Classics Read Aloud

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Stetson“Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good.”I had the explosively beautiful Spring chapter of “Jean Gourdon’s Four Days” by Émile Zola all teed up for this week’s reading. Alas, as the temperatures hover in the 30s in my world, and the wind howls, and the rain feels a touch too icy to be properly called rain, I just can’t bring myself to publish it. The vibrance of Zola’s spring imagery deserves better. It deserves May (I hope!).With the grey cold overstaying its welcome, one can start to feel a little unsettled…a little crazed by another day of the same shivers and the many layers donned. Rather than fight it, I’m going to lean in with a rather unusual story.Charlotte Perkins Stetson’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” snares us into the psyche of a woman retreating to a country home with her family so that she may recover the steadiness of her mind. Through Stetson’s masterful narration, we witness the narrator disappear and reappear on the spectrum of sanity, as she is kept almost entirely isolated in one room in the spirit of getting well. As we see so often in our own therapy-speak-laden culture, focusing on the restlessness of the mind to the avoidance of the work of living is destined to backfire.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting “et cetera” tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

The End of the World: A Vision by James Kirke Paulding“In the course of my wanderings, methought I encountered the celebrated Fire-King, who was sitting at home, quietly smoking his cigar, and calculating that being the destined survivor of all his race, he would succeed to an immense landed estate, and become lord proprietor of the whole earth.”In the early months of 1843, a wave of Judgement Day fanaticism swept across the East Coast of the United States. Building on a close inspection of biblical texts, a lay preacher and farmer named William Miller had predicted that the end of the world would arrive sometime between March 21st, 1843, and March 21st, 1844. Miller began working on his theory in the early 1820s, and in 1831, he was asked to fill in at the pulpit of the Baptist church in Dresden, New York. Miller used his time centerstage to share his beliefs for the first time publicly. The Dresden congregation was mesmerized, Miller was invited by neighboring parishes to spread the word, and Millerism was born.By 1840, the Millerite flock had grown beyond the proportions of obscurity. Thousands would come to hear Miller speak, and all manner of unfortunate events were being pinned on the movement, a sure sign of having “made it.” By the time it reached Philadelphia, the opening date of Miller’s prediction loomed large, and all that was left was to laugh.Laugh is exactly what penny papers like the Public Ledger did. James Kirke Paulding’s satirical piece, “The End of the World: A Vision,” published among those pages in 1843, contains the withering observations of a man bearing witness to the last day of the world, April 1st. Granted a reprieve from the screaming heat by some unnamed deal with the devil, our narrator perambulates from place to place, recording his field notes for our amusement of all the many human reactions to the world melting down in judgement.The world Paulding describes is due for a reset, a stage decline confirmed by the realization that none of the inhabitants seems to be anticipating ascension in their direction of travel.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting “et cetera” tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

“And so it appears that all these five blocks of buildings are at work, and inferior cotton is sold in the Eastern markets, simply that Christina Dmitryevna may eat sterlet and drink Madeira.”In 1890, Anton Chekhov made what was surely an uncomfortable six-week journey across Siberia. His destination: Sakhalin Island, a penal colony established by imperial Russia to house criminals and political prisoners. For reasons not entirely understood, Chekhov, a medical doctor by day and prolific writer by night, set out to rigorously document the squalor and depravity of the conditions to which the prisoners were subjected.Why might a talented young man decide to do such a thing? Chekhov had a deep sensitivity to the plight of humankind and was compelled to treat it and bring it into the public consciousness. This wiring led him to create detailed studies, in situ, of nearly 10,000 prisoners who lived among such an infestation of bugs and cockroaches, “that the walls and ceilings seemed to be covered in funeral crape, moving as if in a wind.” It also inspired dozens and dozens of insightful short stories that are heavy on pathos and short on sentimentality. His hit rate is truly remarkable.Today’s story, “A Doctor’s Visit,” takes us not to the vast loneliness of Siberia but to an industrial town outside Moscow where a young doctor has been called to examine the daughter and heiress of the area’s primary factory complex. What he finds is an intelligent woman who has, through the din of the machinery and the despondent lives of the factory workers, fallen into an ambiguous state of existential despair.Chekhov, the doctor-writer, deftly diagnoses the ailment, but he does not leave it untreated. By the end of this sensitive narrative, the “larks [are] trilling and the church bells [are] pealing” once again.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting “et cetera” tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

“Four little chests all in a row,Dim with dust, and worn by time,Four women, taught by weal and woe,To love and labor in their prime.”Louisa May Alcott’s bestseller, Little Women, has been a cherished favorite of readers young and old, rich and poor, optimistic and cynical. The only dichotomy that may not be confidently claimed is male and female. Perhaps we’ll break the mold with this reading, given the largely male proportion of Classics Read Aloud subscribers. I do hope so, for Alcott’s sincere tale of deep, hearty familial love and loyalty can be a tonic for any human soul… and I suspect perhaps men could relate to Alcott more than they might realize. Her driving sense of responsibility to provide for her family, sacrificing her own preferences, made her, in a sense, a pragmatic and tireless rower of her family’s canoe.Alcott was the second daughter of four, born to parents of respected lineage and obvious intellect. While not of high society, it was a hardworking family defined by dignity and civic duty. As Ednah D. Cheney remarks in Louisa May Alcott: Her Life, Letters, and Journals, “…the uncommon powers of mind and heart that distinguished her were not accidental, but the accumulated result of the lives of generations of strong and noble men and women. She was well born.”The labors of those prior generations, paired with her upbringing on a diet of clear and confident moral certitude, practically glow from the pages of her most popular work. Readers at any phase of life can find among the comings and goings of the four March sisters, guided by the sagacious counsel of Marmee and Papa March, just the right perspective for facing life’s quandaries with grace and grit. Their lifestyle is so foreign to today’s culture that it can easily be written off as idealistic and pat; however, even the most superficial perusal of Alcott’s letters and those of her family members would quickly contradict such a conclusion. The work was one of realism, born of her own family life.Alcott’s success with the book rather took her by surprise, as she had grudgingly brought it to fruition at the request, repeated many times over until forced to ultimatum, of her publisher, Thomas Niles. At the time, Alcott’s father Bronson was trying to publish a manuscript of philosophical writings. Niles made Alcott’s submission of “a girls’ story” the condition for moving ahead with Bronson’s work. Well, in the words of a woman who cherished her father and his work, “that settled it,” and home libraries around the world are the better for it.Please enjoy… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

“I would prefer not to.”Today, Moby-Dick is regarded as one of the greatest novels in American history and a towering achievement for its author, Herman Melville. Not so when it was first published: Sales were poor, and those who read it mostly had no idea what to do with it. His subsequent novel, Pierre, fared no better.“Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall-Street” was an attempt to turn the tide on a disappointing run. Seeking commercial justification for his writing and needing to claw himself out of debt to his publishers, Melville geared the tale for magazine publication in two parts. Perhaps contrary to purpose, Melville’s perspective on Wall Street was hardly full of the type of speculative intrigue that might entice the attention—and dollars—of fly-by-night audiences. Only much later did the work emerge as a masterpiece, appreciated for its allegorical subtlety, its engaging absurdity, and that oh-so-confounding five-word phrase that one never forgets.[Insert Not to be Reproduced | René Magritte, 1937]Amid the hustle and bustle of Wall Street, the titular character stands out for his apparent apathy—he is the antithesis of ambition and industry, “one of those beings of whom nothing is ascertainable.” The attention he draws to himself is far from positive, and the reactions of those who have to deal with his infuriating indifference are both comic and painful. What is one to do?In the end, “Bartleby the Scrivener” was unable to deliver Melville from hardship or contemporary irrelevancy. How could it? After all, the story reflects Melville’s pointed rejection of lowering himself to the sensationalism he believed necessary for commercial acclaim. He would, it seems, have preferred not to.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting “et cetera” tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

