Penguin Classics On Air

Familiar to many as the Stanley Kubrick film starring Kirk Douglas, Paths of Glory explores the perilous complications involved in what nations demand of their soldiers in wartime. Humphrey Cobb's protagonists are Frenchmen during the First World War whose nightmare in the trenches takes a new and terrible turn when they are ordered to assault a German position deemed all but invulnerable. When the attack fails, an inquiry into allegations of cowardice indicts a small handful of lower-ranked scapegoats whose trial exposes the farce of ordering ordinary men to risk their lives in an impossible cause. A chilling portrait of injustice, this novel offers insight into the tragedies of war in any age.

National Banned Books Week begins at the end of September, and Penguin Classics is the proud publisher of several notable works, including The Grapes of Wrath, which is one of the most important pieces of literature in American history. NPR's Nancy Pearl joins us to discuss the importance of several challenged Penguin Classics, and her thoughts on what contemporary books could be challenged in the future. Rick Wartzman, the author of Obscene in the Extreme: The Burning and Banning of John Steinbeck's 'The Grapes of Wrath' also talks to us about how he stumbled upon a fascinating story about The Grapes of Wrath and it's history in 1930's California.

In this episode of Penguin Classics On Air, Elda has an interview with Elizabeth Lowe, Professor and Director of the Center for Translation Studies, Culture and Linguistics for the Univeristy of Illinois-Champaign. She also has a conversation with Ilan Stavans, who since 1993, has been on the faculty of Amherst College, Massachusetts, where he is the Lewis-Sebring Professor in Latin American and Latino Culture. They discuss the book Backlands by Euclides da Cunha, which is called the 'Bible of the Brazilian Nation' by some.

In China you can find Lu Xun museums, plays, TV adaptations, wine brands, a Lu Xun Day on the national calendar, and a theme park offering tourists the "Lu Xun experience." But few in the West have heard of Lu Xun. Who is he? This episode of Penguin Classics On Air introduces the iconoclastic early-twentieth-century Chinese writer who helped to usher China into the modern world. Lu Xun initially studied to be a doctor and then had a famous conversion: It wasn't the bodies of his fellow countrymen that needed curing, he realized, but their minds and spirits, and so he became the self-appointed literary physician of China's spiritual ills, effecting a shift in Chinese letters away from the ornate, obsequious literature of the aristocrats to the plain, expressive literature of the masses. His complete fiction, The Real Story of Ah-Q and Other Tales of China, is the first modern Chinese classic to be published in the Penguin Classics, and it's been called by Time magazine "the most significant Penguin Classic ever published." Translator Julia Lovell and Penguin Classics Senior Editor John Siciliano discuss Lu Xun's writing, his life, and his influence on modern Chinese literature.

What makes an African American Classic? Penguin Classics in conjunction with Barnes & Noble hosted a Panel on February 22nd in New York City with Henry Louis Gates Jr., Farrah Jasmine Griffin and Dayo Olopade. These premier voices in African American Literature dissect the book Iola Leroy and others to delve into the meaning of a Classic and, more importantly, the meaning of a Classic in African American History. First published in 1892, this stirring novel by the great writer and activist Frances Ellen Watkins Harper tells the story of the young daughter of a wealthy Mississippi planter who travels to the North to attend school, only to be sold into slavery in the South when it is discovered that she has Negro blood. After she is freed by the Union army, she works to reunify her family and embrace her heritage, committing herself to improving the conditions for blacks in America. Through her fascinating characters—including Iola's brother, who fights at the front in a colored regiment—Harper weaves a vibrant and provocative chronicle of the Civil War and its consequences through African American eyes in this critical contribution to the nation's literature.

What's classic about the 80s? The art of Keith Haring. Twenty years after his death, Keith Haring's Journals debuts in Penguin Classics and features ninety new and updated black and white images and a foreword by artist Shepard Fairey. Jeffrey Deitch, Fab 5 Freddy, Julia Gruen and Shepard Fairey guide us through Keith Haring's world—from the galleries to graffiti art, and from the causes he championed to the socio-political art that inspires the next generation of artists.

With all new adaptations of Jane Austen's Emma and Elizabeth Gaskell's Cranford and Return to Cranford now airing on PBS' MASTERPIECE Classic, Penguin Books Editor-in-Chief Stephen Morrison leads a discussion with two experts on Austen and Gaskell as they explore the importance of each authors' work, what their works can tell us about late 18th century Britain and Britain during the Industrial Revolution, the lives of women, the class system and why both authors' works are so often adapted. Stephen speaks with Sue Birtwistle, the producer of the much-loved adaptation of Pride & Prejudice starring Colin Firth and the co-creator and producer of Cranford and producer of Return to Cranford starring Judi Dench based on Gaskell's novel Cranford. Stephen also speaks with Tanya Agathocleous, an Assistant Professor of English literature at Hunter College, specializing in 19th and 20th Century British Literature and Culture.

Episode description: Elda Rotor talks with Sheila Kohler, author of the novel Becoming Jane Eyre about how the story of the Brontë sisters–Charlotte, Emily, and Anne, and their best known works–Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey inspired her beautifully imagined tale, and with scholar Juliette Wells about teaching the classic works by the Brontë sisters. Alan Walker, head of academic marketing, talks about My Brilliant Career by Miles Franklin, a novel about growing up in the Australian bush.

