The History of Literature

787 Why Poetry with Matthew Zapruder Encore

26 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In his book Why Poetry, the poet Matthew Zapruder issued "an impassioned call for a return to reading poetry and an incisive argument for its accessi...

786 Cherokee Novelist and Poet John Rollin Ridge (with Travis Franks)

23 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A member of the Cherokee nation, John Rollin Ridge (1827-1867) lived a dramatic life full of contradictions. He also became the first Native American ...

785 Literature in an Age of Anti-Immigration Sentiment (with Daniel Olivas) | My Last Book with Janet Todd

19 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel A. Olivas, the grandson of Mexican immigrants, is a fiction writer, poet, playwright, book critic, and attorney. In this episode, Jacke talks ...

784 Marcus Aurelius: Philosopher-King (with William O. Stephens)

16 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In the fourth century B.C., Plato famously posited a philosopher-king as the ideal ruler for his imagined Republic. Five hundred years later, the Roma...

783 Southern Imagining (with Elleke Boehmer) | My Last Book with John McMurtrie

12 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The world has a northern bias: our politics, culture, and literature all tend to view the northern viewpoint as the default position, leaving the far ...

782 Consent in the Regency Novel (with Zoë McGee)

09 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Ever since the novel was invented, women have used it as a platform for sharing ideas about sexual consent. In this episode, Jacke talks to Dr. Zoë M...

781 Laurie Frankel's Enormous Wings | My Last Book with Rhodri Lewis

05 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

"And one man in his time plays many parts," wrote Shakespeare in As You Like It, "[h]is acts being seven ages." We all know the feeling of passing fro...

780 Chekhov on Writing (with Bob Blaisdell)

02 Mar 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In an 1886 letter to his brother, Anton Chekhov delivered some advice about truthfulness in writing. "Don't invent sufferings you have not experienced...

779 Ernest Hemingway and The Sun Also Rises (with Mike Palindrome) RECLAIMED

26 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) was one of the most famous American writers of the twentieth century. His plain, economical prose style--inspired by jour...

778 A History of Aphorisms (with James Geary) | My Last Book with Paul Chrystal

23 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

For thousands of years, writers from ancient China to contemporary meme-makers have demonstrated the power of the short, witty, philosophical phrases ...

777 T.S. Eliot's "Preludes" | "The Story of the Marquis de Cressy" by Marie-Jeanne Riccoboni (with Kate Deimling)

19 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke kicks off the episode with an analysis of T.S. Eliot's underappreciated poem of urban alienation, "Preludes." Then scholar and translator Kate D...

776 Mary Shelley in Bath (with Fiona Sampson) | My Last Book with D.G. Hampton

16 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

As fans of the novel know, Frankenstein began with a flash of insight during an ill-fated holiday near Geneva in the summer of 1816, when the young wo...

775 Celebrity Authorship in the Nineteenth Century (with Sarah Allison) | My Last Book with Emily Van Duyne

12 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

When assessing the literature of an era, we tend to think of the works that have made it into the canon - but in so doing, we're in danger of overlook...

774 Robert Louis Stevenson (with Leo Damrosch)

09 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) suffered from poor health for most of his life, and yet he possessed immense vitality. In this episode, Jacke talks...

773 The Films of Rob Reiner (with Mike Palindrome) | My Last Book with Matt Abrahams

05 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In mid-December 2025, the world was shocked by the horrible and tragic news that beloved film director Rob Reiner and his wife Michelle Singer Reiner ...

772 Thucydides and The History of the Peloponnesian War (with Polly Low and Robin Waterfield) | My Last Book with James West

02 Feb 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Ancient Greek historian and general Thucydides (c. 460-400 BCE) called his history of a war between Athens and Sparta "a possession for all time."...

771 Shakespeare and the Generation of Genius - The Role of Performing Arts in education (with Robin Lithgow) - RECLAIMED

29 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Robin Lithgow spent her life immersed in the performing arts, including a childhood in the theater and decades spent as an educator and arts administr...

770 Shakespeare and Civility (with Indira Ghose) | Robert W. Service and "The Cremation of Sam McGee"

26 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Civility can help a society overcome tribal loyalties and cooperate for the common good--and when political and religious factions threaten to break a...

