Fiction
-
The History of Literature #343 – The Feast in the Jungle
Squirrel-voiced waiter-host Jacke Wilson invites his listeners to a literary feast! In this episode, Jacke takes a look at Henry James’s long-short-story masterpiece, “The Beast in the Jungle.” (Don’t worry if you’ve never read the story or haven’t been able to find room in your heart for Henry James before–this episode is for anyone hungry… Continue reading
-
The History of Literature #342 – The End of the Affair by Graham Greene (with Laura Marsh)
In the aftermath of World War II, author Graham Greene was in personal and professional agony. His marriage was on the rocks, his soul was struggling to find its home, and his restless spirit had taken him into the bedrooms of multiple women. After several tumultuous years (“grotesquely complicated” was how he described his personal… Continue reading
-
The History of Literature #340 – Forgotten Women of Literature 5 – Constance Fenimore Woolson
When she died tragically at the age of 53, Constance Fenimore Woolson was ranked with the greatest female writers of all time, including Jane Austen, George Eliot, and the Brontes. What happened to her reputation after that? Did her friend Henry James sink her reputation as an author and a person? In this episode, Jacke… Continue reading
-
Kazuo Ishiguro (with Chigozie Obioma)
In this episode, we talk to Chigozie Obioma, whom the New York Times has called “the heir to Chinua Achebe.” We discuss his childhood in Nigeria, his novels The Fishermen and An Orchestra of Minorities, what he’s discovered about how fiction works, his love for the novel The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro, and his recent work with Alexander (www.alxr.com),… Continue reading
-
The History of Literature #289 – Swann’s Way (Marcel Proust)
Since its first appearance, Marcel Proust’s magnum opus In Search of Lost Time has delighted and confounded editors, readers, and critics. Published in seven volumes over a fourteen-year period, the enormous novel has generally been recognized as both the highest form of artistic achievement and one of the most difficult reading experiences imaginable. In this episode, Jacke… Continue reading
-
The History of Literature #256 – T.S. Eliot | The Waste Land
In 1922, T.S. Eliot (1888-1965), an American living in England, published The Waste Land, widely viewed as perhaps the greatest and most iconic poem of the twentieth century. Virginia Woolf recognized its power immediately, praising it for its “great beauty and force of phrase: symmetry and tensity.” And yet, as nearly a hundred years’ worth… Continue reading
-
The History of Literature #255 – Shakespeare’s Best | Sonnet 29 (“When in disgrace with Fortune and men’s eyes”)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/0AZxQLzFhKD5QuN5VvzeQF Hello August! Hello world! Hey world, you’ve kicked us around long enough – it’s time for us to return to our former glory! Jacke takes a look at the fourteen-line misery-jealousy-recovery-triumph story of Shakespeare’s Sonnet 29 (“When in disgrace in Fortune and men’s eyes”). Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out… Continue reading
-
The History of Literature #254 – Anna Karenina
In 1870, the 42-year-old Russian author Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) told his wife that he “wanted to write a novel about the fall of a society woman in the highest Petersburg circles, and…to tell the story of the woman and her fall without condemning her.” The result was his novel Anna Karenina (1877), which is widely… Continue reading
-
The History of Literature #253 – Shakespeare’s Best | Sonnet 18 (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?”)
https://open.spotify.com/episode/32fpGZBESW7aQZIe11UqOI What did Shakespeare do when the bubonic plague shut down London’s theaters? Apparently he wrote poetry instead, including some or all of his 154 sonnets. In this episode, Jacke takes a look at Sonnet 18 (“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day”) to see whether the poem deserves its reputation as one of… Continue reading
-
The History of Literature #251 – Beatrix Potter
Beatrix Potter (1866-1943) was a naturalist, a conservationist, and a highly successful children’s book author and illustrator, whose stories of Peter Rabbit and other anthropomorphized animals have sold more than 150 million copies in at least 35 languages. But who was Beatrix Potter? What kind of childhood did she have? How did she, as an… Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 