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The Secret Life of Books

2014 - 2015

Great Expectations

2nd September 2014

Episode 1

Great Expectations has often been considered one of Charles Dickens's greatest works. EastEnders screenwriter Tony Jordan explores Dickens's success as a serial writer and how Dickens could never keep his own personal problems out of his novels.

Shakespeare's First Folio

9th September 2014

Episode 2

Actor Simon Russell Beale has dedicated most of his professional life to the work of one man: The Bard, William Shakespeare. In Shakespeare's time, original manuscripts were thrown away, so without The First Folio, many of Shakespeare's works would have been lost forever.

Mrs Dalloway

16th September 2014

Episode 3

English writer Virginia Woolf is one of the most fascinating novelists of the twentieth century. Presenter Alexandra Harris explores Woolf's 1925 novel Mrs. Dalloway and how the writing reflected the unstable society following the World War One.

The Mabinogion

23rd September 2014

Episode 4

The Mabinogion is a collection of 11 ancient folk tales that is considered Wales' most important contribution to European literature. Cerys Matthews explores the fascinating history of the collection and how it influenced fantasy such as J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

Jane Eyre

30th September 2014

Episode 5

Novelist Bidisha Mamata first read Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre when she was a teenager and was captivated by Jane's liberating journey into adulthood. But upon revisiting the book, Bidisha challenges the romanticism of Brontë's classic novel.

Frankenstein

2nd November 2014

Episode 6

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has become synonymous monsters and the dangers of science without morals. Author and scientist Professor Alice Roberts returns to the original text to explore the myths of the novel and what Shelley originally intended Frankenstein to be about.

Top Cast

Classic books are considered with a fresh eye. Returning to the authors' original manuscripts and letters, expert writers and performers bring their personal insights to these great works.

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