Catriona Seth
Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford
5 episodes
Appears in multiple episodes with: Katherine Astbury
Covers topics in categories such as:
Louis XIV: The Sun King
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and reign of the French king who built Versailles and took on the personal rule of his kingdom, becoming known as an absolute monarch.
25 May 2023
Also featuring: Guy Rowlands, Penny Roberts
Olympe de Gouges
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life, ideas and works of the Frenchwoman who wrote The Declaration of the Rights of Woman in 1791 during the French Revolution
21 April 2022
Also featuring: Katherine Astbury, Sanja Perovic
Culture18th-century philosophersFrench political philosophersFrench women philosophersWomen religious writersExecuted philosophersDeist philosophersExecuted writers18th-century French women writersFrench deists18th-century French philosophersWomen in the French RevolutionFrench abolitionistsFrench women dramatists and playwrightsFrench people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution, Executed French womenMaria Theresa
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the reign of the Empress who upended the European order while strengthening Austria through reforms, alliances and strategic marriages.
22 October 2020
Also featuring: Martyn Rady, Thomas Biskup
Marie Antoinette
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Austrian princess who, while still a child, married the future Louis XVI of France only to face hostility and death under the French Revolution.
8 November 2018
Also featuring: Katherine Astbury, David McCallam
HistoryFrench Roman CatholicsWomen in the French RevolutionNobility from ViennaDaughters of kingsQueens consort of FranceRoyal reburialsNavarrese royal consortsBurials at the Basilica of Saint-DenisPeople of the War of the First CoalitionFrench people executed by guillotine during the French Revolution, Executed French womenDaughters of emperors, Austrian Roman Catholics, Austrian princessesDauphines of France, Dauphines of ViennoisGermaine de Staël
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, works and life of Germaine de Stael (1766-1817), a literary critic, author, opponent of Napoleon and developer of Romanticism.
16 November 2017
Also featuring: Alison Finch, Katherine Astbury
Culture18th-century philosophersWriters from ParisFrench Roman CatholicsFrench women philosophersConversationalistsFrench feministsFrench women novelists19th-century French philosophersFrench literary critics18th-century French women writersWomen in the French RevolutionFrench salon-holders19th-century French letter writersPeople of the First French EmpireFrench travel writers19th-century French novelists, 19th-century French women writersRomantic philosophers, Converts to Roman Catholicism from Calvinism