Novels adapted into operas
12 episodes
Episodes in this category also belong to the following categories:
A Christmas Carol
From Bah Humbug to God Bless Us Every One: Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Dickens' story of Scrooge's salvation by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Yet To Come.
16 December 2021
Featuring: Juliet John, Jon Mee, Dinah Birch
CultureBritish novels adapted into filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsBritish novels adapted into playsNovels adapted into operasVictorian novelsNovels adapted into balletsBritish novellasNovels set in LondonChapman & Hall booksBooks illustrated by Arthur RackhamNovels about time travelNovels set in the 19th century1840s fantasy novels, Ghost novelsDeath in Venice
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Mann's infamous novella of 1912, exploring the link between creativity and self-destruction.
15 June 2023
Featuring: Karolina Watroba, Erica Wickerson, Sean Williams
Don Quixote
Melvyn Bragg discusses the importance, originality and enduring appeal of Cervantes’ classic 17th century Spanish novel Don Quixote, a cornerstone of Western literature.
16 March 2006
Featuring: Barry Ife, Edwin Williamson, Jane Whetnall
Fielding's Tom Jones
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Henry Fielding's influential comic novel in which the hero Jones has such a fundamentally good nature that even his critics forgive his faults.
13 June 2024
Featuring: Judith Hawley, Henry Power, Charlotte Roberts
Journey to the West
Melvyn Bragg discusses the much loved Chinese novel from 1592, featuring Monkey, Tripitaka, Sandy and Pigsy, as they travel to India to bring back Buddhist texts.
20 May 2021
Featuring: Julia Lovell, Chiung-yun Evelyn Liu, Craig Clunas
Moby Dick
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Moby-Dick (1851) by Herman Melville, the story of Ahab and the white whale, the most popular of around 1,000 ideas that listeners submitted.
7 December 2017
Featuring: Bridget Bennett, Katie McGettigan, Graham Thompson
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 filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsBritish novels adapted into playsNovels adapted into operasCensored booksNovels adapted into balletsNovels adapted into radio programsEnglish novelsBritish science fiction novelsDystopian novelsNovels set in LondonNovels set in fictional countriesSocial science fictionNovels about revolutionaries, Secker & Warburg books, Novels by George Orwell, Novels about totalitarianism, Novels about propaganda, British political novelsTess 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 Great Gatsby
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great American novels of the 20th Century, where inexplicably rich Jay Gatsby aims to win Daisy Buchanan from her millionaire husband.
14 January 2021
Featuring: Sarah Churchwell, Philip McGowan, William Blazek
CultureNovels adapted into operasNovels adapted into comicsNovels adapted into balletsNovels adapted into radio programsModernist novelsNovels about adulteryMetafictional novelsMurder–suicide in fictionAmerican novels adapted into films, American novels adapted into plays, American novels adapted into television showsThe Tenant of Wildfell Hall
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Anne Bronte's story of the mysterious Helen Graham who seeks a new independent life as an artist after escaping her abusive, alcoholic husband.
30 September 2021
Featuring: Alexandra Lewis, Marianne Thormählen, John Bowen
Tristram Shandy
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Laurence Sterne's comic novel Tristram Shandy.
24 April 2014
Featuring: Judith Hawley, John Mullan, Mary Newbould
CultureNovels adapted into operasNovels adapted into comicsNovels adapted into radio programsPicaresque novels18th-century British novelsMetafictional novelsNonlinear narrative novelsBritish satirical novels1759 novelsSelf-reflexive novelsIrish novels adapted into plays, Irish novels adapted into filmsWuthering Heights
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Emily Bronte's story of Heathcliff and Cathy, of love, hatred, revenge and self-destruction across two generations in a remote moorland home.
28 September 2017
Featuring: Karen O'Brien, John Bowen, Alexandra Lewis
CultureBritish novels adapted into filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsNovels adapted into operasVictorian novelsNovels adapted into balletsFiction about suicideFrame storiesLove storiesWorks published under a pseudonymBritish Gothic novelsNovels about revengeNonlinear narrative novelsNovels set in YorkshireNovels set in the 18th century1847 British novelsFiction with unreliable narrators1840s fantasy novels, Ghost novels