“Most philosophers must have been raised on chicken farms.”Depending on who you ask, Sherwood Anderson is either a genius who ushered in a new era of American storytelling or the unfortunate progenitor of utterly forgettable prose. It’s a little like the age-old chicken-and-egg question… it probably can’t be both.Perhaps the divide rests on what one expects from a story. Anderson’s work was born of a life spent in the American Midwest watching small towns fail and family hopes turn into humiliation. But that doesn’t mean his stories were just a drag. The brevity of his perspective and many years in advertising lend a dry humor to his writing that keeps us from getting sucked into the mire. His stories could very well be considered character studies rather than plot-driven escapades.As Anderson himself stated in 1921, “Perhaps because of a native laziness, I found myself unable to think up plots. To try to do so bored me unspeakably. On the other hand, there were all about me human beings living their lives, and in the process of doing so creating drama… I have tried to clutch at it and reproduce in writing some of that drama…”Human beings, living their lives; we are endlessly fascinating creatures, especially in the hands of a writer who sees both sides of those everyday dramas: the up and the down, the tragic and the comic, the chicken and the egg.Anderson’s story “The Egg” gives us a concentrated dose of three such humans, a mother, a father, and their son, as they try, earnestly and often, to pursue “the American passion for getting up in the world.”Please enjoy…Before you float off to enjoy the story, please help me reach my goal of 10,000 listeners by “♡ Liking” this post and sending it to friends, family, book club, wine club, golf foursome, and stitching group—word of mouth is more powerful than any algorithm. Thank you!Listening: “Where would we be without wishful thinking?...“ croons Jeff Tweedy on Wilco’s 2004 album, A Ghost is Born. Based in Chicago, Wilco, like Anderson, specialized in recording the lives unfolding in the US Midwest. Described as an ambitious album full of self-indulgent contrasts, A Ghost is Born is home to a number of memorable titles, particularly on the back half. Tune it to track five, “Hummingbird,” and let it run.Scrambling: My youngest has long held a penchant for the “What’s your favorite…” style of question. What’s your favorite song? What’s your favorite place to visit? And, my favorite of the favorite game: What’s your favorite food?The egg, of course. Is there anything more perfectly versatile?Last week, I shared one of my favorite eggs-for-dinner recipes, so today, I thought I’d catalogue my growing list of practical ways to handle the almighty egg. I welcome your additions.* Buy unwashed farm eggs. The flavor and nutritional profile are far superior to anything in the big grocery coolers, and they’ll last months in the fridge.* The most reliable way to crack an egg is to give it a solid thunk against the counter.* Check if an egg is still good by gently submerging it in a glass of water. If it stays at the bottom, even if it stands up a bit, you’re all good.* Whether frying, scrambling, or omelette-ing, the most common source of frustration stems from not letting the pan get hot enough. A seriously satisfactory preheat makes a world of difference and all but eliminates the need to clean the pan with anything more intensive than wiping it out with a paper towel.* A tablespoon of white vinegar added to a pan of simmering water aids a perfect poach. Simply swirl the water with a soup spoon, round and round, then drop in a raw egg.* Emulsify a yolk into a soup base for a supreme richness.* The easiest way to separate the yolk from the whites is to use your hands. Turn out a cracked egg into your fingers and let the whites naturally drip off into one bowl, leaving a clean yolk to put in another.* Separated egg whites last forever in the fridge. What to do with them? Skip the egg-white omelette and learn the simple Italian meringue for a showstopper dessert topping.* Skip the egg wash on pastry crust. A thin layer of heavy cream brushed on the raw dough is quicker and yields a prettier result.“Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, 1853Little Women, An Excerpt, by Louisa May Alcott, 1868“A Doctor’s Visit” by Anton Chekhov, 1898 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

“He was not really disappointed to find Paris was so empty. But the stillness in the Ritz bar was strange and portentous. It was not an American bar any more—he felt polite in it, and not as if he owned it. It had gone back to France.”Every so often, youthful American audiences are treated to a “voice of their generation,” and in the Jazz Age, that voice was F. Scott Fitzgerald’s. In 1918, Fitzgerald wrote in a letter, “I know I’ll wake up some morning and find the debutantes have made me famous overnight.” Two years later, with the publication of his novel This Side of Paradise, his expectations became reality.Rather instantly, Fitzgerald was showered with money and attention—all the trappings of celebrity and success enjoyed by those who so perfectly capture the zeitgeist of their time. The last writer I recall being heralded as the voice of the generation was Lena Dunham… fifteen years ago, perhaps? Time flies, and she wasn’t my generation, so I didn’t recognize the voice. I have since stopped paying attention, and I wonder if today’s generation can possibly contain a voice true enough to resonate over the devouring hum of rapid-fire TikTok videos.I digress.Fitzgerald had his glorious days in the sun—too many, and he eventually let himself get burned. This was the roaring twenties. Having spent ghastly sums on a fast-and-loose lifestyle of booze and high society, Fitzgerald eventually found himself a debt-laden alcoholic. His time as Icarus was hardly unique; many were left gasping for second chances.“Babylon Revisited” is the story of Charlie Wales, one of the poor gasping souls. We find him returning to Paris after the dust of his debauchery has settled, looking to rebuild a life on solid footing. The city has changed, he has changed, but as we all well know, change alone often isn’t enough to erase the damage of the past.Please enjoy…Before you float off to enjoy the story, please help Classics Read Aloud grow by “♡ Liking” this post and sending it to a friend—word of mouth is more powerful than any algorithm. Thank you!Savoring: A story like this demands a repast with a hint of repentance. M. F. K. Fisher wrote How to Cook a Wolf in 1942 to inspire home cooks limited by the wartime shortages imposed on their pantries. Fisher is irreverent and indulgent; the book is a treat for anyone who enjoys the art of the practical, fortifying family meal. Her dish “Eggs in Hell” is simmering, rich, economical, and far more delicious than anyone repenting has any right to deserve.Listening: Life is full of transitions, some smooth, some, like Charlie’s, jarring. February is a month that begs for transition. Tired of winter, tired of grey, I’m all too aware that the hints of spring remain quite out of grasp. I’m gravitating towards the instrumental albums in my collection that offer their own hints of life; something a little jazzy, something with a provocative, ambient vocal pleasantly interjecting here and there. Transit, the 2019 album from FloFilz has been in steady rotation, breathing a bit of life into this purgatorial season.“The Egg” by Sherwood Anderson, 1921“Bartleby the Scrivener” by Herman Melville, 1853Little Women, An Excerpt, by Louisa May Alcott, 186 This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

