Close Readings
LRB Audio
Podcasts and audiobooks from the London Review of Books.
A multi-series podcast subscription exploring different themes and periods of literature through selections of key works.
Discover the LRB’s new audiobook collections.
Our six-part series hosted by Andrew O'Hagan: listen to the full series with bonus material, including extended and additional interviews and clips.
Description
Mill’s 'Autobiography' was considered too shocking to publish while he was alive. Behind his musings on many of the philosophical and political preoccupations of his time lie the confessions of a deeply repressed man who knows that he’s deeply repressed, coming to terms with the uncompromising educational experiment his father subjected him to as a child – described by Isaiah Berlin as ‘an appalling success’. In this episode Jonathan and James discuss Mill’s startlingly honest account of this experience and the breakdown that ensued in his 20s, and the boldness of his life and thought from his views on socialism and the rights of women to his unwavering devotion to his wife, Harriet Taylor, the co-author of 'On Liberty' and other works.
Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:
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Further reading in the LRB:
Sissela Bok on Mill's 'Autobiography':
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v06/n06/sissela-bok/his-father-s-children
Alasdair MacIntyre: Mill's Forgotten Victory
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v02/n20/alasdair-macintyre/john-stuart-mill-s-forgotten-victory
Panbkaj Mishra: Bland Fanatics
https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v37/n23/pankaj-mishra/bland-fanatics
Next Episode
F.H. Bradley's 'My Station and Its Duties' can be found online here:
https://archive.org/details/ethicalstudies0000brad/page/160/mode/2up