Novel Conversations
84 episodes - English - Latest episode: 3 days ago - ★★★★★ - 80 ratingsNovel Conversations is a podcast summarizing the world’s greatest works of classic literature: you get the whole story from cover to cover. If CliffsNotes had an audio-bestfriend, it would be us! Each episode, Frank Lavallo hosts two readers, and the three of them share their reactions to the story and read their favorite passages along the way. If you're looking for a good story, you're in the right place. *This podcast is a production of the Ohio Film Tax Credit.
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Episodes
'Heart Of Darkness' by Joseph Conrad
April 23, 2024 09:00 - 57 minutesIn Conrad's landmark novel from 1899, English sailor Charles Marlow describes his voyage into the interior of the African jungle aboard a Belgian shipping vessel. The work levees a striking criticism of the imperial mindset of its era, reflected in its inclusion as one of the greatest texts of Western literature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
'To Kill A Mockingbird' by Harper Lee
April 10, 2024 09:00 - 1 hourOne of the greatest all-time works of American fiction, 'To Kill A Mockingbird' is a timeless account of the American South as seen through the eyes of a young girl named Scout. The novel's warm and approachable dissection of gender, society, and race have made it an enduring staple of the American literary canon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
'20,000 Leagues Under The Sea' by Jules Verne
March 26, 2024 09:00 - 46 minutes20,000 Leagues Under The Sea is classic science-adventure novel written by Jules Verne, and released serially through 1870. It tells the story of the Nautilus, a futuristic deep-sea submarine, and its long voyages through the ocean's depths through the eyes of our protagonist, the marine biologist Professor Aronnax, who is captive aboard the vessel with his companions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
'Wuthering Heights' by Emily Bronte
March 12, 2024 09:00 - 58 minutesEmily Bronte's only novel, Wuthering Heights tells the story of the turbulent relationships between the Earnshaws and the Lintons, two families of landed gentry in 1847 West Yorkshire. In its time, the novel was controversial for its depictions of cruelty and abuse, and for its challenges to Victorian ideals and morality. In the time since however, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written. Special thanks to our readers, Anthony Mahramus and Elizabeth Flood, our Produ...
'Robinson Crusoe' by Daniel Defoe
February 27, 2024 15:30 - 45 minutesTitled "The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, All Alone in an Un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, Near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having Been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, Wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account how he was at last as Strangely Deliver’d by Pyrates. Written by Himself,” at publication, Robinson Crusoe is an enduring fiction that set the standard for the adventu...
"Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë
February 13, 2024 10:00 - 50 minutesThis classic of English literature was originally penned under the name "Currer Bell", and details the story of the titular Jane as she struggles to find comfort and self-worth through the ups and downs of her life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Invisible Man" by H.G. Wells
December 12, 2023 10:00 - 26 minutesin 1897's West Sussex, a strangely dressed and unfriendly man named Griffin takes up lodging at a local inn, causing havoc and disharmony with his rude antics and constant scientific investigation. As the novel progresses, we see more and more of the evil within Griffin, even as he is seen less and less. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Bleak House" by Charles Dickens
November 28, 2023 10:00 - 46 minutes"Bleak House" is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853. The story centers around a variety of characters whose livelihoods depend on the outcome of an active court case, Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Throughout the novel, our perspective shifts between an omniscient third person and the personal perspective of our main protagonist, Esther Summerson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
FEED DROP – Introducing “Countdown to Dallas: The Kennedy Assassination”
November 14, 2023 15:48 - 19 minutesEvergreen Podcasts, the network that brought you From First Lady to Jackie O, is pleased to introduce Countdown to Dallas, another podcast from Host Paul Brandus. On the sixtieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, former White House correspondent Paul Brandus takes an in-depth look at the seemingly unconnected events that led to that infamous afternoon in Dallas, Texas. He explores the troubled and broken life of Kennedy’s killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, and challenges...
