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Secret Life of Books

Sophie Gee and Jonty Claypole
Secret Life of Books
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  • Oscar Wilde 1: The Happy Prince and Other Stories
    Few writers have blurred the boundaries between life and art quite so spectacularly as Oscar Wilde. In his writing, he challenged the moral standards of the time, advocated for Irish Nationalism and demanded tolerance of homosexuality. He wrote about decadence and the corruption of youth before going out in a fireball of scandal of his own making, his reputation shattered in the infamous trial that followed. So, was Oscar Wilde the great genius of his day or just a rather talented man with a knack for publicity? Was he a martyr in the history of gay activism, or just a self-absorbed pain in the arse? These are just some of the questions Sophie and Jonty are asking in the first of a four part series on Oscar Wilde. In this first episode, they look at his early years and how cultural and political movements of the time shaped his first great work - the seemingly timeless fairy-tales of The Happy Prince and Other Stories. Into these stories, Wilde condensed years of scholarship, literary criticism and the development of a personal aesthetic and philosophy. It is a short book and deceptively simple because these stories - like all the best fairytales - conceal deeper truths about human experience. Most importantly, through them Wilde found his voice as a writer, unleashing the extraordinary creative outpouring of the following ten years. Texts referred to: Oscar: A Life (2018) by Matthew SturgisAlice in Wonderland (1865) by Lewis Carroll Children’s and Household Tales (1812) by the Brothers GrimmDoctor Faustus (c.1594) Christopher MarlowePatience (1881) by Gilbert and Sullivan (extract from 1961 recording with John Reed) Study of the Greek Poets (1873) by JA Symonds Studies in the History of the Renaissance (1873) by Walter PaterSocial Life in Greece (1874) by John Pentland MahaffyDavid Copperfield (1850) by Charles DickensA Christmas Carol (1843) by Charles Dickens Hard Times (1854) by Charles DickensDracula (1897) by Bram Stoker Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • BONUS: More 'Rivals': Actor Katherine Parkinson on the joy of Jilly Cooper and playing Lizzie Vereker in the television adaptation
    Hot on the heels of our Rivals episode, Sophie and Jonty are joined by the actor and writer Katherine Parkinson - one of the stars of the recent adaptation for television. Katherine talks about playing Lizzie Vereker, wife of the ghastly James Vereker, and the satisfaction she finds in her characters's affair with Freddie Jones; why Jilly Cooper is the Jane Austen of the modern age; and why champagne is more than an optional extra when it comes to sex on screen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • Bollinger, Board Battles and Bonking Galore: Jilly Cooper's Rivals
    Jilly Cooper’s Rivals (1988) is the ultimate bonkbuster - a story of professional rivalry in the Cotswold’s fast-set with lashings of sex thrown in. It follows a wide cast of characters as they jostle for power, conduct affairs with one another’s spouses, eat terrible 1980s food and listen endlessly to Chris de Burgh’s Lady in Red. Rivals was marketed as an airport book back in the day, but beneath the brash cover is a sophisticated story that draws in surprising ways from classic literature to create what is now considered to be a modern classic. Sophie and Jonty why they are so drawn to Rivals, what we can learn about the 1980s from reading it today, and the ways in which it engages with a wide range of literary influences, including Austen, Trollope and Yeats, but also Valley of the Dolls and the works of Jackie Collins and Danielle Steele. BOOKS DISCUSSED/ALLUDED TO: Rivals (1988) by Jilly Cooper Mansfield Park (1814) by Jane Austen Pride and Prejudice (1813) by Jane Austen The Wind Among the Reeds (1899) by WB Yeats A Dance to the Music of Time (1951-1975) by Anthony PowellBarchester Towers (1857) by Anthony Trollope Possession (1990) by AS ByattOscar and Lucinda (1988) by Peter CareyBilgewater (1977) by Jane Gardam Middlemarch (1872) by George EliotCocktail (1988) screenplay by Heywood GouldLady in Red (1986) by Chris de BurghValley of the dolls (1966) by Jacqueline SusannThe Bitch (1979) by Jackie Collins Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • The Epic of Gilgamesh with Robert Macfarlane
