Save Me From My Shelf: Recent Episodes
Abigail Boucher and Daniel Jenkin-Smith
We're friends and academics who take classic literature off its pedestal by making fun of it.
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The sixth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from our Midsummer Night's Dream episode.
You can hear us on an episode of Carl Sweeney's The Movie Palace here, in the last 5-10 minutes of the show, where we recommend our favourite pre-'70s film: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/classic-movie-recommendations-part-1/id1398503911?i=1000656989665
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifty-sixth episode, we celebrate midsummer with Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream (1605). We make a lot of (obvious) jokes about asses, Amazon, and fairy kink (despite not reading THE fairy kink book).
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: Felix Mendelssohn, A Midsummer Night's Dream 'Op 61'
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The fifth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from The Grapes of Wrath episode.
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifty-fifth episode, we recap John Steinbeck's 1939 Dust Bowl adventure, Biblical allegory, and socialist manifesto, The Grapes of Wrath. It's all pigs, sex, and pooping (a shocking amount of pooping). We discover the show's second mono-butt-cheeked character, Abby develops a backup plan for a life of crime, and Daniel goes on a rant about topsoil.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: 'Woody' on guitar and harmonica, by Daniel Jenkin-Smith.
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The forth episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from The Time Machine episode.
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our last episode, we went into the past. Now, in our fifty-fourth episode, we go way, way into the future with H.G. Wells's The Time Machine (1895). We workshop Save Me From My Shelf: On Ice!, turn into feral, biting Morlocks, and wonder what the hell is going on with time travel romances, both generally and in the Year of Our Lord BOOBIES.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: 'Gnossienne No. 1', Erik Satie.
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The third episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, resuscitate the Bad Sex Awards™, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from the Ivanhoe episode.
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifty-third episode, we cover the first proper Historical Novel™, Sir Walter Scott's extremely boring, Ren Faire-style medieval romp, Ivanhoe (1819). In this episode, Abby gets ghosted by her best friend and medieval scholar, Justine. Scott talks about nothing but clothing, pork, and boobs, and Daniel enjoys (?) all the invented names, the porn parody that would write itself, and all the tournaments which are really just medieval versions of Super Smash Bros.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: 'The Ballad of Robin Hood'.
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The second episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from the Rebecca episode.
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifty-second episode, Valentine's Day Special, AND Ash Wednesday spectacular, we look at Daphne Du Maurier's Cornish Gothic romance-tragedy-thriller, which is also a courtroom drama, police procedural, ghost story, and psychosexual horror. Daniel sings Edith Piaf, Abby references Nick at Nite shows, and we have the return of a great breakfast spread (separate from all the pilchard chat).
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: Phil Harris Orchestra, 'The Vamp' (1932).
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Abby and Daniel launch their first episode of SMFMS Bookends, the satellite show for Save Me From My Shelf. Here we read emails, answer listener questions, talk about what we're currently reading, watching, and playing, and provide further outtakes and analysis cut from the Scarlet Letter episode.
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our Season 5 opener and fifty-first episode, we return to Puritanical, repressed New England with Nathaniel Hawthorne's experimental, philosophical musing about adultery, guilt, religion, and haute couture, The Scarlet Letter (1850). Daniel debuts some strange accents and discusses his previous theatrical career. We also learn that sex is like pancakes: the first go is a write-off.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: Dvorak, 'String Quartet, No. 12, Op. 96' (1893).
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In Save Me From My Shelf's end-of-year wrap up for 2023, Abby and Daniel read listener letters, respond to audience questions, correct any Season 4 mistakes, and have a general retrospective on the past year on the podcast. Abby also reveals her tradition of Dark Christmas, Daniel is an unprepared boring bastard, and wee Donalbain makes a guest appearance.
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fiftieth episode and (anti-)Christmas special, we go into John Milton's Puritanical vision of the Fall of Man, Paradise Lost (1667) ... where Milton may just be of Satan's party. It's a world where God is both a mall security guard and the leader of a sex cult, and neither role explains his mysterious ways. Daniel discovers the word, 'Ayyyoooo!', Abby reminisces about '90s pop culture, and both of them hate Milton's Alt Jesus.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: Purcell, 'March' in Music for the Funeral of Queen Mary (1695).
