This is exactly what I was hoping for; the lecturer is articulate and knowledgeable about his subject. Dr. Sutherland reads literature snippets to explain his points to the listener. His purpose is to show the evolution of British literature from the earliest times. Please note, this is British literature; American literature is excluded. Dr. Sutherland begins with Anglo-Saxon writings and weaves his way through plays and novels over the centuries.
These 48 lectures are succinct, witty, and educational. Dr. Sutherland even includes the fascinating changes made to the King James Version of the Bible. I was surprised to learn that the King James Version has never been in the British public domain (whereas, it is in the public domain in America). William Tyndale is the brilliant linguist behind the King James Bible; 80% of Tyndale's writing is still used in the present.
We wind our way through Chaucer, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and down through 600 years of British literature. One of the charming things Dr. Sutherland did was explain some of the history of Scotland and thus explaining more about Sir Walter Scot's background and mindset. I found the analysis of Jane Austen's novels to be particularly interesting because Sutherland brings the historical framework for these works into the discussion. The story behind Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights is fascinating.
Before hearing Dr. Sutherland's analysis of Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS, I'd never given the author a second thought. I look forward to reading something from him now. One of my favorite quotes is that Dr. Sutherland assured listeners that more people wrote poetry in the 20th century than read it. After the Victorians (who loved poetry), more modern readers were less interested in poetry. Overall, this was a marvelous series of lectures, from which I gathered a great deal of insight and further understanding of British literature.
The Lectures:
1. Anglo-Saxon Roots - Pessimism and Comradeship
2. Chaucer - Social Diversity
3. Chaucer - A Man of Unusual Cultivation
4. Spenser - The Faerie Queene
5. Early Drama - Low Comedy and Religion
6. Marlowe - Controversy and Danger
7. Shakespeare the Man - The Road to the Globe
8. Shakespeare - The Mature Years
9. Shakespeare's Rivals - Jonson and Webster
10. The King James Bible - English Most Elegant
11. The Metaphysicals - Conceptual Daring
12. Paradise Lost - A New Language for Poetry
13. Turmoil Makes for Good Literature
14. The Augustans - Order, Decorum, and Wit
15. Swift - Anger and Satire
16. Johnson - Bringing Order to the Language
17. Defoe - Crusoe and the Rise of Capitalism
18. Behn - Emancipation in the Restoration
19. The Golden Age of Fiction
20. Gibbon - Window into 18th-Century England
21. Equiano - The Inhumanity of Slavery
22. Women Poets - The Minor Voice
23. Wollstonecraft - "First of a New Genus"
24. Blake - Mythic Universes and Poetry
25. Scott and Burns - The Voices of Scotland
26. Lyrical Ballads - Collaborative Creation
27. Mad, Bad Byron
28. Keats - Literary Gold
29. Frankenstein - A Gothic Masterpiece
30. Miss Austen and Mrs. Radcliffe
31. Pride and Prejudice - Moral Fiction
32. Dickens - Writer with a Mission
33. The 1840s - Growth of the Realistic Novel
34. Wuthering Heights - Emily's Masterwork
35. Jane Eyre and the Other Brontë
36. Voices of Victorian Poetry
37. Eliot - Fiction and Moral Reflection
38. Hardy - Life at Its Worst
39. The British Bestseller - An Overview
40. Heart of Darkness - Heart of the Empire?
41. Wilde - Celebrity Author
42. Shaw and Pygmalion
43. Joyce and Yeats - Giants of Irish Literature
44. Great War, Great Poetry
45. Bloomsbury and the Bloomsberries
46. 20th-Century English Poetry - Two Traditions
47. British Fiction from James to Rushdie
48. New Theatre, New Literary Worlds
These 48 lectures are succinct, witty, and educational. Dr. Sutherland even includes the fascinating changes made to the King James Version of the Bible. I was surprised to learn that the King James Version has never been in the British public domain (whereas, it is in the public domain in America). William Tyndale is the brilliant linguist behind the King James Bible; 80% of Tyndale's writing is still used in the present.
We wind our way through Chaucer, Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, and down through 600 years of British literature. One of the charming things Dr. Sutherland did was explain some of the history of Scotland and thus explaining more about Sir Walter Scot's background and mindset. I found the analysis of Jane Austen's novels to be particularly interesting because Sutherland brings the historical framework for these works into the discussion. The story behind Emily Bronte and Wuthering Heights is fascinating.
Before hearing Dr. Sutherland's analysis of Joseph Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS, I'd never given the author a second thought. I look forward to reading something from him now. One of my favorite quotes is that Dr. Sutherland assured listeners that more people wrote poetry in the 20th century than read it. After the Victorians (who loved poetry), more modern readers were less interested in poetry. Overall, this was a marvelous series of lectures, from which I gathered a great deal of insight and further understanding of British literature.
The Lectures:
1. Anglo-Saxon Roots - Pessimism and Comradeship
2. Chaucer - Social Diversity
3. Chaucer - A Man of Unusual Cultivation
4. Spenser - The Faerie Queene
5. Early Drama - Low Comedy and Religion
6. Marlowe - Controversy and Danger
7. Shakespeare the Man - The Road to the Globe
8. Shakespeare - The Mature Years
9. Shakespeare's Rivals - Jonson and Webster
10. The King James Bible - English Most Elegant
11. The Metaphysicals - Conceptual Daring
12. Paradise Lost - A New Language for Poetry
13. Turmoil Makes for Good Literature
14. The Augustans - Order, Decorum, and Wit
15. Swift - Anger and Satire
16. Johnson - Bringing Order to the Language
17. Defoe - Crusoe and the Rise of Capitalism
18. Behn - Emancipation in the Restoration
19. The Golden Age of Fiction
20. Gibbon - Window into 18th-Century England
21. Equiano - The Inhumanity of Slavery
22. Women Poets - The Minor Voice
23. Wollstonecraft - "First of a New Genus"
24. Blake - Mythic Universes and Poetry
25. Scott and Burns - The Voices of Scotland
26. Lyrical Ballads - Collaborative Creation
27. Mad, Bad Byron
28. Keats - Literary Gold
29. Frankenstein - A Gothic Masterpiece
30. Miss Austen and Mrs. Radcliffe
31. Pride and Prejudice - Moral Fiction
32. Dickens - Writer with a Mission
33. The 1840s - Growth of the Realistic Novel
34. Wuthering Heights - Emily's Masterwork
35. Jane Eyre and the Other Brontë
36. Voices of Victorian Poetry
37. Eliot - Fiction and Moral Reflection
38. Hardy - Life at Its Worst
39. The British Bestseller - An Overview
40. Heart of Darkness - Heart of the Empire?
41. Wilde - Celebrity Author
42. Shaw and Pygmalion
43. Joyce and Yeats - Giants of Irish Literature
44. Great War, Great Poetry
45. Bloomsbury and the Bloomsberries
46. 20th-Century English Poetry - Two Traditions
47. British Fiction from James to Rushdie
48. New Theatre, New Literary Worlds