“Through the wide doors of the sheds she caught a glimpse of the black mass of the boat, lying in beside the quay wall, with illumined portholes. She answered nothing. She felt her cheek pale and cold and, out of a maze of distress, she prayed to God to direct her, to show her what was her duty.”In the early 1900s, James Joyce set out to capture Irish life as he saw it, which wasn’t a particularly encouraging view. The resulting collection of short stories, Dubliners, was published in 1904, overcoming initial protests over its publication due to the indecency of its controversial tone. Comprising fifteen stories grouped into four stages—childhood (I published a reading of “Araby” from this grouping September of 2025), adolescence, maturity, and finally public life—Dubliners delivers powerful glimpses into the frictions of everyday life,. The final story, and his most famous of the set, “The Dead,” is a culmination of all these themes.Joyce began writing these stories as he was attending medical school in Dublin, and his studies greatly affected the tone and purpose of Dubliners. At the time, he spoke often of the tepid lifeforce of his countrymen in specifically medical terms. As scholar Florence L. Walzl observed, Joyce “concluded that Ireland was sick, and diagnosed its psychological malady as hemiplegia, a partial, unilateral paralysis. He told his brother, ‘What’s the matter with you is that you’re afraid to live. You and people like you. This city is suffering from hemiplegia of the will.’”Today’s story, “Eveline,” is from the adolescence phase. In it, a young woman is on the precipice of a life-altering move away from her dour life of servitude under an abusive father and towards open possibility in another country with a man who loves her. One gets the sense that, while Joyce conjures up the reader’s deep sympathy with Eveline’s ultimate impotence, he doesn’t care to join us in it but would rather rebel against the suspension of will that inspired it—a masterful achievement in so few words.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting “et cetera” tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

“Mathilde suffered ceaselessly, feeling herself born to enjoy all delicacies and all luxuries.”Guy de Maupassant was like a flash of lightening on the literary scene. He had a short life and a shorter writing career that left a slowly fading echo of light in the night sky. As Maupassant himself acknowledged, “I entered the literary life like a meteor and I will come out like a love at first sight.”Love at first sight, in Maupassant’s world, comes to a lonely, regrettable end.In his ten intense years of writing, the author created over 300 short stories and six novels, among a number of other creative pursuits. Maupassant called himself a naturalist and pressed beauty right up against pain and suffering in stories that quickly won the fawning attention of readers who were ready for a radical departure from the romanticism that reigned in the first half of the 19th-century.Friend and fellow naturalist Emile Zola called Maupassant “the happiest and unhappiest of men.” It is easy to see this deportment take shape in a story like “The Necklace,” in which a beautiful woman, desperate for a beautiful life, is served a slice of her soul’s desire only for it to digest into years of penance and misery.“The Necklace” remains one of Maupassant’s best-known works, and we can surely appreciate why once we experience the painful twist of his ending.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting “et cetera” tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Paste by Henry James“She had laid the pearls on his table, where, without his having at first put so much as a finger to them, they met his hard, cold stare.”There is something about the writing style of Henry James that can leave one with the impression that his work exists in the service of the hoi polloi; that his work is snobbish and unrelatable. Respected biographer Carl Van Doren once referred to him as the “laureate of leisure,” and there is surely something rather gilded about many of the narrative backdrops he creates.Alas, if such a notion has prevented you from delving into James’ work, allow me to open the door to a different view with a reading of “Paste,” a short story published in 1899. Modeled after Guy de Maupassant’s story “The Necklace,” James complimented the younger author by adopting a similar theme, albeit turned upside down. In “Paste,” a woman of modest means is gifted a necklace from the estate of her recently deceased aunt. The aunt was the wife of a pastor, living a rather humble life, and the stepson who gives the necklace expresses his belief that it is “worthless paste” but that some sentimental value may be appreciated from its possession.As the story unfolds, the origin and value of the necklace are called into question, and the stakes rise. With “Paste,” James creates a tension directly from the characters’ lack of leisure—there is no one in the story for whom resolution is immaterial. In an incredible efficiency of plot development, he puts the psychology of the situation front and center.I’ll be publishing a reading of de Maupassant’s “The Necklace” next week, so stay tuned for that release and decide for yourself if James’ reinterpretation is an improvement on the original.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting “et cetera” tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

The Hounds of Fate by Saki (H. H. Munro)“Three pounds goes but a little way in the world when there is nothing behind it, but to a man who has counted his exchequer in pennies it seems a good starting-point.”Hector Hugh Munro had an eye for irony and the humbling tricks that the universe is inclined to play upon its fallible occupants. One gets the sense in reading “The Hounds of Fate” that the story is less about the circumstances that befall this particular man, but rather that there are a million inevitabilities unfolding at any given time, and we’ve simply been handed a microscope to observe this one.Born in British-ruled Burma (now Myanmar) in 1870 and left motherless at the age of two, Munro was sent back to England to be raised by two “strict and puritanical aunts.” This twist of fate is one he never fully recovered from and continued to include snarled, grim, loveless aunts as characters in many of his stories.Writing short stories that hone in on life’s absurdities and cruelties, Munro adopted the pen name Saki, allegedly borrowed from a 12th-century Persian poem, Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. In it, “The Eternal Saki” is the cup-bearer or Minister of Wine that fills the cups of existence, comparing all of humanity to the “millions of bubbles” unceasingly poured:‘Tis but a Tent where takes his one day’s restA Sultan to the realm of Death addrest;The Sultan rises, and the dark FerrashStrikes, and prepares it for another Guest.And fear not lest Existence closing yourAccount, and mine, should know the like no more;The Eternal Saki from that Bowl has pour’dMillions of Bubbles like us, and will pour.Was this a signal from Munro that the reader should not take his stories too tragically—that the universe is infinite in its creation and destruction? Is he aligning with the poem’s thrust that life is precious, but none particularly so? Is his stance one of acceptance or rejection? Or, is here merely entertaining, himself as much as us?These are fascinating questions to consider as you listen to this poignant story unfold.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting “et cetera” tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Peter Pan, An Excerpt, by J. M. BarrieI was inspired to pick up Peter Pan after reading “What I Learned from Reading Peter Pan to my Children” last year, a most excellent essay from Henry Oliver at The Common Reader. Oliver does a brilliant job reminding us that, beyond the familiar nostalgia associated with the story of “the boy that never grows up,” Peter Pan is a tale that cherishes the intricate temporality of childhood and the nourishing inevitability of motherhood: “What wins out in this story is not the pleasure of Neverland, but the certainty of a mother’s love. The true, original title is Peter and Wendy, and she is our real hero.”What mother wouldn’t be called to reread such a tribute?Truth be told, I’m not sure that this wasn’t my first reading of J. M. Barrie’s masterful tale. It is quite possible that I only saw plays and, of course, the Disney animated version, in my youth. Even more unfortunate, I never read it to my own children…ah, to go back in time!As with my rereading last year of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, I enjoyed this dive back into “children’s” literature immensely. There is such a dearth of wholesome imagination in contemporary children’s entertainment that it is a great pleasure to examine some of the weightier topics (existence, duty, and our place in the world) with writers like Barrie and Carroll, who respectfully traverse that blurry space between the real and the imaginary.I have plucked an excerpt from early in the book—Chapter 4, The Flight—which picks up just as the Darling children have launched into the night air, destined for the beckoning Neverland (“…the island was looking for them. It is only thus that any one may sight those magic shores”). It is in this chapter that Wendy digests the limitations of Peter’s character and the risks it presents to her brood, initiating a motherly care, both charming in its naiveté and earnest in its delivery, that develops throughout the rest of the book.I hope this chapter inspires you to revisit the original, cover to cover.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting “et cetera” tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