"My Antonia" by Willa Cather
November 14, 2023 10:00 - 41 minutesMy Antonia, the third of Willa Cather's "prairie trilogy", follows the story of a young bohemian immigrant to the town of Blackhawk, Nebraska. Narrated by our protagonist Jim Burden, Cather uses vivid imagery and beautiful prose to paint a picture of immigrant life on the prairie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde" by Robert Louis Stevenson
October 31, 2023 09:00 - 38 minutesIn this famous Robert Louis Stevenson novel, we follow Gabriel Utterson, a London legal-practitioner who investigates the relationship between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and a criminally abominable man by the name of Mr. Hyde. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
October 17, 2023 09:00 - 53 minutesIn "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, we see the preeminent Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes' solve the eerie murder of a Sir Arthur Baskerville on the moors of Dartmoor by an apparent fiendish hound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"This Side of Paradise" by F. Scott Fitzgerald
October 03, 2023 09:00 - 40 minutesIn F. Scott Fitzgerald's debut novel, published in 1920, he tells the story of Amory Blaine, a smart, attractive, ivy-league dropout with whom Fitzgerald makes observations about the greed and loneliness of the post WWI era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Loved One" by Evelyn Waugh
September 19, 2023 09:00 - 28 minutesThe Loved One tells the story of Dennis Barlow, a British ex-patriot living in Los Angeles and working at a funeral home for pets. Throughout the book, we see Dennis struggle to balance his reputation for the British community in Hollywood, the demands of his position, and the glitz and glamor of the film industry. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Around The World In 80 Days" by Jules Verne
September 05, 2023 09:00 - 32 minutesAround The World in 80 Days tells the story of Phileas Fogg, a London gentleman with meticulous habits, and his bet that he can circumnavigate the globe in 80 days or less. Accompanied by his loyal valet Passepartout, Fogg's whirlwind journey weaves a fantastical tale of heroics and adventure as they try to beat the clock back to London to cash in on his wager. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"The Picture Of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde
January 17, 2023 11:32 - 38 minutes'The Picture of Dorian Gray' is a story of a young, beautiful man named Dorian whose wish is granted his wish when his portrait ages on his behalf, but records his mistakes also. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"To The Lighthouse" by Virginia Woolf
January 03, 2023 10:00 - 34 minutes"To The Lighthouse" is a philosophical, introspective story about the Ramsay family, a large English family that visit their summer home in northeast Scotland. Through the lens of 3 separate trips to the family's Scottish estate, we examine the small joys and quiet tragedies of an everyday life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Sir Gawain & The Green Knight" by Gawain Poet
December 20, 2022 17:45 - 29 minutesThe famous Arthurian tale of Sir Gawain, nephew of King Arthur, who must travel to face his demise at the hands of the supernatural Green Knight. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Billy Budd" by Herman Mellville
December 06, 2022 10:00 - 29 minutes"Billy Budd" was Herman Melville's final novel, released 33 years posthumously. It tells the story of abeautiful, gregarious English sailor during the Napoleonic Wars who finds himself in conflict with his Master-at-arms. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Death Comes for the Archbishop" by Willa Cather
November 22, 2022 16:07 - 44 minutes"Death Comes for the Archbishop" tells a fictionalized version of the real-life story of Father Latour, the first Catholic Bishop of the newly acquired U.S. territory of New Mexico in the late nineteenth century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"It Can't Happen Here" by Sinclair Lewis
November 08, 2022 10:00 - 55 minutes"It Can't Happen Here" is Sinclair Lewis's prescient story of a fascist ruler coming to power in the United States in the 1930s. From the perspective of Doremus Jessup, a journalist in a small Vermont town, we see the effects of a totalitarian takeover unfold. Inspired by Nazi Germany and the rise of populism in his time, Lewis shows us that it in fact, it can happen here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie
October 25, 2022 09:00 - 47 minutesIn "And Then There Were None," a group of strangers are called to a remote island with hopes of treasure, employment and more, but are soon haunted by the mistakes of their past and a grim poem. Join host Frank Lavallo and readers Phil Setnik and Elizabeth Flood as they discuss all the gruesome details of Agatha Christie's classic mystery novel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"Dracula" by Bram Stoker
October 11, 2022 09:00 - 51 minutesDracula tells the story of the supernatural Count Dracula, a vampire who comes to haunt the English seaside town of Whitby. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Evergreen Podcasts presents Five Minute News
January 20, 2021 10:00 - 1 minuteEvergreen is proud to present Five Minute News hosted by Anthony Davis. Independent. Unbiased. Essential. Five minutes of verified and truthful world news, daily. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Season 7 Blooper Reel
December 22, 2020 10:00 - 4 minutesAnother epic outtake reel featuring Host, Frank Lavallo, and Readers, Elizabeth Flood, Phil Setnik, Peter Toomey & Katie Smith as they blunder and fumble during the making of Novel Conversations Season 7. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
"1984" by George Orwell
December 15, 2020 10:00 - 44 minutes1984 follows the life of Winston Smith, a low ranking member of ‘the Party’, who is frustrated by the omnipresent eyes of the party, and its ominous ruler, Big Brother. Orwell effectively explores the themes of mass media control, government surveillance, how a dictator can manipulate and control history, thoughts, and lives in such a way that no one can escape it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court” by Mark Twain
