Novel by Jane Austen
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The Austenheads return. For today’s mission, we return to Austen with the 1995 adaptation of Sense and Sensibility. This movie is packed with stars, beautiful scenery, and romance…and add in a flatulent horse. But we must also delve into inheritance laws and what is wrong with Mansfield Park. Annette Wierstra with Amanda-Rae Prescott, Sandra Wong, Shelly Brisbin and Moisés Chiullán.
This week the pressure is on and Fanny is feeling the weight of it. Edmund returns and Crawfords prepare to leave, and Fanny can't seem to help but speak her truth.
Jane Austen has had devoted American admirers since her works were first published. In fact, several Americans played a crucial role in preserving and promoting her legacy. Joining us to explore Austen's reputation and reception in America is Professor Juliette Wells, a leading expert on the subject, who will also share the story of avid Austen collector Alberta H. Burke and preview some of the Austen treasures set to be displayed at the Morgan Library's upcoming exhibit A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250, for which she is guest co-curator.Juliette Wells, Professor of Literary Studies at Goucher College, is the author of Reading Austen in America (2017), Everybody's Jane: Austen in the Popular Imagination (2011), and most recently, A New Jane Austen: How Americans Brought Us the World's Greatest Novelist (2023). She has edited the 200th-anniversary editions of Persuasion and Emma for Penguin Classics, with a new edition of Mansfield Park slated for release later this year. A former JASNA Traveling Lecturer, Dr. Wells is a regular speaker at the society's Annual General Meetings. She is also the guest co-curator for the upcoming exhibition A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250 at the Morgan Library and Museum, which will run from June 6 to September 14, 2025, in celebration of Austen's milestone birthday.For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep23/.*********Visit our website: www.jasna.orgFollow us on Instagram and FacebookSubscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channelEmail: podcast@jasna.org
This week we are covering four emotionally charged chapters. A week of pent up feelings leads to an explosive cliffhanger.
This week we are covering chapters 25 -28 and everything's coming up Fanny. William is in town, everyone is thinking of her, and she is coming out. How will our shy little heroine deal with being the center of attention?
The complete audiobook is available for purchase at Audible.com: https://n9.cl/p0g1y The Jane Austen Omnibus Narrated by Catherine Bilson, Terah Tucker, Sarah Jane Rose, Graham Scott, Denis Daly and Linda Barrans. Jane Austen commenced writing in her adolescence and continued right up to her untimely death in 1817. Her novels are reflections of the socially constricted world in which she lived, and the plots are built around the search of one or more young women for a suitable spouse. Austen's works are noted for the perceptive elegance of her prose and for vigor and detail of characterization. Celebrated critic F. R. Leavis considered Austen as one of the four great English novelists, along with George Eliot, Henry James, and Joseph Conrad. This collection contains the following titles: Sense and Sensibility (1811) Pride and Prejudice (1813) Mansfield Park and Lovers' Vows (1814) Emma (1816) Works published posthumously: Northanger Abbey (1818) Persuasion (1818) Lady Susan (1871) Unfinished works: The Watsons (1871); completed by L. Oulton (1923) Sanditon: Fragment of a Novel (1925)
Life is a little busy at the moment so we are taking the next few weeks off, but we didn't want to leave you without episodes to listen to. Please enjoy this re-release of our coverage of Fire Walk With Me. We will be back with the second half of Mansfield Park next week.
Life is a little busy at the moment so we are taking the next few weeks off, but we didn't want to leave you without episodes to listen to. Please enjoy this re-release of our coverage of Fire Walk With Me. We will be back with the second half of Mansfield Park soon.
Life is a little busy at the moment so we are taking the next few weeks off, but we didn't want to leave you without episodes to listen to. Please enjoy this re-release of our coverage of Fire Walk With Me. We will be back with the second half of Mansfield Park soon.
Cooper and Tanner joyfully discuss one of their favorite authors—Jane Austen—and her beloved work, Mansfield Park. A romp of an episode, listen to hear them break down Austen at the height of her craft--even if other books of hers slightly outshine this one in their opinion.FOLLOW US ON INSTAGRAM:@bookinitpodCHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE:https://412podcasting.comSUPPORT US HERE:https://patreon.com/bookinit TEXT US HERE!
This week we are putting down the book to catch-up. We sort some characters, discuss why we all need some Lynch & Austen during these times, sort characters and create our dream adaptation.
“April 6, 1865. Well, father, who won the majority? Emma or Mansfield Park? William Stevenson answered from behind his newspaper at the head of the breakfast table, “Emma, of course.”
A bit of a shorter section this week as we only cover three chapters, 22 - 24. These chapters are all about Fanny, she's finally the center of attention, even if it's not where she prefers to be, and in these chapters she is experiencing a lot of other firsts as well.
This week we are covering chapters 18 - 21 of Mansfield Park and things are changing. Sir Thomas finally returns home, at a very inconvenient time, Lady Bertram puts down her pug, and Maria and Rushworth finally wed.
The Beyond the Shelves first ever Book Club episode is live! This month, Jes and Sarah both read Harlem Rhapsody, by Victoria Christopher Murray. They discuss the historical fiction novel about Jessie Redman Fauset, a real life figure dubbed "midwife of the Harlem Renaissance," and her relationship with W.E.B. Du Bois. This podcast does contain spoilers - but you don't have to have read the book to listen and learn more about the Harlem Renaissance era! Show Notes The Book Club Book Harlem Rhapsody, by Victoria Christopher Murray Further Reading "A History of The Crisis" (NAACP website) The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson I Too Sing America: the Harlem Renaissance, at 100 by Wil Haygood Smoketown, by Mark Whitaker Joy Goddess: A'lelia Walker and the Harlem Renaissance, by A'lelia Bundles Authors in the Book Blues in Stereo, by Langston Hughes Cane, by Jean Toomer Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories From the Harlem Renaissance, by Zora Neale Hurston My Soul's High Song, by Countee Cullen Passing and Quicksand, by Nella Larsen The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, by James Weldon Johnson The Souls of Black Folk, by W.E.B. Du Bois Home to Harlem, by Claude McKay Amiable with Big Teeth, by Claude McKay Timestamps 0:00 - AViD Lineup/What We're Reading 11:20 - Book Club Discussion 46:32 - Book Bulletin What They're Reading/To Be Read A Thousand Ships, by Natalie Haynes A Hard Day for a Hangover, by Darynda Jones Haunted Ever After, by Jen DeLuca Crossings, by Ben Goldfarb The Shots You Take, by Rachel Reid Blood Over Bright Haven, by M.L. Wang Witchcraft for Wayward Girls, by Grady Hendrix Sula, by Toni Morrison The Knockout Queen, by Rufi Thorpe Idle Grounds, by Krystelle Bamford The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store, by James McBride Book Bulletin "A Court of Thorns and Roses TV Series Dead at Hulu" (Variety) "Meet-cute at Mansfield Park: can modern covers turn young readers on to Jane Austen?" (The Guardian) "Readerlink Will Stop Distributing Mass Market Paperbacks at the End of 2025" (Publishers Weekly) Women's Prize for Fiction longlist
In our final Austen discussion, we turn our attention to Mansfield Park. Join us for a thoughtful conversation about Jane Austen's classic as we explore its characters, intricate plot, and enduring social commentary. Throughout the episode, we examine Austen's narrative and have a think if our pet cat would approve of this novel. If you appreciate “in-depth” (with Wikipedia) literary discussions with a friendly tone, this episode is for you.Content WarningsNASupport the showRecommend us a Book!If there's a book you want to recommend to us to read, just send us a message/email and we'll pop it on our long list (but please read our review policy on our website first for the books we accept).Social MediaWebsite: https://teachingmycattoread.wordpress.com/Email: teachingmycattoread@gmail.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/teachmycat2read/Tumblr: https://teachingmycattoread.tumblr.comYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFXi9LNQv8SBQt8ilgTZXtQListener Surveyhttps://forms.gle/TBZUBH4SK8dez8RP9
Welcome back to Morgan Hasn't Seen with Jeannine Brice & Morgan Robinson!!Step into springtime and revel in the Regency era this March on Morgan Hasn't Seen as Jeannine is introducing Morgan to the world of Jane Austen adaptations!They kick the series off this week with a seemingly rather controversial adaptation of perhaps Jane Austen most controversial, and autobiographical novel, MANSFIELD PARK (1999) starring Frances O'Conner, Jonny Lee Miller, Embeth Davitz, Alessandro Nivola & Harold Pinter!Bold, outspoken Fanny Price is sent to live with wealthy cousins and learns the importance of true honesty, integrity, and natural love, while battling for her viewpoints to be heard!Our YouTube Channel for all our regular videos:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCvACMX8jX1qQ5ClrGW53vowDonate:https://www.buymeacoffee.com/ItsAWonderful1Join our Patreon:https://www.patreon.com/ItsAWonderful1IT'S A WONDERFUL PODCAST STORE:https://www.teepublic.com/user/g9designSub to the feed and download now on all major podcast platforms and be sure to rate, review and SHARE AROUND!!Keep up with us on (X) Twitter:Podcast:https://twitter.com/ItsAWonderful1Morgan:https://twitter.com/Th3PurpleDonJeannine:https://twitter.com/JeannineDaBean_Keep being wonderful!!
This week on the podcast we are covering chapters 13 - 17. Sir Thomas is still abroad, and the young people have found a new way to amuse themselves, they are putting on a play.
This week we are discussing chapters 9 -12 of Mansfield Park. Everyone is starting to reveal their true colors, and Fanny is noticing it all, while going mostly ignored herself.
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This week we are covering chapters 5 - 8 of Mansfield Park. The Crawfords presence has caused very mixed emotions in the young people and they are still figuring out this new dynamic.