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-ninth episode, we cover Edith Wharton's wintry New England romantic tragedy, Ethan Frome (1911). Abby goes to therapy live on the show, while Daniel obsesses over pickles and learns all about New England traditions (how maple syrup is made, sugar on snow, apple cider doughnuts). The hosts also both reveal that they are secretly lawyers.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: Swan Hennessy, 'Adagio: String Quartet No. 1, Op. 46' (1911).
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-eighth episode, we tell the tale of ambition, revenge, murder, Irn-Bru, bad accents, respeck, balls, breastmilk, and other people's awesome tweets in William Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' (1606).
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Themes: 'I Vow to Thee, My Country' (Wikimedia Commons); 'Moorland' (Kevin MacLeod).
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In the second part of our forty-seventh episode, we continue our recap of the short works of Edgar Allan Poe (1830s-40s): 'The Pit and the Pendulum', 'The Cask of Amontillado', 'The Black Cat', and 'The Raven'.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: Camille Saint-Saëns, 'Danse Macabre'
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-seven and big Halloween episode, we host our first anthology: the short works of Edgar Allan Poe (1830s-40s). In the first half of this anthology, we cover 'The Tell-Tale Heart', 'The Fall of the House of Usher', and 'The Masque of the Red Death'. We also hear a lot about our hosts' Halloween costumes, lots about asses, Abby's own disappointing masquerade experience, and Daniel's most uptight accent yet.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: Camille Saint-Saëns, 'Danse Macabre'
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-sixth episode--Ira Levin's The Stepford Wives (1972)--we move to the suburbs, eat a lot of Lobster Newburg, and watch nothing but Air Bud. Daniel also reveals his secret feminist tattoo, Abby puts out a dating advert, and we get a quick look-in from a legendary feminist: Grendel's Mother.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: John Philip Sousa, 'Thunderer March' - arranged by 'Free Tim'.
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-fifth episode, we delve into a world of cartoon references, James Bond-level panty dropping, questions for the BDSM community, and beards. Too many beards. It's Franz Kafka's 1925 paranoid, sadomasochistic dystopia, The Trial!
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: Alban Berg, '4 Stucke, Op. 5', performed by Steven Beck.
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Daniel and Abby answer listener questions about how they make the podcast, the best literary decades, overrated authors, giant ducks, and when to throw a drink in your mother-in-law's face (always).
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode themes: Mozart's 'Overture' to Don Giovanni.
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-fourth episode, we look at Mark Twain's satire on systematic racism and childhood trauma, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). It's full of bad southern accents, men painted weird colours, identity theft, and bounty (both financial and chocolate). We also learn that Abby is from Grade-A dirtbag stock, and that Daniel has clinical depression.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: 'Riffs on Tara' written and performed by Daniel Jenkin-Smith.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-third episode, we go back to ancient epics and probably the earliest text we can cover on this show: the Epic of Gilgamesh (circa 2100-1200 BC). In this episode, Daniel finds religion, Abby repents her punning ways, we see a glorious return of MeasuringWorth, and our hosts make way for the real star of the show: semi-standardised cubits.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Themes: Bach, 'Cello Suite No. 1 in G Major, VI. Gigue'; Baligh Hamdi 'Hobb Eih' on Arabic oud.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our forty-second episode, we get dark and dirty with Matthew Lewis's 1796 'Male Gothic' masterpiece, The Monk. Abby shows off her Bible learnin', Daniel speaks (and slurps) in tongues, and both of them scream forever into the void.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: Hector Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique, op. 14-5. 'Songe d'une nuit du Sabbat' (Igor Markevitch, Orchestre Lamoureux, 1962)
Daniel's homework on the blind prophet Tiresias got cut from our episode on Homer's The Odyssey, Part One. Please find the segment resuscitated here, for all your Greek mythology needs.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode themes: Mozart's 'Overture' to Don Giovanni.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In the second half of our forty-first episode, we cover the last twelve books of Homer's The Odyssey (circa 800 BC). It's a delicious world, full of roast goat stomach, pig spine, and onion-peel cloaks. It's a sexy world, with plenty of Groundskeeper Willy nudity. It's an emotional world, full of crying naps and rage murder. And above all, it's a man's world, with some of the strongest misogyny we've seen so far.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: Γκάιντα Ναούσης 1498 (Wikimedia Commons)
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. Sing, O Muse!, of our forty-first episode, the first twelve books of Homer's The Odyssey (circa 800 BC). Sing, of oil baths and endless sobbing! Sing, of sex and monsters and sex-monsters! Sing, of potty-humour and MILF Manor! Sing, of two exhausted academics who pinball from Olympus to Hades and all around the Aegean.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode Theme: Γκάιντα Ναούσης 1498 (Wikimedia Commons)
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fortieth episode, we make our first foray across la Manche in order to recap Voltaire's satirical picaresque, Candide, ou l'Optimisme (1759). In this episode, Daniel trots out his feeble/faible Franglais, Abby discerns a preoccupation with derrières lying at the bottom of an otherwise highly varied narrative, and both take a moment to lament with Voltaire that most oppressed group of the eighteenth-century world: philosophers.
