Show Notes
This week Marlon and Jake answer some of the questions that listeners have asked. What dead author or book did they initially hate but have come around to love? What is the best book by the worst dead author? And who is the most annoying character by a dead author? (Spoiler alert: Heathcliff. Obviously.) Along the way Jake confesses a lack of enthusiasm for William Faulkner and, yes, Virginia Woolf, while Marlon bemoans the insufferably boring Thomas Hardy and makes a plug for the poetic darkness of Shakespeare’s Richard III. Their shared hatred of A Tale of Two Cities is back and stronger than ever. Will Jake re-read Absalom, Absalom!? Will Marlon let go of his Edith Wharton grudge? Should we take relationship advice from Jane Austen? Was D.H. Lawrence the 20th Century’s bridesmaid but never its bride? Has the “Great Pirate Novel” been written? Tune in to learn the answers to these essential questions and so much more!
Select titles discussed in this episode:
Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy The Awakening by Kate Chopin Four Quartets by T.S. Eliot Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence Emma by Jane Austen Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen Persuasion by Jane Austen A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams Harvey by Mary Chase Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray QB VII by Leon Uris Airport by Arthur Hailey The White Witch of Rosehall by Herbert G. de Lisser The Black Sun by Lance Horner Richard III by William Shakespeare The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare Pericles by William Shakespeare The Merry Wives of Windsor by William Shakespeare Cymbeline by William Shakespeare One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson A High Wind in Jamaica by Richard Hughes This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Bleak House by Charles Dickens Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens David Copperfield by Charles Dickens The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West Stoner by John Williams The Pearl by John Steinbeck The Ambassadors by Henry James Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
More from Marlon and Jake Read Dead People
In our last episode of the season, Marlon and Jake take on the worst books by the best authors—or at least, authors they usually love. They discuss why a journalist’s instincts can be both a gift and a curse when writing fiction, the importance of a great editor, writers who seem more interested in ideas than people, and novels that try so hard to be current they end up aging badly. Tune in for a conversation about literary misfires and wasted genius.
Marlon and Jake discuss the books they’d banish from school reading lists—not ban but give a well-earned time out. They consider why the Bible shouldn’t make the cut, why mythology deserves to expand beyond the Greeks and Romans, and what kinds of books actually resonate with high school readers. Plus: why being a great book doesn’t necessarily make something a great book to teach—and whether length should matter.
Marlon and Jake take on violence in fiction: what makes it effective, what makes it gratuitous, and whether “gratuitous violence” is even a useful distinction. Tune in as they discuss the difference between violence on the page and on screen and why extended cruelty can be harder to stomach than violence itself.
Marlon and Jake explore the power of setting in novels—and why the best stories feel like they couldn’t have happened anywhere else. They discuss settings that become characters in their own right, fictional worlds they’d love (or absolutely hate) to inhabit, and books that made unexpected places fascinating. Plus: why a modern-day Captain Nemo might just be a tech bro.
Marlon and Jake explore the books that have helped define who they are, choosing four that capture different parts of their personalities and lives. They unpack how reading can shape our understanding of identity, community, and growing up—and change the way we see ourselves and each other. Tune in as they reflect on books they encountered at exactly the right (or wrong) time and the stories that made the world around them feel a little bigger.