Karen O'Brien
Vice-Chancellor of Durham University
16 episodes
Appears in multiple episodes with: Judith Hawley
Covers topics in categories such as:
Persuasion
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jane Austen's final completed novel: the story of Anne Elliot and Captain Wentworth, their broken engagement and their chance meeting 8 years later.
22 December 2022
Also featuring: Fiona Stafford, Paddy Bullard
Edward Gibbon
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and ideas of the writer of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, one of the most celebrated works of its kind.
17 June 2021
Also featuring: David Womersley, Charlotte Roberts
CultureFellows of the Royal SocietyTheorists on Western civilizationEnglish essayistsEnglish male non-fiction writersBritish male essayists18th-century English male writersBritish critics of religionsIrony theoristsRhetoric theorists18th-century English non-fiction writersAlumni of Magdalen College, Oxford18th-century English historiansBritish MPs 1774–1780English ProtestantsEnglish rhetoriciansFreemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of EnglandPeople educated at Westminster School, LondonMembers of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies, British MPs 1780–1784Frankenstein
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
Also featuring: Michael Rossington, Jane Thomas
CultureBritish novels adapted into filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsBritish novels adapted into playsCensored booksNovels adapted into comicsNovels adapted into balletsNovels adapted into radio programsFrame storiesNovels adapted into video gamesWorks published anonymouslyBritish science fiction novelsEpistolary novelsBritish Gothic novelsNovels about revenge1818 British novelsVegetarianism in fictionNovels set in GermanyNovels set in the 18th centuryDisability in the artsWuthering 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
Also featuring: 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 novelsHarriet Martineau
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Harriet Martineau who wrote extensively in the C19th on a wide range of subjects including abolition, and is called the mother of sociology.
8 December 2016
Also featuring: Valerie Sanders, Ella Dzelzainis
HistoryVictorian novelists19th-century atheists19th-century English novelistsEnglish travel writersEnglish atheistsEnglish women novelists19th-century English women writersEnglish abolitionistsFeminism and historyEnglish women philosophersWriters from NorwichEnglish writers with disabilities19th-century British economistsEnglish Unitarians19th-century English philosophersBritish women essayistsEnglish suffragistsVictorian women writersBritish scientists with disabilitiesBritish atheism activistsEnglish people of French descentPositivists19th-century English short story writersEnglish historical novelists, 19th-century English historiansAurora Leigh
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Aurora Leigh, Elizabeth Barrett Browning's novel-poem published in 1856, three years before her death in Florence.
24 March 2016
Also featuring: Margaret Reynolds, Daniel Karlin
Jane Eyre
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte, first published in 1847 under the pseudonym Currer Bell.
18 June 2015
Also featuring: Dinah Birch, Sara Lyons
CultureBritish novels adapted into filmsBritish novels adapted into television showsBritish novels adapted into playsVictorian novelsNovels adapted into balletsFiction about suicideLove storiesWorks published under a pseudonymFemale characters in literatureBritish Gothic novelsNovels set in the 19th centuryHarper & Brothers books1847 British novelsBritish bildungsromansSmith, Elder & Co. booksThe Bluestockings
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the Bluestockings, a group of prominent women intellectuals in 18th-century England.
5 June 2014
Also featuring: Elizabeth Eger, Nicole Pohl
Robinson Crusoe
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Daniel Defoe's seminal novel Robinson Crusoe. Published in 1719, it was an immediate success and is considered the classic adventure story.
22 December 2011
Also featuring: Judith Hawley, Bob Owens
Malthusianism
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss Malthusianism, the influential theory of population growth first articulated by the Reverend Thomas Malthus in 1798.
23 June 2011
Also featuring: Mark Philp, Emma Griffin
Women and Enlightenment Science
Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the role played by women in Enlightenment science.
4 November 2010
Also featuring: Patricia Fara, Judith Hawley
Edmund Burke
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the work of the philosopher, politician and writer Edmund Burke, whose views on revolution in America and France were hugely influential.
3 June 2010
Also featuring: Richard Bourke, John Keane
PhilosophySocial philosophersPhilosophers of historyPhilosophers of religionPhilosophers of culturePhilosophers of education18th-century philosophersPhilosophers of economicsNatural law ethicistsPolitical philosophersPhilosophers of artVirtue ethicistsClassical liberalism18th-century English male writersAlumni of Trinity College DublinHistorians of the French Revolution18th-century English writersEnglish libertariansIrish AnglicansBritish political philosophersEnglish people of Irish descentWriters from Dublin (city)StreathamitesAnglican philosophersConservatismCritics of deismRectors of the University of GlasgowBritish MPs 1774–178018th-century English philosophers18th-century Irish philosophersMembers of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituencies, British MPs 1780–178418th-century Anglo-Irish people, 18th-century Irish writers, 18th-century Irish male writersBritish MPs 1790–1796, British MPs 1784–1790Irish Freemasons, Irish people of English descent, Irish libertariansMary Wollstonecraft
Melvyn Bragg and guests John Mullan, Karen O'Brien and Barbara Taylor discuss the life and ideas of the pioneering British Enlightenment thinker Mary Wollstonecraft.
31 December 2009
Also featuring: John Mullan, Barbara Taylor
PhilosophyEnlightenment philosophersEnglish essayistsEnglish travel writersWriters of Gothic fictionEnglish women novelistsBritish philosophers of educationScholars of feminist philosophyHistorians of the French RevolutionEnglish philosophersEnglish republicansEnglish women philosophersEnglish UnitariansFounders of English schools and collegesGerman–English translators18th-century British philosophersEnglish educational theoristsBritish women essayists18th-century English novelists18th-century British essayistsBurials at St Pancras Old Church18th-century English historiansDeaths in childbirthFrench–English translatorsFeminist theoristsPeople from Somers Town, LondonGodwin familyEnglish feminists, English feminist writersThe Social Contract
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Social Contract. A key idea in political philosophy, it states that political authority is held through a contract with those to be ruled.
7 February 2008
Also featuring: Melissa Lane, Susan James
Epistolary Literature
Melvyn Bragg discusses the 18th Century fashion for epistolary literature including Aphra Benn, Samuel Richardson and Jane Austen.
15 March 2007
Also featuring: John Mullan, Brean Hammond
The Enlightenment in Scotland
Melvyn Bragg discusses the emergence and impact of the Scottish Enlightenment which was led by the philosopher David Hume and the father of modern economics, Adam Smith.
5 December 2002
Also featuring: Tom Devine, Alexander Broadie