769 The European Byron (with Jonathan Gross) | The Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald (#3 GBOAT)

22 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The Romantic poet Byron (1788-1824) was more than just the scandal-ridden celebrity who was famously dubbed "mad, bad, and dangerous to know"--he was...

768 Young James Baldwin (with Nicholas Boggs) | My Last Book with Bruce Robbins

19 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

The American writer and civil rights activist James Baldwin (1924-1987) spent the second half of his life as a fixture in American intellectual life. ...

767 A Black Woman in the Romantic Archive (with Mathelinda Nabugodi) | My Last Book with Richard Kopley

15 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

A scrap of Coleridge's handwriting. The sugar that Wordsworth stirred into his teacup. A bracelet made of Mary Shelley's hair... In this episode, Jack...

766 Gertrude Stein (with Francesca Wade) | Ruskin on the Only One Way to Get Art | My Last Book with Holly Baggett

12 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

Gertrude Stein (1874-1946) has long been one of the most famous - and most polarizing - figures in modernism. Was she a trailblazing genius? Or a lite...

765 Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne (with Mike Palindrome)

08 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

In Puritan New England, a young man leaves Faith, his wife, to go into the forest to meet the Devil. It's a story "as deep as Dante," said Herman Melv...

764 Two Thousand Years of Roman History (with Edward J. Watts) | My Last Book with Nathan Hensley

05 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

What do we talk about when we talk about ancient Romans? For many of us, it's typically a fairly narrow slice of history: the toga-clad figures of Cic...

763 Emily's Desk Drawer

01 Jan 2026

Contributed by Lukas

After the publication of her debut novel Wuthering Heights in December of 1847, Emily Brontë - still writing under her pen name Ellis Bell - joined C...

762 The History of the Sonnet

29 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

 “A sonnet,” said the poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “is a moment’s monument.” But who invented the sonnet? Who brought it to prominence? How...

761 The Story of the Nativity (with Stephen Mitchell) | The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger (#4 Greatest Book of All Time)

24 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Stephen Mitchell has translated or adapted some of the world's most beautiful and spiritually rich texts, including The Gospel According to Jesus, Th...

760 Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, and Ebeneezer Scrooge

22 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this holiday-themed episode, a sentimental Jacke takes a look at Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol (1843), and the creation of Ebeneezer Scrooge...

759 The Godfather (with Karen Spence) | My Last Book with Elyse Graham

18 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece The Godfather routinely tops lists of the greatest films ever made - and when it doesn't, it's often because its se...

758 Jane Austen in 41 Objects (with Kathryn Sutherland) | 100 Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez (#5 Greatest Book of All Time)

15 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

How well can we know someone through the objects they encountered? In this episode, Jacke talks to Kathryn Sutherland, Senior Research fellow at St. A...

757 George Orwell's 1984 (#6 Greatest Book of All Time)

11 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1949, American critic Lionel Trilling, writing in the New Yorker, was quick to recognize the achievement of George Orwell's new novel. "[P]rofound,...

756 Newly Discovered Stories by Virginia Woolf (with Urmila Seshagiri) | My Last Book with Jake Poller

08 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Did you think we already knew everything there was to know about Virginia Woolf? Think again! In this episode, Jacke talks to scholar and editor Urmil...

755 The Chinese Tragedy of King Lear (with Nan Z. Da) | My Last Book with Iris Jamahl Dunkle

04 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

At the start of Shakespeare's famous tragedy, King Lear promises to divide his kingdom based on his daughters’ professions of love, but he portions ...

754 Christopher Marlowe (with Stephen Greenblatt) | My Last Book with Eric White

01 Dec 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) was born into relative obscurity and died in mysterious circumstances at the age of 29. And yet, somehow this ambitiou...

753 Tenth-Anniversary Special (with Mike Palindrome and Laurie Frankel) | Giving Thanks | My Last Book with Eve Dunbar

26 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Jacke started the podcast in 2015, he decided to privilege books that were at least fifty years old. (Longtime listeners will know he's made a fe...