Elda Rotor of Penguin Classics interviews Jay Parini, the editor of the Penguin Classics edition of Last Steps, about how to "find" a novel about Leo Tolstoy, what it's like to see his novel, The Last Station turned into a movie (especially one starring James McAvoy, Paul Giamatti, Helen Mirren, and Christopher Plummer–coming to theaters late 2009), and what readers can learn from an author at the end of his life. Alan Walker, head of academic marketing, introduces listeners to Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko on "Reading the Classics from A to Z" (and reads his favorite poem from the book!). And Stephen Morrison, associate publisher and editor in chief of Penguin Books offers up the exceptionally Russian opening to Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina in his segment, "First Pages."

John Siciliano of Penguin Classics interviews introducer George C. Schoolfield and translator Paul Norlen about The Saga of Gösta Berling, and learns why Nobel Prize-winning author Selma Lagerlöf (a most pleasant individual) is often forgotten, while August Strindberg (a much less pleasant individual) is widely known, when a saga is really a "saga," and what line of dialogue every Swedish person can recite from memory (and what it sounds like in Swedish!). Alan Walker, head of academic marketing, introduces listeners to another Scandinavian Nobel Prize winner with Hunger by Knut Hamsun on "Reading the Classics from A to Z." And Stephen Morrison, associate publisher and editor in chief of Penguin Books offers up the opening to Selma Lagerlöf's The Saga of Gösta Berling in his segment, "First Pages."

Stephen Morrison, associate publisher and editor in chief of Penguin Books, invites "the philosophy guys," Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein, authors of The New York Times bestseller Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar . . . to give listeners a hilarious run-down of the four most important (but not necessarily most well-known) philosophers in the history of philosophy—and why YOU should read them before you die. Alan Walker, head of academic marketing, introduces listeners to Voltaire's particular brand of optimism with Candide on "Reading the Classics from A to Z." And then back to Stephen as he offers up the truly biblical opening to Soren Kierkegaard's Fear and Trembling in his segment, "First Pages."

Elda Rotor of Penguin Classics interviews Twilight expert Donna Freitas about the appeal of Stephenie Meyer's blockbuster vampire series and how it compares to Emily Bronte's enduring classic Wuthering Heights. Elda then speaks with Dacre Stoker, a direct descendant of Bram Stoker, and Ian Holt, authors of Dracula: The Un-Dead, who talk about Bram Stoker's masterpiece, why Dracula wears evening clothes, and how vampires pick up chicks even when they smell like the grave. Alan Walker introduces listeners to a book that has "The Wickedest Man In the World," aka Aleister Crowley turning over in his grave, The Magician by W. Somerset Maugham on "Reading the Classics from A to Z." And Stephen Morrison, associate publisher and editor in chief of Penguin Books offers up the paprika-spiced opening to Bram Stoker's Dracula in his segment, "First Pages."

Elda Rotor of Penguin Classics interviews Amelia Maria de la Luz Montes, the editor and introducer of Who Would Have Thought It? about the particular issues facing a Mexican girl growing up in small town New England after the Civil War, feminism meant during the 1800s, and what this major rediscovery of a little known Mexican-American author means for Latino literature. Alan Walker, head of academic marketing, presents a lesser-known (but no less lovely) work by Edith Wharton's Summer on "Reading the Classics from A to Z." And Stephen Morrison, associate publisher and editor in chief of Penguin Books introduces readers to the nosy parker's of New England in the opening to Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton's Who Would Have Thought It? in his segment, "First Pages."

Elda Rotor of Penguin Classics interviews Betsy Bradley, the introducer and editor of Washington Irving's A HISTORY OF NEW YORK. Irving's popular first book, A HISTORY OF NEW YORK, is an early nineteenth century satirical novel of colonial New Amsterdam. It follows the fictional historian Diedrich Knickerbocker as he narrates the development of New York cultural life--from the creation of the doughnut to the creation of Wall Street. Alan Walker, head of academic marketing, introduces listeners to THE EMIGRANTS by Gilbert Imlay on "Reading the Classics from A to Z." And Stephen Morrison, associate publisher and editor in chief of Penguin Books, offers up the opening to Washington Irving's beloved story "Rip Van Winkle" in his segment, "First Pages."

In this episode of Penguin Classics On Air, Elda Rotor introduces Penguin Classics editor John Siciliano and his interview with Aliza Shevrin, translator of TEVYE THE DAIRYMAN AND MOTL THE CANTOR'S SON, as well as WANDERING STARS, about the life and works of Sholem Aleichem, the difference between FIDDLER ON THE ROOF and TEVYE THE DAIRYMAN, Yiddish humor, life, and culture from Russia to the Lower East Side, and what to do with five (or is it three? Or seven?) daughters. Alan Walker, head of academic marketing, recommends KRISTIN LAVRANSDATTER: THE WREATH by Sigrid Undset on "Reading the Classics from A to Z." And Stephen Morrison, associate publisher and editor in chief of Penguin Books, offers up the opening to Sholem Aleichem's TEVYE THE DAIRYMAN in his segment, "First Pages."