Russian writer Mikhail Bulgakov’s most famous novel, The Master and Margarita, was written during the brutal 1930s Stalinist purges. It has become a cult classic; inspiring artists like Patti Smith and the Rolling Stones we ask why.
Jun 2022
Too Old To Run - the Drug Grannies ep 2
In the summer of 1978, Australian narcotics agents intercepted a campervan being unloaded on the Melbourne docks. What they discovered inside the van turned out to be the largest haul of an illicit substance, black hashish, to land on Australian soil at the time. The campervan be ... Show More
28m 35s
Jun 2023
518 The Curse of the Marquis de Sade - A Notorious Scoundrel, a Mythical Manuscript, and the Biggest Scandal in Literary History (with Joel Warner) | My Last Book with Diane Rayor
Not even imprisonment could stop the Marquis de Sade from writing his insanely intense, unrelenting erotica - and not even Sade's eventual death could stop his secret manuscript, temporarily hidden in a Bastille wall to protect it from looters and revolutionaries, from haunting i ... Show More
41m 54s
Aug 2021
D’Artagnan et les Trois Mousquetaires – d’après le roman d’Alexandre Dumas (1/3)
Au XIXe siècle, les écrivains romantiques développèrent un véritable goût pour l’Histoire. Ce fut le cas d’Alexandre Dumas qui, petit-fils d’une esclave haïtienne, devint bientôt l’un des plus grands écrivains français. Ses romans feuilletons tenaient au fil des épisodes leurs le ... Show More
15m 42s
Apr 2024
604 How Russian Literature Became Great (with Rolf Hellebust) | My Last Book with Valeria Sobol
Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov... the familiar Russian names are at the pinnacle of world literature. How did this happen? Was it merely a happy accident? Did events conspire to bring it about? In this episode, Jacke talks to Rolf Hellebust, author of How Russian Literature Became ... Show More
1h 4m
Jul 2023
532 Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
"It is directly obvious," said Virginia Woolf after reading Crime and Punishment, "that [Dostoevsky] is the greatest writer ever born." In this episode, Jacke takes a look at the classic novel of murder, guilt, and redemption, including the letter Dostoevsky wrote proposing his b ... Show More
1h 4m