The Classic Debate: Austen vs Brontë

经典辩论:奥斯汀对布朗特

Intelligence Squared

社会与文化

2025-04-21

1 小时 39 分钟
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Jane Austen created the definitive picture of Georgian England. No writer matches Austen’s sensitive ear for the hypocrisy and irony lurking beneath the genteel conversation. That’s the argument of the Janeites, but to the aficionados of Emily Brontë they are the misguided worshippers of a circumscribed mind. In Wuthering Heights, Brontë dispensed with Austen’s niceties and the upper-middle class drawing rooms of Bath and the home counties. Her backdrop is the savage Yorkshire moors, her subject the all-consuming passions of the heart. To help you decide who should be crowned queen of English letters we have the lined up the best advocates to make the case for each writer. In this event, chaired by author and critic Erica Wagner, we invited guests including author Kate Mosse, Professor and author John Mullan, and actors Mariah Gale, Samuel West and Dominic West, to discuss each writer's influence. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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单集文稿 ...

  • You're listening to The Sunday Debate on Intelligent Squared.

  • This week, we revisit a lively discussion about two literary greats,

  • Jane Austen versus Emily Bronte.

  • Our chair, Eric Wagner, was joined by guests, including the author Kate Moss,

  • Professor John Mullen and actors Maria Gale, Samuel West and Dominic West.

  • They discuss and debate each writer's influence.

  • And now let's go to the podcast with the host, Eric Wagner.

  • Well, thank you all very much for coming.

  • I am delighted and excited to be here.

  • Welcome to this intelligent square debate,

  • Jane Austen versus Emily Bronte, the Queens of English Literature.

  • We'll see whether our conversation remains as civilized as one of our authors tonight or grows as wild as the other.

  • For this evening,

  • we'll be setting two of the greats of English literature against each other in one corner.

  • Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice,

  • Mansfield Park, Emma, I don't have to tell you more.

  • In the other corner, Emily Bronte, whose sole novel was Wuthering Heights,

  • published just a few months after her elder sister Charlotte's bestseller, Jane Eyre.

  • However, though Emily only wrote one novel, as we all know, it turned out to be one for the ages.

  • As with all intelligent square debates, you've been polled as you entered the hall,