In the second installment of our look at Chekhov's four major plays, Jacke takes a look at Uncle Vanya (1898), the story of an estate manager struggling to make sense of his life.
Help support the show at patreon.com/literature or historyofliterature.com/shop. (We appreciate it!) Find out more at historyofliterature.com, jackewilson.com, or by following Jack ... Show More
Mar 9
782 Consent in the Regency Novel (with Zoë McGee)
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 McGee about her new book Courting Disaster: Reading Between the Lines in the Regency Novel, which compares classic novels by Jane Au ... Show More
1h 5m
Mar 5
781 Laurie Frankel's Enormous Wings | My Last Book with Rhodri Lewis
"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 from one phase to the next. But what happens when something dramatic mashes these acts together? In this episode, Jacke talks to New ... Show More
1h 6m
Mar 2
780 Chekhov on Writing (with Bob Blaisdell)
In an 1886 letter to his brother, Anton Chekhov delivered some advice about truthfulness in writing. "Don't invent sufferings you have not experienced," he wrote, "and don't paint pictures you have not seen--for a lie in a story is much more boring than a lie in conversation." In ... Show More
49m 22s
Sep 2025
A Tale of Two Cities, oh and the Capture of a Third (Herodotus' The Histories Bk 1, Part 2)
We return to the wonderful world of Herodotus to see what happens next in Croesus' mad dash to take on the Persian Empire? Will he succeed? Will we even really hear about it? What sort of tangents can Herodotus get onto today! Line up quick folks, tickets go fast, come on in to s ... Show More
35m 23s
Dec 2024
Movie Discussion: A Knight's Tale (2001)
As my gift to you all, enjoy this newly-edited (just for audio issues, not for content!) discussion of the 2001 movie A Knight's Tale with myself, Allison Epstein, and Lana Wood Johnson! Spoiler: we all LOVED it.
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2h 22m
Aug 2025
Lore 287: It Takes a Village
If these dark tales from history prove anything, it is that powerful things often come in small packages. Narrated and produced by Aaron Mahnke, with writing by GennaRose Nethercott, research by Jaime Vargas, and music by Chad Lawson. ————————— Lore Resources: Episode Music: lore ... Show More
34m 26s
Oct 2025
A Teach-In for History
<p>On Sunday, October 26th, 2025, Nate DiMeo of this here show, The Memory Palace, and his friends and colleagues at his fellow Radiotopia show, This Day, will be holding a good, old-fashioned teach-in in defense of history and museums currently targeted by the Trump Administrati ... Show More
15m 17s
Sep 2025
Ian McEwan on Speculative Fiction, Lost Poems and What We Can Know
Ian McEwan is the critically acclaimed author of nineteen novels and two short story collections. His novels include Atonement, Enduring Love, The Children Act and On Chesil Beach, and he is the recipient of many awards including the Booker Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award and t ... Show More
42 m