752 The Brontes' Sibling Rivalry (with Catherine Rayner) | My Last Book with Keith Cooper

24 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Charlotte Brontë wasn't born the eldest child, but she was thrust into a leadership role at the age of ten, as the Brontë children dealt with the tr...

751 Covering Iran's Women-Led Uprising (with Nilo Tabrizy) | My Last Book with Sharmila Sen

20 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In September 2022, a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Jîna Amini, died after being beaten by police officers who arrested her for not adhering to the Islam...

750 A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (with Mark Cirino) | Joyce Carol Oates vs the Trillionaire | My Last Book with Ken Krimstein

17 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's the 750th episode of the History of Literature, and what better way to celebrate than to talk some Hemingway with repeat guest Mark Cirino? In th...

749 Willing and Will-Making in the English Renaissance (with Douglas Clark) | #7 Greatest Book of All Time

13 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

When Hamlet, in his famous soliloquy, pondered the "dread of something after death, / the undiscovered country," he noted that such thoughts "puzzles ...

748 Katherine Mansfield (with Gerri Kimber) | The Poet and the Sex Worker Who Burgled Him | My Last Book with Emerson Expert Kenneth Sacks

10 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Katherine Mansfield's writing, said Virginia Woolf, "was the only writing I was ever jealous of." In this episode, Jacke talks to author Gerri Kimber ...

747 Graphomaniac - The Story of a Horrible Russian Poet (with Ilya Vinitsky and James H. McGavran III | My Last Book with Stephanie Sandler | #8 Greatest Book of All Time

06 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Dmitry Ivanovich Khvostov (1757-1835) might be the worst poet who ever lived. Pathologically prolific and delusional dedicated to a craft for which he...

746 Wild Jane Austen (with Devoney Looser) | #9 Greatest Book of All Time

03 Nov 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Author Devoney Looser may be a mild-mannered English professor to most people, but roller derby fans know her as Stone Cold Jane Austen, her smashmout...

745 Goblin Market by Christina Rossetti (Halloween Fun-Size Edition)

30 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In the spring of 2022, Jacke dropped everything to plummet into one of the strangest poems he had ever read, "Goblin Market" by Christina Rossetti (18...

744 Love, Sex, and Frankenstein (with Caroline Lea) | #10 Greatest Book of All Time | My Last Book with Geoffrey Turnovsky | A Letter from a Middle School Teacher and Mom

27 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The year is 1816, and 18-year-old Mary Shelley has fled London with her lover, Percy Shelley, and her sister, Claire. They're on their way to visit Lo...

743 Fairy Tales (with Jack Zipes) [RECLAIMED] | Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky (#11 GBOAT) | Chaucer News

23 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

An early encounter with one of the most famous people in the world initiated Jack Zipes into the world of fairy tales - and he never looked back. In t...

742 Edgar Allan Poe (with Richard Kopley) | Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (#12 GBOAT) | My Last Book with Christopher Herbert

20 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's October, the perfect month to celebrate the master of mystery and the macabre. In this episode, Jacke talks to author Richard Kopley about his bo...

741 Gabriela Mistral

16 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In 1945, the Nobel Committee awarded its prize for literature to Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) "for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotio...

740 Mel Brooks and Other Eminent Jews (with David Denby) | War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy (#13 GBOAT)

13 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Jacke talks to author David Denby about his new book, Eminent Jews: Bernstein, Brooks, Friedan, Mailer, a group biography (loosely in...

739 Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov (#14 GBOAT) | Johannes Gutenberg (with Eric Marshall White)

09 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Thanks to his invention of Europe's first typographic printing method, and his pioneering work on the first printed Bible, the fifteenth-century Germa...

738 Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë (#15 Greatest Book of All Time)

06 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Emily Brontë only published one full-length book before dying at the tragically young age of 30. But that book, Wuthering Heights, which tells the st...

737 "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs

02 Oct 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's October! Jacke kicks off his favorite month with a classic tale of horror, "The Monkey's Paw" by W.W. Jacobs. Perhaps you know the general contou...

