Original version

BBC Radio 3 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced Third Programme.

BBC Radio 3

Radio 3

The Essay Podcast

The Essay

Discussion & Talk

Factual: Arts, Culture & the Media

Essays from leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond.

Leading writers on arts, history, philosophy, science, religion and beyond, themed across a week - insight, opinion and intellectual surprise.

The Essay: Enlightenment Voices: Diderot

The Essay: Enlightenment Voices: Diderot: Part 4

Diderot

Part 4 Enlightenment Voices

BBC Radio 3 - The Essay, Enlightenment Voices, Diderot, Part 4Close menu

Caroline Warman on Diderot's interest in women - personally and as victims of intolerance.

Dr Caroline Warman explores Diderot's passionate interest in women, both personally and as the victims of intolerance and injustice.

Dr Caroline Warman explores Denis Diderot's passionate interest in women, both personally and as the victims of intolerance and injustice. 

The love letters of Denis Diderot to his mistress Sophie Volland are amongst the most passionate and touching of all Enlightenment writing. According to Dr Caroline Warman, an expert in the French Enlightenment at Jesus College, Oxford, "they sizzle the pages they are written on". In this evening's Essay, Caroline Warman explores Diderot's passionate interest in women, both from a personal point of view and as victims of injustice and intolerance. She introduces his erotic novella, Indiscreet Jewels, and his semi-pornographic novel, The Nun, while unpacking Diderot's serious and stimulating exploration of the abuse of power and the human appetite for pleasure.

The Essay: Enlightenment Voices

Live music and the arts: broadcasts more live music than any other radio network. Classical music is its core. Genres include world and new music, jazz, speech and drama.

Documentaries

Factual: Life Stories

Factual: History

Series introducing great scientists, thinkers and activists of the European Enlightenment

Series introducing the great scientists, thinkers and activists of the European Enlightenment

Series exploring the life and work of French Enlightenment philosopher Denis Diderot

Series exploring the life and work of French philosopher Denis Diderot, the inspirational driving force behind the greatest publishing enterprise of the Enlightenment, the Encyclopdie

Accessibility links

Programme Index

The Essay

Enlightenment Voices

Diderot

Part 4

Genres

Brand

Series

Series

BBC Radio 3

About BBC Radio 3