Censored books
Book censorship is the act of some authority taking measures to suppress ideas and information within a book. Censorship is "the regulation of free speech and other forms of entrenched authority".
11 episodes
Episodes in this category also belong to the following categories:
Animal Farm
4 Extra Debut. Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss George Orwell's Animal Farm, which he struggled to publish in WW2 as the USSR was an ally. From 2016.
29 September 2016
Featuring: Steven Connor, Mary Vincent, Robert Colls
CultureDystopian novelsNovels adapted into radio programsRoman à clef novelsBritish novellasBritish novels adapted into television showsEnglish novelsBritish novels adapted into filmsCensored booksBritish political novels, Novels about propaganda, Novels about revolutionaries, Novels about totalitarianism, Novels by George Orwell, Secker & Warburg booksNovels adapted into comicsBritish satirical novelsAllegoryBritish novels adapted into playsBookFrankenstein
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mary Shelley's story of Victor Frankenstein and the creature he makes from cadavers and then rejects - only for the monster to take his revenge
16 May 2019
Featuring: Karen O'Brien, Michael Rossington, Jane Thomas
CultureEpistolary novelsCensored booksBritish novels adapted into playsFrame stories1818 British novelsDisability in the artsWorks published anonymouslyNovels adapted into balletsNovels set in GermanyNovels adapted into comicsNovels adapted into video gamesBritish science fiction novelsNovels adapted into radio programsBritish Gothic novelsBritish novels adapted into filmsNovels set in the 18th centuryNovels about revengeVegetarianism in fictionBritish novels adapted into television shows18th century20th centuryBookJames Joyce's Ulysses
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss James Joyce's celebrated novel Ulysses.
14 June 2012
Featuring: Steven Connor, Jeri Johnson, Richard Brown
Lysistrata
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aristophanes' outrageous comedy from 411BC in which the women of Athens and Sparta bring their warring husbands to peace by staging a sex strike.
11 April 2024
Featuring: Paul Cartledge, Sarah Miles, James Robson
Madame Bovary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the literary sensation caused by the trial for indecency of Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary.
12 July 2007
Featuring: Andy Martin, Mary Orr, Robert Gildea
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Orwell's dystopian novel where the state rewrites history, war is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength - and Big Brother is watching you
15 September 2022
Featuring: David Dwan, Lisa Mullen, John Bowen
CultureBritish science fiction novelsNovels adapted into radio programsNovels adapted into balletsDystopian novelsBritish novels adapted into television showsEnglish novelsNovels set in fictional countriesBritish novels adapted into filmsNovels adapted into operasCensored booksSocial science fictionBritish political novels, Novels about propaganda, Novels about revolutionaries, Novels about totalitarianism, Novels by George Orwell, Secker & Warburg booksNovels set in LondonBritish novels adapted into playsBookTess of the d'Urbervilles
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Tess of the d'Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy, which challenged Victorian morality and made Hardy's fortune when published in the 1890s.
5 May 2016
Featuring: Dinah Birch, Francis O'Gorman, Jane Thomas
The Encyclopédie
Melvyn Bragg discusses the French encyclopédie, one of the great achievements of the Enlightenment with contributors such as Voltaire, Rousseau, D’Alembert and Dennis Diderot.
26 October 2006
Featuring: Judith Hawley, Caroline Warman, David Wootton
The Talmud
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Talmud, the written version of Jewish oral law and one of the most important texts of Judaism.
29 May 2014
Featuring: Philip Alexander, Norman Solomon, Laliv Clenman
Uncle Tom's Cabin
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss 'Uncle Tom's Cabin', the bestselling American novel of the 19th century which has slavery as its central theme.
8 June 2006
Featuring: Celeste-Marie Bernier, Sarah Meer, Clive Webb
Voltaire's Candide
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Voltaire's satirical novel Candide, first published in 1759.
3 May 2012
Featuring: David Wootton, Nicholas Cronk, Caroline Warman