Open Book

The first episode of Season 2 is about two poets in an early-18th-century battle of wits: Alexander Pope, the first professional poet in English; and Anne Finch, an aristocratic poet who rebutted Pope’s attack on women writers.

The grand finale of Milton’s epic: in which we learn the consequences of the fall for Adam and Eve — but also for Satan, Sin, Death, the Son of God, and every human being from the Garden of Eden to the Last Judgement.

The second of two episodes on a 2006 novel by the Ojibwe writer David Treuer, about a translator retelling the story of two lovers, and writing his own story in the process. NB: At 2:55 I wrongly say Eta is 16 and Bimaadiz 12, but in fact she's 12 and he 16.

The first of two episodes on a 2006 novel by the Ojibwe writer David Treuer, about a translator retelling the story of two lovers, and writing his own story in the process. 

Four poems of love and friendship that happen to be written by women, including Anne Bradstreet, the first woman to publish a book of original poems in English; Katherine Philips, “the matchless Orinda” and poet laureate of friendship; and the unknown ‘Eliza,’ author of devotional lyrics.

Readings of five poems by the metaphysical poet Andrew Marvell, including his best-known carpe diem poem “To his Coy Mistress,” but also a beautiful extended simile of the soul as a dew-drop; a tense argument between a body and a soul who loathe each other; a meditation on the temptations of worldly pleasures; and a lament of the cruelty of fate.  

Shakespeare’s 1595 history play tells the story of one king’s abdication, and provokes questions about the difference between legitimate authority and illegitimate power. Richard II isn’t Shakespeare’s best-known play, but it may claim to be his best-written: the only one entirely in verse, it initiates a long series of plays that deal with its fallout.

Adam and Raphael exchange stories — of the creation of the universe, and of human beings — and Adam learns what subjects and questions God wants us to stop thinking about. 

Catherine Morland — described as “open, candid, artless, guileless, with affections strong but simple, forming no pretensions, and knowing no disguise” — completes her journey from impressionable provincial ingenue to contentedly married wife in this followup to Episode 15.