December 01, 2020 08:00 - 36 minutesOne of the greatest satires in American literature, Twain's novel shares how Hank Morgan, a skilled mechanic in a nineteenth-century New England arms factory, is struck on the head during a quarrel and awakens to find himself among the knights and magicians of King Arthur's Camelot. The 'Yankee' embarks on an ambitious plan to modernize Camelot. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy” by Laurence Sterne
November 17, 2020 08:00 - 34 minutesA novel published in nine volumes, this extraordinary work of literature details the accounts of the four comical mishaps which shaped the course of Tristram Shandy’s life from an early age. Tristram’s life story is nothing short of a strange, eccentric, endlessly complex masterpiece. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“The Tenth Man” by Graham Greene
November 03, 2020 08:00 - 37 minutesDuring World War II, a group of men are held prisoner by the Germans, who determine that three of them must die. This is the story of how one of those men trades his wealth for his life - and lives to pay for his act in utterly unexpected ways. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“The Sparrow” by Mary Doria Russell
October 20, 2020 07:00 - 32 minutesThe Sparrow tells the story of a charismatic Jesuit priest and linguist, Emilio Sandoz, who leads a scientific mission to an off-planet world, Rakhat, and the risky and courageous attempt to make first contact with intelligent extraterrestrial life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Advise and Consent” by Allen Drury
October 06, 2020 07:00 - 36 minutesAdvise and Consent is the dramatic 1959 political fiction novel that explores the United States Senate confirmation of controversial Secretary of State nominee Robert Leffingwell, whose promotion is endangered due to growing evidence that the nominee was a member of the Communist Party. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“The Time Machine” by H.G. Wells
September 22, 2020 07:00 - 44 minutesThe story that launched H.G. Wells’s successful career and earned him his reputation as the “Father of Science Fiction.” The Time Machine sends a brave explorer to face a future burdened with our greatest hopes… and our darkest fears. The discovery of two bizarre races, the Eloi and the Morlocks, offer a dystopian warning and / or a portrait of hope for the future of humanity. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury
September 08, 2020 07:00 - 40 minutesRay Bradbury’s famed novel is set in a dystopian society that burns books in order to control dangerous ideas and unhappy concepts. The novel tells the story of Guy Montag, a fireman who questions the book-burning policy and undergoes extraordinary suffering and transformation as a result. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Novel Conversations Season 6 Blooper Reel
June 30, 2020 07:00 - 4 minutesAnother epic outtake reel featuring Host, Frank Lavallo, and Readers, Elizabeth Flood, Phil Setnik, Peter Toomey & Katie Smith as they blunder and fumble during the making of Novel Conversations Season 6. Enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Till We Have Faces” by C. S. Lewis
June 16, 2020 09:00 - 33 minutesThe original story of Cupid and Psyche, told in the 2nd century AD, was believed by Lewis to be illogical and problematic. As a result, he developed a new story from a new main character’s point of view: Orual. She is the older sister to Psyche. Together, they grapple with Gods over spiritual disputes and bitter inner turmoil. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Mrs. Dalloway” by Virginia Woolf
June 02, 2020 09:00 - 37 minutesMrs. Dalloway covers one day from morning to night in one woman’s life. Clarissa Dalloway, an upper-class housewife, walks through her London neighborhood to prepare for the party she will host that evening. The celebrated classic looks at Virginia Woolf’s multitude of characters, from love interests, to party-goers, friends and philosophers, and explores the inter-war social structure of the time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“The Red Pony” by John Steinbeck
May 19, 2020 09:00 - 35 minutesRaised on a ranch in northern California, Jody is well-schooled in the hard work and the demands of a rancher's life. This four part novella centers around the special connection he will forge with his hot-tempered pony and discovering the life lessons he must learn about the ways of nature and, particularly, the ways of man. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Jude the Obscure” by Thomas Hardy
May 05, 2020 05:30 - 30 minutesThomas Hardy's last finished novel, Jude the Obscure, tells the story of Jude Fawley, a working-class man who dreams of becoming a scholar, and of his doomed relationships with the seductive Arabella Donn and the true love of his life, Sue Bridehead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“The Scarlet Letter” by Nathaniel Hawthorne
April 21, 2020 05:00 - 35 minutesSet in 17th century Puritan Massachusetts Bay Colony, the novel tells the story of Hester Prynne who conceives a daughter through an affair and then attempts to create a new life of dignity. Hester, her estranged lover, and the town itself, all struggle with morality, sin and guilt during a strict religious time period in American history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Slaughterhouse-Five” by Kurt Vonnegut
April 07, 2020 05:00 - 37 minutesSlaughterhouse-Five follows the life and experiences of Billy Pilgrim as he finds himself “unstuck in time”. The book is centered around his time as an American soldier during World War II, his capture by the German Army, and his survival of the Allied firebombing of Dresden as a prisoner-of-war - an experience which Vonnegut himself lived through as an American serviceman. Vonnegut offers a multi-dimensional view of fantasy and rock-hard reality. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megap...
