Moby-Dick Big Read
Moby-Dick is the great American novel. But it is also the great unread American novel. Sprawling, magnificent, deliriously digressive, it stands over and above all other works of fiction, since…
Imaginary Worlds: The Father of Sword and Soul
Charles R. Saunders loved Tarzan as a kid, but he was also repulsed by the racism in those books since Charles was Black. So, he created a counter narrative about…
Dracula’s Paprika Hendl from Bram Stoker’s 1897 Novel
Tasting History with Max Miller
He Took the World to the Moon, From This French City
The bottom of the sea. The center of the Earth. A journey around the world in eighty days. And even a trip to the Moon. One man took us on…
American Masters: Edgar Allan Poe: Buried Alive
Discover the real story of the notorious author, starring Denis O’Hare as Edgar Allan Poe. This documentary explores the misrepresentations of Poe and reveals how he tapped into what it…
Allusionist 228. Draculae part 2: Surprises in the Vaults
This is the second episode of the Draculae miniseries, about a literary mystery which came to me via a meme: “Someone translated Dracula into Icelandic, and it took over 100 years for…
Allusionist 227. Draculae part 1: Enter the Castle
In this first instalment of a short series about three versions of Dracula, we familiarise ourselves with the plots of Dracula published by Bram Stoker in 1897; the Icelandic version…
The Flirtatious Regency Balls Of Pride & Prejudice
Pride and Prejudice was published over 200 years ago in 1813. It's an archetypal love story, but also an acute direction of Regency era society. But what hidden messages are…
History Extra podcast: Terrible puns and filthy limericks: the Victorian sense of humour
Queen Victoria was – so legend has it – famously 'not amused'. But, as Dr Bob Nicholson reveals in this episode of the HistoryExtra podcast, the long-lived queen did have…
The Secrets That Inspired Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights
Actress and writer Sheila Hancock has long been fascinated by the life and works of the Brontë sisters. In this programme, she searches for an answer to a puzzling question:…