"Dr. Heidegger's Experiment"

Wed, 01/16/2019 - 12:00 "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" Just Listen Podcast "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment" is a short story by American author Nathaniel Hawthorne about a doctor who claims to have been sent water from the Fountain of Youth. It was…

"A Jury of Her Peers"

Wed, 01/02/2019 - 12:00 "A Jury of Her Peers" Just Listen Podcast On its surface, “A Jury of Her Peers” by Susan Glaspell appears a simple detective story, but through extensive dialogue between two women, Glaspell slowly reveals the story's true underlying…

"The Cask of Amontillado"

Wed, 12/12/2018 - 12:00 "The Cask of Amontillado" Just Listen Podcast Edgar Allan Poe is classified as an American Romantic writer, a detective fiction writer, and a Gothic writer. He is considered by many to be the father of the short story and the first…

"The Gift of the Magi"

Thu, 12/20/2018 - 12:00 "The Gift of the Magi" Just Listen Podcast A perennial Christmastime favorite, "The Gift of the Magi," written by O. Henry, is about a young husband and wife and how they deal with the challenge of buying secret Christmas gifts for each…

"The New Dress"

Wed, 11/28/2018 - 12:00 "The New Dress" Just Listen Podcast “The New Dress” by Virginia Woolf is perhaps one of the finest examples of stream-of-consciousness writing produced by an American or British author, many of whom dabbled in this genre once or twice…

"The Judge's House"

Wed, 03/06/2019 - 12:00 "The Judge's House" Just Listen Podcast In the story, a student arrives in a small town looking for a quiet place to stay while he prepares for his examinations.  Making light of the local superstitions, he moves into an old mansion…

"The Trial for Murder"

Wed, 03/20/2019 - 12:00 "The Trial for Murder" Just Listen Podcast Ghost story enthusiasts in the Victorian Era were accustomed to the telling of ghost stories on Christmas night, although the custom of telling ghost stories at this time goes back to long before…

"The Old Nurse's Story"

Wed, 04/03/2019 - 12:00 "The Old Nurse's Story" Just Listen Podcast Written on invitation by Charles Dickens, who was a fan of her work, Elizabeth Gaskell’s “The Old Nurse’s Story” was published in 1852. The setup is classic: an elderly caregiver gathers her…

"The Red Room"

Wed, 04/17/2019 - 12:00 "The Red Room" Just Listen Podcast An English writer nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature four times, H.G. Wells was prolific in many genres, writing dozens of novels, short stories, works of social commentary, satire, biography and…

"The Sculptor's Funeral"

Sun, 04/28/2019 - 12:00 "The Sculptor's Funeral" Just Listen Podcast Two things I find striking and worthy of special note in today’s selection by Willa Cather, “The Sculptor’s Funeral.”  One is the sense of place that is keen in the story—that of a frozen,…

"Dracula's Guest"

Wed, 06/12/2019 - 12:00 "Dracula's Guest" Just Listen Podcast Bram Stoker’s Dracula is perhaps the best known of all vampire tales.  Today’s story, “Dracula’s Guest,” was excised from the original Dracula manuscript by its publisher because…

"Winter Dreams"

Sun, 07/07/2019 - 12:00 "Winter Dreams" Just Listen Podcast Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald, named for his famous second cousin, three times removed, was an American fiction writer, whose works helped to illustrate the flamboyance and excess of the Jazz Age. …

"The Marriages," Parts I & II

Wed, 05/15/2019 - 12:00 "The Marriages," Parts I & II Just Listen Podcast James was one of the great letter-writers of any era. More than ten thousand of his personal letters are extant, and over three thousand have been published in a large number of…

"The Marriages," Parts III & IV

Sat, 05/18/2019 - 12:00 "The Marriages," Parts III & IV Just Listen Podcast Our last encounters with Adela, our protagonist, show her to be in the throes of three troubled relationships—with her father Colonel Chart, with his fiancée Mrs. Churchley, and with…

"The Magic Shop"

Fri, 05/24/2019 - 12:00 "The Magic Shop" Just Listen Podcast On leaving a Cambridge party, Wells accidentally picked up a hat that did not belong to him. Discovering his mistake, he decided not to return the headgear to its rightful owner, whose label was inside…