W tym odcinku zagłębiamy się w fascynujący świat "Mansfield Park" Jane Austen. Naszym gościem jest Dorota Pajok Puda, która z pasją omawia tę powieść, często uważaną za najnudniejszą w dorobku autorki. Czy rzeczywiście zasługuje na taką opinię? Razem odkrywamy złożoność postaci Fanny Price oraz relacje między siostrami, które ilustrują społeczne i moralne dylematy epoki. Rozmawiamy o roli edukacji, wpływie mężczyzn na życie kobiet oraz o tym, jak Austen porusza kwestie moralności i niewolnictwa w kontekście swoich czasów. Zastanawiamy się także nad różnicami między książką a jej ekranizacjami, analizując, jak te adaptacje wpływają na odbiór powieści. Czy "Mansfield Park" to tylko nudna historia, czy może kryje w sobie głębsze przesłanie? Zachęcamy do wysłuchania i wyrażenia własnych opinii!
This week we start Jane Austen's most complex novel Mansfield Park. We cover chapters 1-4, which span 30 years and explore the character's childhoods like no other Austen novel we've read.
On one level, Mansfield Park is a fairytale transposed to the 19th century: Fanny Price is the archetypal poor relation who, through her virtuousness, wins a wealthy husband. But Jane Austen's 1814 novel is also a shrewd study of speculation, ‘improvement' and the transformative power of money.In this abridged version of the first episode of Novel Approaches, Colin Burrow joins Clare Bucknell and Thomas Jones to discuss Austen's acute reading of property and precarity, and why Fanny's moral cautiousness is a strategic approach to the riskiest speculation of all: marriage.To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applecrnaIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsnaFind further reading and viewing on the episode page: https://lrb.me/mansfieldparkpod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
On one level, Mansfield Park is a fairytale transposed to the 19th century: Fanny Price is the archetypal poor relation who, through her virtuousness, wins a wealthy husband. But Jane Austen's 1814 novel is also a shrewd study of speculation, ‘improvement' and the transformative power of money.In the first episode of Novel Approaches, Colin Burrow joins Clare Bucknell and Thomas Jones to discuss Austen's acute reading of property and precarity, and why Fanny's moral cautiousness is a strategic approach to the riskiest speculation of all: marriage.Non-subscribers will only hear an extract from this episode. To listen to the full episode, and all our other Close Readings series, subscribe:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://lrb.me/applecrnaIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsnaClare Bucknell is a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and hosted the Close Readings series On Satire with Colin Burrow. The Treasuries, her social history of poetry anthologies, was published in 2023.Thomas Jones is a senior editor at the LRB and host of the LRB Podcast. With Emily Wilson, he hosted the Close Readings series Among the Ancients.Next episode: ‘Crotchet Castle' by Thomas Love Peacock.Further reading from the LRB:John Mullan: Noticing and Not Noticinghttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v36/n22/john-mullan/noticing-and-not-noticingColm Toíbìn: The Importance of Auntshttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v33/n06/colm-toibin/the-importance-of-auntsW.J.T. Mitchell: In the Wildernesshttps://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v15/n07/w.j.t.-mitchell/in-the-wilderness Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
How does one of the most prolific UK composers of our time compose? How can musicians make classical music accessible? We put contemporary British Composer Jonathan Dove CBE and Paul Hughes, former Director of the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus in the hot seat. Speaking to Tanglin Trust School's Head of Co-curricular Michael Holiday, Jonathan and Paul share their journey in developing the world premiere of A Bridge Across the Sea – a Cantata performance based on the Ramayana, commissioned by Tanglin Trust School for its centenary celebration. Contemporary British Composer Jonathan Dove CBE is one of the most performed living opera composers. He has written more than 30 operas including Flight (1998) which has seen more than 30 productions, Mansfield Park (2011) and Marx in London (2018). Paul Hughes is a former Director at the BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus and the BBC Singers for more than 20 years. He currently mentors the next generation of young conductors at the Lead! Foundation. This episode was produced in partnership with member company Tanglin Trust School. You can get tickets to the World Premiere of A Bridge Across the Sea, a specially-commissioned Cantata for soloists, Children's Chorus, Adult Chorus and Orchestra by Jonathan Dove CBE here: https://sg.bookmyshow.com/en/e/TTSMUSIC
Clare Bucknell and Thomas Jones introduce their new Close Readings series, Novel Approaches. Joined by a variety of contemporary novelists and critics, they'll be exploring a dozen 19th-century British novels from Mansfield Park to New Grub Street, paying particular (though not exclusive) attention to the themes of money and property.The first episode will come out on Monday 27 January, on Austen's Mansfield Park.Clare Bucknell is a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and hosted the Close Readings series On Satire with Colin Burrow. The Treasuries, her social history of poetry anthologies, was published in 2023.Thomas Jones is a senior editor at the LRB and host of the LRB Podcast. With Emily Wilson, he hosted the Close Readings series Among the Ancients.The full list of texts for the series:Mansfield Park (1814) by Jane AustenCrotchet Castle (1831) by Thomas Love PeacockWuthering Heights (1847) by Emily BrontëVanity Fair (1847) by William Makepeace ThackerayNorth and South (1854) by Elizabeth GaskellAurora Leigh (1856) by Elizabeth Barrett BrowningAnthony Trollope (TBD)Mill on the Floss (1860) by George EliotOur Mutual Friend (1864) by Charles DickensWashington Square (1880)/Portrait of a Lady (1881) by Henry JamesKidnapped (1886) by Robert Louis StevensonThe Mayor of Casterbridge (1886) by Thomas HardyNew Grub Street (1891) by George Gissing Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Who else in literature today could be more interesting to interview than Brandon Taylor, the author of Real Life, Filthy Animals, and The Late Americans, as well as the author of popular reviews and the sweater weather Substack? We talked about so much, including: Chopin and who plays him best; why there isn't more tennis in fiction; writing fiction on a lab bench; being a scientific critic; what he has learned working as a publisher; negative reviews; boring novels; Jane Austen. You'll also get Brandon's quick takes on Iris Murdoch, Jonathan Franzen, Lionel Trilling, György Lukács, and a few others; the modern critics he likes reading; and the dead critics he likes reading.Brandon also talked about how his new novel is going to be different from his previous novels. He told me:I no longer really want to be starting my books, quote unquote, in media res. I want my books to feel like books. I don't want my books to feel like movies. And I don't want them to feel like treatments for film. And so I want to sort of bring back all of what a novel can do in terms of its structure and in terms of its form and stuff like that. And so it means starting books, you know, with this sort of Dickensian voice of God speaking from on high, sort of summing up an era. And I think also sort of allowing the narrators in my work to dare to sum up, allowing characters in my work to have ideologies and to argue about those ideologies. I feel like that is a thing that was sort of denuded from the American novel for a lot of millennials and just sort of like trying to put back some of that old fashioned machinery that was like stripped out of the novel. And seeing what of it can still function, seeing, trying to figure out if there's any juice left in these modes of representation.I have enjoyed Brandon's fiction (several people I recommend him to have loved Real Life) and I think he's one of the best critics working today. I was delighted to interview him.Oh, and he's a Dickens fan!Transcript (AI produced, lightly formatted by me)Henry: Today I am talking to Brandon Taylor, the author of Real Life, Filthy Animals, and The Late Americans. Brandon is also a notable book reviewer and of course he writes a sub stack called Sweater Weather. Brandon, welcome.Brandon: Yeah, thanks for having me.Henry: What did you think of the newly discovered Chopin waltz?Brandon: Um, I thought, I mean, I remember very vividly waking up that day and there being a new waltz, but it was played by Lang Lang, which I did not. I don't know that, like, he's my go-to Chopin interpreter. But I don't know, I was, I was excited by it. Um, I don't know, it was in a world sort of dominated by this ethos of like nothing new under the sun. It felt wonderfully novel. I don't know that it's like one of Chopin's like major, I don't know that it's like major. Um, it's sort of definitively like middle of the road, middle tier Chopin, I think. But I enjoyed it. I played it like 20 times in a row.Henry: I like those moments because I like, I like it when people get surprised into realizing that like, it's not fixed what we know about the world and you can even actually get new Chopin, right?Brandon: I mean, it felt a little bit like when Beyonce did her first big surprise drop. It was like new Chopin just dropped. Oh my God. All my sort of classical music nerd group texts were buzzing. It felt like a real moment, actually.Henry: And I think it gives people a sense of what art was like in the past. You can go, oh my God, new Chopin. Like, yes, those feelings are not just about modern culture, right? That used to happen with like, oh my God, a new Jane Austen book is here.Brandon: Oh, I know. Well, I mean, I was like reading a lot of Emile Zola up until I guess late last year. And at some point I discovered that he was like an avid amateur photographer. And in like the French Ministry of Culture is like digitized a lot of his glass plate negatives. And one of them is like a picture that Zola has taken of Manet's portrait of him. And it's just like on a floor somewhere. Like he's like sort of taken this like very rickety early camera machinery to this place where this portrait is and like taken a picture of it. It's like, wow. Like you can imagine that like Manet's like, here's this painting I did of you. And Zola's like, ah, yes, I'm going to take a picture to commemorate it. And so I sort of love that.Henry: What other of his photos do you like?Brandon: Well, there's one of him on a bike riding toward the camera. That's really delightful to me because it like that impulse is so recognizable to me. There are all these photos that he took of his mistress that were also just like, you can like, there are also photographs of his children and of his family. And again, those feel so like recognizable to me. He's not even like a very good photographer. It's just that he was taking pictures of his like daily life, except for his kind of stunt photos where he's riding the bike. And it's like, ah, yes, Zola, he would have been great with an iPhone camera.Henry: Which pianists do you like for Chopin?Brandon: Which pianists do I love for Chopin? I like Pollini a lot. Pollini is amazing. Pollini the elder, not Pollini the younger. The younger is not my favorite. And he died recently, Maurizio Pollini. He died very recently. Maybe he's my favorite. I love, I love Horowitz. Horowitz is wonderful at Chopin. But