Literature
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The History of Literature #454 — Emma’s Pick – A Victorian Ghost Story
Happy Halloween! In this episode, producer Emma selects a classic Victorian ghost story for Jacke to read: “Eveline’s Visitant” by the publishing powerhouse Mary Elizabeth Braddon. Additional listening suggestions: Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. The History of Literature Podcast is a member of Lit Hub Radio and the Podglomerate Network. Learn more at www.thepodglomerate.com/historyofliterature. Continue reading
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The History of Literature #453 — The Autobiography of Malcolm X (with Dr Rae Wynn-Grant)
Jacke talks to Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant about her journey to becoming a wildlife ecologist and two classic works from the 1960s that helped inspire her: The Autobiography of Malcolm X (as told to Alex Haley) and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Be sure to check out Dr. Wynn-Grant’s podcast Going Wild, brought to you by PBS Nature. Journey deep into… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #452 — Charles and Mary Lamb | A Letter To My Transgender Daughter (with Carolyn Hays)
In this episode, Jacke takes a look at two topics. First, the story of Charles and Mary Lamb, whose children’s book Tales from Shakespeare (1807) was published more than two hundred years ago and has never been out of print. Part of the literary circle that included Romantic-era luminaries like Hazlitt, Wordsworth, and Coleridge, the siblings dedicated… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #451 — Mary Shelley
For more than two centuries, the author Mary Shelley (1797-1851) has been eclipsed by others: her famous parents William Godwin and Mary Wollstonecraft, her even more famous husband Percy Bysshe Shelley, and even her own creations, the “modern Prometheus” Victor Frankenstein and the creature that often (and erroneously) bears his name. But Mary Shelley deserves… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #447 — Lady Chatterley’s Lover (with Saikat Majumdar)
D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) started a firestorm with his 1928 novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover, which was quickly banned around the world. But the novel eventually found its way into print, after winning numerous obscenity trials in the 1950s and 60s, and today it’s widely available (if not always widely read). In this episode, Jacke talks to Indian… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #446 — Percy Bysshe Shelley – The Early Years
Jacke takes a look at the early years of Percy Bysshe Shelley, from his idyllic childhood, to his rebellious student years, to his experiments in free love, radical politics, and Wordsworthian poetry. Works discussed include “Queen Mab,” “Hymn to Intellectual Beauty,” “Alastor, or the Spirit of Solitude,” “Mont Blanc,” “Mutability [“We are as clouds that… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #444 — Thrillers on the Eve of War – Spy Novels in the 1930s (with Juliette Bretan)
The British spy novel was well established long before Ian Fleming’s creation of James Bond in the 1950s. And while it came to be identified with the Cold War, thanks to Fleming and subsequent writers like John le Carré, thriller aficionados continued to look back to earlier authors for novels with a different set of… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #443 — Updating Bloom’s Canon (with Bethanne Patrick)
In 1994, Harold Bloom’s magnum opus The Western Canon took up the critical cudgels on behalf of 26 writers declared by Bloom to be essential. In this episode, Bethanne Patrick (aka the Book Maven), literary critic and host of the new podcast Missing Pages, joins Jacke to propose some additions to Bloom’s narrow list. Additional Listening Suggestions: Help… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #441 — When Novels Were Novel (with Jason Feifer)
It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when reading novels was not a common activity – and then, suddenly, it was. In this episode, Jacke talks to Jason Feifer, an expert on transformative changes in society, to see how the rise of novels (and the backlash against them) follow broader patterns of… Continue reading
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The History of Literature #440 — Emma’s Pick – “A Pair of Silk Stockings” by Kate Chopin
Today, Kate Chopin (1851-1904) might be best known for her groundbreaking feminist novel The Awakening (1899). But she was also an accomplished short story writer, publishing in national magazines like Atlantic Monthly and Vogue. In this episode, Jacke provides an annotated reading of producer Emma’s latest pick: “A Pair of Silk Stockings” (1897) Chopin’s story of a down-on-her-luck woman who… Continue reading
Jacke Wilson 