    The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest surviving works of literature - an epic poem from ancient Mesopotamia, stitched together from fragments going back as far as 2100BCE. It tells the story of Gilgamesh, King of Uruk, his friendship with the wild man Enkidu, and his attempts to come to terms with his own mortality. Although incomplete, the essence of the story - and many passages - are preserved thanks to the work of dedicated Assyriologists past and present. To discuss this extraordinary work, Sophie and Jonty are joined by Robert Macfarlane, author of The Wild Places (2007), The Old Ways (2012), Underland (2019) and now Is A River Alive? (2025). Rob has been obsessed with Gilgamesh for many years - what it has to tell us about humanity and the environment. BOOKS REFERRED TO:The Epic of Gilgamesh (1999) translated by Andrew George Gilgamesh: A New English Version (2004) by Stephen Mitchell Gilgamesh: A New Translation of the Ancient Epic (2021) by Sophus HelleWe Have Never Been Modern (1991) by Bruno Latour Camera Lucida (1981) by Roland Barthes Civilization and its Discontents (1930) by Sigmund Freud The Country and the City (1973) by Raymond Williams People of the River (2021) by Grace Karskens Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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  • The Tortured Poets Department: Emily Dickinson, the Transcendentalists and, yes, Taylor Swift
    Emily Dickinson is probably the most famous female poet in the world. And yet – at least according to Dickinson mythology – her work could easily have gone unpublished. She wrote 1800 poems but published only 10 in her lifetime. Instead, she bound them into little bundles of paper, tied with kitchen string. These were found after her death by her sister Lavinia and after many stops and starts the first collection was published in 1890 by her friend and mentor, the critic and abolitionist Thomas Wentworth Higginson. It was an instant hit with 11 editions in less than 2 years.The spontaneity and freshness of the poems appealed to readers, as well as their fragmentary, transient, unfinished quality, as though they were moments of thought or feeling, grabbed out of thin air.She wrote about death and life, ordinary objects, the natural world, light, air, love and god with a kind of improvisational vim that proved timeless.The legend of Dickinson is more flamboyant than the writing, which is precise, miniaturist and modest. In this episode Sophie and Jonty talk about the relationship between Dickinson’s world in Amherst and her world on the scraps and fragments of paper she wrote on; the tensions between her reclusive persona and her prolific and highly professional writing life; her disdaining publication and her making sure that it would happen, and the ambiguities of her most intimate relationships. How has such a quiet and unforthcoming poet destined to become one of the most relatable, personal and confessional voices in the history of world poetry?Books etc referred to in this episode:Martha Ackmann These Fevered Days: Ten Pivotal Moments in the Making of Emily DickinsonCristanne Miller and Karen Sánchez-Eppler Oxford Handbook of Emily DickinsonDiana Fuss The Sense of An InteriorLisa Brooks The Common Pot: The Recovery of Native Space in the NortheastCharlotte Bronte, Jane EyreEmily Bronte, “No Coward Soul Am I”Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Sonnets from the Portuguese and Aurora LeighThomas Carlyle, Sartor Resartus and On HeroesRalph Waldo Emerson, EssaysHenry David Thoreau, Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, Cape CodIsaac Watts, HymnsTaylor Swift, The Tortured Poets Department.-- To join the Secret Life of Books Club visit: www.secretlifeofbooks.org-- Please support us on Patreon to keep the lights on in the SLoB studio and get bonus content: patreon.com/secretlifeofbookspodcast-- Follow us on our socials:youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@secretlifeofbookspodcast/shortsinsta: https://www.instagram.com/secretlifeofbookspodcast/bluesky: @slobpodcast.bsky.social Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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About Secret Life of Books

Every book has two stories: the one it tells, and the one it hides.The Secret Life of Books is a fascinating, addictive, often shocking, occasionally hilarious weekly podcast starring Sophie Gee, an English professor at Princeton University, and Jonty Claypole, formerly director of arts at the BBC. Every week these virtuoso critics and close friends take an iconic book and reveal the hidden story behind the story: who made it, their clandestine motives, the undeclared stakes, the scandalous backstory and above all the secret, mysterious meanings of books we thought we knew.-- To join the Secret Life of Books Club visit: www.secretlifeofbooks.org-- Please support us on Patreon to keep the lights on in the SLoB studio: https://patreon.com/SecretLifeofBooks528?utm_medium=unknown&utm_source=join_link&utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator&utm_content=copyLinkinsta: https://www.instagram.com/secretlifeofbookspodcast/youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@secretlifeofbookspodcast/shorts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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