it's obviously it's like not his, you know, you don't sort of go to Horowitz for Chopin, I guess. But I love his Chopin. And sometimes Trifonov. Trifonov has a couple Chopin recordings that I really, really like. I tend not to love Trifonov as much.Henry: Really?Brandon: I know it's controversial. It's very controversial. I know. Tell me why. I, I don't know. He's just a bit of a banger to me. Like, like he's sort of, I don't know, his playing is so flashy. And he feels a bit like a, like a, like a keyboard basher to me sometimes.Henry: But like, do you like his Bach?Brandon: You know, I haven't done a deep dive. Maybe I should do a sort of more rigorous engagement with Trifonov. But yeah, I don't, he's just not, he doesn't make my heart sing. I think he's very good at Bach.Henry: What about a Martha Argerich?Brandon: Oh, I mean, she's incredible. She's incredible. I bought that sort of big orange box out of like all of her, her sort of like masterwork recordings. And she's incredible. She has such feel for Chopin. But she doesn't, I think sometimes people can make Chopin feel a little like, like treacly, like, like a little too sweet. And she has this perfect understanding of his like rhythm and his like inner nuances and like the crispness in his compositions. Like she really pulls all of that out. And I love her. She has such, obviously great dexterity, but like a real sort of exquisite sensitivity to the rhythmic structures of Chopin.Henry: You listen on CD?Brandon: No, I listen on vinyl and I listen on streaming, but mostly vinyl. Mostly vinyl? Yeah, mostly vinyl. I know it's very annoying. No, no, no, no, no.Henry: Which, what are the good speakers?Brandon: I forget where I bought these speakers from, but I sort of did some Googling during the pandemic of like best speakers to use. I have a U-Turn Audio, U-Turn Orbital record player. And so I was just looking for good speakers that were compatible and like wouldn't take up a ton of space in my apartment because I was moving to New York and had a very tiny, tiny apartment. So they're just from sort of standard, I forget the brand, but they've served me well these past few years.Henry: And do you like Ólafsson? He's done some Chopin.Brandon: Who?Henry: Víkingur Ólafsson. He did the Goldbergs this year, but he's done some Chopin before. I think he's quite good.Brandon: Oh, that Icelandic guy?Henry: Yeah, yeah, yeah. With the glasses? That's right. And the very neat hair.Brandon: Yes. Oh, he's so chic. He's so chic. I don't know his Chopin. I know his, there's another series that he did somewhat recently that I'm more familiar with. But he is really good. He has good Beethoven, Víkingur.Henry: Yeah.Brandon: And normally I don't love Beethoven, but like—Henry: Really? Why? Why? What's wrong with Beethoven? All these controversial opinions about music.Brandon: I'm not trying to have controversial opinions. I think I'm, well, I'm such a, I'm such, I mean, I'm just like a dumb person. And so like, I don't, I don't have a really, I feel like I don't have the robust understanding to like fully appreciate Beethoven and all of his sort of like majesty. And so maybe I've just not heard good Beethoven and I need to sort of go back and sort of get a real understanding of it. But I just tend not to like it. It feels like, I don't know, like grandma's living room music to me sometimes.Henry: What other composers do you enjoy?Brandon: Oh, of course.Henry: Or other music generally, right?Brandon: Rachmaninoff is so amazing to me. There was, of course, Bach. Brahms. Oh, I love Brahms, but like specifically the intermezzi. I love the intermezzi. I recently fell in love with, oh, his name is escaping me now, but he, I went to a concert and they sort of did a Brahms intermezzi. And they also played this, I think he was an Austrian composer. And his music was like, it wasn't experimental, but it was like quite, I had a lot of dissonance in it. And I found it like really interesting and like really moving actually. And so I did a sort of listening to that constantly. Oh, I forget his name. But Brahms, Chopin, Rachmaninoff, love Rachmaninoff. I have a friend who says that Rachmaninoff writes Negro spirituals. And I love that theory that Rachmaninoff's music is like the music of the slaves. It just, I don't know. I really, that really resonates with me spiritually. Which pieces, which Rachmaninoff symphonies, concertos? Yeah, the concertos. But like specifically, like I have a friend who said that Rach II sounded to her like the sort of spiritual cry of like the slaves. And we were at like a hangout with like mostly Black people. And she like stopped playing like Juvenile, like the rapper. And she put on Rach II. And we just like sat there and listened. And it did feel like something powerful had entered the room. Yeah, but he's my guy. I secretly really, really love him. I like Liszt, but like it really depends on the day and the time for him. He makes good folk music, Liszt. I love his folky, his folk era.Henry: What is it that you enjoy about tennis?Brandon: What do I enjoy about tennis? I love the, I love not thinking. I love being able to hit the ball for hours on end and like not think. And like, it's the one part of my life. It's the one time in my life where my experience is like totally unstructured. And so like this morning, I went to a 7am drill and play class where you do drills for an hour. Then you play doubles for an hour. And during that first hour of drills, I was just like hitting the ball. I was at the mercy of the guy feeding us the ball. And I didn't have a single thought about books or literature or like the status of my soul or like the nature of American democracy. It was just like, did I hit that ball? Well, did I hit it kind of off center? Were there tingles in my wrist? Yes or no. Like it was just very, very grounding in the moment. And I think that is what I love about it. Do you like to watch tennis? Oh, yeah, constantly. Sometimes when I'm in a work meeting, the Zoom is here and the tennis is like playing in the background. Love tennis, love to watch, love to play, love to think about, to ponder. Who are the best players for you? Oh, well, the best players, my favorite players are Roger Federer, Serena Williams, Stanislas Wawrinka, love Wawrinka. And I was a really big Davydenko head back in the day. Nikolai Davydenko was this Russian player who had, he was like a metronome. He just like would not miss. Yeah, those are my favorites. Right now, the guy I'm sort of rooting for who's still active is Kasper Rud, who's this Norwegian guy. And I love him because he just looks like some guy. Like he just looks like he should be in a seminary somewhere. I love it. I love, I love his normalness. He just looks like an NPC. And I'm drawn to that in a tennis player.Henry: It's hard to think of tennis in novels. Why is that?Brandon: Well, I think a lot of people don't, well, I think part of it is a lot of novelists. Part of it is a lot of novelists don't play sports. I think that they, at least Americans, I can't speak for other parts of the world, but in America, a lot of novelists are not doing sports. So that's one. And I think two, like, you know, like with anything, I think that tennis has not been subjected to the same schemes of narrativization that like other things are. And so like it's, a lot of novelists just like don't see a sort of readily dramatizable thing in tennis. Even though if you like watch tennis and like listen to tennis commentary, they are always erecting narratives. They're like, oh yeah, she's been on a 19 match losing streak. Is this where she turns it around? And to me, tennis is like a very literary sport because tennis is one of those sports where it's all about the matchup. It's like your forehand to my backhand, like no matter how well I play against everyone else, like it's you and me locked in the struggle. And like that to me feels incredibly literary. And it is so tied to your individual psychology as well. Like, I don't know, I endlessly am fascinated by it. And indeed, I got an idea for a tennis novel the other day that I'm hopefully going to write in three to five years. We'll see.Henry: Very good. How did working in a lab influence your writing?Brandon: Well, somewhat directly and materially in the case of my first book, because I wrote it while I was working in the lab and it gave me weirdly like time and structure to do that work where I would be pipetting. And then while I was waiting for an assay or a experiment to run or finish, I would have 30 minutes to sit down and write.Henry: So you were writing like at the lab bench?Brandon: Oh, yeah, absolutely. One thousand percent. I would like put on Philip Glass's score for the hours and then just like type while my while the centrifuge was running or whatever. And and so like there's that impression sort of baked into the first couple books. And then I think more, I guess, like spiritually or broadly, it influenced my work because it taught me how to think and how to organize time and how to organize thoughts and how to sort of pursue long term, open ended projects whose results may or may not, you know, fail because of something that you did or maybe you didn't do. And that's just the nature of things. Who knows? But yeah, I think also just like discipline, the discipline to sort of clock in every day. And to sort of go to the coalface and do the work. And that's not a thing that is, you know. That you just get by working in a lab, but it's certainly something that I acquired working in a lab.Henry: Do you think it's affected your interest in criticism? Because there's there are certain types of critic who seem to come from a scientific background like Helen Vendler. And there's something something about the sort of the precision and, you know, that certain critics will refuse to use critical waffle, like the human condition. And they won't make these big, vague gestures to like how this can change the way we view society. They're like, give me real details. Give me real like empirical criticism. Do you think this is — are you one of these people?Brandon: Yeah, yeah, I think I'm, you know, I'm all about what's on the page. I'm all about the I'm not gonna go rooting in your biography for not gonna go. I'm not I'm not doing that. It's like what you brought to me on the page is what you've brought to me. And that is what I will be sort of coming over. I mean, I think so. I mean, very often when critics write about my work, or when people respond to my work, they sort of describe it as being put under a microscope. And I do think like, that is how I approach literature. It's how I approach life. If there's ever a problem or a question put to me, I just sort of dissect it and try to get down to its core bits and its core parts. And and so yeah, I mean, if that is a scientific way of doing things, that's certainly how I but also I don't know any other way to think like that's sort of that's sort of how I was trained to think about stuff. You've been to London. I have. What did you think of it? The first time I didn't love it. The second and third times I had a good time, but I felt like London didn't love me back. London is the only place on earth I've ever been where people have had a hard time understanding me like I like it's the only place where I've like attempted to order food or a drink or something in a store or a cafe or a restaurant. And the waiters like turned to my like British hosts and asked them to translate. And that is an entirely foreign experience for me. And so London and I have like a very contentious relationship, I would say.Henry: Now, you've just published four classic novels.Brandon: Yes.Henry: George