Lowell's political passion encompasses much of his greatest poetry. Lowell himself reads from his work. Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Hass, and others discuss his development and style as illustrated by Lord Weary's Castle and Life Studies.

In 1832, teenage Cosette and Valjean make a new start in Paris, though Valjean worries it may be dangerous. Marius Pontmercy, now a young law student, confronts his grandfather after he learns the truth about his late father and the revolutionary ideals he fought for under Napoleon. The Thenardiers plot their revenge against their old nemesis. Javert comes closer to recapturing Valjean than ever.

On this episode of Madame Bovary, Rodolphe Boulanger and Emma Bovary decide to run away together. After he ends the relationship the night before, Emma falls deathly ill. While Charles Bovary is attempting to cheer up his wife with a trip to the opera, the couple discovers Leon Dupuis has relocated to Rouen. Tom Conti and Francesca Annis star in this adaptation of Gustave Flaubert's debut novel.

Walt Whitman rises from a hardscrabble boyhood in New York to write Leaves of Grass in 1855; a work that revolutionizes poetry. This episode explores the mystery of how a seemingly ordinary writer, with little education or training, could have created such a literature-altering masterpiece. Many of Whitman’s most famous poems are profiled, including “There Was a Child Went Forth,” “I Hear America Singing,” “Song of the Open Road,” “I...

John Simm plays Raskolnikov in Fyodor Dostoevsky's fascinating thriller about a desperate young man planning the perfect crime. Crime And Punishment is the ultimate psychological thriller, steeped in powerful themes of guilt and retribution, set in St Petersburg in the second half of the 19th century. Raskolnikov is a highly intelligent and striking young student who decides to test his courage and integrity by killing a mean old woman whom he is...

A hauntingly atmospheric and star-studded adaptation of Henry James' classic Gothic horror story. A young, inexperienced governess is hired to look after two small children abandoned by their uncle, following the death of their parents. Unsettled by glimpses of ghostly figures that only she can see, she quickly believes that something malevolent is stalking the children in her care. She learns that her predecessor and her lover both died under curious...

This 1929 adaptation of Alexander Dumas's The Man in the Iron Mask was Douglas Fairbanks's last silent film. It follows the heroic D'Artagnan and the Three Musketeers in through one of their most famous adventures. Directed by Allan Dwan.

This video shows the influence of Paris on the lives and works of 19th-century novelists, including Victor Hugo, Emile Zola, George Sand, and Honoré de Balzac.

The classic story, with a contemporary bent, of three little pigs threatened by a hungry wolf whose favorite food is pig. Narrated by Fritz Weaver.

A wicked troll tries in vain to gobble up a family of goats when they go trip-trapping over his bridge.