Don DeLillo (White Noise, Underworld) is a writer's writer's writer. Often called one of the most important novelists of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century, his themes and style have made him one of the most highly regarded and influential writers of our time. In this episode, Jacke talks to Professor Jesse Kavadlo, the President of the Don De ... Show More
Jul 16
817 The Odyssey - Getting Ready for a Summer Blockbuster | My Last Book with Mary Beard
Jacke gets ready for the release of Christopher Nolan's Odyssey, the rare instance of a summer blockbuster based on a literary classic, with some help from classics scholars Daniel Mendelsohn (The Odyssey, An Odyssey: A Father, A Son, and an Epic) and Mary Beard (Talking Classics ... Show More
1h 30m
Jul 13
816 Gulliver's Travels at 300 (with David Womersley) | My Last Book with Daniel Mendelsohn
As a literary classic turns 300, Jacke talks to the University of Oxford's David Womersley about Jonathan Swift, the nature of satire, and The Cambridge Anniversary Edition of Gulliver's Travels, which Womersley edited. PLUS Daniel Mendelsohn, classics scholar and translator ofTh ... Show More
1h 10m
Dec 2021
Don Quixote: Spanish masterpiece
With its multiple narrators, superb and complex characterisation, the influence of Don Quixote de la Mancha has been acknowledged by great writers through the ages as a masterpiece, and hailed as one of the most important novels in the history of literature.On the surface the nov ... Show More
39m 35s
Oct 2022
The Yukio Mishima Story, Part One: Confessions of a Mask
In his heyday, Japanese author Yukio Mishima was one of the most well-known writers in the world. But where did he come from -- and what on Earth led to his strange demise? In part one of this two-part episode, Ben, Noel and Max welcome research associate Zach Williams in his fir ... Show More
46m 4s
Oct 2022
The Yukio Mishima Story, Part Two: Mishima's End
In his heyday, Japanese author Yukio Mishima was one of the most well-known writers in the world. But where did he come from -- and what on Earth led to his strange demise? In part two of this two-part episode, Ben, Noel and Max welcome research associate Zach Williams in his fir ... Show More
50m 3s
Dec 2023
Episode 275: The Ineffable Center (Borges' "The Aleph")
<p>An episode interesting from every point of view, we train our eyes on Jorge Luis Borges' "The Aleph." The first segment wins the kudos of the learned, the academician, the Hellenist, as we talk about the favorite things we saw this year. The second segment — baroque? decadent? ... Show More
1h 34m