Gissing, Edith Wharton, Victor Hugo and Sarah Orne Jewett. Why did you choose those four writers, those four titles?Brandon: Oh, well, once we decided that we were going to do a classics imprint, you know, then it's like, well, what are we going to do? And I'm a big Edith Wharton fan. And there are all of these Edith Wharton novels that Americans don't really know about. They know Edith Wharton for The Age of Innocence. And if they are an English major, they maybe know her for The House of Mirth. Or like maybe they know her for The Custom of the Country if they're like really into reading. But then they sort of think of her as a novelist of the 19th century. And she's writing all of these books set in the 1920s and about the 1920s. And so it felt important to show people like, oh, this is a writer who died a lot later than you think that she did. And whose creative output was, you know, pretty, who was like a contemporary of F. Scott Fitzgerald in a lot of ways. Like, these books are being published around the same time as The Great Gatsby. And to sort of, you know, bring attention to a part of her over that, like, people don't know about. And like, that's really exciting to me. And Sarah Orne Jewett, I mean, I just really love The Country of the Pointed Furs. I love that book. And I found it in like in a 10 cents bin at a flea market one time. And it's a book that people have tried to bring back. And there have been editions of it. But it just felt like if we could get two people who are really cool to talk about why they love that book, we could sort of have like a real moment. And Sarah Orne Jewett was like a pretty big American writer. Like she was a pretty significant writer. And she was like really plugged in and she's not really read or thought about now. And so that felt like a cool opportunity as well to sort of create a very handsome edition of this book and to sort of talk about a bit why she matters. And the guessing of it all is we were going to do New Grub Street. And then my co-editor thought, well, The Odd Women, I think, is perhaps more relevant to our current moment than New Grub Street necessarily. And it would sort of differentiate us from the people, from the presses that are doing reissues of New Grub Street, because there's just been a new edition of that book. And nobody in America really knows The Odd Women. And it's a really wonderful novel. It's both funny and also like really biting in its satire and commentary. So we thought, oh, it'll be fun to bring this writer to Americans who they've never heard of in a way that will speak to them in a lot of ways. And the Victor Hugo, I mean, you know, there are Hugos that people know all about. And then there are Hugos that no one knows about. And Toilers of the Sea was a passion project for my co-editor. She'd read it in Guernsey. That's where she first discovered that book. And it really meant a lot to her. And I read it and really loved it. I mean, it was like Hugo at his most Hugo. Like, it's a very, it's a very, like, it's a very abundant book. And it's so wild and strange and changeful. And so I was like, oh, that seems cool. Let's do it. Let's put out Toilers of the Sea. So that's a bit of why we picked each one.Henry: And what have you learned from being on the other side of things now that you're the publisher?Brandon: So much. I've learned so much. And indeed, I just, I was just asked by my editor to do the author questionnaire for the novel that I have coming out next. And I thought, yes, I will do this. And I will do it immediately. Because now I know, I know how important these are. And I know how early and how far in advance these things need to be locked in to make everyone's life easier. I think I've learned a bit about the sometimes panicked scramble that happens to get a book published. I've learned about how hard it is to wrangle blurbs. And so I think I'm a little more forgiving of my publishers. But they've always been really great to me. But now I'm like, oh, my gosh, what can I do for you? How can I help you make this publication more of a success?Henry: Do you think that among literary people generally, there's a lack of appreciation of what business really involves in some of the senses you're talking about? I feel like I see a lot of either indifferent or hostile attitudes towards business or commerce or capitalism, late stage capitalism or whatever. And I sometimes look at it and I'm like, I don't think you guys really know what it takes to just like get stuff done. You know what I mean? Like, it's a lot of grind. I don't think it's a big nasty thing. It's just a lot of hard work, right?Brandon: Yeah, I mean, 1000%. Or if it's not a sort of misunderstanding, but a sort of like disinterest in like, right, like a sort of high minded, like, oh, that's just the sort of petty grimy commerce of it all. I care about the beauty and the art. And it's just like, friend, we need booksellers to like, sell this. I mean, to me, the part of it that is most to me, like the most illustrative example of this in my own life is that when I first heard how my editor was going to be describing my book, I was like, that's disgusting. That's horrible. Why are you talking about my race? Why are you talking about like my sexuality? Like, this is horrible. Why can't you just like talk about the plot of the book? Like, what is the matter with you? And then I had, you know, I acquired and edited this book called Henry Henry, which is a queer contemporary retelling of the Henry ad. And it's a wonderful novel. It's so delightful. And I had to go into our sales conference where we are talking to the people whose job it is to sell that book into bookstores to get bookstores to take that book up. And I had to write this incredibly craven description of this novel. And as I was writing it, I was like, I hope Alan, the author, I hope Alan never sees this. He never needs to hear how I'm talking about this book. And as I was doing it, I was like, I will never hold it against my editor again for writing this like, cheesy, cringy copy. Because it's like you, like, you so believe in the art of that book, so much that you want it to give it every fighting chance in the marketplace. And you need to arm your sales team with every weapon of commerce they need to get that book to succeed so that when readers pick it up, they can appreciate all of the beautiful and glorious art of it. And I do think that people, you know, like, people don't really kind of, people don't really understand that. And I do think that part of that is publishing's fault, because they are, they've been rather quick to elide the distinctions between art and commerce. And so like publishing has done a not great job of sort of giving people a lot of faith in its understanding that there's a difference between art and commerce. But yeah, I think, I think there's a lot of misapprehension out there about like, what goes into getting bookstores to acquire that book.Henry: What are the virtues of negative book reviews?Brandon: I was just on a panel about this. I mean, I mean, hopefully a negative book review, like a positive review, or like any review, will allow a reader or the audience to understand the book in a new way, or to create a desire in the reader to pick up the book and see if they agree or disagree or that they, that they have something to argue with or push against as they're reading. You know, when I'm writing a negative review, when I'm writing a review that I feel is trending toward negative, I should say, I always try to like, I don't know, I try to always remember that like, this is just me presenting my experience of the book and my take of the book. And hopefully that will be productive or useful for whoever reads the review. And hopefully that my review won't be the only thing that they read and that they will in fact, go pick up the book and see if they agree or disagree. It's hopefully it creates interesting and potentially divergent dialogues or discourses around the text. And fundamentally, I think not every critic feels this way. Not every piece of criticism is like this. But the criticism I write, I'm trying to create the conditions that will refer the reader always back to the text, be it through quotation, be it through, they're so incensed by my argument that they're going to go read the book themselves and then like, yell at me. Like, I think that that's wonderful, but like, always keeping the book at the center. But I think a negative review can, you know, it can start a conversation. It can get people talking about books, which in this culture, this phase of history feels like a win. And hopefully it can sort of be a corrective sometimes to less genuine or perceived less genuine discourses that are existing around the book.Henry: I think even whether or not it's a question of genuine, it's for me, it's just a question of if you tell people this book is good and they give up their time and money and they discover that it's trash, you've done a really bad thing to that person. And like, there might be dozens of them compared to this one author who you've been impolite to or whatever. And it's just a question of don't lie in book, right?Brandon: Well, yeah. I mean, hopefully people are honest, but I do feel sometimes that there is, there's like a lack of honesty. And look, I think that being like, well, I mean, maybe you'll love this. I don't love it, you know, but at least present your opinion in that way. At least be like, you know, there are many interpretations of this thing. Here's my interpretation. Maybe you'll feel differently or something like that. But I do think that people feel that there have been a great number of dishonest book reviews. Maybe there have been, maybe there have not been. I certainly have read some reviews I felt were dishonest about books that I have read. And I think that the negative book review does feel a bit like a corrective in a lot of ways, both, you know, justified or unjustified. People are like, finally, someone's being honest about this thing. But yeah, I think it's interesting. I think it's all really, I think it's all fascinating. I do think that there are some reviews though, that are negative and that are trying to be about the book, but are really about the author. There are some reviews that I have read that have been ostensibly about reviewing a text, but which have really been about, you don't like that person and you have decided to sort of like take an axe to them. And that to me feels not super productive. I wouldn't do it, but other people find it useful.Henry: As in, you can tell that from the review or you know that from background information?Brandon: I mean, this is all projection, of course, but like there have been some reviews where I've read, like, for example, some of the Lauren Oyler reviews, I think some of the Lauren Oyler reviews were negative and were exclusively about the text. And they sort of took the text apart and sort of dissected it and came to conclusions, some of which I agreed with, some of which I didn't agree with, but they were fundamentally about the text. And like all the criticisms referred back to the text. And then there were some that were like projecting attitudes onto the author that were more about creating this sort of vaporous shape of Lauren Oyler and then sort of poking holes in her literary celebrity or her stature as a critic or what have you. And that to me felt less productive as like a book review.Henry: Yes. Who are your favorite reviewers?Brandon: Ooh, my favorite reviewers. I really love Christian Lawrence. And he does my, of the critics who try to do the sort of like mini historiography of like a thing. He's my favorite