Shakespeare's plays and poetry are some of the most towering achievements in the history of humankind. What was Shakespeare the person like? How did he work? What made him laugh? In this episode, Jacke talks to Sir Stanley Wells about his new book What Was Shakespeare Really Like? Then David Ellis (Byron: A Critical Life) stops by to discuss his choice for t ... Show More
Yesterday
826 The Essayist's Essayist - Phillip Lopate on the Pleasures of Reading Washington Irving and Other "Minor Writers" | Notes from the History of Literature Podcast Tour!
At the time of Washington Irving's death, he was the most famous and widely praised American writer of his or any other era. But his reputation soon dwindled, and today he's known primarily as the author of just two stories ("The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" and "Rip Van Winkle"), wh ... Show More
1h 19m
Aug 24
825 Henry James's Ghosts (with Morgan Lloyd Malcolm) | My Last Book with David Womersley
In 1895, Henry James suffered through a terrible failure, as his play Guy Domville was greeted by hoots, jeers, and tomatoes being thrown at the play's author. James responded by starting work on his masterpiece The Turn of the Screw, which tells the story of a governess and the ... Show More
1h 8m
Aug 17
824 Why Did Mary Shelley Try to Erase Her? The Claire Clairmont Story (with Emily Franklin) | My Last Book with Mathelinda Nabugodi
It's an often-told, momentous story: how in the summer of 1816, four friends, including famed Romantic poets Percy Bysshe Shelley and Lord Byron, along with Mary Godwin (soon to be Mary Shelley) and Byron's doctor John Polidori, gathered in a Swiss villa and decided to tell each ... Show More
1h 5m
Oct 2025
William Shakespeare: life of the week
William Shakespeare is one of history’s most famous names – but how much do we really know about the man himself? And how did his family, education and marriage shape his works and influence his worldview? Speaking to Emily Briffett, Dr Paul Edmondson charts Shakespeare’s story, ... Show More
44m 57s
Feb 2024
Shakespeare: playing with the past
Recently, we marked the 400th anniversary of the publication of the First Folio, a collection of plays by William Shakespeare. To celebrate this landmark in literary history, in today's Long Read, eight historical experts offer their takes on what the Bard's plays reveal about en ... Show More
24m 32s
Apr 2025
932. What is so great about Shakespeare? 🎭 (with Mum & Dad)
In this episode I talk to my parents about the topic of William Shakespeare. We discuss the enduring appeal and significance of William Shakespeare's work, biographical details of his life, the key themes in Shakespeare’s plays, and the impact of his language on modern English. W ... Show More
1h 30m