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
CultureBritish novels adapted into filmsBritish satirical novelsBritish novels adapted into television showsAllegoryEnglish novelsCensored booksDystopian novelsNovels adapted into comicsBritish novellasRoman à clef novelsNovels adapted into radio programsBritish political novels, Novels about propaganda, Novels about revolutionaries, Novels about totalitarianism, Novels by George Orwell, Secker & Warburg booksBritish novels adapted into playsFrankenstein
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
CultureFrame storiesWorks published anonymouslyNovels about revengeDisability in the artsNovels adapted into video gamesNovels adapted into balletsEpistolary novelsNovels adapted into radio programsBritish novels adapted into filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsNovels set in the 18th centuryBritish novels adapted into playsNovels set in GermanyBritish science fiction novelsCensored booksBritish Gothic novels1818 British novelsVegetarianism in fictionNovels adapted into comicsJames 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 novels adapted into filmsNovels set in LondonBritish novels adapted into television showsEnglish novelsBritish science fiction novelsCensored booksNovels adapted into operasNovels set in fictional countriesNovels adapted into balletsDystopian novelsSocial science fictionNovels adapted into radio programsBritish political novels, Novels about propaganda, Novels about revolutionaries, Novels about totalitarianism, Novels by George Orwell, Secker & Warburg booksBritish novels adapted into playsTess 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