The Norton Library Podcast

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Happy Birthday, Jane! (Jane Austen at 250) Dec 15, 2025

Show notes

For our special celebration of Jane Austen's 250th birthday, we welcome editors Jenny Davidson (Pride and Prejudice, 2023), Stephanie Insley Hershinow (Sense and Sensibility, 2024; Emma, 2022), and Patricia Matthew (Mansfield Park, 2026). In this extended roundtable episode, the editors discuss their personal favorites among Austen's books (and where to start as an Austen beginner), the differences between modern adaptations and Austen's original writing, and Austen's enduring legacy in the twenty-first century.

Jenny Davidson is Professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University. She has published four books of literary criticism, four novels, several other editions, and numerous articles and essays. She is currently at work on two book projects: a handbook on career pathways for humanities doctoral students and an intellectually wide-ranging and highly personal account of what it means to read Edward Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (originally published between 1776 and 1789) from the vantage point of the twenty-first century.

Stephanie Insley Hershinow is an associate professor of English at Baruch College, CUNY, where she specializes in novel theory and eighteenth-century culture. She is the author of Born Yesterday: Inexperience and the Early Realist Novel. She lives with her family in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Patricia A. Matthew is Associate Professor of English at Montclair State Unviersity. She has been published widely and is the editor of Written/Unwritten: Diversity and the Hidden Truths of Tenure (2016). She is the co-editor of the Oxford University Press series Race in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture.

To learn more or purchase copies of the Norton Library editions of Jane Austen's books, go to https://wwnorton.com/. Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.
Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social.

Listen to This—Then Play Happy Music! (Utilitarianism, Part 2) Dec 01, 2025

Show notes

In Part 2 of our discussion on John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, co-editor Peter Singer returns to discuss the cover design of the Norton Library edition, the formation of an argument about a philosophical thought, and a soundtrack for the book (spoiler: John Lennon's "Imagine" is involved).

Peter Singer, an Australian philosopher, is currently Ira W. DeCamp Professor of Bioethics at Princeton University. He is best known for Animal Liberation, first published in 1975 and widely considered to be the founding statement of the animal rights movement; and for The Life You Can Save, which led him to found the charity of the same name. His other books include Practical Ethics, The Most Good You Can Do, and the two books co-authored with Katarzyna de Lazari- Radek. In 2005, Time magazine named him one of the World’s 100 Most Influential People.
To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of Utilitarianism, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393441161.
Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.
Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social.

Better Socrates Dissatisfied than a Fool Satisfied? (Utilitarianism, Part 1) Nov 17, 2025

Show notes

In Part 1 of our discussion on John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism, we welcome co-editor Peter Singer to discuss the author's life and other writings, to provide context on the philosophical tradition and historical era in which Mill wrote Utilitarianism, and to unpack the key arguments presented by this influential text.

The Importance of Fun (The Decameron, Part 2) Nov 03, 2025

Show notes

In Part 2 of our discussion on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, editor Wayne A. Rebhorn returns to discuss his first encounter with Boccaccio, the nature of translating the text's layered meanings from Italian to English, and modern film adaptations of The Decameron.

Wayne A. Rebhorn is the Celanese Centennial Professor of English at the University of Texas, where he teaches English, Italian, and comparative literature. His translation of Boccaccio’s Decameron won the 2014 PEN Center USA’s Literary Award for Translation.
To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of The Decameron, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393427882.
Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.
Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social.

The Stealth Classic (The Decameron, Part 1) Oct 20, 2025

Show notes

In Part 1 of our discussion on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron, we welcome editor Wayne A. Rebhorn to discuss the author's life and historical times, similarities among Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Dante, and the use of storytelling to both distract and make meaning during catastrophic times.

I Write Only That Whereof I Know (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Part 2) Oct 06, 2025

Show notes

In Part 2 of our discussion on Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself, editor Evie Shockley returns to discuss her first encounter with this text in graduate school, the book's place in the literary canon and the classroom, and her favorite passage.

Evie Shockley is the Zora Neale Hurston Distinguished Professor of English at Rutgers University and the author of Renegade Poetics: Black Aesthetics and Formal Innovation in African American Poetry. For her poetry collections—including suddenly we, semiautomatic, the new black, and a half-red sea—she has been awarded the Shelley Memorial Award, the Lannan Literary Award, and the Holmes National Poetry Prize, has twice won the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, has received an NAACP Image Award, and has been named a finalist for the National Book Award, the Pulitzer Prize, and the LA Times Book Prize. She has served as an editor of jubilat and Feminist Studies, and is Editor for Poetry at Contemporary Literature.
To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written By Herself, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393870787.
Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.
Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social.

Less Like You're Reading Her, More Like You're Listening to Her (Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Part 1) Sep 22, 2025

Show notes

In Part 1 of our discussion on Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl: Written by Herself, we welcome editor Evie Shockley to discuss the author's family background, lively language as a storyteller, and influence on Shockley's own creative process as a poet.

It's Never Too Late to Discover Hemingway (A Farewell to Arms, Part 2) Jul 28, 2025

Show notes

In Part 2 of our discussion on Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, Norton Library podcast host Mark Cirino returns to the guest seat (with producer Michael von Cannon stepping behind the microphone as host). The two discuss the cover design of the Norton Library edition, essential historical context for understanding the novel, and the ever-increasing political relevance of Hemingway's work in the twenty-first century.

Mark Cirino is Melvin M. Peterson Endowed Chair in Literature at the University of Evansville (IN). He is the author or editor of several books, including Ernest Hemingway: Thought in Action (Wisconsin, 2012); Reading Hemingway’s Across the River and into the Trees (Kent State, 2016); and, most recently, One True Sentence: Writers & Readers on Hemingway’s Art (Godine, 2022), which was written with Michael Von Cannon. Cirino and Von Cannon are the creators of One True Podcast, the official podcast of the Ernest Hemingway Society.

To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of A Farewell to Arms, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324059424.
Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.
Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social.

A Tale of Love and a Tale of War (A Farewell to Arms, Part 1) Jul 14, 2025

Show notes

In Part 1 of our discussion on Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, we welcome Norton Library podcast host Mark Cirino to the guest seat for the first time (with producer Michael von Cannon stepping behind the microphone as host). The two discuss the balance of autobiography and fiction in the text, situate A Farewell to Arms in the establishment of Hemingway's literary reputation, and explain the censorship of certain language.

Hector and Achilles are More Alike Than You Think (The Iliad, Part 2) Jun 30, 2025

Show notes

In Part 2 of our discussion on Homer's Iliad, translator Emily Wilson returns to discuss the red and gold cover design of the Norton Library edition, recount her decision to recreate a new translation of the epic, and give a performance in the original ancient Greek.

Emily Wilson is a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania. She has been named a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome in Renaissance and early modern studies, a MacArthur Fellow, and a Guggenheim Fellow. In addition to Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, she has also published translations of Sophocles, Euripides, and Seneca. She lives in Philadelphia.
To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of The Iliad, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324102076.
Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.
Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at nortonlibrary@wwnorton.com or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social.

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