T.S. Eliot claimed that he learned his prose style from reading F.H. Bradley, and the poet wrote his PhD on the English philosopher at Harvard. Bradley’s life was remarkably unremarkable, as he spent his entire career as a fellow of Merton College, Oxford, where his only obligation was not to get married. Yet in over fifty years of slow, meticulous writing he articulated a series of unusual and arresting ideas that attacked Kantian and utilitarian notions of duty and morality. In this episode, Jonathan and James look at Bradley’s polemic against John Stuart Mill, ‘My Station and Its Duties’, and other essays in Ethical Studies, which challenge the idea of morality as a product of calm reasoning arrived at by mature, rational minds. For Bradley, morality is a characteristic of communities, determined by people’s differing needs at various stages in their lives, and the universal need for self-realisation can only be achieved through those communities.

Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:

Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applecrcip

In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingscip

Read more in the LRB:

Frank Kermode on Eliot and Bradley:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v10/n17/frank-kermode/feast-of-st-thomas

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Thackeray's comic masterpiece, Vanity Fair, is a Victorian novel looking back to Regency England as an object both of satire and nostalgia. Thackeray’s disdain for the Regency is present throughout the book, not least in the proliferation of hapless characters called George, yet he also draws heavily on his childhood experiences to unfold a complex story of fractured families, bad marriages and the tyranny of debt. In this episode, Colin Burrow and Rosemary Hill join Tom to discuss Thackeray’s use of clothes, curry and the rapidly changing topography of London to construct a turbulent society full of peril and opportunity for his heroine, Becky Sharp, and consider why the Battle of Waterloo was such a recurrent preoccupation in literature of the period.

Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:

Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applecrna

In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsna

Read more in the LRB:

John Sutherland on Thackeray:

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v22/n02/john-sutherland/wife-overboard

Rosemary Hill on 'Frock Consciousness':

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v22/n02/rosemary-hill/frock-consciousness

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The confessional poets of the mid-20th century considered themselves a ‘doomed’ generation, with a cohesive identity and destiny. Their intertwining personal lives were laid bare in their work, and Robert Lowell, John Berryman and Elizabeth Bishop returned repeatedly to the elegy to commemorate old friends and settle old scores.In this episode, Mark and Seamus turn to elegies for poets by poets, tracing the intricate connections between them. Lowell, Berryman and Bishop’s work was offset by a deep commitment to the literary tradition, and Mark and Seamus identify their shared influences and anxieties.

Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:

Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applecrld

In other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsld

Find further reading in the LRB:

Mark Ford: No One Else Can Take a Bath for You

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v10/n07/mark-ford/no-one-else-can-take-a-bath-for-you

Karl Miller: Some Names for Robert Lowell

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v05/n09/karl-miller/some-names-for-robert-lowell

Nicholas Everett: Two Americas and a Scotland

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v12/n18/nicholas-everett/two-americas-and-a-scotland

Helen Vendler: The Numinous Moose

https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v15/n05/helen-vendler/the-numinous-moose

Get the books: https://lrb.me/crbooklist

Next episode: Self-elegies by Hardy, Larkin and Plath.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.