Save Me From My Shelf

A new, eagerly-awaited installment in the much-loved series of outtakes and bloopers.

Bald eagle-eared listeners may have noticed that the co-hosts of Save Me From My Shelf hail from different co(u)ntries, and that this is occasinally the so(u)rce of some acrimony. This bonus program(me) compiles those numero(u)s clips from the cutting room floor in which our transatlantic contretemps came to a head, and we really nailed o(u)r colo(u)rs to the mast. Who wins? Choose your fighter: Grover Cleveland or Michael Caine.

Cover art © Catherine Wu.

Episode themes: Scott Joplin, 'Maple Leaf Rag' (1899), performed by the US Marine Band (1906) and Gilbert and Sullivan, excerpts from 'H.M.S. Pinafore' (1878), performed by the Imperial Military Band (1907).

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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our thirty-fourth episode and Christmas special/end-of-season finale, we recap C.S. Lewis's wintry Christian allegory, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950). Daniel gives us the gift of 'Measuringworth: Biblical Hermeneutics Edition' and Abby renames the Pevensie and Daniel's hypothetical pet beaver. This is also the second episode of the season with surprise cameos by both the Greek gods and Santa Claus. Brought to you by Mothers Against Wardrobes.

Cover art © Catherine Wu.

Episode theme: Tchaikovsky, 'Waltz of the Snowflakes', The Nutcracker Suite.

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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our thirty-third episode, the Pedants' Revolt keeps waging on with a series of rebuking letters. We also discover the villain origin story for villain origin stories in Jean Rhys's postcolonial modernist/postmodernist Jane Eyre-fan fiction masterpiece, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966).

Cover art © Catherine Wu.

Episode theme: 'Liva: biguine', performed by Mlle. Estrella and Orchestre Gudeloupeen A. Kindou.

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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In Part Two of our thirty-second episode, we keep the bawdy scatological humour up in the second half of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1400). It's all farts, penned-in sex-yards, and apologies to Jesus.

Cover art © Catherine Wu.

Episode theme: Anonymous, 'Weltliche Musik um 1300', performed by the Studio der frühen Musik

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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In Part One of our thirty-second episode, we experience a whole lot of firsts: the first substantial work of English literature, our podcast's first guest spot, and the first time we gave up on an episode halfway through. Brace yourself for a bawdy, boozy, scatological good time with the first half of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1400).

Cover art © Catherine Wu.

Episode theme: Anonymous, 'Weltliche Musik um 1300', performed by the Studio der frühen Musik

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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our thirty-first episode and the second of two Halloween specials, we get properly scary with a ghost story full of ambiguous trauma, creepy children, and isolated country mansions: Henry James's The Turn of the Screw (1898). We also investigate the 'obscure hurt' a young Henry James did to his balls, speculate about hasty office sex, and introduce some weird factoids about the Aztecs.

Cover art © Catherine Wu.

Episode theme: Alexander Scriabin, 'Prelude No.1, Op. 67'

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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our thirtieth episode and first of two Halloween specials, we cover the world's first (?) Gothic novel, Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764). It's got more gigantic sabres, private caves, disembodied ghost parts, and lists of soldiers than you can shake a stick at.

Cover art © Catherine Wu.

Episode themes: Mozart, 'Eine Kleine Nachtmusic ("Allegro")', Mozart, 'Requiem ("V. Rex tremendae')'; Orfeo, 'Toccata'.

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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our twenty-ninth episode, we answer the age-old question, 'What if socialism were a cop?' when we look at JB Priestley's 1945 anti-capitalist (Jean-Paul Sartre knock-off) play, An Inspector Calls. Today, we put our PhDs to work like never before, have a go at CSI: Miami stingers, and yearn for sexier content.

Cover art © Catherine Wu.

Episode themes: Kurt Weill, 'Violin Concerto, Op. 12' performed by the Gardner Chamber Orchestra, with Corey Cerovsek on violin.

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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our twenty-eighth episode, we court controversy with Vladimir Nabokov's surreal paedophile road trip, Lolita (1955). It's got more unreliable narration, 1950s consumerism, and untranslated French than you can stomach.

Cover art © Catherine Wu.

Episode theme: Tchaikovsky's 'Serenade for Strings', covered by Freddy Martin and his Orchestra

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Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our twenty-seventh episode, we return to Shakespeare--but with a comedy this time: the classic tale of twins, mistaken identity, and classic cis-direction, Twelfth Night (1601). In it, Daniel gives listeners of a particular SMFMS episode a scolding, Abby has a lot of anger and gender puns, and we make more than one Batman connection.

Cover art © Catherine Wu.

Episode theme: Tielman Susato, Danserye, Gaillarde, 'La dona' (1551).

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