Just Listen Podcast

Robert Louis Stevenson, famed author of Treasure Island and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, continues to provoke both hatred and idolatry, and there are now well over a hundred biographical books and essays on Stevenson and his work.

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“The Lady or the Tiger?” is one of the most anthologized short stories for adolescents and teens, often appearing in literature collections and possessing a unique place in the short story genre: it leaves the ending to the reader, or the listener, in our case. The plot is left unresolved.

Today’s author, Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, sought to demonstrate her values as a feminist.

Today’s selections, a group of twenty-five Christmas poems, come from some of the greatest poetic voices of the English language.

We return today to the fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi, made somewhat famous by William Faulkner as the locus for many of his short stories.

Today we examine another one of the three hundred short stories written by the French author Guy de Maupassant, who is featured here on Just Listen several times already but a great favorite of this podcast and considered by many, still, to be the father of the short story.

Today’s author, Mary Lerner, had her 1916 story “Little Selves” published in the September issue of Atlantic Monthly.

"Mademoiselle Fifi" is a short story by Guy de Maupassant.

One of the things I most enjoy about presenting stories here is the great fun I find in discovering the personal lives of authors. Not only do our authors present us with brilliant literature, but they also give us glimpses into lives that are indeed majestic and fascinating. People like Jack London and Edith Wharton certainly come readily to mind, giants in their own time, and for me, H.G. Wells stands out among his peers for both the quantity of his work (over l00 books!) and for the human intricacies of his private life – as colorful as almost any of his books.

Today’s story, “The Ledge” by Lawrence Sargent Hall, won first place in the 1960 O Henry Prize Collection, and has appeared in more than 30 anthologies.