"Leave It to Jeeves" by P. G. Wodehouse“’Sir?’ said Jeeves, kind of manifesting himself. One of the rummy things about Jeeves is that, unless you watch like a hawk, you very seldom see him come into a room. He’s like one of those weird chappies in India who dissolve themselves into thin air and nip through space in a sort of disembodied way and assemble the parts again just where they want them.”If you have never experienced a Bertie & Jeeves story firsthand, you are in for a treat. This is comedy, pure and simple. Pelham Grenville (P. G.) Wodehouse did not set out to make satire or social commentary, nor was he concerned with wisdom or subversion. Wodehouse was an entertainer, and he conducted himself in the elevation of this artform with such finesse that we can hardly appreciate the difficulty as we consume it. As he humbly confessed in a 1961 interview, “I haven’t got any violent feelings about anything, I just love writing.”And, oh, to be loved by Wodehouse, what decadence is bestowed. The author churned out stories of this yin-and-yang pair over nearly 60 years, bringing together the sensibilities of both his inherited English culture and his adopted American one. Bertie, the English gentleman through whose eyes we see the world, is a sort of vapid, bumbling man-about-town. His style of speech is “a blend of [English] clichés, public schoolboys’ tags, and upper-class slang, curiously enriched by a good deal of postwar American slang.” A swell chappie with a social life that is positively brimming and a Rolodex of calls that are always answered.Meanwhile, Jeeves, Bertie’s butler, is the very picture of refined deportment; judicious in taste, behavior, and intellect. He is a reliable foil to poor Bertie, and the pair are simply topping. While Bertie’s idiocy gives necessary credence to the ridiculous situations introduced by the cast of characters parading in and out of each episode, it is Jeeves that eventually stole the show—Wodehouse called upon him for more and more stage time as the years progressed.Today’s reading is of “Leave It to Jeeves,” the very first fully developed Bertie & Jeeves story published. Wodehouse hits right off the bat with Jeeves advising Bertie, in his own insistent way, against the error of donning a checkered suit in the modern style (“Injudicious, sir.”). With wardrobe decided, Bertie and Jeeves are thrown into helping Bertie’s pal Corky, a destitute would-be portrait painter, convince Corky’s uncle (and importantly, his only source of income) to accept his marriage to a chorus girl, the aptly named Miss Singer. (“Muriel Singer was one of those very quiet, appealing girls who have a way of looking at you with their big eyes as if they thought you were the greatest thing on earth and wondered that you hadn’t got on to it yet yourself…. What I mean is, she made me feel alert and dashing, like a jolly old knight-errant or something of that kind. I felt that I was with her in this thing to the limit.”)It’s jolly good fun.Whether you’re having a bad day, are stuck in bed with the flu, or are in a literary rut, some time in Wodehouse’s world may be just the ticket. His characters are winningly simple, the stereotypes hysterically on-point, and the plotlines unapologetically frothy. It takes great talent to have created such an effect and maintained it over so many years; the result of true love, clearly.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting “et cetera” tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

To Build a Fire by Jack London“At the man’s heels trotted a dog...The animal was depressed by the tremendous cold. It knew that it was no time for travelling. Its instinct told it a truer tale than was told to the man by the man’s judgment.”Over at Doomberg, where we write about energy as the lynchpin to humanity’s ability to not only survive but thrive (“Energy is Life”), we have often highlighted the concept of “thermal comfort”—the narrow band of temperature conditions in which human life can sustain. It is easy to take such a concept for granted in a world where even the most basic of new cars includes a heated steering wheel and a pair of heated seats. Nonetheless, while human beings are quite hearty in many respects, temperature matters, and exposure to extreme cold has been the death knell to many fingers, toes, and lives.Enter Jack London. London is famous for his narrative work exploring the great north and was an experienced outdoorsman himself, having joined the 100,000 prospectors heading into the frigid wilderness during the Gold Rush of the late 1800s. It was here that he battled the most extreme elements that Mother Nature had to offer, hauling a year’s worth of food and equipment up the viciously steep Chilkoot Pass, into the Yukon, on his way to Dawson City. Temperatures in the region could reach as low as 70 degrees below zero Fahrenheit, and a man’s spittle would freeze midair. Only a fraction of those attempting the journey, all desperate to mine their way to fortune, survived. London’s stories strike so powerfully because he lived them.“To Build a Fire” follows an unnamed prospector making his way on a similar path. He has separated from the rest of his group, taking a circuitous route to scope out some logging potential for the coming spring. On this simple, quick trip—“he would certainly be with the boys by six”—he is accompanied by his dog, a beast driven by the strong signals flaring in its instinctual core, unclouded by mankind’s hubris.This is a visceral anthem to the supremacy of Mother Nature that you won’t soon forget.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting “et cetera” tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