Episode theme: Jean-Philippe Rameau, 'Gavotte and Variations' (1727), performed by Martha Goldstein.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In out thirty-ninth episode, our Audience Pick from Season Three, and Queer Con 2023, we recap our first Decadent text, Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray (1891). In this episode, we throw a hate party for Lord Alfred Douglas, discover that Abby is both already a queer icon AND knows what music is, and see if Oscar Wilde is funny enough to do a Save Me From My Shelf-style recap.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Richard Strauss, 'Tanz' from Salome, Op. 54.
Following on from our coverage of Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (1993), we have a bit of a roundtable chat with local hellscape expert, Liam Knight (AKA 'DystopiaJunkie').
In this bonus episode we discuss the differences and interactions between dystopian and postapocalyptic literature, explore these genres' preoccupations and their history, and explain why no budding survivalist should be without a garden gnome.
Liam's Youtube page (on which we're making a guest appearance) can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/@DystopiaJunkie
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In out thirty-eighth episode, we recap our first apocalyptic novel, Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower (1994). In this episode, Daniel redefines male fashion (monocles, Keith-core) and Abby traces real-world allegories, and both of them end the text shaking and traumatised under one of those tinfoil blankets.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Stickfigure, 'Spaghetti Western'.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In out thirty-seventh episode, we look at a candidate for first-ever English language novel: Daniel Defoe's shipwreck narrative, Robinson Crusoe (1719). In this episode, Daniel creates a TikTok challenge, witness G.O.A.T. husbandry, and learn to see the Face of God (by watching barley grow or getting violent, turtle-induce dysentery).
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Eric Coates, 'By the Sleepy Lagoon'.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In out thirty-sixth episode, we journey back to Revolutionary France with Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities (1859). We learn all about the historical novel, but are less certain about gay iconography, what constitutes clinical depression, and precisely what Dr Manette was up to with all those shoes.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Hector Berlioz, 'Symphonie fantastique, op. 14, 4. Marche au supplice'.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our Season Four opener, Valentine's Day special, and thirty-fifth episode, we recap D.H. Lawrence's controversial, court case-launching novel full of weird sex and four-letter words, Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928). The episode teaches us many things: the difference between the normal West and exotic East Midlands, the mystery of eggs, the effects of purple prose, and when we finally need to put that 'explicit content' warning up.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Claude Debussy, 'Reverie'; Samuel Corwin, 'A Man Approaches with Bowed Sitar, Rishikesh'.
Yet another sequence of brief clips that have been rescued from oblivion.
Thematically we're getting a bit thin on the ground here, and dressing it up as a hodgepodge, salmagundi, macédoine, zibaldone - or any other pompous way of describing a mishmash - would be to everyone's discredit.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode themes: Cliff Carlisle, 'Columbus Stockade Blues' (1930), and Anton Bruckner, Symphony 7 in E Major (1883) performed by the Berliner Philharmoniker.
A new, eagerly-awaited installment in the much-loved series of outtakes and bloopers.
