Summary
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the development and the future of the novel. D.H. Lawrence was proud of his job, he said: “I am a man, and alive…for this reason I am a novelist. And being a novelist, I consider myself superior to the saint, the scientist, the philosopher, and the poet, who are all great masters of different bits of man alive, but never get the whole hog”. Fiction pours from the presses and in number of titles, this must be the most prolific of novel-producing ages. But are they as good as in the golden age, or the silver, or the bronze, or the steam age? And do they signify? Is technology marginalising the novel or is it still the greatest way of telling a story?Despite many premature declarations of its demise, (stretching back almost to the date of its birth), the novel has been ‘getting the whole hog’ for hundreds of years. But what makes a novel different from other literature, and can we expect it to be still around, ‘getting the whole hog’ into the next century? With D J Taylor, novelist, critic, biographer of Thackeray and author of After the War; Gillian Beer, King Edward VII Professor of English Literature, Cambridge University and Chairman of the Booker Prize judges 1997.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Just before this BBC podcast gets underway, here's something you may not know. |
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| 0:47.2 | Hello dear Florence was unashamedly proud of what he did he, I am a man and alive for this reason I'm a novelist and being a novelist I consider myself superior to the saint, the scientist, the philosopher and the poet who are all great masters of different bits of man alive but never get the whole hog. |
| 1:05.2 | That's the end of the quote. |
| 1:06.5 | Despite many premature declarations of its demise stretching back almost to the date of its |
| 1:10.6 | birth, the novel has been quote getting the whole hog for hundreds of years. |
| 1:14.6 | But what makes a novel different from other literature |
| 1:16.9 | and can we expect it to be around getting the whole hog |
| 1:19.9 | into the next century? |
| 1:21.6 | With me to discuss the development and the future of the novel |
| 1:23.8 | of the novelist and critic DJ Taylor who's in a critique of the modern novel in his book |
| 1:28.2 | after the war and has just published his biography of the great Victorian novelist |
| 1:32.1 | William Make Peace Thackeray. |
| 1:33.6 | I'm also joined by Julian Beer, chairman of the Book of Prize judges in 1997 and the King Edward |
| 1:38.9 | the 7th professor of English literature at Cambridge University. |
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