Chapters 31-32: 0:00—Mary’s trials. 4:47—Jem’s trial. 7:01—Beatrice Cenci. 12:20—Dear reader. 31:56—Interlude.

Chapters 32-33: 33:03—Courting Jem. 38:14—Where is she? 43:16—Mothers. 46:43—A wan, feeble figure. 48:30—Interlude.

Chapters 34-38: 49:36—Mary opens her eyes. 51:12—The blood-shedder. 55:43—Jem’s job. 56:22—Words of love. 59:20—Carson’s pain. 1:03:51—Child care. 1:07:27—The oppressed creature. 1:09:27—God’s plan. 1:15:58—Taught by suffering. 1:17:39—Crushed butterfly. 1:20:15—Canada. 1:21:07—Interlude.

Conclusion: 1:22:14—Unrepresentative representations. 1:25:36—Blaming the poor. 1:26:41—The animosity of irritated workmen. 1:27:47—Fear of violence. 1:29:00—Ideological confusion. 1:29:52—Extreme and unrepresentative. 133:13—Good masters. 1:34:34—Too many deaths. 1:35:40—Love & labor. 1:37:26—An evasion. 1:41:48—Avoiding the problem. 1:44:48—Closing.

Text: Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton. 1848. Oxford Univ. Press, 2006.

Interludes: Frederic Chopin, Scherzo no. 3, in C# minor (1839), performed Jacob Katsnelsonm, 2015 (www.jacobkatsnelson.com).

Image: Portrait of Elizabeth Gaskell by George Richmond, 1851 (Wikipedia).

Click here for transcript

Contact me: jimjneilson@gmail.com

Chapters 15-18: 0:00—Barton’s burden. 2:30—Communism manifesting. 4:46—A strike in Manchester. 7:27—Harry vs. Jem. 9:39—Masters & Men meet. 12:54—Drawing contempt. 15:26—Drawing lots. 20:50—“Good-bye to ye.” 23:23—The Irish. 38:28—Murder! 46:37—Interlude.

Chapters 19-30: 47:25—Anosognosia. 53:33—Arrested romance. 1:00:54—Victorian melodrama. 1:03L52—Esther returned. 1:08:58—A piece that fits. 1:10:54—Seeking an alibi. 1:13:35—House of correction. 1:15:59—Mary & Jane & Margaret. 1:19:11—Purple haze. 1:25:51—Going down to Liverpool. 1:27:51—Crossing the bar.

Text: Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton. 1848. Oxford Univ. Press, 2006.

Interlude: Frederic Chopin, Scherzo no. 3, in C# minor (1839), performed Jacob Katsnelsonm, 2015,(www.jacobkatsnelson.com).

Additional music: "Crossing the Bar," by Alfred Tennyson (1889), music by Joseph Barnby (1893), performed by the Edison Mixed Quartet (1913); UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive.

Image: Portrait of Elizabeth Gaskell by George Richmond, 1851 (Wikipedia).

Click here for transcript

Contact me: jimjneilson@gmail.com

Chapter 7: 0:00—Morose & sour. 4:33—Typhoid. 5:03—The underworld. 11:31—Brute tribes. 13:53—The Davenports. 16:20—City life. 19:07—Rags to riches. 20:49—Meeting the master. 25:22—The ghoul. 32:17—Unpolished Jem. 34:39—Mary’s fantasy. 36:49—Interlude.

Chapters 8-10: 37:26—Unrelenting depression. 42:44—Criminal sentence. 45:47—Chartism. 49:17—When Harry used Sally. 52:04—Chartist failure. 54:26—“Song of Slaughter.” 56:26—Crawling through life. 57:41—Visions of the future. 59:34—After angry words. 1:02:58—Bad parenting. 1:05:01—Jem & Jane. 1:06:15—Opium for the masses. 1:09:56—A woman of no doubtful profession. 1:13:00—Interlude.

Chapters 11-14: 1:13:36—Dear Mary. 1:18:13—Mary, Mary quite contrary. 1:20:32—A little touch of Harry in the night. 1:24:39—An impossible distance. 1:26:05—Will & Alice. 1:27:21—Courts & grubs. 1:32:21—The story of Esther. 1:35:15—The seeds of vice. 1:45:11—Someone should die. 1:47:13—1848. 1:49:21—Closing.

Text: Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton. 1848. Oxford Univ. Press, 2006.

Interlude: Robert Schumann, Piano Trio No. 1 in D minor (1847), performed by the Claremont Trio, Jan. 26, 2025 (Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum).

Image: Portrait of Elizabeth Gaskell by George Richmond, 1851 (Wikipedia).

