Close Readings (subscription)

London Review of Books
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Close Readings (subscription)

Close Readings is a new multi-series podcast subscription from the London Review of Books exploring different periods of literature through selections of key works. A new episode will appear every month from each of our Close Readings series running this year. This feed is identical to the 'free' version of Close Readings, which contains free extracts for non-subscribers. Subscribers can listen to all the full episodes in both feeds: https://podcasts.apple.com/ug/podcast/close-readings/id1669485143 RUNNING IN 2025: 'Conversations in Philosophy' with Jonathan Rée and James Wood 'Fiction and the Fantastic' with Marina Warner, Anna Della Subin, Adam Thirlwell and Chloe Aridjis 'Love and Death' with Seamus Perry and Mark Ford 'Novel Approaches' with Clare Bucknell, Thomas Jones and other guests ALSO INCLUDED IN YOUR CLOSE READINGS SUBSCRIPTION: 'Among the Ancients' with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones 'Medieval Beginnings' with Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley 'The Long and Short' with Mark Ford and Seamus Perry 'Modern-ish Poets: Series 1' with Mark Ford and Seamus Perry 'Among the Ancients II' with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones 'On Satire' with Colin Burrow and Clare Bucknell 'Human Conditions' with Adam Shatz, Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards 'Political Poems' with Mark Ford and Seamus Perry 'Medieval LOLs' with Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk

  1. 4 DAYS AGO • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Love and Death: Elegies for children by Ben Jonson, Anne Bradstreet, Geoffrey Hill and Elizabeth Bishop

    This episode looks at four poems whose subject would seem to lie beyond words: the death of a child. A defining feature of elegy is the struggle between poetic eloquence and inarticulate grief, and in these works by Ben Jonson, Anne Bradstreet, Geoffrey Hill and Elizabeth Bishop we find that tension at its most acute. Mark and Seamus consider the way each poem deals with the traditional demand of the elegy for consolation, and what happens when the form and language of love poetry subverts elegiac conventions. Read the poems here: Ben Jonson: On My First Son https://lrb.me/jonsoncrld Anne Bradstreet:In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet https://lrb.me/bradstreetcrld Geoffrey Hill: September Song https://lrb.me/hillcrld Elizabeth Bishop: First Death in Nova Scotia https://lrb.me/bishopcrld Read more in the LRB: Blair Worden on Ben Jonson https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v34/n19/blair-worden/the-tribe-of-ben Blair Worden on puritanism https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v34/n19/blair-worden/the-tribe-of-ben Colin Burrow in Geoffrey Hill: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n04/colin-burrow/rancorous-old-sod Helen Vendler on Elizabeth Bishop https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v15/n05/helen-vendler/the-numinous-moose Next episode: Two elegies by Thomas Gray: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44299/elegy-written-in-a-country-churchyard https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44302/ode-on-the-death-of-a-favourite-cat-drowned-in-a-tub-of-goldfishes

    1h 1m

  2. 10 FEB • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Fiction and the Fantastic: ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ by Jonathan Swift

    Jonathan Swift’s 1726 tale of Houyhnhnms, Yahoos, Lilliputians and Struldbruggs is normally seen as a satire. But what if it’s read as fantasy, and all its contradictions, inversions and reversals as an echo of the traditional starting point of Arabic fairytale: ‘It was and it was not’? In this episode Marina and Anna Della discuss ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ as a text in which empiricism and imagination are tightly woven, where fantastical realms are created to give different perspectives on reality and both writer and reader are liberated from having to decide what to think. Get the books: https://lrb.me/crbooklist Further reading in the LRB: Terry Eagleton: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v23/n16/terry-eagleton/a-spot-of-firm-government Clare Bucknell: Oven-Ready Children https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v39/n02/clare-bucknell/oven-ready-children Thomas Keymer: Carry Up your Coffee Boldly https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n08/thomas-keymer/carry-up-your-coffee-boldly Next episode: Marco Polo’s ‘Il Milione’ and Italo Calvino’s ‘Invisible Cities’.