The Snow Queen by Hans Christian AndersenWith today’s reading, I’d like to focus your attention on Andersen’s dazzling imagery. This adventurous tale is a treat for our senses and creative instincts.Andersen, naturally, opens by setting the stage with an enchanted challenge that must be overcome. One day, devilish sprites create a mirror whose every reflection is a twisted and frightful distortion. They revel in their mischievous creation, flying up into the air with delight. “The higher they flew with the mirror, the more terribly it grinned.”The sprite’s antics end with a crash as the mirror slips from their control and is dashed into “a hundred million and more pieces” that wreak havoc far and wide.Two splinters of mirror find their way into the heart and eye of a little boy named Kay. He and his dear friend, Gerda, live beside each other—“They were not brother and sister; but they cared for each other as if they were”—and meet often on the roof between the two garrets where “the tendrils of the peas hung down over the boxes; and the rose-trees shot up long branches, twined round the windows, and then bent toward each other; it was almost like a triumphant arch of foliage and flowers.”With two sharp pains, the lodged shards afflict Kay. He rejects all that is good and pure, including Gerda, and is soon taken captive by the powerful Snow Queen, whose kiss “was colder than ice; it penetrated to his very heart.” In his mirror-twisted vision, it is she who becomes beautiful and clever to him.“On they flew over woods and lakes, over seas, and many lands; and beneath them the chilling storm rushed fast, the wolves howled, the snow crackled; above them flew large screaming crows, but higher up appeared the moon, quite large and bright; and it was on it that Kay gazed during the long long winter’s night; while by day he slept at the feet of the Snow Queen.”Little Gerda, full of innocence and determined dedication to her friend, strikes out to find him amidst the vast unknown, leaving behind everything she knows. All manner of fauna and flora awakens to her goodness—“…when her warm tears watered the ground, the tree shot up suddenly as fresh and blooming as when it had been swallowed up”—and royal chambers open to her solicitation—“The ceiling of the room resembled a large palm-tree with leaves of glass, of costly glass; and in the middle, from a thick golden stem, hung two beds, each of which resembled a lily. One was white, and in this lay the Princess; the other was red, and it was here that Gerda was to look for little Kay.”The fearless Gerda makes her way, mile by mile, from the cherished gardens of her hometown through the frozen great North to rescue Kay, buoyed always by her earnestness and purpose—“’I can give her no more power than what she has already. Don’t you see how great it is? Don’t you see how men and animals are forced to serve her; how well she gets through the world barefooted?’”This is just a small taste of the banquet laid on Andersen’s narrative table. Surely, Andersen’s story has influenced many a modern cinematic tale, but none capture the glory of that which exists in our mind’s eye, as guided by his words. His expressive scenes breathe life into the many dichotomies suggested in this tale that pits good against evil and logic against faith.Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Christmas on the Roof of the World by Ernest Hemingway“Chink knocked at the door.“‘Merry Christmas, mes enfants,’ he grinned. He wore the early morning garb of big, woolly dressing-robe and thick socks that made us all look like some monastic order.”It is Christmas morning, and, as this reading arrives in your inbox, I will be gathered in the family room with my brood, each in our robes and thick socks, performing the time-honored ritual of gift-giving and hug-receiving. The coffee is brewed, the fireplace is roaring, and the tree is casting an other-worldly glow that will shine forever in our memories.Should you have 11 minutes for a charming diversion today, perhaps as the egg casserole bakes or while getting spruced up for dinner, I have something well off the beaten path from a familiar name. In “Christmas on the Roof of the World,” Ernest Hemingway shares his diary of a Christmas spent skiing in the Swiss Alps. It beautifully captures the ephemeral freshness—the comfort and joy—of this special day.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting “et cetera” tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, 1843In December of 1843, Charles Dickens gave fresh life and tradition to the celebration of Christmas. The first print of his cherished novel, A Christmas Carol, sold out in a mere five days, and its popularity has continued at a fevered pitch for nearly two centuries.While there are interpretations and adaptations of his work at every turn, there is no substitute for soaking in the words of the original: the mouthwatering foodstuffs, the magical bells, the mirthful Fezziwigs, the inimitable Scrooge, and the many humble scenes awakening Scrooge’s humanity down to his very marrow.Of all the entertainments bombarding you this holiday, there isn’t a more worthy one on offer to delight, nourish, and bind your family to the spirit of the season. To borrow a turn of the author’s, if that’s not high praise, tell me higher, and I’ll use it.I relish in reading this story aloud, just as Dickens himself did, giving hundreds of performances across Britain and America over several decades. The whole endeavor exhausted him, but he took immense pleasure in bringing his characters to life for packed auditoriums, continually revising the text to maximum impact in such settings.I am grateful to have had two of my loved ones joining me “on stage” to bring this cast of characters to life and can understand what must have drawn Dickens to the art of live readings…suffice it to say we are already excited to sharpen our characters for another go at it next year!Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry“And here I have lamely related to you the uneventful chronicle of two foolish children in a flat who most unwisely sacrificed for each other the greatest treasures of their house...Everywhere they are the wisest. They are the magi.”Humans are complex beings. We contain multitudes, as Walt Whitman wisely said; some, indeed, more than others.O. Henry was born William Sydney Porter in September of 1862. His pen name is a familiar one to this day, attributable to his enviable flourish with the pen and imagination. But it is, ironically, because his real name was so well-known that he adopted the pseudonym in the first place.In 1894, Porter launched The Rolling Stone, a weekly humor publication that gained robust public interest, circulating to nearly 10% of residents in its hometown of Austin, Texas. Publishing turned out to be too tough a business, and The Rolling Stone was shuttered after only a year in print.Meanwhile, Porter made ends meet by working as a teller at the First National Bank of Austin. Far from developing a hum-drum career there, Porter was arrested in February of 1896 for embezzlement. It is reported that this was perhaps the result of some technical error; however, Porter foolishly fled the state, eventually ending up in Honduras. Compelled to return to the US to support his wife during a terminal illness, he was arrested, convicted, and spent 3 years in an Ohio jail.Suffice it to say, “imprisoned for fraud” doesn’t serve as a winning backdrop for an author publishing stories as sweetly sentimental as “The Gift of the Magi.” And thus, O. Henry was born (in jail, no less!).This jail baby made great use of his grey matter, churning out volumes of entertaining short stories. It turns out that Porter possessed one of the most valuable tools for any author: an unending fascination with people. “The Gift of the Magi” was first published in 1905 in The New York Sunday World, and was later included in his 1906 collection Four Million Stories. Why four million? That was the population of New York at the time, where Porter whiled away his days writing and drinking at the long, rosewood bar of Healy’s Café, perched at the corner of East 18th Street and Irving Place. He believed each one of those New Yorkers carried a story worth telling.Today’s reading, the story of a young married couple struggling to demonstrate their adoration at Christmas despite their meager means, is one such worthy glimpse. It has become one of the most beloved tales of the Christmas season.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

"Quality" by John Galsworthy“Then, placing my foot on a piece of paper, he would two or three times tickle the outer edges with a pencil and pass his nervous fingers over my toes, feeling himself into the heart of my requirements.”One hesitates to draw too many conclusions about the personality of an author based solely on his or her written work. That said, I was hardly surprised in my research to find John Galsworthy described as a quiet intellectual, somewhat aloof and reserved. It seemed to me only natural that someone inclined to introspection would write a story like “Quality,” which patiently burrows into the modest but artful industriousness of a cobbler’s shop, like a mouse burrowing into the toe of a shoe.John Galsworthy began writing in the 1890s after meeting Joseph Conrad, with whom he developed a long and mutually supportive friendship. Having been in the midst of a budding legal career, this allowed him to continue working pen-to-paper and simply alter the objective of the output. He nonetheless wrote under a pseudonym initially—John Sinjohn—to avoid disappointing his family with the shift. By 1904, Galsworthy was writing under his own name and in 1906 published The Man of Property, the first book of what became the renowned The Forsyte Saga series, later popularized with a BBC episodic in 1967 (and more recently with the excellent remake starring Damien Lewis in 2002).Much of Galsworthy’s work circulates around the struggle between the individual and society during a period of rapid industrial upheaval. In “Quality,” originally presented as a play and subsequently published as a short story, we are exposed to the effect of this change on the business of a high-end bootmaker, through the eyes of a lifelong customer. The plight of the hard-working Gessler brothers asks the reader to acknowledge the hypocrisy and trade-offs inherent in “progress.” Galsworthy doesn’t bemoan the progress, per se, simply the associated casualty of quality and the respect its craftspeople once commanded.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

The Man Who Was Thursday (Part 2) by G. K. Chesterton This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

The Man Who Was Thursday (Part 5) by G.K. Chesterton This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

The Man Who Was Thursday (Part 3) by G. K. Chesterton This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

The Man Who Was Thursday (Part 4) by G.K. Chesterton This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

