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
Culture18th-century English male writersBritish male essayistsEnglish essayists18th-century English non-fiction writers18th-century English historiansBritish MPs 1780–1784, Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituenciesBritish MPs 1774–1780Alumni of Magdalen College, OxfordFreemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of EnglandEnglish male non-fiction writersBritish critics of religionsEnglish rhetoriciansRhetoric theoristsIrony theoristsPeople educated at Westminster School, LondonFellows of the Royal SocietyEnglish ProtestantsTheorists on Western civilization18th centuryFrankenstein
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
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 centuryBookWuthering 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
CultureNovels adapted into balletsFiction about suicideBritish Gothic novelsVictorian novelsBritish novels adapted into television showsNovels set in YorkshireFiction with unreliable narratorsBritish novels adapted into filmsNovels adapted into operasNonlinear narrative novelsNovels set in the 18th century1847 British novelsLove stories1840s fantasy novels, Ghost novelsNovels about revengeFrame storiesWorks published under a pseudonym18th century19th centuryBookHarriet 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
History19th-century English women writersEnglish women novelists19th-century English philosophers19th-century English historians19th-century English novelistsBritish women essayistsFeminism and historyEnglish women philosophers19th-century British economists19th-century atheistsVictorian novelists19th-century English short story writersBritish atheism activistsEnglish abolitionistsEnglish UnitariansEnglish people of French descentEnglish writers with disabilitiesBritish scientists with disabilitiesEnglish atheistsPositivistsVictorian women writersWriters from NorwichEnglish historical novelistsEnglish travel writersEnglish suffragists19th centuryEconomicsAurora 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
CultureNovels adapted into balletsFiction about suicideBritish Gothic novelsVictorian novelsBritish novels adapted into television showsHarper & Brothers booksBritish bildungsromansBritish novels adapted into films1847 British novelsLove storiesFemale characters in literatureNovels set in the 19th centurySmith, Elder & Co. booksBritish novels adapted into playsWorks published under a pseudonym19th centuryBookThe 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
CultureNovels adapted into radio programsMaritime folkloreBritish novels adapted into television shows18th-century British novelsMale characters in literatureBritish novels adapted into filmsAtlantic slave tradeAdventure film charactersNovels adapted into comicsBritish novels adapted into plays18th centuryBookEconomicsMalthusianism
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
Philosophy18th-century Irish philosophers18th-century Irish writersPhilosophers of cultureIrish Freemasons, Irish libertarians, Irish people of English descentBritish MPs 1774–1780Rectors of the University of GlasgowBritish MPs 1784–1790, British MPs 1790–1796Virtue ethicistsPhilosophers of religionCritics of deismEnglish libertariansHistorians of the French RevolutionAlumni of Trinity College Dublin18th-century philosophersEnglish people of Irish descentPhilosophers of education18th-century English philosophersPhilosophers of art18th-century English male writersStreathamitesPolitical philosophersClassical liberalismPhilosophers of historyBritish MPs 1780–1784, Members of the Parliament of Great Britain for English constituenciesWriters from Dublin (city)18th-century English writersBritish political philosophersIrish AnglicansConservatismPhilosophers of economicsSocial philosophersNatural law ethicists18th-century Anglo-Irish people, 18th-century Irish male writersAnglican philosophers18th centuryEconomicsFranceIrelandMary 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
PhilosophyFrench–English translators18th-century British essayistsPeople from Somers Town, LondonEnglish philosophersEnglish essayistsEnglish women novelistsHistorians of the French RevolutionScholars of feminist philosophyBritish women essayistsEnglish women philosophersBritish philosophers of education18th-century British philosophersEnglish feminist writers, English feminists18th-century English historiansDeaths in childbirthEnglish UnitariansFeminist theorists18th-century English novelistsFounders of English schools and collegesGerman–English translatorsEnlightenment philosophersBurials at St Pancras Old ChurchEnglish educational theoristsEnglish travel writersWriters of Gothic fictionEnglish republicansGodwin family18th centuryFranceThe 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