    1h 1m

  3. 3 FEB • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Conversations in Philosophy: 'The Essence of Christianity' by Ludwig Feuerbach

    In 'The Essence of Christianity' (1841) Feuerbach works through the theological crisis of his age to articulate the central, radical idea of 19th-century atheism: that the religion of God is really the religion of humanity. In this episode, Jonathan and James discuss the ways in which the book applies this thought to various aspects of Christian doctrine, from sexual relations to the Trinity, and consider why Feuerbach would never have described himself as an atheist. They also look at George Eliot’s remarkable translation of the work, published only thirteen years after the original, which not only ensured Feuerbach’s influence in the Anglophone world but invented a new philosophical vocabulary in English for German thought. Further reading in the LRB: James Wood: What next? https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v33/n08/james-wood/what-s-next Terry Eagleton: George Eliot https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v17/n18/terry-eagleton/biogspeak

    51 min

  4. 27 JAN • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Novel Approaches: ‘Mansfield Park’ by Jane Austen

    On one level, ‘Mansfield Park’ is a fairytale transposed to the 19th century: Fanny Price is the archetypal poor relation who, through her virtuousness, wins a wealthy husband. But Jane Austen’s 1814 novel is also a shrewd study of speculation, ‘improvement’ and the transformative power of money. In the first episode of Novel Approaches, Colin Burrow joins Clare Bucknell and Thomas Jones to discuss Austen’s acute reading of property and precarity, and why Fanny’s moral cautiousness is a strategic approach to the riskiest speculation of all: marriage. Further reading from the LRB: John Mullan: Noticing and Not Noticing https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n22/john-mullan/noticing-and-not-noticing Colm Toíbìn: The Importance of Aunts https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v33/n06/colm-toibin/the-importance-of-aunts W.J.T. Mitchell: In the Wilderness https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v15/n07/w.j.t.-mitchell/in-the-wilderness Clare Bucknell is a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and hosted the Close Readings series On Satire with Colin Burrow. The Treasuries, her social history of poetry anthologies, was published in 2023. Thomas Jones is a senior editor at the LRB and host of the LRB Podcast. With Emily Wilson, he hosted the Close Readings series Among the Ancients. Next episode: ‘Crotchet Castle’ by Thomas Love Peacock.

    1h 23m

  5. 20 JAN • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Love and Death: Milton's 'Lycidas'

    Milton wrote ‘Lycidas’ in 1637, at the age of 29, to commemorate the drowning of the poet Edward King. As well as a great pastoral elegy, it is a denunciation of the ecclesiastical condition of England and a rehearsal for Milton’s later role as a writer of national epic. In the first episode of their new series, Seamus and Mark discuss the political backdrop to the poem, Milton’s virtuosic mix of poetic tradition and innovation, and why such a fervent puritan would choose an unfashionable, pre-Christian form to honour his friend. Read more in the LRB: Colin Burrow (on the 'two-handed engine'): https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n05/colin-burrow/shall-i-go-on Freya Johnston (on Samuel Johnson's criticism): https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n08/freya-johnston/own-your-ignorance Maggie Kilgour (on the young Milton): https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n20/maggie-kilgour/pens-and-heads Read 'Lycidas': https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44733/lycidas Read more in the LRB: Colin Burrow (on the 'two-handed engine'): https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v35/n05/colin-burrow/shall-i-go-on Freya Johnston (on Samuel Johnson's criticism): https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v46/n08/freya-johnston/own-your-ignorance Maggie Kilgour (on the young Milton): https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v43/n20/maggie-kilgour/pens-and-heads The next episode will include: Ben Jonson: On My First Son https://lrb.me/jonsoncrld Anne Bradstreet:In Memory of My Dear Grandchild Elizabeth Bradstreet https://lrb.me/bradstreetcrld Geoffrey Hill: September Song https://lrb.me/hillcrld Elizabeth Bishop: First Death in Nova Scotia https://lrb.me/bishopcrld

    1 hr

  6. 13 JAN • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Fiction and the Fantastic: ‘The Thousand and One Nights’

    ‘The Thousand and One Nights’ is an ‘infinite text’: it has no fixed shape or length, no known author and is transformed with each new translation. In this first episode of Fiction and the Fantastic, Marina Warner and Anna Della Subin explore two particularly mysterious stories in the context of the wider mysteries and pleasures of the Nights. ‘The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad’ highlights the pleasures of dreaming, the power of language and the imagination’s essential role in eroticism, while ‘Abdullah of the Sea and Abdullah of the Land’ demonstrates how the fantastic can help us imagine new ways of living. Further reading in the LRB: Marina Warner: Travelling Text https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v30/n24/marina-warner/travelling-text Steven Connor: One’s Thousand One Nightiness https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v34/n06/steven-connor/one-s-thousand-one-nightinesses William Gass: A Book at Bedtime https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v16/n21/william-gass/a-book-at-bedtime Marina Warner: ‘The Restless One’ https://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2024/june/the-restless-one NEXT EPISODE: ‘Gulliver’s Travels’ by Jonathan Swift, out on Monday 10 February. Get the book: https://lrb.me/sealenightsff

    1h 17m

  7. 6 JAN • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Conversations in Philosophy: 'Fear and Trembling' by Søren Kierkegaard

