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Art historian James Fox considers why there seems to be a human need to escape, and what it is we are trying to escape from.

The art historian James Fox considers the idea of escapism, asking if there is a human need to escape and, if so, what it might be that we need to escape from.

From the idea of heaven to the draw of nostalgia, and from the reaction against the horrors of the First World War to the appeal of popular entertainment, the human imagination is celebrated and explored.

James Fox traces a path through readings from, amongst others, W.B. Yeats, David Foster Wallace and Marcel Proust, with music from Gabriel Fauré, Vaughan Williams and The Wizard of Oz.

The readers are Mark Quartley, Monica Dolan and Frank Stirling.

Producer: Philippa Geering
A Unique production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4.

30 minutes

Last on

Sun 28 Apr 2013 23:30
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4

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Humility

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Music Played

  • Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg

    Over the Rainbow

    Performer: Judy Garland

    • 100 Years of Cinema.
    • Retro.
    • 1271036.

  • Gabriel Fauré

    In Paradisum

    Performer: Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, English Chamber Orchestra conducted by Philip Ledger, John Butt on organ

    • Fauré: Requiem.
    • EMI.
    • CDM 7 63783 2.

  • Robert Schumann

    'Träumerei' from Kinderszenen

    Performer: Radu Lupu

    • Schumann: Humoreske; Kinderszenen; Kreisleriana.
    • Decca.
    • 1170168.

  • Ralph Vaughan Williams

    A Pastoral Symphony [No. 3]: II. Lento moderato

    Performer: Vernon Handley/Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

    • A Pastoral Symphony, Symphony No.4 in F minor, English Folk Song Suite.
    • EMI.
    • 893169.

  • Joby Talbot

    The Flower Garden, Part II

    Performer: Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Christopher Austin

    • Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
    • Signum Records.
    • SIGCD327.

Readings

Title:Ìý Chapter 21 of the Book of Revelation from the King James Bible

Author: n/a

Publisher: ÌýOxford World’s Classics

ISBN-10: 0199535949

Ìý

Title:Ìý ‘The Lake Isle of Innisfree’ in The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats

Author: W.B. Yeats

Publisher: ÌýWordsworth

ISBN-10: 1853264547

Ìý

Title: Extract from ‘Swann’s Way’ in Remembrance of Things Past

Author: Marcel Proust, translated by C.K. Scott Moncrieff

Publisher: ÌýPenguin

ISBN-10: 0140182225

Ìý

Title: ‘Repression of War Experience’ from The War Poems

Author: Siegfried Sassoon

Publisher: ÌýFaber & Faber

ISBN-10: 0571130151

Ìý

Title: Infinite Jest

Author: David Foster Wallace

Publisher: Abacus

ISBN-10: 0349121087

Ìý

Title: The Renaissance

Author: Walter Pater

Publisher: Cosimo Classics

ISBN-10: 1596054840

Broadcasts

  • Sun 28 Apr 2013 06:05
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4
  • Sun 28 Apr 2013 23:30
    Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4