on the other a flo…
The Dancing Mania
Numerous theories have been proposed for the causes of dancing mania, and it remains unclear whether it was a real illness or a social pheno…
The Trespasser
Brief Encounter meets Tristan und Isolde - on the Isle of Wight, under a vast sky florid with stars. The consequence is tragic indeed for on…
The Greek View of Life
“With the Greek civilisation beauty perished from the world. Never again has it been possible for man to believe that harmony is in fact the…
Ecclesiastes
“... an alemaunde tre schal floure, a locuste schal be maad fat, and capparis schal be distried; for a man schal go in to the hous of his eu…
Zastrozzi, A Romance
“Would Julia of Strobazzo’s heart was reeking on my dagger!”From the asthmatic urgency of its opening abduction scene to the Satanic defianc…
The Girl with the Golden Eyes
Listeners who like to plunge straight into a story would do well to skip the lengthy preamble. Here, Balzac the virtuoso satirist depicts th…
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg is a delightful epic comedy conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano. The story follows Walther, who wi…
Trent's Last Case
Trent's Last Case is a captivating adaptation of E.C. Bentley's classic mystery. The story follows Philip Trent, a detective who is tasked w…
Trent's Last Case
Written in reaction against the solemnity of the Sherlock Holmes stories, "Trent's Last Case" features an ingeniously twisting plo…
Saturday Night Theatre
In this captivating episode of Saturday Night Theatre, we follow the story of a rare cinnamon plush bear named Theo, who was made in Germany…
Nicolas Freeling King Of The Rainy Country
In this gripping episode of Saturday Night Theatre, a handsome middle-aged millionaire mysteriously disappears along with a naked girl. Insp…