    The series begins with Søren Kierkegaard’s Fear and Trembling (1843), an exploration of faith through the story of Abraham and Isaac. Like most of Kierkegaard’s published work, Fear and Trembling appeared under a pseudonym, Johannes de Silentio, and its playful relationship to the reader doesn’t stop there. Described as a ‘dialectical lyric’ on the title page, the book works through a variety of formats in its attempt to understand the nature of faith and the apparently unsolvable paradox that the father of the Abrahamic religions was prepared to murder his own son. James and Jonathan consider whether Kierkegaard thinks we can understand anything, and what Fear and Trembling has in common with the works of Dostoevsky and Kafka. Further reading in the LRB: Jonathan Rée: Dancing in the Service of Thought https://lrb.me/cipkierkegaard1 James Butler: Reading Genesis https://lrb.me/cipkierkegaard2 Roger Poole: A Walk with Kierkegaard https://lrb.me/cipkierkegaard3 Terry Eagleton: A Long Way from Galilee https://lrb.me/cipkierkegaard4 James Wood teaches literature at Harvard University and is a staff writer for The New Yorker as well as a contributor to the London Review of Books. His books include How Fiction Works, The Broken Estate and The Irresponsible Self. Jonathan Rée is a frequent contributor to the London Review of Books and a freelance writer and philosopher. His most recent book on philosophy is Witcraft: The Invention of Philosophy in English. NEXT EPISODE: 'The Essence of Christianity' by Ludwig Feuerbach, out on Monday 3 February. LRB AUDIOBOOKS Discover audiobooks from the LRB, including Jonathan Rée's Becoming a Philosopher: Spinoza to Sartre: https://lrb.me/audiobookscip

    52 min

  8. 5 JAN

    Introducing ‘Novel Approaches’

    Clare Bucknell and Thomas Jones introduce their new Close Readings series, Novel Approaches. Joined by a variety of contemporary novelists and critics, they'll be exploring a dozen 19th-century British novels from ‘Mansfield Park’ to ‘New Grub Street’, paying particular (though not exclusive) attention to the themes of money and property. The first episode will come out on Monday 27 January, on Austen’s ‘Mansfield Park’. Clare Bucknell is a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and hosted the Close Readings series On Satire with Colin Burrow. The Treasuries, her social history of poetry anthologies, was published in 2023. Thomas Jones is a senior editor at the LRB and host of the LRB Podcast. With Emily Wilson, he hosted the Close Readings series Among the Ancients. The full list of texts for the series: Mansfield Park (1814) by Jane Austen Crotchet Castle (1831) by Thomas Love Peacock Wuthering Heights (1847) by Emily Brontë Vanity Fair (1847) by William Makepeace Thackeray North and South (1854) by Elizabeth Gaskell Aurora Leigh (1856) by Elizabeth Barrett Browning Anthony Trollope (TBD) Mill on the Floss (1860) by George Eliot Our Mutual Friend (1864) by Charles Dickens Washington Square (1880)/Portrait (1881) by Henry James Kidnapped (1886) by Robert Louis Stevenson The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) by Thomas Hardy New Grub Street (1891) by George Gissing

    8 min
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Close Readings is a new multi-series podcast subscription from the London Review of Books exploring different periods of literature through selections of key works. A new episode will appear every month from each of our Close Readings series running this year. This feed is identical to the 'free' version of Close Readings, which contains free extracts for non-subscribers. Subscribers can listen to all the full episodes in both feeds: https://podcasts.apple.com/ug/podcast/close-readings/id1669485143 RUNNING IN 2025: 'Conversations in Philosophy' with Jonathan Rée and James Wood 'Fiction and the Fantastic' with Marina Warner, Anna Della Subin, Adam Thirlwell and Chloe Aridjis 'Love and Death' with Seamus Perry and Mark Ford 'Novel Approaches' with Clare Bucknell, Thomas Jones and other guests ALSO INCLUDED IN YOUR CLOSE READINGS SUBSCRIPTION: 'Among the Ancients' with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones 'Medieval Beginnings' with Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley 'The Long and Short' with Mark Ford and Seamus Perry 'Modern-ish Poets: Series 1' with Mark Ford and Seamus Perry 'Among the Ancients II' with Emily Wilson and Thomas Jones 'On Satire' with Colin Burrow and Clare Bucknell 'Human Conditions' with Adam Shatz, Judith Butler, Pankaj Mishra and Brent Hayes Edwards 'Political Poems' with Mark Ford and Seamus Perry 'Medieval LOLs' with Irina Dumitrescu and Mary Wellesley Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk

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