"The Kiss" by Anton Chekhov“In the course of that moment he had told everything, and it surprised him dreadfully to find how short a time it took him to tell it.”The writer Anton Chekhov was also the doctor Anton Chekhov. Between these two worlds, he supported his extended family with the practice of medicine and supported his artistic passions with the pen, declaring, “Medicine is my lawful wife and literature is my mistress.”Anyone can guess which one he found more alluring.In his short story “The Kiss,” Chekhov aligns our attention with a rather lonely, insecure Russian officer named Ryabovitch. In today’s parlance, you could say the poor guy suffers from “low T.” Through an unorthodox chance encounter, Ryabovitch’s sleeping imagination is sparked, igniting a dormant verve. He suddenly discovers a confidence, albeit fleeting, that he may not, after all, be left out of a normal sort of life. This awakening of the spirit is reflected in a number of small details—the trilling of a nightingale, the tingling sensation, almost of peppermint, on the cheek, the sense of time folding in on itself. That is the very allure of Chekhov’s style…out of the mundane is born creation.The playwright and critic Maurice Valency remarked of Chekhov, “His great talent lay in his sensitive depiction of life around him, the physical and psychic landscape in which he lived.” While Valency made this remark after, rather derogatorily, declaring Chekhov to have no philosophical point of view, the description is apt. (Although it must be said that Valency himself was known best for his stage adaptations of the work of others…how’s that for a point of view?)Chekhov certainly had an angle. Once one reads but a handful of his short stories, it becomes abundantly clear that he was burdened with realism and buoyed by romanticism. Indeed, in reaction to seeing his plays continually brought to life as tragedies, he protested with his philosophical prod towards optimism:“All I wanted was to say honestly to people: ‘Have a look at yourselves and see how bad and dreary your lives are!’ The important thing is that people should realize that, for when they do, they will most certainly create another and better life for themselves.”I think you’ll agree that “The Kiss” delivers exactly that…a beckoning towards a better life, a more enduring happiness.Please enjoy… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Just So Stories, A Selection, by Rudyard Kipling“But different folk have different views;I know a person small –She keeps ten million serving-men,Who get no rest at all!She sends ‘em abroad on her own affairs,From the second she opens her eyes –One million Hows, two million Wheres,And seven million Whys!For a man who spent so much of his life traipsing between far-flung places in the world, it strikes me that Rudyard Kipling seemed to hold “home” in high regard. It was circumstance rather than wanderlust that spread his life around the globe, and his attentions continued to revolve around the places and people that signaled comfort.Perhaps this spirit was driven by the discomfort of his early life. Born in India, Kipling was shipped off to England for schooling at the tender age of five and, rather tragically, experienced a miserable, desolate boarding life in the tense home of a couple who accommodated children for British nationals abroad.Kipling eventually returned to India as a young man and took work as an assistant editor at a local paper, a job secured for him by his father in Lahore. He spoke fondly of joining his family for annual vacations to Simla (now Shimla), the summer capital of British India, recalling:“My month’s leave at Simla, or whatever Hill Station my people went to, was pure joy – every golden hour counted. It began in heat and discomfort, by rail and road. It ended in the cool evening, with a wood fire in one’s bedroom, and next morn – thirty more of them ahead! – the early cup of tea, the Mother who brought it in, and the long talks of us all together again. One had leisure to work, too, at whatever play-work was in one’s head, and that was usually full.”Life went on. Kipling began writing for himself. He married and had children. They moved to the United States, where they had a “good wholesome life” in Vermont, then back to England, and travelled frequently to South Africa. A few phrases in that Simla recollection, though, seemed to be defining visions of bliss: “whatever [place] my people went to” ... “the long talks of us all together” …and, of course, “whatever play-work was in one’s head, and that was usually full.”With a head full of “play-work” (great phrase!), is it any wonder he was a superb storyteller?The first set of Just So Stories was created, not with pen to paper, but the old-fashioned way, with words to ears. Kipling spun these tales for his daughter, Josephine (known as Effie), to help her drift off to sleep at night. Effie was so enamored with his original telling that she would stop to correct him if the story veered off script. They had to be told just so.When Effie died of pneumonia, contracted on a trip the two of them made to the United States from England in 1899, Kipling channeled his loss into completing the collection, accompanied by an equally captivating set of illustrations and poems.Kipling loved fall in the US, and I’m delighted to be publishing this reading in November, on the birthday of a loved one who cherished the Just So Stories. As we’ve just crested the peak of this magnificent season, I have a fresh appreciation for the brilliance in Kipling’s description of the season:“A little maple began it, flaming blood-red of a sudden where he stood against the dark green of a pine-belt. Next morning there was an answering signal from the swamp where the sumacs grow. Three days later, the hill-sides as fast as the eye could range were afire, and the roads paved, with crimson and gold. Then a wet wind blew, and ruined all the uniforms of that gorgeous army; and the oaks, who had held themselves in reserve, buckled on their dull and bronzed cuirasses and stood it out stiffly to the last blown leaf, till nothing remained but pencil-shadings of bare boughs, and one could see into the most private heart of the woods.”Please enjoy this selection…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

The Willows by Algernon Blackwood“It was as exactly as through we had disturbed some living yet invisible creatures at work.”Before J.J. Abrams captivated millions in the TV series Lost, there was The Twilight Zone. And before Twilight Zone, there was H.P. Lovecraft. And before H.P. Lovecraft, there was Algernon Blackwood, the original “ghost man.”Blackwood was born into a rigid, fearful environment. Raised by Evangelical Calvinists of some influence, he reached the age of twenty-one without having ever seen a movie or held a pack of playing cards, let alone having imbibed in alcohol or cigarettes. He escaped into his imagination and grew to become fascinated with mysticism, Buddhism, and the paranormal.“The Willows” draws upon Blackwood’s experience canoeing the Danube, long before its waters were populated with Viking River Cruises. The wild setting becomes a forceful character in this gothic horror tale, pulling us towards a stirring, intriguing crescendo of psychological depth.Please enjoy… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

