Classic Debate: Austen vs Brontë

Intelligence Squared

Arts, News, Society & Culture, News Commentary

4.2 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 20 April 2025

⏱️ 98 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

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

Transcript

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0:59.6	You're listening to the Sunday debate on Intelligence Squared.
1:02.9	This week we revisit a lively discussion about two literary greats,
1:06.7	Jane Austen versus Emily Bronte.
1:08.7	Our chair, Erica Wagner, was joined by guests, including the author Kate Moss,
1:12.6	Professor John Mullen and actors Maria Gale, Samuel West and Dominic West.
1:16.6	They discuss and debate each writer's influence, and now let's go to the podcast with the host,
1:20.8	Erica Wagner.
1:38.3	Well, thank you all very much for coming. I am delighted and excited to be here. Welcome to this Intelligence Square debate, Jane Austen versus Emily Bronte, the queens of English literature.
1:46.1	We'll see whether our conversation remains as civilized as one of our authors tonight,
1:52.5	or grows as wild as the other.
	...

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