Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps

that it's a long time ago, right? It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream

van plays music when it's out of ice cream. Listen to evil genius on BBC sounds.

This is a download from the BBC. For more information and our terms of use, go to BBC.co.uk slash radio three.

Hello and welcome. Tonight we're marking the centenary of one of the most treasured stories in French literature, a tale of heartbreak, lost love and half-remembered country castles.

It's Le Grand Mone by Alan Furnier.

His tale of the life of a youthful adventurer, the Mone of the title,

was called by John Fowles, the greatest novel of adolescence in European literature,

and a book like a secret garden.

It's also been described as a work that's haunted the European mind

since it first appeared in 1913,

and it's the only novel the hero of Kerouac's On the Road takes with him on his journey,

even if he doesn't read it.

I've been revisiting the book I first read as a teenager with its dreamlike evocation of a lost world

as we follow the life of Mone, his unfulfilled longings,

and the twists and turns of amorous adventures,

all unleashed in the heart of rural France

before the eruption of the First World War.

With me to follow in the dashing steps of Le Grasmeon

is the literary scholar Hermione Lee,

who last year traced the life and work of Alan Funier

for a BBC documentary.

...