because he teaches me a lot. He sort of is so good at summing up an era or summing up a phase of literary production without being like so cringe or so socialist about it. I really love, I love it when he sort of distills and dissects an era. I really like Hermione Hobie. I think she's really interesting. And she writes about books with a lot of feeling and a lot of energy. And I really love her mind. And of course, like Patricia Lockwood, of course, everyone, perhaps not everyone, but I enjoy Patricia Lockwood's criticism. You don't?Henry: Not really.Brandon: Oh, is it because it's too chatty? Is it too, is it too selfie?Henry: A little bit. I think, I think that kind of criticism can work really well. But I think, I think it's too much. I think basically she's very, she's a very stylized writer and a lot of her judgments get, it gets to the point where it's like, this is the logical conclusion of what you're trying to do stylistically. And there are some zingers in here and some great lines and whatever, but we're no longer, this is no longer really a book review.Brandon: Yeah.Henry: Like by the, by the end of the paragraph, this, like, we didn't want to let the style go. We didn't want to lose the opportunity to cap that off. And it leads her into, I think, glibness a lot of the time.Brandon: Yeah. I could see that. I mean, I mean, I enjoy reading her pieces, but do I understand like what's important to her at a sort of literary level? I don't know. I don't, and in that sense, like, are they, is it criticism or is it closer to like personal essay, humorous essay? I don't know. Maybe that's true. I enjoy reading them, but I get why people are like, this is a very, very strong flavor for sure.Henry: Now you've been reading a lot of literary criticism.Brandon: Oh yeah.Henry: Not of the LRB variety, but of the, the old books in libraries variety. Yes. How did that start? How did, how did you come to this?Brandon: Somewhat like ham-fistedly. I, in 2021, I had a really bad case of writer's block and I thought maybe part of the reason I had writer's block was that I didn't know anything about writing or I didn't know anything about like literature or like writing. I'd been writing, I'd published a novel. I was working on another novel. I'd published a book of stories, but like, I just like truly didn't know anything about literature really. And I thought I need some big boy ideas. I need, I need to find out what adults think about literature. And so I went to my buddy, Christian Lorenzen, and I was like, you write criticism. What is it? And what should I read? And he gave me a sort of starter list of criticism. And it was like the liberal imagination by Lionel Trilling and Guy Davenport and Alfred Kazin who wrote On Native Grounds, which is this great book on the American literary tradition and Leslie Fiedler's Love and Death in the American Novel. And I, and then Edmund Wilson's Axel's Castle. And I read all of those. And then as each one would sort of refer to a different text or person, I sort of like followed the footnotes down into this rabbit hole of like literary criticism. And now it's been a sort of ongoing project of the last few years of like reading. I always try to have a book of criticism on the go. And then earlier this year, I read Jameson's The Antimonies of Realism. And he kept talking about this Georg Lukács guy. And I was like, I guess I should go read Lukács. And so then I started reading Lukács so that I could get back to Jameson. And I've been reading Lukács ever since. I am like deep down the Lukács rabbit hole. But I'm not reading any of the socialism stuff. I told myself that I wouldn't read any of the socialism stuff and I would only read the literary criticism stuff, which makes me very different from a lot of the socialist literary critics I really enjoy because they're like Lukács, don't read in that literary criticism stuff, just read his socialism stuff. So I'm reading all the wrong stuff from Lukács, but I really, I really love it. But yeah, it sort of started because I thought I needed grown up ideas about literature. And it's been, I don't know, I've really enjoyed it. I really, really enjoy it. It's given me perhaps terrible ideas about what novels should be or do. But, you know, that's one of the side effects to reading.Henry: Has it made, like, what specific ways has it changed how you've written since you've acquired a set of critical principles or ideas?Brandon: Yeah, I mean, I think part of it is, part of it has to do with Lukács' idea of the totality. And, you know, I think that the sort of most direct way that it shows up in a sort of really practical way in my novel writing is that I no longer really want to be starting my books, quote unquote, in media res. Like, I don't want, I want my books to feel like books. I don't want my books to feel like movies. And I don't want them to feel like treatments for film. And so I want to sort of bring back all of what a novel can do in terms of its structure and in terms of its form and stuff like that. And so it means starting books, you know, with this sort of Dickensian voice of God speaking from on high, sort of summing up an era. And I think also sort of allowing the narrators in my work to dare to sum up, allowing characters in my work to have ideologies and to argue about those ideologies. I feel like that is a thing that was sort of denuded from the American novel for a lot of millennials and just sort of like trying to put back some of that old fashioned machinery that was like stripped out of the novel. And seeing what of it can still function, seeing, trying to figure out if there's any juice left in these modes of representation and stuff like that. And so like that, that's sort of, that's sort of abstract, but like in a concrete way, like what I'm kind of trying to resolve in my novel writing these days.Henry: You mentioned Dickens.Brandon: Oh, yes.Henry: Which Dickens novels do you like?Brandon: Now I'm afraid I'm going to say something else controversial. We love controversial. Which Dickens? I love Bleak House. I love Bleak House. I love Tale of Two Cities. It is one of the best openings ever, ever, ever, ever in the sweep of that book at once personal and universal anyway. Bleak House, Tale of Two Cities. And I also, I read Great Expectations as like a high school student and didn't like it, hated it. It was so boring. But now coming back to it, I think it, honestly, it might be the novel of our time. I think it might accidentally be a novel. I mean, it's a novel of scammers, a novel of like, interpersonal beef taken to the level of like, spiritual conflict, like it's about thieves and class, like it just feels like like that novel could have been written today about people today, like that book just feels so alive to today's concerns, which perhaps, I don't know, says something really evil about this cultural stagnation under capitalism, perhaps, but I don't know, love, love Great Expectations now.Henry: Why are so many modern novels boring?Brandon: Well, depends on what you mean by boring, Henry, what do you mean? Why?Henry: I mean, you said this.Brandon: Oh.Henry: I mean, I happen to agree, but this is, I'm quoting you.Brandon: Oh, yes. I remember that. I remember that review.Henry: I mean, I can tell you why I think they're boring.Brandon: Oh, yes, please.Henry: So I think, I think what you said before is true. They all read like movies. And I think I very often I go in, I pick up six or seven books on the new book table. And I'm like, these openings are all just the same. You're all thinking you can all see Netflix in your head. This is not really a novel. And so the dialogue is really boring, because you kind of you can hear some actor or actress saying it. But I can't hear that because I'm the idiot stuck in the bookshop reading your Netflix script. Whereas, you know, I think you're right that a lot of those traditional forms of storytelling, they like pull you in to the to the novel. And they and they like by the end of the first few pages, you sort of feel like I'm in this funny place now. And to do in media res, like, someone needs to get shot, or something, something weird needs to be said, like, you can't just do another, another standard opening. So I think that's a big, that's a big point.Brandon: Well, as Lukasz tells us, bourgeois realism has a, an unholy fondness for the, the average, the merely average, as opposed to the typical. And I think, yeah, a lot of it, a lot of why I think it's boring echoes you, I think that for me, what I find boring, and a lot of them is that it feels like novelists have abandoned any desire to, to have their characters or the novels themselves integrate the sort of disparate experiences within the novel into any kind of meaningful hole. And so there isn't this like sense of like things advancing toward a grander understanding. And I think a lot of it is because they've, they are writing under the assumption that like the question of why can never be answered. There can never be like a why, there can never be a sort of significance to anything. And so everything is sort of like evacuated of significance or meaning. And so you have what I've taken to calling like reality TV fiction, where the characters are just like going places and doing things, and there are no thoughts, there are no thoughts about their lives, or no thoughts about the things that they are doing, there are no thoughts about their experiences. And it's just a lot of like, like lowercase e events in their lives, but like no attempt to organize those events into any sort of meaningful hole. And I think also just like, what leads to a lot of dead writing is writers who are deeply aware that they're writing about themes, they're writing about themes instead of people. And they're working from generalities instead of particularities and specificities. And they have no understanding of the relationship between the universal and the particular. And so like, everything is just like, like beans in a can that they're shaking around. And I think that that's really boring. I think it's really tedious. Like, like, sure, we can we can find something really profound in the mundane, but like, you have to be really smart to do that. So like the average novelist is like better off like, starting with a gunshot or something like do something big.Henry: If you're not Virginia Woolf, it is in fact just mundane.Brandon: Indeed. Yeah.Henry: Is there too much emphasis on craft? In the way, in the way, in like what's valued among writers, in the way writers are taught, I feel like everything I see is about craft. And I'm like, craft is good, but that can just be like how you make a table rather than like how you make a house. Craft is not the guarantor of anything. And I see a lot of books where I think this person knows some craft. But as you say, they don't really have an application for it. And they don't. No one actually said to them, all style has a moral purpose, whether you're aware of it or not. And so they default to this like pointless use of the craft. And someone should say to them, like, you need to know history. You need to know tennis. You need to know business. You need to know like whatever, you know. And I feel like the novels I don't like are reflections of the discourse bubble that the novelist lives in. And I feel like it's often the continuation of Twitter by other means. So in the Rachel Kong novel that I think it came out this year, there's a character, a billionaire character who comes in near the end. And everything that he says or that is said about him is literally just meme. It's online billionaire meme because billionaires are bad because of all the things we all know from being on Twitter. And I was like, so you just we literally have him a character as meme. And this is the most representative thing to me, because that's maybe there's craft in that. Right. But what you've chosen to craft is like 28 tweets. That's pointless.Brandon: 28 tweets be a great title for a book, though, you have to admit, I would buy that book off the new book table. 