736 Jane Austen's Favorite Brother, Henry (with Christopher Herbert) | A Letter from the South of France | My Last Book with Nicholas Jenkins

29 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Austen had six brothers, but her older brother Henry was her favorite. Kind and witty, Henry has long been appreciated by Austen fans for his dev...

735 Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (with Mark Hussey) | My Last Book with Graham Watson

22 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to author Mark Hussey (Mrs Dalloway: Biography of a Novel) about Virginia Woolf's beloved novel Mrs Dalloway, which turned 100 earlier thi...

734 The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien (#16 GBOAT) | 1925 - A Literary Encyclopedia (with Tom Lutz)

18 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to author Tom Lutz about 1925: A Literary Encyclopedia, which provides a fascinating window into a year when literature was arguably at it...

733 Haruki Murakami (with Mike Palindrome | To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee (#17 GBOAT) | A Letter from Tehran

15 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Haruki Murakami (b. 1949) is one of the rare writers who combines literary admiration with widespread appeal. Host Jacke Wilson is joined by lifelong ...

732 The Bible (#18 GBOAT) | The Diaries of Samuel Pepys (with Kate Loveman) | Health Advice

11 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke starts the episode by looking at the different ways that ten writers have viewed the Bible, #18 on the list of the Greatest Books of All Time. T...

731 The Brothers Karamazov Reclaimed (#19 Greatest Book of All Time)

08 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Responding to a special request from a listener, Jacke discusses Fyodor Dostoevsky, his novel The Brothers Karamazov, and the search for meaning in a...

730 "To Autumn" by John Keats | The Invention of Charlotte Brontë (with Graham Watson) | My Last Book with Sara Charles

04 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke looks forward to a new season by exploring the language and imagery of John Keats's famous ode to autumn. Then he talks to Graham Watson about h...

729 Milton the Revolutionary (with Orlando Reade) | My Last Book with Jodi Picoult | More Exciting News

01 Sep 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Since the publication of John Milton's epic poem Paradise Lost in 1667, readers and critics have noted the relationship between the poem and the autho...

728 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain (#20 GBOAT) | Lorraine Hansberry - RECLAIMED

25 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As part of the "25 for '25" series, Jacke starts the episode with a look at #20 on the list of Greatest Books of All Time, The Adventures of Huckleber...

727 Earthly Paradise in Old French Verse (with Jacob Abell) | My Last Book with Victorian Literature Expert Allen MacDuffie | A Dueling Neapolitan Passionate for Poetry

21 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What happened to Eden? While today we might view the story of Adam and Eve as metaphorical, for many generations of Christians, the Earthly Paradise w...

726 England vs France - A Literary Battle Royale (with Mike Palindrome) - RECLAIMED

18 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

“Our dear enemies,” a French writer once called the English. Englishman John Cleese called the French “our natural enemies” and joked “if we...

725 The Trial by Franz Kafka (#21 GBOAT) | Edith Wharton and Patrick O'Brian (with Olivia Wolfgang-Smith) | An Uplifting Story

14 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke starts the episode with an uplifting story, then submerges himself into chaos and absurdity for a look at The Trial by Franz Kafka, which lands ...

724 The Stranger by Albert Camus (#22 Greatest Book of All Time) | Christopher Isherwood (with Jake Poller) | Postcard from a Listener in Yunnan

11 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Put on your black turtleneck! Jacke starts the episode with a look at #22 on the list of The Greatest Books of All Time, The Stranger by Albert Camus....

723 The Moral Rights of Authors (with Mira T Sundara Rajan) | My Last Book with Radha Vatsal

07 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

As technology advances, the ability of authors and artists to prevent their works from being pirated or misused has become urgent. In this episode, Ja...

722 Kerouac's Road - A Conversation with Ebs Burnough, Director of a New Kerouac Documentary | My Last Book with Beat Generation Expert Steven Belletto

04 Aug 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Since its publication in 1957, Jack Kerouac's iconic novel On the Road has inspired millions to head for the highways and live life to its fullest. In...

721 Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert (The #23 Greatest Book of All Time)

31 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke continues his journey through the list of the 25 Greatest Books of All Time with a look at Flaubert's "perfect novel," Madame Bovary (1856-57). ...

