Literature's great parties: launch 2025 in style with Lady Macbeth, Count Dracula and the Mad Hatter

Secret Life of Books

To round out 2024, SLoB is hosting the world’s shortest New Year’s Eve party, in which we rank literary history’s most under-the-radar ragers. Crank up your sonos and get ready for classic fun this New Year.

In under an hour, and with lashings of improvisational revelry, Sophie and Jonty review and rank party scenes from the books they covered in 2024.

Most readers of the great English classics come for the amazing settings, the unrequited passions, the rampant alcoholism, homicidal rage and untreated personality disorders. But after this episode, you’ll stay for all the underappreciated scenes of hospitality, small group functions and intimate dinners. SLoB ranks according to five key metrics - all in the name of literary festivity and new year’s optimism.

Pre-game for your 2024 NYE bash with this baby, recorded in a new studio with a special machine that enables Jonty to make amusing sound-effects over the voice tracks.

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Producer: Boyd Britton
Digital Content Coordinator: Olivia di Costanzo
Designer: Peita Jackson
Our thanks to the University of Sydney Business School.