28 tweets. I would. I would buy that. Yeah, I do think. Well, I think it goes both ways. I think it goes both ways. I somewhat famously said this about Sally Rooney that like she her books have no craft. The craft is bad. And I do think like there are writers who only have craft, who are able to sort of create these wonderfully structured books and to sort of deploy these beautiful techniques. And those books are absolutely dead. There's just like nothing in them because they have nothing to say. There's just like nothing to be said about any of that. And on the other hand, you have these books that are full of feelings that like would be better had someone taught that person about structure or form or had they sort of had like a rigorous thing. And I would say that like both of those are probably bad, like depending on who you are, you find one more like, like easier to deal with than the other. I do think that like part of why there's such an emphasis on craft is because not to sort of bring capitalism back in but you can monetize craft, you know what I mean? Like, craft is one of those things that is like readily monetizable. Like, if I'm a writer, and I would like to make money, and I can't sell a novel, I can tell people like, oh, how to craft a perfect opening, how to create a novel opening that will make agents pick it up and that will make editors say yes, but like what the sort of promise of craft is that you can finish a thing, but not that it is good, as you say, there's no guarantor. Whereas you know, like it's harder to monetize someone's soul, or like, it's harder to monetize like the sort of random happenstance of just like a writer's voice sort of emerging from from whatever, like you can't turn that into profit. But you can turn into profit, let me help you craft your voice. So it's very grind set, I think craft has a tendency to sort of skew toward the grind set and toward people trying to make money from, from writing when they can't sell a book, you know. Henry: Let's play a game. Brandon: Oh dear.Henry: I say the name of a writer. You give us like the 30 second Brandon Taylor opinion of that writer.Brandon: Okay. Yeah.Henry: Jonathan Franzen.Brandon: Thomas Mann, but like, slightly more boring, I think.Henry: Iris Murdoch.Brandon: A friend of mine calls her a modern calls her the sort of pre Sally Rooney, Sally Rooney. And I agree with that.Henry: When I'm at parties, I try and sell her to people where I say she's post-war Sally Rooney.Brandon: Yes, yes. And like, and like all that that entails, and so many delightful, I read all these like incredible sort of mid century reviews of her novels, and like the men, the male critics, like the Bernard Breganzis of the world being like, why is there so much sex in this book? It's amazing. Please go look up those like mid-century reviews of Iris Murdoch. They were losing their minds. Henry: Chekhov.Brandon: Perfect, iconic, baby girl, angel, legend. Can't get enough. 10 out of 10.Henry: Evelyn Waugh.Brandon: So Catholic, real Catholic vibes. But like, scabrously funny. And like, perhaps the last writer to write about life as though it had meaning. Hot take, but I'll, I stand by it.Henry: Yeah, well, him and Murdoch. But yeah, no, I think I think there's a lot in that. C.V. Wedgwood.Brandon: Oh, my gosh. The best, a titan, a master of history. Like, oh, my God. I would not be the same without Wedgwood.Henry: Tell us which one we should read.Brandon: Oh, the 30 Years War. What are you talking about?Henry: Well, I think her books on the English Civil War… I'm a parochial Brit.Brandon: Oh, see, I don't, not that I don't, I will go read those. But her book on the 30 Years War is so incredible. It's, it's amazing. It's second to like, Froissart's Chronicles for like, sort of history, history books for me.Henry: Northrop Frye.Brandon: My father. I, Northrop Frye taught me so much about how to see and how to think. Just amazing, a true thinker in a mind. Henry: Which book? Brandon: Oh, Anatomy of Criticism is fantastic. But Fearful Symmetry is just, it will blow your head off. Just amazing. But if you're looking for like, to have your, your mind gently remapped, then Anatomy of Criticism.Henry: Emma Cline.Brandon: A throwback. I think she's, I think she's Anne Beattie meets John Cheever for a new era. And I think she's amazing. She's perfect. Don't love her first novel. I think her stories are better. She's a short story writer. And she should stay that way.Henry: Okay, now I want you to rank Jane Austen's novels.Brandon: Wait, okay. So like, by my preference, or by like, what I think is the best?Henry: You can do both.Brandon: Okay. So in terms, my favorite, Persuasion. Then Mansfield Park. Sense and Sensibility. Pride and Prejudice. And then Emma, then Northanger Abbey. Okay.Henry: Now, how about for which ones are the best?Brandon: Persuasion. Pride and Prejudice. Mansfield Park. Emma,.Sense and Sensibility. Northanger Abbey.Henry: Why do people not like Fanny Price? And what is wrong with them?Brandon: Fanny Price is perfect. Fanny Price, I was just talking to someone about this last night at dinner. Fanny Price, she's perfect. First of all, she is, I don't know why people don't like her. She's like a chronically ill girl who's hot for her cousin and like, has deep thoughts. It seems like she would be the icon of literary Twitter for like a certain kind of person, you know? And I don't know why they don't like her. I think I'm, I am becoming the loudest Mansfield Park apologist on the internet. I think that people don't like Fanny because she's less vivacious than Mary Crawford. And I think that people are afraid to see themselves in Fanny because she seems like she's unfun or whatever. But what they don't realize is that like Fanny Price, Fanny Price has like a moral intelligence and like a moral consciousness. And like Fanny Price is one of the few Austen characters who actually argues directly and literally about the way the world is. Like with multiple people, like the whole, the whole novel is her sort of arguing about, well, cities are this and the country is this. And like, we need Parsons as much as we need party boys. Like, like she's arguing not just about, not just about these things like through the lens of like marriage or like the sort of marriage economy, but like in literal terms, I mean, she is so, she's like a moral philosopher. I love Fanny Price and she's so smart and so sensitive and so, and I guess like maybe it's just that people don't like a character who's kind of at the mercy of others and they view her as passive. When in fact, like a young woman arguing about the way the world should be, like Mary Crawford's, Mary Crawford's like kind of doing the above, not really, not like Fanny. But yeah, I love her. She's amazing. I love Fanny Price. And I also think that people love Margaret Hale from North and South. And I think that when people are saying they hate Fanny Price, what they're picturing is actually how Margaret Hale is. Margaret Hale is one of the worst heroines of a novel. She's so insufferable. She's so rude. She's so condescending. And like, she does get her comeuppance and like Gaskell does sort of bring about a transformation where she's actually able to sort of like see poor people as people first and not like subjects of sympathy. But Margaret is what people imagine Fanny is, I think. And we should, we should start a Fanny Price, like booster club. Henry, should we? Let's do it. It begins here. I just feel so strongly about her. I feel, I love, I love Fanny.Henry: She's my favorite of Austen's characters. And I think she is the most representative Austen character. She's the most Austen of all of them, right?Brandon: Yeah, I mean, that makes great deal of sense to me. She's just so wonderful. Like she's so funny and so observant. And she's like this quiet little girl who's like kind of sickly and people don't really like her. And she's kind of maybe I'm just like, maybe I just like see myself in her. And I don't mind being a sort of annoying little person who's going around the world.Henry: What are some good principles for naming literary characters?Brandon: Ooh, I have a lot of strong feelings about this. I think that names should be memorable. They should have like, like an aura of sort of literariness about them. I don't mean, I mean, taken to like hilarious extremes. It's like Henry James. Catherine Goodwood, Isabelle Archer, Ralph Touchett, like, you know, Henry had a stack pole. So like, not like that. But I mean, that could be fun in a modern way. But I think there's like an aura of like, it's a name that you might hear in real life, but it sort of add or remove, it's sort of charged and elevated, sort of like with dialogue. And that it's like a memorable thing that sort of like, you know, it's like, you know, memorable thing that sort of sticks in the reader's mind. It is both a name, a literary, a good literary name is both a part of this world and not of this world, I think. And, yeah, and I love that. I think like, don't give your character a name like you hear all the time. Like, Tyler is a terrible literary name. Like, no novel has ever, no good novel has ever had a really important character named Tyler in it. It just hasn't. Ryan? What makes a good sentence? Well, my sort of like, live and let live answer is that a good sentence is a sentence that is perfectly suited to the purpose it has. But I don't know, I like a clear sentence, regardless of length or lyric intensity, but just like a clear sentence that articulates something. I like a sentence with motion, a sense of rhythm, a sense of feel without any bad words in it. And I don't mean like curse words, I mean like words that shouldn't be in literature. Like, there's some words that just like don't belong in novels.Henry: Like what?Brandon: Squelch. Like, I don't think the word squelch should be in a novel. That's a gross word and it doesn't sound literary to me. I don't want to see it.Henry: I wouldn't be surprised if it was in Ulysses.Brandon: Well, yes.Henry: I have no idea, but I'm sure, I'm sure.Brandon: But so few of us are James Joyce. And that novel is like a thousand bodily functions per page. But don't love it. Don't love it.Henry: You don't love Ulysses?Brandon: No, I don't… Listen, I don't have a strong opinion, but you're not going to get me cancelled about Ulysses. I'm not Virginia Woolf.Henry: We're happy to have opinions of that nature here. That's fine.Brandon: You know, I don't have a strong feeling about it, actually. Some parts of it that I've read are really wonderful. And some parts of it that I have read are really dense and confusing to me. I haven't sort of given it the time it needs or deserves. What did you learn from reading Toni Morris? What did I learn? I think I learned a lot about the moral force of melodrama. I think that she shows us a lot about the uses of melodrama and how it isn't just like a lesion of realism, that it isn't just a sort of malfunctioning realism, but that there are certain experiences and certain lives and certain things that require and necessitate melodrama. And when deployed, it's not tacky or distasteful that it actually is like deeply necessary. And also just like the joy of access and language, like the sort of... Her language is so towering. I