検索キーワード： 芸術・文学

Described as both “one of the most important novels ever written” and “the gospel of evil,” 120 Days of Sodom was written by the Marquis de Sade, a notorious eighteenth-century aristocrat who waged a campaign of mayhem and debauchery across France, evaded execution, and inspired the word “sadism,” which came to mean receiving pleasure from pain. Despite all his crimes, Sade considered this work to be his greatest transgression.

Sometime religious outsider and social disaster, sometime celebrity preacher and establishment darling, John Donne was incapable of being just one thing. He was a scholar of law, a sea adventurer, an MP, a priest, the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral—and perhaps the greatest love poet in the history of the English language. He converted from Catholicism to Protestantism, was imprisoned for marrying a high-born girl without her father's consent, struggled to feed a family of 10 children and was often ill and in pain.

In 1922 Agatha Christie set sail on a 10-month voyage around the British Empire with her husband as part of a trade mission to promote the forthcoming British Empire Exhibition. Leaving her two-year-old daughter behind with her sister, Agatha set sail at the end of January and did not return until December, but she kept up a detailed weekly correspondence with her mother, describing in detail the exotic places and people she encountered as the mission travelled through South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii and Canada.

In Globe Catherine Arnold takes the listener on a tour of Shakespeare's London, looking at how they shaped each other. Acting turned into a trade, and troupes of touring players perfected their craft. Shakespeare's own company, the Chamberlain's Men, opened the Globe Playhouse on Bankside in 1599, creating a new focal point for the city.

Nora Ephron was one of the most popular, accomplished, and beloved writers in American journalism and film. Nora Ephron: A Biography is the first biography of the Manhattan-born girl who forged a path of her own, earning accolades and adoration from critics and fans alike. Author Kristin Marguerite Doidge explores the tremendous successes and disappointing failures Ephron sustained in her career and examines the private life she tried to keep in balance with her insatiable ambition.

The name Giotto di Bondone may not be as well-known as Leonardo da Vinci, but it was Giotto who made da Vinci and his contemporaries of the Renaissance possible. Giotto, born in the late 13th century, was the first painter to escape the artistic chains of the Dark Ages and revive the natural art of Ancient Greece. Instead of creating flat, expressionless figures, as was the custom of the Middle Ages, Giotto painted characters with personalities and emotions.

Rutger Bregman joins Gabriel Fleming in the Audible Studios to discuss his latest best-selling publication, Utopia for Realists. Rutger Bregman is one of Europe's most prominent young thinkers. At 29, he is a historian and an author with four books already under his belt, not to mention a regular spot on the revered online journalism platform The Correspondent and publications in The Washington Post and The Guardian.

Nicholas Sparks has published over 20 books, most of which have been international bestsellers. Many have gone on to be adapted in high-profile films. The adaptation of The Notebook has, of course, left most of us reaching for the tissue box. He visits the Audible Studios to talk about his amazing career, and his latest novel, See Me.

Introducing his autobiography, A Life in Parts, Bryan Cranston talks to us about embodying the infamous drug kingpin Walter White, the physical and emotional turmoil that comes with being an actor and how a difficult and oftentimes violent upbringing led him to become an unrelenting optimist. Having first graced our screens at the age of seven, Bryan now has over 150 titles to his name, including Linwood Boomer’s hugely celebrated sitcom Malcom in the Middle and Vince Gilligan’s multiaward-winning Breaking Bad.

En 2008, cuando Jesús Lemus dirigía el periódico El Tiempo de La Piedad, Michoacán, publicó diversas notas que irritaron a las autoridades locales. La venganza de los poderosos no se hizo esperar: le fabricaron cargos criminales y lo enviaron al penal de máxima seguridad de Puente Grande. Después de varios años encerrado e incontables tribulaciones, Lemus consiguió la libertad. Gracias a la fuerza que el oficio de periodista le brindó, se decidió a contar su historia y la de aquellos hombres con los que compartió torturas y humillaciones.