“The night grew darker and darker; the stars seemed to sink deeper in the sky, and driving clouds occasionally hid them from his sight. He had never felt so lonely and dismal.”When Washington Irving published “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” he cleverly chose a well-known British publisher, John Murray, despite being an American himself. This credentialing, paired with the captivating nature of the tale, helped skyrocket both Irving’s popularity and the reputation of American writing more broadly. The story was quickly picked up by broad audiences of all ages and never went out of print.Now imagine being the fellow named Ichabod Crane, in real life, while all this breathless storytelling of a gangly, lovelorn schoolmaster by that very name was gaining traction on both sides of the Atlantic.Such a fellow existed! He and Irving met while Crane was stationed at Fort Pike during the War of 1812. It seems that Irving borrowed only the man’s fantastic name for the tale and not his personality or physical traits, but the real Mr. Crane was apparently none too pleased all the same.Irving stitched together colorful details from all over in patching together this charmingly frightful tale. From elements of Dutch folklore, plotlines from friend Sir Walter Scott’s “The Chase,” which itself was based on a translation of the German poem “The Wild Huntsman,” to historical happenings of the Hudson Valley region, and the very character of Ichabod Crane, who was modeled after a Kinderhook schoolmaster named Jesse Merwin, whom he met while visiting the area in 1809.Mr. Merwin reportedly did not mind the association.Please enjoy…Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribeThe Turn of the Screw, Part 2, Henry JamesHenry James was raised as a member of the American elite—shuttling between the New and the Old Continent—under the watchful attention, customary to the time, of governesses and household staff. How titillating it must have been to reflect these attentions back in devising a plot for “The Turn of the Screw.” This renowned ghost story unfolds on the grounds of a refined English estate, home to two orphaned children. Here, James pushes the question of sanity onto their governess, and the question of propriety onto two prior members of the estate’s staff, both since deceased under suspicious circumstances, and the question of collusion onto the young wards.How deliciously twisted.So quietly terrifying is this tale that James, rather marvelously, scared even himself in its preparation, telling poet Edmund Gosse, “I had to correct the proofs of my ghost story last night, and when I had finished them I was so frightened that I was afraid to go upstairs to bed!”It is quite a feat, frankly, that James was able to develop such an authentic scare given that he rather regretted having to write it. Despite his well-heeled upbringing, the author found himself in financial straits. To solve for this, he lowered himself to taking on serialized magazine work, acknowledging his pained reluctance in a letter to friend William Dean Howells:All thanks for your appreciation, & your wife’s, of my Literature drivel. I have succumbed, in that matter, purely to the pecuniary argument, backing H. Harper’s earnest approach. It means £40 a month, which I simply couldn’t afford not to accept. But I am too out of it all, & too ignorant. Perhaps, indeed, that helps & is a merit. You’re delightful about the T. of the Screw-the most abject, down-on-all-fours pot-boiler, pure & simple, that a proud man brought low ever perpetrated. He will do it again & again, too, even for the same scant fee: it’s only a question of a chance!Drivel! History certainly doesn’t think so. “T. of the Screw,” as he called it, became one of those stories that refused to fade away, largely because its many ambiguities prompt continued intrigue and interrogation, and James eventually came to appreciate it as a valid pillar of his catalog.Please enjoy…Help Classics Read Aloud grow by “♡ Liking” this post and sending it to a friend—word of mouth is more powerful than any algorithm. Thank you! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribeThe Turn of the Screw, Part 1 , by Henry JamesHenry James was raised as a member of the American elite—shuttling between the New and the Old Continent—under the watchful attention, customary to the time, of governesses and household staff. How titillating it must have been to reflect these attentions back in devising a plot for “The Turn of the Screw.” This renowned ghost story unfolds on the grounds of a refined English estate, home to two orphaned children. Here, James pushes the question of sanity onto their governess, and the question of propriety onto two prior members of the estate’s staff, both since deceased under suspicious circumstances, and the question of collusion onto the young wards.How deliciously twisted.So quietly terrifying is this tale that James, rather marvelously, scared even himself in its preparation, telling poet Edmund Gosse, “I had to correct the proofs of my ghost story last night, and when I had finished them I was so frightened that I was afraid to go upstairs to bed!”It is quite a feat, frankly, that James was able to develop such an authentic scare given that he rather regretted having to write it. Despite his well-heeled upbringing, the author found himself in financial straits. To solve for this, he lowered himself to taking on serialized magazine work, acknowledging his pained reluctance in a letter to friend William Dean Howells:All thanks for your appreciation, & your wife’s, of my Literature drivel. I have succumbed, in that matter, purely to the pecuniary argument, backing H. Harper’s earnest approach. It means £40 a month, which I simply couldn’t afford not to accept. But I am too out of it all, & too ignorant. Perhaps, indeed, that helps & is a merit. You’re delightful about the T. of the Screw-the most abject, down-on-all-fours pot-boiler, pure & simple, that a proud man brought low ever perpetrated. He will do it again & again, too, even for the same scant fee: it’s only a question of a chance!Drivel! History certainly doesn’t think so. “T. of the Screw,” as he called it, became one of those stories that refused to fade away, largely because its many ambiguities prompt continued intrigue and interrogation, and James eventually came to appreciate it as a valid pillar of his catalog.Please enjoy…Help Classics Read Aloud grow by “♡ Liking” this post and sending it to a friend—word of mouth is more powerful than any algorithm. Thank you! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribeThe Shadows on the Wall by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, 1903Mary Wilkins Freeman was the grande dame of writers, recording “quiet” New England life at the turn of the twentieth century. As the first recipient of the William Dean Howells Gold Medal for Distinguished Work in Fiction and one of the first women to receive membership in the National Institute of Arts and Letters, it is a shame she isn’t better remembered! Hard to compete with Mark Twain, I suppose.Alas, she was prodigious, and her work is widely available on Gutenberg for those who care to find it. Or, you can simply rely on me to bring you some highlights of her oeuvre, including this outstanding, well-paced ghost story, “The Shadows on the Wall.”In this narrative, we are privy to the private conversations and evening life of the Glynn siblings, who are mourning and puzzling over the sudden death of their brother, Edward. I will brook no spoilers, but will instead stay mirthful in the knowledge that many of you will experience an “ah ha” moment when it dawns on you that the biggest spoiler is hiding in plain sight!Please enjoy… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribeThe Fall of the House of Usher, by Edgar Allan PoeOutside of his writing, Edgar Allan Poe led a rather unremarkable life. It was an existence that would give any mother cause for concern. Not his, for Poe was an orphan.As a young adult, Poe engaged in indiscriminate gambling, such that his debts forced him to drop out of the University of Virginia. He subsequently enlisted in the army and was then accepted to West Point, where his insubordination led to expulsion. It was at this time that Poe committed himself to life as a writer. A short life it was, for he was discovered unconscious in a Baltimore gutter at the age of 40 and died shortly thereafter.Poe chased the themes of isolation and despair into his work as well. In “The Fall of the House of Usher,” these motifs are entwined not only with the psychology of the characters—ailing siblings Roderick and Madeline Usher—but also into the setting itself: “the physique of the gray walls and turrets, and of the dim tarn into which they all looked down, had at length brought about upon the morale of [Roderick’s] existence.”Here, the house and its inhabitants are solely confined. All is Usher…and Poe’s ability to fold the reader into a secretive envelope of haunting intrigue is unmatched.Please enjoy…Before you float off to enjoy the story, please help Classics Read Aloud grow by “♡ Liking” this post and sending it to a friend—word of mouth is more powerful than any algorithm. Thank you! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe"The Happy Prince" & "The Selfish Giant" by Oscar WildeOscar Wilde is most often known for his witticisms, which can lead one to assume he moved in an air of lightness. Words like “dazzling,” “frivolous,” and “enchanting” are often bandied about in describing his personality and presence in a room.And yet, Wilde’s fairy tales are anything but. “The Happy Prince” and “The Selfish Giant” bring dazzling imagery, surely, of glistening gems and flowering trees, but we are led by these attractive scenes into a confrontation with deeper themes. As Neil Philip writes in his introduction to the 2022 edition, “behind the surface glitter of his phrasemaking lay a thinking mind, which used wit as a snare for truth.” Wilde explores humility, longing, and sacrifice in these brief stories in ways understood by children and adults alike.Please enjoy…Before you float off to enjoy the story, please help Classics Read Aloud grow by “♡ Liking” this post and sending it to a friend—word of mouth is more powerful than any algorithm. Thank you! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe"The Coup de Grace" by Ambrose Bierce & "Araby" by James JoyceSuffering is a fact of the human condition. Shaping it has been the basis of many religions, and coming to terms with it the lifeblood of many a writer’s work. This unavoidable state of anguish is, mercifully, both temporary and varied.In today’s pair of stories, we’ll take a voyeur’s seat to anguish through equally varied eyes: first, through those of a soldier confronted with the brutal injury of a dear friend and sergeant under his command; and second, through those of a teenage boy yearning for recognition and affection in a world he is only just beginning to sort through.Ambrose Bierce, author of our first story, fought for the Union in the US Civil War. Much of his work flows from that experience, and his writing is characterized by the intensity of the psychological toll extracted on the battlefield. In “The Coup de Grâce,” published in 1889 in the San Francisco Examiner, Bierce reflects on an impossible decision presented to him during the war, leading the story’s Captain Madwell to take action he himself could not. You’ll be left with no question as to why this remains one of Bierce’s most enduring works.In our second narrative for this reading, James Joyce brings us into the intimate thoughts of someone no longer a boy, and not yet a man. Pulled from The Dubliners, a collection of short stories Joyce wrote to commemorate the phases of Irish life at the turn of the century, “Araby” oozes with pathos and understanding. Completed in 1905, The Dubliners was left unpublished for nine years on the grounds of indecency. Those days are long gone, and readers for generations have been the better for it.Please enjoy…Before you float off to enjoy the story, please help Classics Read Aloud grow by “♡ Liking” this post and sending it to a friend—word of mouth is more powerful than any algorithm. Thank you! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribeAlice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapters 7-12, by Lewis CarrollThe second half of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is all about wordplay and games. There are misunderstandings, clarifications, and songs galore as we are yanked, just like Alice, from one gaggle of ridiculous characters to the next.It is curious to me that Carroll chose to conclude the story through the eyes of Alice’s older sister, whom he doesn’t name. Having been riled up in Alice’s dreamscape throughout the book’s entirety, perhaps this is a nicety…a sympathetic way that Carroll excuses us from having to experience Alice’s reconciliation of her adventures into her wakeful reality. We can ponder, as her loving sister does, how Alice may one day “remember her own child life, and the happy summer days.”Please enjoy…Before you float off to enjoy the story, please help Classics Read Aloud grow by “♡ Liking” this post and sending it to a friend—word of mouth is more powerful than any algorithm. Thank you! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribeAlice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapters 1-6, by Lewis CarrollWhen I first conceived of the concept for Classics Read Aloud, I had Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland near the top of my list, but rather dismissed it as resting on ground that was frankly too well-trodden. Hadn’t everyone read this tale to death?And then I read a wonderful exploration of Alice’s Adventures in Dispatches from Biblioll College on Substack and had to laugh at my undeserved hesitation. Well-trodden ground or not, I hadn’t actually read the book in decades and am probably not alone in that. Boze’s exciting retelling of the history behind Lewis Carroll’s odd creation brought me back to my senses.Although branded as such by the effects of time and of Disney, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is no mere children’s book. It is bizarre and complex in its entertainment. If it has been a while since you last visited the original, it is worth a listen with fresh ears and an open mind. I’ll publish this in two halves.Please enjoy... This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Big Two-Hearted River by Ernest HemingwayEvery day, dozens of outdoorsmen head out into nature, armed with video cameras, battery packs, and oh-so-many envelopes of instant oatmeal, to capture their communion with nature. And every day, tens of thousands of would-be outdoorsmen tune into YouTube to watch the newest videos coming from the field.The outdoor genre is booming, with estimates easily topping more than 1 billion views per year.One can’t help but wonder if that concentrated energy isn’t chasing just a small taste of what Hemingway offers us with “Big Two-Hearted River.” His short story, published in May of 1925 in the inaugural issue of This Quarter, presents a semi-autobiographical sojourn to the waters of Upper Peninsula, Michigan, where the main character, Nick Adams, goes trout fishing and reminds the reader what a conversation with Mother Nature really sounds like.If you want an example of true mindfulness, this is it. Hemingway doesn’t allow Nick’s thoughts to wander towards the depths of worry, despair, or even hope that are surely there (as they are with all of us). Rather, he reverently savors the doing of this overnight fishing trip and the peaceful, almost gluttonous solitude it affords.“While he waited for the coffee to boil, he opened a small can of apricots. He liked to open cans. He emptied the can of apricots out into a tin cup. While he watched the coffee on the fire, he drank the juice syrup of the apricots, carefully at first to keep from spilling, then meditatively, sucking the apricots down. They were better than fresh apricots.”“Big Two-Hearted River” became the foundation upon which Hemingway built his first collection of short stories, In Our Time. Please enjoy (and don’t miss the “et cetera” section below where I highlight worthy bits and bobs for a merry, classically inspired life)… This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribe"The Devoted Friend" by Oscar Wilde & "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" by Mark TwainThere are a number of well-known themes in classic literature: love, power and corruption, nature versus machine, and on and on. Today’s stories touch upon a lesser acknowledged theme with universal recognition: sometimes, life just isn’t fair.Oscar Wilde was criticized for creating fairy tales that were too mature for children, perhaps by those forgetting that Grimms’ Fairy Tales were very grim indeed. In “Devoted Friend,” a tragic tale of a one-sided friendship, Wilde takes umbrage with do-gooders who find no exhaustion to their superfluous, destructive virtue. (He manages to take a few swipes at the literary scene and literary critics along the way.) The abuse suffered in this story by the ever-humble Little Hans is sure to remind all of us of the value of skepticism!Speaking of skepticism, Mark Twain delivers a deeply cynical take in his folksy tale about a compulsive competitive bet-maker, Jim Smiley, and his over-educated frog. You won’t really know who to root for in “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” except, perhaps, Twain himself, who went on to produce his first book after the popularity of this story.These two brief tales make for an entertaining pair. (This was also my first attempt at a drawl, so be kind! I’ll get better with time.) Please enjoy…Before you float off to enjoy the story, please help Classics Read Aloud grow by “♡ Liking” this post and sending it to a friend—word of mouth is more powerful than any algorithm. Thank you! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com