don't know, whenever I'm being really shy about a sentence being too vivid or too much, I'm like, well, Toni Morrison would just go for it. And I am not Toni Morrison, but she has given me the courage to try.Henry: What did you like about the Annette Benning film of The Seagull?Brandon: The moment when Annette Benning sings Dark Eyes is so good. It's so good. I think about it all the time. And indeed, I stole that moment for a short story that I wrote. And I liked that part of it. I liked the set design. I think also Saoirse Ronan, when she gives that speech as Nina, where she's like, you know, where the guy's like, what do you want from, you know, what do you want? Why do you want to be an actress? And she's like, I want fame. You know, like, I want to be totally adored. And I'm just like, yeah, that's so real. That's so, that is so real. Like Chekhov has understood something so deep, so deep about the nature of commerce and art there. And I think Saoirse is really wonderful in that movie. It's a not, it's not a good movie. It's maybe not even a good adaptation of The Seagull. But I really enjoyed it. I saw it like five times in a theater in Iowa City.Henry: I don't know if it's a bad adaptation of The Seagull, because it's one of the, it's one of the Chekhov's I've seen that actually understands that, like, the tragic and the and the comic are not meant to be easily distinguishable in his work. And it does have all this lightheartedness. And it is quite funny. And I was like, well, at least someone's doing that because I'm so sick of, like, gloomy Chekhov. You know what I mean? Like, oh, the clouds and the misery. Like, no, he wants you, he wants you to laugh and then be like, I shouldn't laugh because it's kind of tragic, but it's also just funny.Brandon: Yeah. Yes, I mean, all the moments were like, like Annette Bening's characters, like endless stories, like she's just like constantly unfurling a story and a story and a story and a story. Every scene kind of was like, she's in the middle of telling another interminable anecdote. And of course, the sort of big tragic turn at the end is like, where like, Kostya kills himself. And she's like, in the middle of like, another really long anecdote while they're in the other room playing cards. Like, it's so, it's so good. So I love that. I enjoy watching that movie. I still think it's maybe not. It's a little wooden, like as a movie, like it's a little, it's a little rickety.Henry: Oh, sure, sure, sure, sure. But for someone looking to like, get a handle on Chekhov, it's actually a good place to go. What is the best make of Fountain Pen?Brandon: That's a really good, that's a really, really, really good question. Like, what's your Desert Island Fountain Pen? My Desert Island Fountain Pen. Right now, it's an Esterbrook Estee with a needlepoint nib. It's like, so, I can use that pen for hours and hours and hours and hours. I think my favorite Fountain Pen, though, is probably the Pilot Custom 743. It's a really good pen, not too big, not too small. It can hold a ton of ink, really wonderful. I use, I think, like a Soft Fine nib, incredible nib, so smooth. Like, I, you could cap it and then uncap it a month later, and it just like starts immediately. It's amazing. And it's not too expensive.Henry: Brandon Taylor, thank you very much.Brandon: Thanks for having me. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.commonreader.co.uk/subscribe
As our Close Readings series come to an end this year, you're probably wondering what's coming in 2025. We're delighted to announce there'll be four new series starting in January:‘Conversations in Philosophy' with Jonathan Rée and James WoodJonathan and James challenge a hundred years of academic convention by reuniting the worlds of philosophy and literature, as they consider how style, narrative, and the expression of ideas play through philosophical writers including Kierkegaard, Mill, Nietzsche, Woolf, Beauvoir and Camus.Reading list here:https://lrb.supportingcast.fm/posts/conversations-in-philosophy‘Fiction and the Fantastic' with Marina Warner, Anna Della Subin, Adam Thirlwell and Chloe Aridjis.Marina and guests will traverse the great parallel tradition of the literature of astonishment and wonder, dread and hope, from the 1001 Nights to Ursula K. Le Guin.Reading list here:https://lrb.supportingcast.fm/posts/fiction-and-the-fantastic‘Love and Death' with Seamus Perry and Mark FordMark and Seamus explore the oscillating power of outrage and grief, bitterness and consolation, in poetry in English from the Renaissance to the present day. Their series will consider the elegies of Milton, Hardy, Bishop, Plath and others at their most intimate and expressive.Reading list here:https://lrb.supportingcast.fm/posts/love-and-death‘Novel Approaches' with Clare Bucknell, Thomas Jones and other guestsClare, Tom and guests discuss a selection of 19th-century (mostly) English novels from Mansfield Park to New Grub Street, looking in particular at the roles played in the books by money and property.Reading list here:https://lrb.supportingcast.fm/posts/novel-approachesAnd the subscription will continue to include access to all our past Close Readings series.If you're not already a subscriber, sign up:Directly in Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3pJoFPqIn other podcast apps: https://lrb.me/closereadingsGIFTSIf you enjoy Close Readings, why not give it to another book lover in your life?Find our audio gifts here: https://lrb.supportingcast.fm/gifts Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Read With Jenna Book Club Pick! Award-winning author Nikki May returns to the podcast to discuss THIS MOTHERLESS LAND, a stunning reimagining of Jane Austen's MANSFIELD PARK (and a masterful exploration of race, identity, privilege, and love) where two extraordinary cousins split between England and Nigeria come to terms with their shared family history. Nikki delves into the inspiration behind this novel, the challenges of writing a second book, and how the grief of losing her brother has shaped her writing. She also shares the books that have gotten her through hard times, the things she does that bring her joy, and the details of her next project!Purchase on Bookshop: https://bit.ly/3YVEvUzShare, rate, & review the podcast, and follow Zibby on Instagram @zibbyowens! Now there's more! Subscribe to Moms Don't Have Time to Read Books on Acast+ and get ad-free episodes. https://plus.acast.com/s/moms-dont-have-time-to-read-books. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
This episode has it all - writing yourself into fiction, being inspired by classic literature, the joy and benefits of being a bit spiky, oh, and there is a fair amount of swearing in this. As an added bonus - depending on your point of view - Nat and Phil also divulge their favourite swear words at the end of the ep... This Motherless Land is Nikki May's story inspired by Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, but takes it to a totally different place and time and feeling. It's a joy to read and Nikki is a joy to spend time with!Find out more about this season and Nikki's recommendations at www.bestsellerspodcast.co Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Today we are thrilled to welcome Nikki May to the show. Her new book This Motherless Land is a reimagining of Jane Austen's Mansfield Park. Anne was especially intrigued by this because Mansfield Park is the novel of Jane Austen's that seems most overlooked when it comes to retellings. Today, Anne has questions, and Nikki May has answers. Among some of the gems you will hear are Nikki's personal connection to Jane Austen generally and Mansfield Park in particular, the personal experiences that informed This Motherless Land, and the complexity of belonging and not belonging as explored in these pages. Anne and Nikki also discover their shared appreciation for family novels, especially complicated, messy families, and Nikki shares some of her favorites today. Find the full list of titles mentioned at our show notes page at whatshouldireadnextpodcast.com/451. Our annual traditional holiday gift-giving episode is just around the corner. If you'd like to give a bookish gift to a reader in your life and you'd like our team's help, please email hello@modernmrsdarcy.com with the subject line "Gift Help". In your email, please include details about who are you shopping for, a little bit about their reading life, and any ideas you have or the direction you'd prefer to go. We'll read some of your requests and answer lots of reader inquiries on our upcoming episode. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
City of Mansfield, TX: Mansfield, Texas On Demand Audio Podcast
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Thanks to the tireless work of translators, readers around the world can enjoy Jane Austen's works in their native languages. But how does one even begin to translate her carefully crafted sentences? What unforeseen challenges and valuable insights arise in the process? In this episode, we ask Austen translators Keiko Parker and Maria Biajoli about their experiences—the good, the bad, and the je ne sais quoi. Keiko Parker has been a JASNA member since 1981 and coordinated the 2007 Annual General Meeting in Vancouver. She has translated five Austen novels into Japanese—Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Persuasion, Mansfield Park, and Sense and Sensibility—and is currently working on Northanger Abbey. She has also been a breakout speaker at several AGMs and has published papers in Persuasions and Persuasions On-Line. Maria Biajoli is a professor of English at Federal University of Alfenas, Brazil, where she teaches English language and English literature, focusing on women writers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. She has presented at a number of JASNA's AGMs, including in 2023 in Denver, where she talked about translating Pride and Prejudice into Brazilian Portuguese. She has published papers about Austen in Persuasions, Persuasions On-Line, and other academic journals.For a transcript and show notes, visit https://jasna.org/austen/podcast/ep16.Visit our website: www.jasna.orgFollow us on Instagram and FacebookSubscribe to the podcast on our YouTube channelEmail: podcast@jasna.org
Join us for a captivating conversation with Nikki May, author of Wahala which is currently being adapted into a major BBC series! Her latest literary masterpiece, This was inspired by Jane Austen's Mansfield Park and explores themes of motherhood, legacy, identity, and culture.Interview Highlights:Mothers and Daughters: Discover the profound impact of mothers on their daughters. Explore how Nikki's characters navigate life without a mother and with a less than ideal one, shaping their identities and relationships.Cultural Identity: Dive into the complexities of belonging to multiple cultures. Hear Nikki's personal experiences growing up between England and Lagos.Book Recommendations: Discover the five books that have shaped Nikki's life. From dystopian futures to gripping mysteries, this diverse selection offers something for every reader.Book List:Station Eleven by Emily St. John MandelA is for Alibi by Sue GraftonHalf a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieBig Little Lies by Liane MoriartyWe Were Liars by E. Lockhart Prepare to be captivated by Nikki May's insightful perspective and her ability to bring a classic story to life in a fresh and modern way. Don't miss this thought-provoking episode!PS: Once you've listened to this episode you may be wondering if I did pick up one of the books that we discussed and the answer is YES and it is as brilliant as Nikki said it is.