720 The 25 Greatest Books of All Time - #24 "The Odyssey" by Homer | The Conclusion to F. Scott Fitzgerald's "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" (with Mike Palindrome)

28 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke continues his analysis of "The 25 Greatest Books of All Time" by a special look at Homer's Odyssey. Then Mike Palindrome, the president of the L...

719 "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz" by F Scott Fitzgerald (with Mike Palindrome) | 25 for 25 - #25 The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

24 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In June of 1922, the twenty-five-year-old wunderkind F. Scott Fitzgerald published "The Diamond as Big as the Ritz," an incredible story of fabulously...

718 Jim - The Life and Afterlives of Huckleberry Finn's Comrade (with Shelley Fisher Fishkin) | Mark Twain's Dreams

21 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Jacke talks to eminent Twain scholar Shelley Fisher Fishkin (Was Huck Black?: Mark Twain and African-American Voices) about her new b...

717 Einstein and Kafka (with Ken Krimstein) | Dr Johnson Helps a Friend (and Changes the Course of Literary History) | My Last Book with Fernando Pessoa Expert Bartholomew Ryan

17 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's an action-packed day at the History of Literature! First, Jacke recounts the story of Dr. Johnson racing to the aid of his friend, the playwright...

716 Icelandic Folk Legends (with Dagrun Osk Jonsdottir) | John le Carre at the Bodleian

14 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Since the first permanent settlers landed there more than a thousand years ago, Iceland has been perhaps the most unique and enchanting place in all o...

715 How Did George Eliot and the Victorians Respond to Climate Collapse? (with Nathan Hensley) | People at Museums Are Losing Their Brains! | My Last Book with Stephen Browning and Simon Thomas

10 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

What does it feel like to live helplessly in a world that is coming undone? If you're alive in 2025, you are probably very familiar with this feeling ...

714 The Real Charles Dickens (with Stephen Browning and Simon Thomas) | Dickens and the Theatre

07 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) led one of the most colorful and interesting lives of any author. But while many of us are familiar with his unforgettable...

713 The Odyssey (with Daniel Mendelsohn) | The History of Literature Podcast Tour!

03 Jul 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Homer's Odyssey is one of the oldest surviving works of literature - and yet, somehow, it can also feel like one of the newest. The inventive narrativ...

712 Shakespeare's Greatest Love (with David Medina) | New Play About Shakespeare's Collaboration with Marlowe

30 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

He might be the greatest writer about love that the world has ever known. But as is so often the case with Shakespeare, the biographical record raises...

711 How Does Literature Handle Atrocities? (with Bruce Robbins) | My Last Book with Hemingway Expert Alex Vernon | Who Will Come to Jacke and Emma's Party?

26 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For millennia, literature has represented humanity at its finest. Over the same period of time, human beings have been committing the worst acts of ma...

710 Weird and Wonderful Stories from Ancient Greece and Rome (with Paul Chrystal) | A BIG ANNOUNCEMENT | Two Listeners Follow Their Dream (And Create Something Amazing)

23 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's another action-packed episode! First, Jacke relays the story of a long-time listener who worked some mundane jobs before becoming an artistic boo...

709 Black American Humor (with Damon Young) | The Greatest American Joke Ever Told?

16 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

DAMON YOUNG (⁠What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Blacker: A Memoir in Essays⁠) is a Pittsburgh writer and humorist. In this episode, Jacke talks to D...

708 Science Fact and Science Fiction (with Keith Cooper) | AI Discovers a Work of Ancient Philosophy and Dreams Up a Reading List

12 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For decades, writers and filmmakers have imagined worlds where characters can do things like watch a double sunset (on Tatooine, of course), or stand ...

707 Emile Zola (with Robert Lethbridge) | Graham Greene's Only Ghost Story | My Last Book with Irina Mashinski

09 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For years, listeners have been requesting an episode devoted to the French novelist, journalist, playwright, and public intellectual Émile Zola (1840...

706 Living with Jane Austen (with Janet Todd) | A Listener Changes His Life | Bored Parents

02 Jun 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that Jane Austen's novels make us wish she was our friend. She wouldn't be just any old friend: she'd be the s...