Subscribe to Classics Read Aloud to receive future readings, including commentary and interesting "et cetera" tangent links, right to your inbox: https://classicsreadaloud.substack.com/subscribeDouble Birthday by Willa CatherBy the time the short story “Double Birthday” appeared in the pages of The Forum in February of 1929, Willa Cather was already well-known and widely published. One of Ours had earned the author a Pulitzer in 1923, and her novel Death Comes for the Archbishop was released in serial form in The Forum in 1927.In many respects, Cather was approaching the zenith of her career that year, having been awarded an honorary degree from Yale University and elected to the National Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1931, she appeared on the cover of Time Magazine.Accomplishment can give one a certain level of freedom to move about. It was at this time that Cather departed from the prairie themes found in earlier works (My Ántonia and O Pioneer), preferring to explore the complications of more cosmopolitan settings. She began using her writing to examine culture, nostalgia, memory, and spirituality.It is no wonder, then, that “Double Birthday” found its way to the public via The Forum. For this story, Cather chose not a literary magazine per se, but rather one that was a hub for cultural and political debate.Willa Cather here writes of the years after World War I; a time of necessary transitions as the formalities of life before the war became off-putting, excessive, and flat after so much destruction. Previously cherished traditions (“full of chests of linen like this”) teetered in purgatory, awaiting a new place to land. In this vein, the thrust of Cather’s narrative leans towards an acceptance of time’s arrow. Known as a pragmatist in her personal life, Cather’s tone is congruent with her likely approach to this phase of her life and to society at large.Dour though the topic may be, Cather executes her tableau with terrific pace and scintillating wit. Please enjoy…Before you float off to enjoy the story, please help Classics Read Aloud grow by “♡ Liking” this post and sending it to a friend—word of mouth is more powerful than any algorithm. Thank you! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit classicsreadaloud.substack.com