Close Readings (subscription‪)‬ London Review of Books

In The Beggar’s Opera we enter a society turned upside down, where private vices are seen as public virtues, and the best way to survive is to assume the worst of everyone. The only force that can subvert this state of affairs is romantic love – an affection, we discover, that satire finds hard to cope with. John Gay’s 1727 smash hit ‘opera’, which ran for 62 performances in its first run, put the highwaymen, criminal gangs and politicians of the day up on stage, and offered audiences a tuneful but unnerving reflection of their own corruption and mortality. Clare and Colin discuss how this satire on the age of Walpole came about, what it did for its struggling author, and why it’s an infinitely elusive, strangely modernist work.

Read more in the LRB:

Frank Kermode: Liveried
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v17/n09/frank-kermode/liveried

E.S. Turner: Delightful to be Robbed
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v24/n09/e.s.-turner/delightful-to-be-robbed

Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s deeply disturbing 1847 poem about a woman escaping slavery and killing her child was written to shock its intended white female readership to the abolitionist cause. Browning was the direct descendant of slave owners in Jamaica and a fervent anti-slavery campaigner, and her dramatic monologue presents a searing attack on the hypocrisy of ‘liberty’ as enshrined in the United States constitution. Mark and Seamus look at the origins of the poem and its story, and its place among other abolitionist narratives of the time.

Read more in the LRB:

Matthew Bevis: Foiled by Pleasure
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v40/n16/matthew-bevis/foiled-by-pleasure

Alethea Hayter: Reader, I married you
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v11/n07/alethea-hayter/reader-i-married-you

John Bayley: A Question of Breathing
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v10/n14/john-bayley/a-question-of-breathing

Colin Grant: Leave them weeping
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v41/n15/colin-grant/leave-them-weeping

Fara Dabhoiwala: My Runaway Slave, Reward Two Guineas
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v44/n12/fara-dabhoiwala/my-runaway-slave-reward-two-guineas

In the fifth episode of Among the Ancients II we turn to Greek lyric, focusing on Pindar’s victory odes, considered a benchmark for the sublime since antiquity, and the vivid, narrative-driven dithyrambs of Bacchylides. Through close reading, Emily and Tom tease out allusions, lexical flourishes and formal experimentation, and explain the highly contextual nature of these tightly choreographed, public-facing poems. They illustrate how precarious work could be for a praise poet in a world driven by competition – striking the right note to please your patron, guarantee the next gig, and stay on good terms with the gods.

Further reading:

Leofranc Holford-Strevens: Dithyrambs for Athens
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v27/n04/leofranc-holford-strevens/dithyrambs-for-athens

Barbara Graziosi: Flower or Fungus?
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v27/n04/leofranc-holford-strevens/dithyrambs-for-athens

Fabliaux were short, witty tales originating in northern France between the 12th and 14th centuries, often featuring crafty characters in rustic settings and overwhelmingly concerned with money and sex. In this episode Irina and Mary look at two of these comic verses, both containing surprisingly explicit sexual language, and consider the ways in which they influenced Boccaccio, Chaucer and others.

Read more in the LRB:

Irina Dumitrescu: Making My Moan
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v42/n09/irina-dumitrescu/making-my-moan

Tom Shippey: Women beware midwives
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v12/n09/tom-shippey/women-beware-midwives

Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk

In the fourth episode of Human Conditions, the last of the series with Judith Butler, we fittingly turn to ‘The Human Condition’ (1956). Hannah Arendt defines action as the highest form of human activity: distinct from work and labour, action includes collaborative expression, collective decision-making and, crucially, initiating change. Focusing on the chapter on action, Judith joins Adam to explain why they consider this approach to be so innovative and incisive. Together, they discuss Arendt’s continued relevance and shortcomings, the book’s many surprising and baffling turns, and the transformative power of forgiveness. This conversation was recorded in December 2023.

Chapters in focus:
Prologue
V. Action

Buy the book: https://lrb.me/arendtcr

According to one contemporary, the Earl of Rochester was a man who, in life as well is in poetry, ‘could not speak with any warmth, without repeated Oaths, which, upon any sort of provocation, came almost naturally from him.’ It’s certainly hard to miss Rochester's enthusiastic use of obscenities, though their precise meanings can sometimes be obscure. As a courtier to Charles II, his poetic subject was most often the licentiousness and intricate political manoeuvring of the court’s various factions, and he was far from a passive observer. In this episode Clare and Colin consider why Restoration England was such a satirical hotbed, and describe the ways in which Rochester, with a poetry rich in bravado but shot through with anxiety, transformed the persona of the satirist.

Read more in the LRB:

Germaine Greer: Doomed to Sincerity
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v21/n18/germaine-greer/doomed-to-sincerity

Terry Eagleton: In an Ocean of Elizabeths
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n20/terry-eagleton/in-an-ocean-of-elizabeths

Christopher Hill: Reason, Love and Life
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v02/n22/christopher-hill/reason-love-and-life

Get in touch: podcasts@lrb.co.uk