Professor of Russian José Vergara recommends a dark story of family betrayal. Shchedrin's 1880 novel follows the fall of a miserly matriarch and the rise of her even more punitive son. We talk about tragicomedy, fate, faith, and constant death. Spoilers are out of control. This is one of our favorite books, so read it quick!

Michaela Telfer's article on bureaucracy in the novel (open access)

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In this clip, we revisit the classic tale of toxic stan culture: Henry James' The Aspern Papers. Ever moved into a dilapidated Venetian palazzo to possibly steal the yellowing missives exchanged between your literary idol and his former flame? Us neither! Join us as we pick apart the narrator's twisted mind.

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Elise Riley, an accessioning archivist at the Beinecke Library, offers us an expert's perspective on In The Freud Archives, Janet Malcolm's nonfictional exploration of archival infighting. The book concerns three psychoanalytic scholars who come to epistolary blows over the scattered remains of Freud's legacy. But unlike most niche academic debates, this one resulted in a $13 million dollar lawsuit. In this episode, we discuss Malcolm's narrative distance, the role of fantasy versus reality, and some things the Sigmund Freud Archives could have done to avoid all this Oedipal drama.

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In this clip, we discuss how Home acts as a "spiritual sequel" to Penelope Mortimer's The Pumpkin Eater, showcasing a more detailed portrait of the narrator's family and how it reflected mid-century British society.

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McNally Editions senior editor Lucy Scholes joins the show to talk about Penelope Mortimer's dark novel of marriage and parenthood, the Pumpkin Eater. We discuss the narrator's mysterious identity, her rage at psychoanalysis, and Anne Bancroft's interpretation of her in the 1964 film adaptation.

Read Lucy's piece on Mortimer here.

Check out Daddy's Gone A-Hunting and The Home.

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In this clip, we discuss the power of words versus images and compare Colette and Clébert's notions of vagabondage.

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Writer Zito Madu joins us to discuss Jean-Paul Clébert's Paris Vagabond translated from French by Donald Nicholson-Smith. In a series of vignettes, the book explores life on the streets of the city in the years following WWII. We talk about Clébert's middle-class background, analyze the photographs taken by Patrice Molinard, and consider the romanticization of "vagabonds."

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Inspired by Schattenfroh, we discuss a seminal work on the impact of printing from 1450 to 1800 written by Lucien Febvre and Henri-Jean Martin. In this clip, we explore a few of the many mysteries in the life of Johannes Gutenberg.

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In this special episode, we discuss Schattenfroh with author Michael Lentz and translator Max Lawton. This novel, originally written in German, traverses centuries of history to confront a personal loss. We talk about Lentz's Catholic upbringing, Lawton's detective work, and how their collaboration reflects the narrator's imprisonment.

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In this episode, Professor Lawrence Warner joins us to talk about Adam Pinkhurst, a 14th century scribe who may or may not have been cursed in a humorous poem by Geoffrey Chaucer. We explore the evidence for Pinkhurst’s identification as Chaucer’s “owne scriveyn” behind two early manuscripts of The Canterbury Tales, enjoy some impromptu Middle English recitation, and question the relationship between paleography and literary studies.

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