Literature and Lapdogs

In this episode of Literature and Lapdogs, we revisit Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. We discuss adaptations of the novel, including the 1995 Pride and Prejudice and the 2005 Pride and Prejudice. We then discuss details about the novel's structure, character development, and relevant contexts. We discuss the significance of class within the novel and certain structural considerations of class. Our discussion also covers considerations of costuming and character and certain aspects of themes within the novel.

We're discussing the amazing Prima Facie by Suzie Miller, starring Jodie Comer. This is a brilliant play dealing with sexual assault, with a particular focus on the prosecution of these crimes. We're trying not to give too much of the plot away because it might be coming out on National Theatre At Home, and we don't want to spoil it. The main focus, though, is a young woman with a working-class background working as a defense barrister. She is forced to reconsider the faith she has always placed in the legal system when a colleague rapes her. As we discuss, the play deals head-on with the question of how sexual assaults and the handling of such cases by the courts. It's a tour-de-force performance from Comer, truly, and the play itself is also very interesting in the way it's written.

In this bonus episode of Literature and Lapdogs - our first with video as well as audio - we discuss the pros and cons of several different editions of Jane Austen novels - the Norton Critical edition, the Oxford World's Classics, the Penguin Classics edition, and the Barnes and Noble edition.

Literature and Lapdogs is back with a new episode about Mary Shelley's novella (or novel, you decide), Mathilda. The text was written between August 1819 and February 1820, while Shelley was recovering from the loss of two of her young children. Apparently, it provided a much-needed distraction. However, it wasn't published until 1959, because Shelley sent the manuscript to her father, William Godwin, and he not only refused to publish it, but refused to return it. He said of the text that "if [it were] ever published, [it would need] a preface to prevent [readers] from being tormented by...the fall of the heroine" (Clemit 68).

In the podcast episode, my daughter and I summarize the text and share some thoughts and reactions to the reading experience. This work is definitely a departure from Frankenstein (1818), but there is much here that is interesting. The story is often seen as autobiographical (we talk about why) and it can also be read from a psychoanalytical perspective.

Suggested Further Readings

Clemit, Pamela. "From the Fields of Fancy to Mathilda." Mary Shelley in Her Times. Ed. Stuart Curran and Berry T. Bennett. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. 64-75.

Moore, Melina. "Mary Shelley's Matilda and the Struggle for Female Narrative Subjectivity." Rocky Mountain Review, 2011. 208-215.

Shelley, Mary. Mathilda. The Mary Shelley Reader. Ed. Berry T. Benny and Charles E. Robinson. Oxford University Press, 1990. 174-246.

In this episode of Literature and Lapdogs, my daughter and I discuss Jane Austen's 1817 novel, Persuasion.

In this episode of Literature and Lapdogs, my daughter and I discuss Jane Austen's 1813 novel, Pride and Prejudice.

George Eliot (1819-1880) was one of the most important novelists of her day. In this first full episode of "Literature and Lapdogs," I offer a brief introduction to Eliot's 1861 text, Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe. The episode covers the plot of Silas Marner (with some spoilers) and touches on key themes and questions raised by the text.