Click here for transcript

Contact me: jimjneilson@gmail.com

Chapter 1: 0:00—Backwater Manchester. 4:08—Cottage industry. 5:33—Proto-industrialization. 8:55—Urbanization & Industrialization. 11:42—Childhood in Knutsford, school in Stratford, marriage in Manchester. 14:38—The novel begins. 18:18—Factory girls. 22:36—A murky blot. 26:54—The Bartons & The Wilsons. 29:35—Lanky maggots. 31:49—Working women. 36:22—Class resentment. 40:15—Meeting Mary. 40:53—Interlude.

Chapter 2-6: 41:36—Meeting Manchester. 42:50—The Bartons’ home. 45:33—Some nettles. 48:10—Alice’s residence. 49:42—Silver Fork vs. Industrial novels. 50:50—Hidden lives. 53:46—Real lives. 55:42—Dirty looks. 59:17—“Oh, mother, mother!” 1:02:16—A changed man. 1:03:21—The necessaries of life. 1:07:42—Gaskell’s loss. 1:08:53—Mary’s work. 1:10:52—Meeting Margaret. 1:11:58—Mortality rates. 1:16:21—Alice & Will. 1:16:55—Scientific men in humble life. 1:20:50—Job Legh. 1:22:43—Mary’s coldness. 1:26:12—Extinguishing the fire. 1:29:20—Closing.

Text: Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton. 1848. Oxford Univ. Press, 2006.

Interlude: William Schumann, Cello Concerto in A minor, opus 129 (1859), performed by the Bamberg Symphony, with Gaspar Cassado, conducted by Jonel Perlea, 1956 (Internet Archive).

Image: Portrait of Elizabeth Gaskell by George Richmond, 1851 (Wikipedia).

Click here for transcript

Contact me: jimjneilson@gmail.com

Chapters 1-2: 0:00—Water drinking. 6:06—Murger’s success. 7:33—Francis’s success. 12:00—Man with a glove. 16:13—Berserkers. 19:56—Mid-century French art. 24:07—A blank canvas. 25:12—The painting of democrats. 28:23—Size matters. 31:23—Interlude.

Chapters 2-4: 31:57—A house call. 35:00—Behind the curtain. 40:10—Unsatisfyingly elliptical. 43:33—Muddied by pride. 45:49—An artistic freemasonry. 47:51—The doctor’s funeral. 51:04—Art & vanity. 52:23—Thirsting for greatness. 56:29—Francis browbeaten. 1:00:57—Browsing literature. 1:06:04—Interlude.

Chapters 5-6: 1:06:37—Family life. 1:08:30—Russians in Paris. 1:12:58—Initiation & integrity. 1:17:35—Bread & water drinkers. 1:18:32—Art movement. 1:20:03—Francis, Antonie & the Princess. 1:23:41—Fire & water drinkers. 1:25:05—Francis’s fate. 1:25:40—A glass one-third full. 1:27:25—Anything but amusing. 1:35:36—Closing.

Text: Henry Murger, The Water Drinkers and Other Sketches of Paris in the Romantic Era. Translated by Zack Rogow. Black Widow Press, 2025.

Interludes: Georges Bizet, Symphony in C Major (1855), performed by the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano della RAI, conducted by André Cluytens, Milan, February 3, 1961.

Image: Engraving of Henry Murger, 1854 (Wikimedia).

Click here for transcript

Contact me: jimjneilson@gmail.com

Chapter 19: 0:00—A state of widowhood. 4:33—The species grisette. 12:52—Grisettes, lorettes & courtesans 16:05—Luxury & liberty. 18:52—Musette & Marcel. 24:52—Interlude.

Chapters 20-23: 25:50—Rodolphe & Mimi & Murger & Lucile. 31:00—Women undressed. 40:28—Rodolphe verses Mimi. 49:57—Murger’s poverty. 52:38—The past arrives. 56:46—La Boheme vs. The Bohemians. 57:53—A handy man. 1:05:15—Puccini’s Mimi. 1:06:38—Number 8. 1:09:28—Romanticism vs. realism. 1:10:59—Losing Lucile. 1:16:43—Epilogue.

Text: Henry Murger, The Bohemains of the Latin Quarter. Translated by Maurice Samuels. 1901. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

Interlude: Giacomo Puccini, La Boheme, “Ohè là! Le Gardie,” NBC Radio Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, 1946.

Additional music: Giacomo Puccini, La Boheme, "Che ha detto il medico?" sung by Jan Peerce, NBC Radio Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscannini, 1946.

