Episodes

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...

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 ...

As the author of what is generally considered the first and perhaps greatest novel of the modern era, Miguel de Cervantes and his masterpiece Don Quixote belongs on every shelf. But as two scholars point out in their new book...

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, thri...

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 warrior and leader known as Bābur (1483-1530) had the kind of life one might expect from the descendant of Timur (Tamburlaine) on his father's side and Genghis Khan on his mother's. Elevated to the throne at age 12, and t...

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 h...

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 Vo...

Sure, we know poets are experts in subjects like love, death, nightingales, and moonlight. But what about money? Isn't that a little...beneath them? (Or at least out of their area of expertise?) In this episode, Jacke talks t...

In 1922, a writer for the Observer commented: "No book has been more eagerly and curiously awaited by the strange little inner circle of book-lovers and littérateurs than James Joyce's Ulysses." After declaring Joyce to be a ...

Responding to a listener email, a heartbroken Jacke takes a close look at Emily Dickinson's astonishing poem "A Bird, came down the Walk." Additional listening suggestions: 120 The Astonishing Emily Dickinson 418 "Because I c...

The History of Literature Presents: Missing Pages

He was born Theodor Seuss Geisel in 1904, but in the next 87 years, the world came to know and love him by his pen name, Dr. Seuss. Best known for his more than 60 books for children, including The Cat in the Hat , How the Gr...

In our last episode, we looked at the decision by Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard to purchase a printing press and run it out of their home. What began as a hobby - a relief from the strains of writing - soon turned in...

Virginia Woolf has long been celebrated as a supremely gifted novelist and essayist. Less well known, but important to understanding her life and contributions to literature, are her efforts as a publisher. In the decades tha...

Is this the greatest man vs. nature story ever? Hard to say. But it just might be the purest . Kicking off a new HOL feature, producer Emma chooses a short story for Jacke to read and discuss - Jack London's classic "To Build...

"All you have to do is write one true sentence," Ernest Hemingway said in A Moveable Feast . "Write the truest sentence that you know." And so he did: the man wrote thousands of sentences, all in search of "truth" of some kin...

Very few writers have had the influence or importance of Langston Hughes (1902?-1967). Best known for poems like "The Negro Speaks of Rivers," "I, Too," and "The Weary Blues," Hughes was also a widely read novelist, short sto...

It's a paradox that has bothered Shakespeare's fans for centuries: the man was as insightful into human beings as anyone whoever lived, and yet his own life is barely documented. This combination of literary genius plus biogr...

For years, we've enjoyed talking to writers about the books they love best. In this "best of" episode, we go deep into the archive for three of our favorites: Jim Shepard and his youthful discovery of Bram Stoker's Dracula ; ...

Since the first publication of his six-volume magnum opus, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , Edward Gibbon (1734-1797) has been ranked among the greatest historians who ever lived. What made his work d...

In our last episode, Jacke looked at the life of celebrated Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), the widely acknowledged master of haiku. In this episode, Jacke looks deeper into the nature of Bashō's best works, organizin...

In addition to being what is probably the most widely used poetic form, haiku is almost certainly the most often misunderstood. In this episode, Jacke examines the life and works of Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), haiku's greatest ...

Born Tomáš Sträussler, in what was then Czechoslovakia, celebrated playwright Tom Stoppard (1937- ) became one of the best known British playwrights in the world. Known for his with and humor, his facility with language, and ...