Bald eagle-eared listeners may have noticed that the co-hosts of Save Me From My Shelf hail from different co(u)ntries, and that this is occasinally the so(u)rce of some acrimony. This bonus program(me) compiles those numero(u)s clips from the cutting room floor in which our transatlantic contretemps came to a head, and we really nailed o(u)r colo(u)rs to the mast. Who wins? Choose your fighter: Grover Cleveland or Michael Caine.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode themes: Scott Joplin, 'Maple Leaf Rag' (1899), performed by the US Marine Band (1906) and Gilbert and Sullivan, excerpts from 'H.M.S. Pinafore' (1878), performed by the Imperial Military Band (1907).
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our thirty-fourth episode and Christmas special/end-of-season finale, we recap C.S. Lewis's wintry Christian allegory, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950). Daniel gives us the gift of 'Measuringworth: Biblical Hermeneutics Edition' and Abby renames the Pevensie and Daniel's hypothetical pet beaver. This is also the second episode of the season with surprise cameos by both the Greek gods and Santa Claus. Brought to you by Mothers Against Wardrobes.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Tchaikovsky, 'Waltz of the Snowflakes', The Nutcracker Suite.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our thirty-third episode, the Pedants' Revolt keeps waging on with a series of rebuking letters. We also discover the villain origin story for villain origin stories in Jean Rhys's postcolonial modernist/postmodernist Jane Eyre-fan fiction masterpiece, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966).
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: 'Liva: biguine', performed by Mlle. Estrella and Orchestre Gudeloupeen A. Kindou.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In Part Two of our thirty-second episode, we keep the bawdy scatological humour up in the second half of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1400). It's all farts, penned-in sex-yards, and apologies to Jesus.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Anonymous, 'Weltliche Musik um 1300', performed by the Studio der frühen Musik
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In Part One of our thirty-second episode, we experience a whole lot of firsts: the first substantial work of English literature, our podcast's first guest spot, and the first time we gave up on an episode halfway through. Brace yourself for a bawdy, boozy, scatological good time with the first half of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1400).
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Anonymous, 'Weltliche Musik um 1300', performed by the Studio der frühen Musik
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our thirty-first episode and the second of two Halloween specials, we get properly scary with a ghost story full of ambiguous trauma, creepy children, and isolated country mansions: Henry James's The Turn of the Screw (1898). We also investigate the 'obscure hurt' a young Henry James did to his balls, speculate about hasty office sex, and introduce some weird factoids about the Aztecs.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Alexander Scriabin, 'Prelude No.1, Op. 67'
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our thirtieth episode and first of two Halloween specials, we cover the world's first (?) Gothic novel, Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764). It's got more gigantic sabres, private caves, disembodied ghost parts, and lists of soldiers than you can shake a stick at.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode themes: Mozart, 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusic ("Allegro")', Mozart, 'Requiem ("V. Rex tremendae')'; Orfeo, 'Toccata'.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our twenty-ninth episode, we answer the age-old question, 'What if socialism were a cop?' when we look at JB Priestley's 1945 anti-capitalist (Jean-Paul Sartre knock-off) play, An Inspector Calls. Today, we put our PhDs to work like never before, have a go at CSI: Miami stingers, and yearn for sexier content.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode themes: Kurt Weill, 'Violin Concerto, Op. 12' performed by the Gardner Chamber Orchestra, with Corey Cerovsek on violin.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our twenty-eighth episode, we court controversy with Vladimir Nabokov's surreal paedophile road trip, Lolita (1955). It's got more unreliable narration, 1950s consumerism, and untranslated French than you can stomach.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Tchaikovsky's 'Serenade for Strings', covered by Freddy Martin and his Orchestra
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our twenty-seventh episode, we return to Shakespeare--but with a comedy this time: the classic tale of twins, mistaken identity, and classic cis-direction, Twelfth Night (1601). In it, Daniel gives listeners of a particular SMFMS episode a scolding, Abby has a lot of anger and gender puns, and we make more than one Batman connection.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Tielman Susato, Danserye, Gaillarde, 'La dona' (1551).