Image: Henry Murger, caricature by Étienne Carjat in Diogène no.18, vol. 7, December 1856 (Wikipedia).

Click here for transcript

Contact me: jimjneilson@gmail.com

Chapters 11: 0:00-Bohemians behaving badly. 4:16—Murger’s purpura. 5:56—The real Bohemians. 8:54—Murger’s models. 15:22—Christmas at Café Momus. 16:54—Interlude.

Chapters 12-14: 17:48—Becoming bohemian. 21:51—Celebration at the Viscount Paul’s. 24:16—Rodolphe & Mimi unite. 27:19—Demolishing Nisard. 29:02—Perfect harmony. 29:54—Shattered harmony. 34:47—Mimi mutilates. 36:58—Routine, recrimination & reanimation. 38:32—Rodolphe & Mimi separate. 39:45—A wild ballet. 42:15—An instrument of pleasure. 44:00—Lucile! Lucile! 44:57—The chill of solitude. 46:33—Raging Rodolphe. 48:13—Rodolphe & Mimi reunite. 48:55—Murger & Lucile. 50:50—Interlude.

Chapters 15-17: 51:43—Breaking up. 53:46—Upper-class Musette. 55:30—A love ode. 56:08—The passage of the Red Sea. 59:03—Médecis the Jew. 1:00:59—The Damascus Affair. 1:03:07—Anti-Semitism. 1:04:05—Médecis’s inventory. 1:05:49—Hanging Marcel’s painting. 1:06:34—A hub of luxury. 1:07:53—Bodies in the Louvre. 1:09:20—A Britisher. 1:12:09—Coco the parrot. 1:13:40—Dolores the actress. 1:14:05—The June Days Uprising & the February Revolution. 1:17:19—The Parisian poor. 1:19:06—Dolores & the Englishman. 1:21:47—Coco’s cacophony. 1:23:41—Interlude.

Chapter 18: 1:24:33—A man named Jacques D. 1:27:42—What about Francine’s muff? 1:28:11: Jacques & Francine. 1:31:29—Digressions. 1:33:58—Francine’s condition. 1:36:22—Francine’s last word. 1:40:46—Kissing her on another’s lips. 1:43:04—No special grave. 1:44:26—Missing person. 1:51:27—Closing.

Text: Henry Murger, The Bohemains of the Latin Quarter. Translated by Maurice Samuels. 1901. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

Interludes: Giacomo Puccini, La Boheme, “Ohè là! Le Gardie,” NBC Radio Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, 1946.

Image: Henry Murger, by Nadar, between 1854 -1860 (Musee d'Orsay).

Click here for transcript

Contact me: jimjneilson@gmail.com

Chapter 1: 0:00-Bohemain rhapsodies. 5:27—Bohemian brothers. 6:26—The musician Schaunard. 8:28—Lovers’ locks. 11:51—Duo lepus. 15:04—The bibliophile Colline. 18:15—The writer Rodolphe. 19:57—The brotherhood. 21:59—The word “Bohemian.” 23:52—The Bourgeoisie. 28:06—Bohemianism. 29:28—Interlude.

Chapters 2-5: 29:49—Sugar coating. 35:00—Straight romance. 36:21—Loving and losing Louise. 43:53—Conducted to the “jug?” 46:20—Manual labor. 48:57—Turkish delights. 51:47—Talking heads. 53:53—Talk of the Quarter. 58:13—Interlude.

Chapters 6-10: 58:33—Meeting Musette. 1:02:13—La grisette. 1:04:26—Grisette Musette. 1:06:19—Musette & Marcel. 1:07:41—Unfashionable Bohemians. 1:10:32—Boho chic. 1:13:16—Home economics. 1:14:28—Grammar school. 1:18:42—Money, love, and editing. 1:21:54—Dreams of abundance. 1:23:57—Meeting Mimi. 1:24:51—Closing.

Text: Henry Murger, The Bohemains of the Latin Quarter. Translated by Maurice Samuels. 1901. Univ. of Pennsylvania Press, 2004.

Interludes: Giacomo Puccini, La Boheme, “Aranci, ninnoli,” NBC Radio Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscanini, 1946.

Additional music: Giacomo Puccini, “Che gelida manina,” sung by Jan Peerce, La Boheme, NBC Radio Orchestra, conducted by Arturo Toscannini, 1946.

Additional music: Jonathan Lawson, “La Vie Boheme,” Rent, New York Theatre Workshop Recording, 1994 (Internet Archive).

Illustration: Henry Murger, 1857 (Wikisource).

Click here for transcript

Contact: jimjneilson@gmail.com