705 Runaway Poets - How the Brownings Fell in Love (And Why It Matters)

29 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth Barrett (1806-1861) was one of the most prolific and accomplished poets of the Victorian age, an inspiration to Emily Dickinson, Oscar Wilde...

704 Butterflies Regained

26 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Poetry, butterflies, and original music oh my! With some help from poets Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, William Wordsworth, and John Keats, along with...

703 D.H. Lawrence (with David Ellis) | My Last Book with Dorian Lynskey

19 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

D.H. Lawrence (1885-1930) is one of the most famous novelists of his era - and one of the most difficult to pin down. Was he a tasteless, avant-garde ...

702 Writing in the World of Jane Austen (with D.G. Rampton) | Disaster at the Book Festival!

15 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Jacke talks to D.G. Rampton, Australia's Queen of the Regency Romance, about her love for the novels of Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer - and what it'...

701 Emerson's Struggle with Slavery (with Kenneth Sacks) | My Last Book with Victoria Namkung | We Had Sex Inside Moby-Dick!

12 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For several decades, Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) was perhaps the most prominent writer and intellectual in America. As an advocate of personal fre...

700 - Butterflies at Rest

05 May 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Returning to some devastating news after a trip to Paris, Jacke searches for lost time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoic...

699 Gatsby's Daisy (with Rachel Feder) | My Last Book with Francesca Peacock

28 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel The Great Gatsby might be one hundred years old, but it's still incredibly relevant: one list-of-lists site ranks it as th...

698 Dante in Love (with Ellen Nerenberg and Anthony Valerio) [Ad-Free Archive Edition]

24 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's springtime! A great time to be in love - and if you're a poetic genius like Dante Alighieri, a great time to catch a glimpse of a girl named Beat...

697 Race in European Fairy Tales (with Kimberly Lau) | My Last Book with Rolf Hellebust

21 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Anyone digging into fairy tales soon discovers that there's more to these stories of magic and wonder than meets the eye. Often thought of as stories ...

696 John Ruskin (with Sara Atwood) | My Last Book with Collin Jennings

17 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

John Ruskin (1819-1900) was a powerhouse of a man: writer, lecturer, critic, social reformer - and much else besides. From his five-volume work Modern...

695 Ten Indian Classics (with Sharmila Sen) | My Last Book with Adam Smyth

14 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For the past ten years, the Murty Classical Library of India (published by Harvard University Press) has sought to do for classic Indian works what th...

694 Apocalyptic Literature (with Dorian Lynskey) | My Last Book with Charles Baxter

10 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For some reason, human beings don't seem to be content just thinking about their own death: they insist on imagining the end of the entire world. In t...

693 Understanding the Wonders of Nature (with Alan Lightman) | My Last Book with Alan Lightman

07 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

In today's world of specialization, Alan Lightman is that rare individual who has accomplished remarkable things in two very different realms. As a ph...

692 An Investigation in Chinatown (with Radha Vatsal) | The Five Books (with Tali Rosenblatt-Cohen)

03 Apr 2025

Contributed by Lukas

It's a two-for-one special! First, Jacke talks to novelist Radha Vatsal about her new book, No. 10 Doyers Street, which tells the gripping story of an...

691 The Making of Sylvia Plath (with Carl Rollyson) | My Last Book with Cheryl Hopson

31 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

Since her death, poet and novelist Sylvia Plath (1932-1963) has been an endless source of fascination for fans of her and her work. But while much att...

690 Coleridge and the Person from Porlock [Ad-Free]

27 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

[This episode originally ran on July 18, 2016. It is presented here without commercial interruption.] In 1797, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge took ...

689 Thomas Kyd (with Brian Vickers) | My Last Book with Jonathan D.S. Schroeder

24 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

For centuries, the playwright Thomas Kyd has been best known as the author of The Spanish Tragedy, a terrific story of revenge believed to have strong...

688 Georges Simenon

20 Mar 2025

Contributed by Lukas

The Belgian-born French writer Georges Simenon (1903-1989) was astonishing for his literary ambition and output. The author of something like 400 nove...