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our Season 3 premiere and twenty-sixth episode, we read one of the world's (apparently) Most Boring Classics™ and take our first foray into Russian literature with Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1866). Abby gives some train trivia, Daniel reveals a fetish for clerks, and everyone faints forever.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Fëdor Shalyapin, 'Ey, ukhnem!'
More bonus content for the summer hiatus.
It's all about animals this time: all the ones Daniel hates, the ones that turn up in dreams, and the ones that our natural enemies (the Devonians) use to mock the Cornish.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Camille Saint-Saens, Carnival of the Animals, 'Finale'.
Another steaming bowl of bonus material coming your way.
This podcast, provisionally named 'Carry on up the Canon', has never shied away from the odd bawdy joke, except when sublimating these into food talk, so please enjoy some of the odder examples compiled into one handy reel.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: 'Sexy' by Benjamin Tissot
A bit of bonus material to tide you over during the summer hiatus.
The archives of Save Me From My Shelf are littered with cultural insights and aperçus which would have felt out of place in any particular episode, but needed to be heard. Here are some of the best compiled into one manageable reel.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 'Overture' to Don Giovanni, performed by the Fulda Symphonic Orchestra.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our twenty-fifth episode, End of Season 2, and End-Of-Year Special, we read George Eliot's 1861 proto-Realist/German Idealist/grudgingly sensational novel, Silas Marner. Come celebrate with us and Friedrich Nietzsche as we finally hear Daniel's real accent, produce a special range of S&M SMFMS whips, and eat some rum-ham.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode themes: Ludwig van Beethoven, 'Allegretto, Symphony No.6, Op.68 ("Pastoral")', performed and arranged by Paul de Bra.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. Our DoublePlusTolerable twenty-fourth episode covers George Orwell's 1949 totalitarian dystopia, 1984. If you're looking for an UnGood time, tune in for everything reeking of cabbage, adventures in antiquing, and surprisingly erotic sex scenes (the perverts). No need to DoubleThink twice!
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode themes: 'Spliff and Wesson' by Airglow.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. Our twenty-third episode features the Antichrist, an indictment of the £10 note, the King of Himbos, and some snippets from Daniel's erotic fanfiction when we cover Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813).
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode themes: Beethoven, 'Egmont Overture Op.84'; Boieldieu, 'Caliph de Bagdad' recorded by Richard Siegel.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. Our twenty-second episode is one extended queer reading--full of dodgy back doors, debauchery-filled strolls, and a vicious debate about if a mirror is weird or not--as we recap Robert Louis Stevenson's science fiction novella, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886).
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Franz Liszt, 'Totentanz'.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. Our twenty-first episode is full of intrusive THOTS, dawg-named babies, power bottoms, and 'inelegant horseplay' as we recap Tennessee Williams's screwball tragedy, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955).
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Gus Arnheim Orchestra, 'How Long Will It Last' (1931).
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. Our twentieth episode is nothing but potatoes, patriarchy, and proverbs with Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958).
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: 'Udu Sound' on Ibo drum (Wikimedia Commons).
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. Our nineteenth episode is all about S-E-X: we cover Daniel Defoe's 1722 raunchy crime-spree confessional, Moll Flanders. Abby gets turned on by a bandito in a cool hat, Daniel gets turned on by an economic value calculator, and Moll gets turned on by pretty much anything.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Christoph Schaffrath, 'Duetto in D-Minor for 2 Violas da Gamba'.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our eighteenth episode, we cover Virginia Woolf's trans, posho, time-traveling romp, Orlando (1928). Daniel once again gets into a row with medieval expert and enemy of the podcast, Justine; Abby once again gets into a row with friend of the podcast, Jonathan Swift; and we have 'Set the Scenes' on tap.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode themes: Orlando Gibbons, 'Fantasia A4, No.1 for Treble, Tenor & Bass Viols with Great Bass'; Ozan Yarman, 'Cumbus Tanbur Recording'; Antonio Vivaldi, 'Cello Concerto G Major - 1 Allegro'; Camille Saint-Saens, 'Cello Concerto No. 1 in A Minor, op. 33, i. Allegro Non Troppo' ; Bela Bartok, 'Divertimento For String Orchestra'.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our seventeenth episode, we go back to the first major English work: Beowulf. So, hwæt, dummies! Join us if you like endless gift giving interspersed with the most disgusting charnel-house violence possible, if your ideal hero a seven-foot tall wino, or if you think a poem itself can be a lesbian.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Alexander Nakarada, 'Catalyst'.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our sixteenth episode, we examine Shakespeare's most olfactory play. Abby celebrates a strong return of himbos to the podcast, Daniel conceptualises an award-winning Disney+ show, and we discover this is the Bard's only (?) work where someone sh*ts their pants out of love.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode themes: John Dowland, 'The King of Denmark, Galliard, Lachrimae, No. 11'; Thomas Tallis, 'Why fum'th in sight', from Archbishop Parker's Psalter.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifteenth episode and Valentine's Day special, we follow Jane Eyre on her angry quest to find love, avoid housefires, and not punch everyone she meets along the way. Abby and Daniel go on their own quests to worship St Valentine in the old ways and to finally become friends in real life.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Franz Liszt, 'Hungarian Rhapsody, No. 2'.