De Chirico fu forse l'artista più controverso del secolo scorso, ma il suo percorso personale appare oggi di una coerenza inflessibile. Inventore delle avanguardie a Parigi nei primissimi anni Dieci, agli attacchi dei suoi contemporanei rispose con un'autonomia intellettuale orgogliosa e rabbiosa, che lo rese un outsider del mondo dell'arte. Questa monografia, rigorosa e lucida, ci restituisce un ritratto chiaro, agile ed essenziale dell'arte di de Chirico, e si presenta come il contributo fondamentale alla comprensione della sua opera.

From Leonardo Da Vinci to John Dee and Comenius, from George Eliot to Oliver Sacks and Susan Sontag, polymaths have moved the frontiers of knowledge in countless ways. But history can be unkind to scholars with such encyclopaedic interests. All too often these individuals are remembered for just one part of their valuable achievements. In this engaging, erudite account, renowned cultural historian Peter Burke argues for a more rounded view.

'Any story that starts will also end.' As a writer, Ann Patchett knows what the outcome of her fiction will be. Life, however, often takes turns we do not see coming. Patchett ponders this truth as she explores family, friendship, marriage, failure, success and what it all means. Ranging from the personal to the sublime, each essay transforms the particular into the universal, letting us all see our own worlds anew.

In 1845, after years of literary and emotional struggle, friend and colleague Ralph Waldo Emerson invited Thoreau to build a cabin on his land near Walden Pond, the location of which became Thoreau's inspiration. Walden records the doctrines of transcendentalism that he lived, supported, and for which he became famous. He focuses on the concept of self-knowledge and encourages all people to find some way to learn more about themselves and the world around them. Thoreau is remembered as a major American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher.

When Peter Schjeldahl, The New Yorker’s art critic and the leading art writer of his generation, published his eye-opening autobiographical essay, “The Art of Dying,” in December 2019, he reported that he had lung cancer and had been given six months of life. Fortunately, his treatment was showing some improvement, and so, he wrote, “These extra months are a luxury that I hope to have put to good use.”

Jorge Luis Borges fue, tal vez, el escritor más gravitante de la segunda mitad del siglo XX. Más que ningún otro, construyó su imagen a partir de su posición como lector: el mito de la biblioteca paterna, las bibliotecas infinitas de sus ficciones. La literatura borgeana juega todo el tiempo con los contornos de la identidad. No es de extrañar que el hombre detrás de ella nos presente sus propios enigmas y paradojas. Era ese creador descomunal de mundos que llevaba una vida muy discreta. Se había fogueado en las vanguardias pero adoraba la tradición, a la vez que huía de ambas.

"Les livres ont donc constitué très tôt le territoire de mon imaginaire, de ma projection dans des histoires et des mondes que je ne connaissais pas. Plus tard, j'y ai trouvé le mode d'emploi de la vie, un mode d'emploi auquel j'accordais beaucoup plus de confiance qu'au discours scolaire ou au discours de mes parents. J'étais encline à penser que la réalité et la vérité se trouvaient dans les livres, dans la littérature." Son enfance, sa mémoire, sont la matière même de ses livres.

Rüdiger Safranski's Goethe: Life as a Work of Art is the first definitive biography in a generation to tell the larger-than-life story of the writer considered to be the Shakespeare of German literature. Drawing upon the trove of letters, diaries, and notebooks Goethe left behind, as well as correspondence and criticism from Goethe's contemporaries, Safranski weaves a rich tale of Europe in the throes of revolution and of the man whose ideas heralded a new era.

Cézanne, ennemi de tout compromis, entend traduire avant tout la vérité de sa perception. Ce faisant, il définit une nouvelle relation de l'artiste au monde qui l'entoure, et réinvente l'espace de la peinture. Au lendemain de sa mort, survenue en 1906, il deviendra la référence incontournable des jeunes générations.

Audible exclusive. We invite Lindy West to the studios to talk about her new novel, Shrill: Notes from a Loud Woman. 'A memoir about the issues that have shaped my life. How to deal with trolls, feminist criticism of comedy and body image - to name but a few.' About Shrill: 'Women are told, from birth, that it's our job to be small: physically small, small in our presence, and small in our impact on the world. We're supposed to spend our lives passive, quiet and hungry.'