“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” by Mark Twain
March 24, 2020 05:00 - 36 minutesThe story of Huck Finn is about a fun-loving risk-taker youth and his adventures on the Mississippi River with a runaway slave named Jim. A blossoming friendship ensues on their freedom seeking voyage and beyond. Huckleberry Finn is most commonly viewed as a satire of racism, religion, morality, and social attitudes of the time, making it Twain’s most notable work and one of the great American novels. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” by Mark Twain
March 10, 2020 05:00 - 34 minutesThis classic tale is about a youthful trickster, Tom Sawyer and his adventures in the antebellum south. From treasure hunting and playing pirates to church pranks and schoolhouse crushes, Tom Sawyer’s childish antics make him Twain’s standout character. Although his mischief starts out as mere entertainment, it soon turns into danger as he and his band of friends, witness a murder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Novel Conversations Season 5 Blooper Reel
August 27, 2019 17:27 - 3 minutesEnjoy this “irrevocably” humorous compilation of outtakes featuring amusing mistakes and mishaps from Host, Frank Lavallo and Readers: Elizabeth Flood, Phil Setnik, Peter Toomey, & Katie Smith, which occurred during the making of Season 5 of the Novel Conversations Podcast. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley
August 20, 2019 14:45 - 36 minutesThis early 19th century novel tells the story of Victor Frankenstein, a young scientist who creates a hideous creature in an unorthodox scientific experiment. Unbeknownst to the obsessed scientist, the creature is intelligent and longs for a mate. Tormented by isolation and loneliness, the once-innocent creature turns to evil and unleashes a campaign of murderous revenge against his creator, Frankenstein. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Parnassus on Wheels” by Christopher Morley
August 13, 2019 06:00 - 32 minutesThis old-fashioned, sweet novella is about Helen, a governess turned adventurer, who hops on a traveling book-selling wagon as a way to escape the monotony of farm-life. Her brother, Andrew, unexpectedly becomes a celebrity author and leaves Helen chained to chores… until Roger Mifflin shows up with Parnasuss on Wheels and offers her a thrilling life on the road selling books and beyond. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc” by Mark Twain
August 06, 2019 06:00 - 42 minutesTwain's last completed novel, published when he was 61 years old, recounts the life of Joan of Arc through a fictional character (invented by Mark Twain) - The Sieur Louis de Conte. Joan of Arc, at the age of seventeen, fights for French independence from the English in the 15th century under Charles VII. Louis accompanies Joan as her secretary through the battles and witnesses her trial and execution at the hands of the English. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“White Fang” by Jack London
July 30, 2019 06:30 - 35 minutesPlot: This adventure story details White Fang's journey to domestication in Yukon Territory and the Northwest Territories during the 1890s Klondike Gold Rush. The young pup, who is part wolf and part dog, struggles to survive after he is separated from his mother. White Fang eventually finds his life in the hands of a young gold hunter, Weedon Scott, who purchases the pup and attempts to tame him. After a long, patient effort, Scott succeeds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone....
“Main Street” by Sinclair Lewis
July 23, 2019 06:30 - 40 minutesPlot: Main Street relates to the life and struggles of Carol Milford Kennicott in the provincial town of Gopher Prairie, Minnesota, as she comes into conflict with the small-town mentality of its residents. She moves to the town with dreams of transforming it into a sort of modern utopia. But there's just one problem... everyone else in Gopher Prairie likes the ugly old town just the way it is. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Candide” by Voltaire
July 16, 2019 07:30 - 36 minutesPlot: Candide, a simple man, is thrust into a world of chaos as he experiences the horrors of war, poverty, the maliciousness of man, and the hypocrisy of the church. His tutor, Doctor Pangloss, attempts to teach him philosophical optimism, that “... All is for the best.” Candide begins to doubt the veracity of Pangloss' theories and soon finds the best of both worlds. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
“Madame Bovary” by Gustave Flaubert
July 09, 2019 07:30 - 33 minutesPlot: In nineteenth-century France, the daughter of a country squire Emma, marries a dull country doctor, Charles Bovary. To escape boredom, she throws herself into love affairs and runs up ruinous debts. As she finds some excitement attending balls, operas, and socializing with the upper echelons of French society, Madame Bovary - as expected - finds she cannot escape the doldrums of a passionless marriage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices