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The Ancient Novel

In search of the ancient novel, Tibor Fischer discovers they're not as dusty as the manuscripts they're written on. From 2008.

Tibor Fischer goes in search of the ancient novel to discover they aren't as dusty as the manuscripts on which they're written.

Two thousand years before Hollywood, Greek and Latin novelists were writing stories that read like film scripts, others like a Mills and Boon romance and others still like religious mystery texts worthy of Dan Brown's Da Vinci code. They incorporate the twists of a soap opera, bawdy humour and magical episodes in way that is strikingly modern; and their influence on world literature is vast - as Cervantes, Goethe, Shakespeare and Racine (amongst others) testify.

At the International Conference on the Ancient Novel, in Lisbon, Tibor Fischer speaks to leading academics about this area of fiction very few people know about. He finds love, happiness and tragedy at the end and shows that although our names have changed, human nature has remained the same.

Produced by Gavin Heard

First broadcast on Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4 in 2008.

30 minutes

Last on

Tue 2 Aug 2022 02:30

Broadcasts

  • Thu 28 Aug 2008 11:30
  • Wed 11 Mar 2015 06:30
  • Wed 11 Mar 2015 13:30
  • Wed 11 Mar 2015 20:30
  • Thu 12 Mar 2015 02:30
  • Fri 19 Jan 2018 06:30
  • Fri 19 Jan 2018 13:30
  • Fri 19 Jan 2018 20:30
  • Sat 20 Jan 2018 01:30
  • Mon 1 Aug 2022 14:30
  • Tue 2 Aug 2022 02:30