logo
episode-header-image
Dec 2024
1m 54s

Franz Kafka - "Homecoming" - 1920

Peter Kovacs
About this episode
📚 Franz Kafka - "Heimkehr" (1920) 🏠🕰️

In Heimkehr, Franz Kafka captures the profound tension of returning to a place that is both familiar and alien. A young man steps into his father’s farmyard after a long absence, only to find himself gripped by uncertainty and estrangement. 🚪🌌 The desolate surroundings—a broken farmyard, a fluttering torn cloth, and the looming kitchen door—become a stage for his inner turmoil.Through vivid and symbolic imagery, Kafka explores themes of alienation, belonging, and the haunting distance between past and present. 🕊️❄️ His protagonist stands at the threshold of the known and unknown, embodying the fragile human struggle to reconcile memory and identity. A poignant reflection on the barriers between home and self. 🌫️✨
Up next
Jan 2025
H. G. Wells - "Under the Knife" - 1896
🌌✨ H.G. Wells - "Under the Knife" (1896) 🔮⚙️ A haunting meditation on mortality, consciousness, and the fragile line between life and death, set in the stark and sterile theater of a Victorian operating room. 🌌💉 In this profoundly introspective tale, H.G. Wells takes readers ... Show More
33m 46s
Jan 2025
H. G. Wells - "The Cone" - 1895
🌋⚙️ H.G. Wells - "The Cone" (1895) 🔥✨ A searing tale of industrial might, human passion, and the devastating consequences of betrayal, set against the infernal backdrop of a Victorian steelworks. 🌌🔗 In this dark and atmospheric narrative, H.G. Wells plunges us into a world of ... Show More
29m 5s
Dec 2024
Frederick Douglass - "My Escape From Slavery" - 1881
🌅🚂 Frederick Douglass - "My Escape from Slavery" (1881) ✊✨ A gripping and profound journey of courage, identity, and the relentless pursuit of freedom, set against the tense backdrop of antebellum America. 🌌🔗 In this compelling narrative, Frederick Douglass recounts his darin ... Show More
29m 45s
Recommended Episodes
Feb 2019
Episode 55, Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis (Part I - The Life of Kafka)
Published in 1915, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a gruelling and ironic depiction of the pressures imposed by family and profession in the Twentieth Century. The novella centres around traveling salesman Gregor Samsa who, one morning, finds himself transformed into an insect ... Show More
36m 31s
Feb 2019
Episode 55, Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis (Part II - The Plot)
Published in 1915, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a gruelling and ironic depiction of the pressures imposed by family and profession in the Twentieth Century. The novella centres around travelling salesman Gregor Samsa who, one morning, finds himself transformed into an insec ... Show More
49m 20s
Feb 2019
Episode 55, Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis (Part III - The Meaning)
Published in 1915, Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis is a gruelling and ironic depiction of the pressures imposed by family and profession in the Twentieth Century. The novella centres around travelling salesman Gregor Samsa who, one morning, finds himself transformed into an insec ... Show More
45m 45s
Jun 2024
La véritable histoire des manuscrits de Franz Kafka
Stéphane Bern raconte, alors qu’on commémore les 100 ans de sa disparition, comment les écrits d’un romancier devenu aujourd'hui l’un des plus célèbres du monde ont été retrouvés, édités - et même modifiés -, contre ses dernières volontés, à cause - ou grâce - à un ami, et de nom ... Show More
34 m
Jan 2025
War and Peace, Volume 1 by Leo Tolstoy ~ Full Audiobook
War and Peace, Volume 1 by Leo Tolstoy audiobook.Immerse yourself in the sweeping epic of 'War and Peace, Volume 1' by Leo Tolstoy, a masterful tapestry of human experience set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars that deftly combines the grandeur of history with the intim ... Show More
14h 33m
Dec 2024
Italo Calvino
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Italian author of Invisible Cities, If On A Winter's Night A Traveller, Cosmicomics and other celebrated novels, fables and short stories of the 20th Century. Calvino (1923 -1985) had a passionate belief that writing and art could make life bet ... Show More
48m 31s
Oct 2023
All Hallow’s Special: Sadegh Hedayat’s The Blind Owl
A Merry All Hallow’s Eve to Ye All! There will be a regular episode this Friday, but I can’t resist the opportunity to release an episode on the day of Halloween. Mynaa and I discuss a Persian novel concerning Nietzschean existential horror! Sadegh Hedayat grew up in the Iran of ... Show More
2h 2m
Aug 2024
Ludovico Silva, "Marx's Literary Style" (Verso, 2023)
In Marx’s Literary Style, the Venezuelan poet and philosopher Ludovico Silva argues that much of the confusion around Marx’s work results from a failure to understand his literary mode of expression. Through meticulous readings of key passages in Marx’s oeuvre, Silva isolates the ... Show More
1h 8m