Here we are at the end of our conversation on Hawthorne’s novel, which means it’s time to answer your questions. As always, you sent in lots of great ones and we did our best to answer as many as we could. Thanks for participating in the conversation—and thanks to Karen coming on the show these last six weeks!

Be sure to check out her forthcoming book, which you can find here.

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In this episode, Sean and Heidi join David and get their say about the legacy of Cormac McCarthy—and what makes his work sublime.

The great Cormac McCarthy died last week, leaving behind a canon of brilliant, challenging novels that will be long-remembered. So this week we’re sharing two episode remembering the man, discussing his work, and sharing what he means to us. In this first episode, David and Tim sit down to make a Mount Rushmore of McCarthy’s work and to discuss how his work will be remembered.

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And so we come to the end of another novel! Join David, Heidi, and Karen as they dig into the ending of Hawthorne’s novel, with special attention paid to Pearl’s role. Plus: how does the genre play into the end of the book, what do we do with Dimmsdale’s demise, and how does Hawthorne want us to respond to their plot to escape? Happy listening!

Heidi is in Greece this week (!), but David Kern and Karen Swallow Prior are back to continue this series on The Scarlet Letter. Topics of conversation include the way Hawthorne uses the setting to triangulate the characters, Hawthorne’s vision of the Good, Hester’s defense (as it were) of her affair with Dimmsdale, Hawthorne’s slippery tier of virtues, and comparing Hawthorne with Jane Austen. Happy listening!

Does this book offer an alternative vision to the spiritual corruption that it criticizes? How would it be different if Hawthorne was lest on-the-nose with his metaphors and character names? Join David, Heidi, and Karen as they explore these (and other) questions from Nathaniel Hawthorne’s novel. Happy listening!

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Join David, Heidi, and special guest, Karen Swallow Prior, for a conversation about this very famous and much-taught novel. Conversation touches on why this book has such a significant role in American English classrooms; Chillingsworth’s, well, chilling role; little Pearl’s emergence as a meaningful character; and much more. As always: happy listening!

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It’s become an annual tradition to invite the one-and-only Karen Swallow Prior on the show to discuss a classic novel, and this time around it’s Nathaniel Hawthorne’s, The Scarlet Letter. In this first episode of the series, we chatted about that difficult opening section, “The Customs House”; why Karen chose to include this book in her series of annotated classic novels for B&H Publishing (alongside Austen, Hardy, Conrad, Bronte, etc.); ways Hawthorne seems to be working out his connection to his family’s long and fraught history; and much more! Happy listening!

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You have questions, we’ve got thoughts! So click that play button and dig into this conversation on The Optimist’s Daughter!

Please note: next week we will be off, but after that we will begin conversations on The Scarlet Letter with very special guest Karen Swallow Prior!

What’s up with the birds? Is Fay even more despicable than we initially considered? Is the ending hopeful? Join David, Heidi, and Sean as they discuss these—and many other—questions on this week’s discussion of Eudora Welty’s The Optimist’s Daughter. Happy listening!

Close Reads HQ is a community-supported endeavor. If you value what we do here, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.