Show Notes
This is the first banned book I’ve read that features both a foot fetish and communism. Gibbons writes satire so entrancing it’s can be hard to spot the filth but if the censors could do it, so could we. Or maybe the bewitching Englishness of the novel was too dangerous? With Dr Laura Ludtke.
The novel induced that certain sweet boredom you get from reading a slow book where you look up and realize the world has moved on. Aoife Bhreatnach The names are so indicative in a very Dickensian and maybe even Austenian way. Laura Ludtke It's written from a very self-conscious readerly perspective. Aoife Bhreatnach You don’t call someone you’re trying to seduce, or maybe you do, Dad. Laura Ludtke I think the whole novel is driving the conflict between occlusion and transparency. Laura Ludtke
Dr Laura Ludtke’s LitSci podcast
Previous Censored episodes that link to this novel: Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm (1932), Powys, 'Mr Weston's Good Wine' (1927)
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