City of Mansfield, TX: Mansfield, Texas On Demand Audio Podcast
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Who defines paradise, and who gets to live in its verdant incarnation on Earth? This is the question animating Olivia Laing's new book, The Garden Against Time, which ranges across the history of the English landscape, from John Milton's writing of Paradise Lost to Laing's own restoration of a walled garden. Alighting on the heartbreaking pastorals of 19th-century poet John Clare and the queer visions of 20th-century artist and filmmaker Derek Jarman, Laing pulls strands of history, literature, and resistance from the green blur that, for now, still surrounds us, even as it deceives us. Landscape architects like Capability Brown—so named for his capability to impose his will on any vista—were, as Laing writes, able “to fake nature so insidiously that even now those landscapes and the power relations they embody are mistaken for being just the way things are, natural, eternal, blandly reassuring, though what has actually taken place is the seizure of once common ground.” The author of five books of nonfiction and a novel, Olivia Laing joins Smarty Pants this week to explore both the powers that shaped the garden as we know it, and the power it has to change how we treat the earth, and ourselves. Go beyond the episode:Olivia Laing's The Garden Against Time: In Search of a Common ParadiseListen to John Clare's “I Love to See the Summer Beaming Forth” on our sister podcast, Read Me a PoemIn the essay “Jane Austen's Ivory Cage,” Mikita Brottman looks over the ha-has of Mansfield Park to see who else might be enclosed alongside the gardenWe have visited stately houses and their grounds twice before on Smarty Pants: with Adrian Tinniswood, who discussed the history of the country house after World War II, and with Hopwood DePree, who was attempting to restore his crumbling ancestral pile Tune in every (other) week to catch interviews with the liveliest voices from literature, the arts, sciences, history, and public affairs; reports on cutting-edge works in progress; long-form narratives; and compelling excerpts from new books. Hosted by Stephanie Bastek and sponsored by the Phi Beta Kappa Society.Subscribe: iTunes/Apple • Amazon • Google • Acast • RSS FeedHave suggestions for projects you'd like us to catch up on, or writers you want to hear from? Send us a note: podcast [at] theamericanscholar [dot] org. And rate us on iTunes! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Billie Piper is a more or less silent Fanny Price in the 2007 Mansfield Park created by Britain's Interesting Television, but is it better than the controversial 1999 adaptation? The answer might very well tear this entire operation apart. Special thanks to Baby Bee Carys for the theme music! Subscribe to our Patreon at Patreon.com/BSCCPodcast and support the show at Bit.ly/RattlesnakeJake! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
City of Mansfield, TX: Mansfield, Texas On Demand Audio Podcast
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City of Mansfield, TX: Mansfield, Texas On Demand Audio Podcast
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More Than a Song - Discovering the Truth of Scripture Hidden in Today's Popular Christian Music
Send us a Text Message.CLICK HERE for the episode guide to help you connect with Scripture through this song.Life can throw us curve balls that threaten to derail us. In fact, if we aren't rooted in Christ, we may even fall into despair. Katy Nichole and Naomi Raine sing about everything our God can do, even when we cannot. Their song "Our God Can" gives us a distinct area of Scripture to explore. Once we get there, you may discover even more than you imagined.When I settled into Paul's letter to the Philippians, I gained wisdom I can't wait to share with you.In this episode, I discuss the following:Taking a B.I.T.E. out of Scripture – this week's Bible Interaction Tool Exercises include: Read in contextHistorical contextConsult a mapRepetitionRemember, the people in the Bible were realFollow the cross-referencesListen to an audio version of the textEpisode GuideExploring the historical background of the Philippian churchReading about the founding of the Philippian church in Acts 16How Paul directly addresses some of the cultural influences of nationalism - Philippians 3:20Reading the text for what it actually says but backing up to see the bigger themesReading fast, reading slow, and then picking apart every word (like Fanny in Jane Austen's "Mansfield Park")Paul's circumstance did not match his desire - Philippians 1:3-8Paul's circumstance did not stop God from using him - Philippians 1:12-13Sometimes people are just plain mean - Philippians 1:14-18Paul lived in the tension of his complete devotion to Christ and his complete devotion to those Christ gave him to nurture - Philippians 1:19-26The actual context of a verse often taken OUT of context in Philippians 4Additional ResourcesLyrics - NewReleaseToday.comThe story behind the song "My God Can" by Katy Nichole - New Release Today Article by Kevin DavisMy favorite Bible Study Software - Logos Bible Software Affiliate LinkThis Week's ChallengeRead and re-read Paul's letter to the Philippians. This time, when you read it, consider Paul and his circumstances. Get your bearings as to the history of the church here by reading Acts 16. The more you read about Paul's ministry in the book of Acts and his other letters, the more you understand his passions and how his current circumstances might affect him. Ask yourself, how can I apply Paul's spiritual maturity to my own circumstances? Unlock the secret to your contentment in all circumstances by fixing your eyes on Jesus, as displayed in Philippians 2. Change your music. Change your life. Join my free 30-Day Music Challenge. CLICK HERE.
Olá,Helô e Rapha por aqui.Nesse episódio continuamos a falar sobre as grandes casas na obra da Jane Austen.Cada uma delas tem sua simbologia, sua importância, e funcionam de alguma maneira como mais que apenas um pano de fundo. A gente achou interessante, e está rendendo boas conversas.Vem com a gente!Mansfield Park é um símbolo de opressãoMuito obrigada por passar esses minutos com a gente.E para quem quiser acompanhar a nossa newsletter, aqui vai o endereço: www.portrasdosromances.substack.comMuitos abraços!De duas mulheres obstinadas e teimosas! ;) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit portrasdosromances.substack.com
OMG, Dawn's gotta beware! There's a snake boy loose in San Francisco! Also, the local kids are manipulating the hell out of the babysitters, and we're here for it. Meanwhile, Stacey is having glamorous adventures and nobody cares. On today's agenda: Bruce Stringbean; Kristy's intervention consultancy; a frankly unreasonable amount of babysitting; extremely convincing California dialect; flagrant Australia erasure; a kipper in the ear; plausible bean deniability; an impressive commitment to collage; cinema recommendations with Karen's nine-year-old; we have Opinions about Mansfield Park. Our theme song is ‘The Incredible Shrinking Larry' by Matt Oakley and ‘Big Band Jingle A' is by Lobo Loco, both on the Free Music Archive. If you like our show, tell a friend, rate and review on your podcast app of choice, drop us an email, or come say hi on Instagram! We also have a ko-fi and we're real self-conscious about it!
City of Mansfield, TX: Mansfield, Texas On Demand Audio Podcast
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This week on the KPL Podcast we have author and book lover Shannon Reed. Her latest book is, Why We Read, On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out. This a collection of laugh-out-loud-funny stories from her life as a reader and the poignant ways in which books have impacted her students. Author Recommendations1. Nobody's Fool by Richard Russo2. Plainsong by Kent Haruf3. Egg A Dozen Ovatures by Lizzie Stark4. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
This week we are covering our second Whit Stillman movie, his first, Metropolitan. This movie is listed as a modern adaptation of Mansfield Park even though it really isn't. It does however talk about the novel and works with some of its themes, which leads to us having a lot to talk about. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mannersandmadness/message Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mannersandmadness/support
Gentle listeners, join us for our review of the delightful radio drama from BBC Radio 4, which features a star-studded cast including Felicity Jones, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Tennant, James Callas and more! Adapted by Clara Glynn, this lovely radio play contains some surprising new takes on Austen's story and characters. We certainly see Fanny, Edmund, and Henry in a different light after listening to this production. More information about the cast can be found on the BBC's website here.
Do you ever wish you could have been an eyewitness of Jesus' life on earth—to see His disciples, healings, teachings, and miracles with your very own eyes? Well, the prolific writer Dorothy L. Sayers (a close acquaintance of C.S. Lewis) wrote a collection of radio plays recounting the life and ministry of Jesus to offer a sense of what it would have been like to witness the Savior face-to-face during His time on earth. She titled this collection of plays The Man Born to Be King, and today we have the treat of zooming in on them with our guest, Kathryn Wehr, who has edited a fantastic edition of The Man Born to Be King. Join us as we dive deep into the plays, explore the theological truths they convey, and discuss Sayers' three-dimensional representation of Jesus and the cast of characters surrounding His life, death, and resurrection. Claim your free copy of Don't Follow Your Heart: Boldly Breaking the Ten Commandments of Self-Worship by Thaddeus Williams for a gift of any amount to the Colson Center this month at colsoncenter.org/swwilliamsresource. Read A Man Born to be King...Together! Lent begins February 14th, and you're invited to participate with the Strong Women community! We'll be reading Dorothy Sayers' The Man Born to be King, a series of 12 dynamic radio plays re-telling the life and ministry of Jesus. Our free reading guide, “The Kingdom of God is at Hand,” includes reflection questions for each play, as well as prayers to help you embrace the gift of repentance and “make straight the way of the Lord” in your heart this Lenten season. We start on Ash Wednesday—February 14. Come join us and read in community. Download your free reading guide at colsoncenter.org/lent. Articles by Kathryn Wehr on Logos Kathryn's album about women in the gospels And All the Marys Kathryn's YouTube channel The Man Born to be King, Wade Annotated Edition, edited by Kathryn Wehr. If you purchase through InterVarsity Press, use code IVPSTRONGWOMEN to get a 25% discount and free shipping on the book (and all other titles) through February 29, 2024! The Man Born to Be King by Dorothy L. Sayers The Man Born to Be King: A BBC Radio 4 Drama Collection The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Lord Peter Wimsey detective books by Dorothy L. Sayers The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri On the Incarnation by Athanasius Nicene Creed Christ & Creed: The Early Church Creeds & their Value for Today by Nate Pickowicz Creed or Chaos by Dorothy L. Sayers (out of print) Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis The Chosen series Mansfield Park by Jane Austen The Strong Women Podcast is a product of the Colson Center which equips Christians to live out their faith with clarity, confidence, and courage in this cultural moment. Through commentaries, podcasts, videos, and more, we help Christians better understand what's happening in the world, and champion what is true and good wherever God has called them. Learn more about the Colson Center here: https://www.colsoncenter.org/ Visit our website and sign up for our email list so that you can stay up to date on what we are doing here and also receive our monthly journal: https://www.colsoncenter.org/strong-women Join Strong Women on Social Media: https://www.facebook.com/StrongWomenCC https://www.facebook.com/groups/strongwomencommunitycc/ https://www.instagram.com/strongwomencc/
Published anonymously six years prior to Jane Austen's Mansfield Park—yet largely ignored for two centuries—the Regency-era epistolary novel The Woman of Colour: A Tale is the only one of its kind to feature a racially-conscious Black heroine at its center. Dr. Leigh-Michil George, a lecturer in the English Department at Geffen Academy at UCLA, joins us to discuss the novel and its historical importance as well as its influence on Regency-era television adaptations of Sanditon and Bridgerton. Discussed in this episode: The Woman of Colour: A Tale by Anonymous (Broadview Press)Dr. Leigh-Michil GeorgeMansfield Park by Jane AustenSanditon (PBS)Bridgerton (Netflix) Bridgerton series by Julia QuinnSanditon by Jane AustenPride and Prejudice by Jane AustenElizabeth BennettCaroline BingleyNetherfield ParkJamaica“Black People in Britain During the Regency” (National Portrait Gallery)“The Abolition of Slavery in Britain” (Historic UK)Olivia Carpenter (University of York)Support the showFor episodes and show notes, visit: LostLadiesofLit.comDiscuss episodes on our Facebook Forum. Follow us on instagram @lostladiesoflit. Follow Kim on twitter @kaskew. Sign up for our newsletter: LostLadiesofLit.com Email us: Contact — Lost Ladies of Lit Podcast