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Description

Bloomsbury presents The Birds by Camille Paglia, read by Gabrielle Glaister.

Drawing on Daphne du Maurier's short story and contemporary newspaper reports of bird attacks in California, Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963) featured Tippi Hedren in her first starring role. Camille Paglia's compelling study considers the film's aesthetic, technical and mythical qualities, and analyses its depiction of gender and family relations. A film about anxiety, sexual power and the violence of nature, it is quintessential Hitchcock.
Camille Paglia's foreword to this new edition reflects upon the relationship between Hitchcock and his leading lady Hedren in the light of recent debates about male power, female agency and the #MeToo movement.

Table of Contents

Foreword to the 2020 edition
'The Birds'
Appendix: Melanie Daniels' Social Calendar
Notes
Credits
Bibliography

Product details

Published Dec 11 2025
Format Audiobook
Duration 3 hours and 0 minutes
ISBN 9781805750987
Imprint British Film Institute
Series BFI Film Classics
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

CP

Author

Camille Paglia

GG

Narrator

Gabrielle Glaister

Reviews

  • The slim book is Paglia at her most discerning, precise, and enjoyable.

    Electric Ghost

  • Characteristically provocative and engrossing.

    The Best American Poetry blog

  • Camille Pagilia remains one of the most intellectual and challenging voices in academia and popular culture ... [S]he elevates The Birds up to the position it often gets denied: As a mid-career highlight of one of the world's greatest directors and a piece worthy of critical and intellectual examination.

    The Comic Crush

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Environment: Staging