Theme music: Kevin MacLeod, 'Carpe Diem'; Rimsky-Korsakov, 'Flight of the Bumblebee', United States Air Force Band.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fourteenth episode and Season 2 premiere, we follow Lemuel Gulliver, Esq., as he poops his way around the globe, takes nipple rides, and develops linguistic connections in the Luggnaggian-Brobdingnagian language family.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Georg Philipp Telemann, 'Intrada Suite for Two Violins: Gulliver's Travels'.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our thirteenth episode and Christmas special, we see: lobsters glowing like an open fire, oysters nipping at your nose, Tiny Tim and his dad in a tank - marine life riddles Dickens's prose.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode themes: Sears/Willis, 'It Came Upon the Midnight Clear', performed by the Diplomats of the United States Air Force Band; Trad., 'The Coventry Carol', sung by the Oriana Madrigal Society.
Theme music: Gruber/Mohr, 'Stille Nacht', sung by Ernestine Schumann-Heink; Tchaikovsky, 'Trepak', Ballet Francaise Symphony Orchestra.
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our twelfth episode, Daniel premieres a quiz segment and gets himself all lusty over agriculture and metaphysics. Abby is mostly concerned with bitches: of the basic, brotherly, and rich varieties.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Gustav Holst, 'Second Suite in F for Military Band II'.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. We might have faces good for podcasting, but in our eye-watering eleventh episode, we discuss a face only a mother could love.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Constantin Brailoiu, 'Berceuse'.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our tenth episode, we talk rodents, list big American breakfasts, and do a lot of Harpo Marx impressions.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Ma Rainey, 'Slave to the Blues'.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our ninth episode (our bumper Halloween special) Abby and Daniel start a band, Dracula is uncovered a chronic masturbator, and himbos make a glorious return to the podcast.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Episode theme: Bartok's 'Concerto for Orchestra, Sz. 116'.
What the hell is 'forcemeat'?
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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our eight episode, Daniel embraces Puritanism, Abby embraces self-promotion, and John Proctor regrets embracing a thresher.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our seventh episode, we recap a very depressing great work of literature, wax lyrical about the back catalogue of Christopher Plummer, and have real different reactions to gross breakfast combinations.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our sixth episode, Abby develops a rage-ulcer and writes an award-winning K-Pop song, while Daniel has only love for waistcoats, evil Swiss guards, and Measuringworth.com.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifth episode, we do a lot of bad Katharine Hepburn impressions, get VERY hot and bothered about South Dakota, and disagree if every single character is a himbo or not.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fourth episode, we make huge assumptions about the medieval period, discuss the benefits of swearing, and imagine Peter Falk in sexier roles.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our third episode, we discuss the height differences of the Brontës, career alcoholism, and Daniel gets very excited about a tureen full of applesauce.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our second episode, we discuss Shakespeare, the benefits of casting Michael Cera, and if this play was potentially sponsored by Big Linen.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.
Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our pilot episode, we go to town on Victor Frankenstein, Most Hated Man in Literature™.
Cover art © Catherine Wu.