36: Frankenstein by Mary Shelley

Why do accents matter? How do speech sounds reveal identity, class, gender, region, ethnicity, and social belonging? In this episode of Literary Rides, we explore the fascinating field of sociophonetics through the work of Tyler Kendall and Valerie Fridland. Bringing together soc ...  Show more

What hidden desires shape literature? Why do certain stories resemble dreams, fantasies, fears, and psychological obsessions? In this episode of Literary Rides, we explore the fascinating world of psychoanalytic criticism through the ideas of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, and later f ...  Show more

Tonight's sleep story is a special two hour episode of Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. Published in 1818, this novel, written by a teenaged Mary Shelley, is one of the most influential stories in literature and is possibly the first science fiction novel. In the episode, Captain ...

Born from grief, exile, intellectual ferment and the ‘year without a summer’, Frankenstein is a creation myth with its own creation myth. Mary Shelley’s novel is a foundational work of science fiction, horror and trauma narrative, and continues to spark reinvention and reinterpre ...  Show more

Frankenstein and his monster are household names - even if one is often confused for the other. But what of their creator?In this episode we are meeting Mary Shelley. Did she really lose her virginity on her mother's grave? Did she keep her husband's heart after his death? And wh ...  Show more

June 10, 1816. A storm settles over Lake Geneva, Switzerland. Stuck inside a romantic villa, five writers grow restless. Then one of them issues a challenge: Who among us can write the most terrifying ghost story? The group includes two of the most accomplished poets of the day – ...  Show more