Save Me From My Shelf

A new, eagerly-awaited installment in the much-loved series of outtakes and bloopers. Bald eagle-eared listeners may have noticed that the co-hosts of Save Me From My Shelf hail from different co(u)ntries, and that this is occasinally the so(u)rce of some acrimony. This bonus program(me) compiles those numero(u)s clips from the cutting room floor in which our transatlantic contretemps came to a he...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our thirty-fourth episode and Christmas special/end-of-season finale, we recap C.S. Lewis's wintry Christian allegory, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950). Daniel gives us the gift of 'Measuringworth: Biblical Hermeneutics Edition' and Abby renames the Pevensie and Daniel's hypothetical pet beaver. This is...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our thirty-third episode, the Pedants' Revolt keeps waging on with a series of rebuking letters. We also discover the villain origin story for villain origin stories in Jean Rhys's postcolonial modernist/postmodernist Jane Eyre -fan fiction masterpiece, Wide Sargasso Sea (1966). Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode th...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In Part Two of our thirty-second episode, we keep the bawdy scatological humour up in the second half of Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1400). It's all farts, penned-in sex-yards, and apologies to Jesus. Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode theme: Anonymous, 'Weltliche Musik um 1300', performed by the Studio de...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In Part One of our thirty-second episode, we experience a whole lot of firsts: the first substantial work of English literature, our podcast's first guest spot, and the first time we gave up on an episode halfway through. Brace yourself for a bawdy, boozy, scatological good time with the first half of Geoffrey Chaucer...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our thirty-first episode and the second of two Halloween specials, we get properly scary with a ghost story full of ambiguous trauma, creepy children, and isolated country mansions: Henry James's The Turn of the Screw (1898). We also investigate the 'obscure hurt' a young Henry James did to his balls, speculate abo...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our thirtieth episode and first of two Halloween specials, we cover the world's first (?) Gothic novel, Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764). It's got more gigantic sabres, private caves, disembodied ghost parts, and lists of soldiers than you can shake a stick at. Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode themes:...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our twenty-ninth episode, we answer the age-old question, 'What if socialism were a cop?' when we look at JB Priestley's 1945 anti-capitalist (Jean-Paul Sartre knock-off) play, An Inspector Calls . Today, we put our PhDs to work like never before, have a go at CSI: Miami stingers, and yearn for sexier content. Cove...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our twenty-eighth episode, we court controversy with Vladimir Nabokov's surreal paedophile road trip, Lolita (1955). It's got more unreliable narration, 1950s consumerism, and untranslated French than you can stomach. Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode theme: Tchaikovsky's 'Serenade for Strings', covered by Freddy M...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our twenty-seventh episode, we return to Shakespeare--but with a comedy this time: the classic tale of twins, mistaken identity, and classic cis-direction, Twelfth Night (1601). In it, Daniel gives listeners of a particular SMFMS episode a scolding, Abby has a lot of anger and gender puns, and we make more than one...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our Season 3 premiere and twenty-sixth episode, we read one of the world's (apparently) Most Boring Classics™ and take our first foray into Russian literature with Fyodor Dostoevsky's Crime and Punishment (1866). Abby gives some train trivia, Daniel reveals a fetish for clerks, and everyone faints forever. Cover ar...

More bonus content for the summer hiatus. It's all about animals this time: all the ones Daniel hates, the ones that turn up in dreams, and the ones that our natural enemies (the Devonians) use to mock the Cornish. Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode theme: Camille Saint-Saens, Carnival of the Animals , 'Finale'. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Another steaming bowl of bonus material coming your way. This podcast, provisionally named 'Carry on up the Canon', has never shied away from the odd bawdy joke, except when sublimating these into food talk, so please enjoy some of the odder examples compiled into one handy reel. Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode theme: 'Sexy' by Benjamin Tissot Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more info...

A bit of bonus material to tide you over during the summer hiatus. The archives of Save Me From My Shelf are littered with cultural insights and aperçus which would have felt out of place in any particular episode, but needed to be heard. Here are some of the best compiled into one manageable reel. Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode theme: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 'Overture' to Don Giovanni , perfo...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our twenty-fifth episode, End of Season 2, and End-Of-Year Special, we read George Eliot's 1861 proto-Realist/German Idealist/grudgingly sensational novel, Silas Marner . Come celebrate with us and Friedrich Nietzsche as we finally hear Daniel's real accent, produce a special range of S&M SMFMS whips, and eat s...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. Our DoublePlusTolerable twenty-fourth episode covers George Orwell's 1949 totalitarian dystopia, 1984 . If you're looking for an UnGood time, tune in for everything reeking of cabbage, adventures in antiquing, and surprisingly erotic sex scenes (the perverts). No need to DoubleThink twice! Cover art © Catherine Wu. Ep...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. Our twenty-third episode features the Antichrist, an indictment of the £10 note, the King of Himbos, and some snippets from Daniel's erotic fanfiction when we cover Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813). Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode themes: Beethoven, 'Egmont Overture Op.84'; Boieldieu, 'Caliph de Bagdad' reco...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. Our twenty-second episode is one extended queer reading--full of dodgy back doors, debauchery-filled strolls, and a vicious debate about if a mirror is weird or not--as we recap Robert Louis Stevenson's science fiction novella, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886). Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode theme:...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. Our twenty-first episode is full of intrusive THOTS, dawg-named babies, power bottoms, and 'inelegant horseplay' as we recap Tennessee Williams's screwball tragedy, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955). Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode theme: Gus Arnheim Orchestra, 'How Long Will It Last' (1931). Hosted on Acast. See acast.c...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. Our twentieth episode is nothing but potatoes, patriarchy, and proverbs with Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart (1958). Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode theme: 'Udu Sound' on Ibo drum (Wikimedia Commons). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. Our nineteenth episode is all about S-E-X: we cover Daniel Defoe's 1722 raunchy crime-spree confessional, Moll Flanders . Abby gets turned on by a bandito in a cool hat, Daniel gets turned on by an economic value calculator, and Moll gets turned on by pretty much anything. Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode theme: Chri...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our eighteenth episode, we cover Virginia Woolf's trans, posho, time-traveling romp, Orlando (1928). Daniel once again gets into a row with medieval expert and enemy of the podcast, Justine; Abby once again gets into a row with friend of the podcast, Jonathan Swift; and we have 'Set the Scenes'  on tap. Cover...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our seventeenth episode, we go back to the first major English work: Beowulf. So, hwæt, dummies! Join us if you like endless gift giving interspersed with the most disgusting charnel-house violence possible, if your ideal hero a seven-foot tall wino, or if you think a poem itself can be a lesbian. Cover art © Cathe...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our sixteenth episode, we examine Shakespeare's most olfactory play. Abby celebrates a strong return of himbos to the podcast, Daniel conceptualises an award-winning Disney+ show, and we discover this is the Bard's only (?) work where someone sh*ts their pants out of love. Cover art © Catherine Wu. Episode themes:...

Two friends and academics recap classic literature and take it off its pedestal. In our fifteenth episode and Valentine's Day special, we follow Jane Eyre on her angry quest to find love, avoid housefires, and not punch everyone she meets along the way. Abby and Daniel go on their own quests to worship St Valentine in the old ways and to finally become friends in real life. Cover art © Catherine W...