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The Norton Library Podcast

The Norton Library
The Norton Library Podcast
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70 episodes

  • The Norton Library Podcast

    Trying to Be Funny Again (Great Expectations, Part 1)

    06/04/2026 | 30 mins.
    In Part 1 of our discussion on Charles Dickens's Great Expectations, we welcome editor Daniel Wright to discuss the author's busy and eventful life, the historical context and social issues behind his creation of Great Expectations, and the three entangled plots of which readers should be aware when first encountering this text. 
    Daniel Wright is an associate professor of English at the University of Toronto. He is the author of The Grounds of the Novel (Stanford, 2024) and Bad Logic (Johns Hopkins, 2018).
    To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of Great Expectations, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9781324046721. 
    Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.
    Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social.
  • The Norton Library Podcast

    Pulling Back the Curtain (A Room of One's Own, Part 2)

    23/03/2026 | 29 mins.
    In Part 2 of our discussion on Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, editor Dora Zhang returns to discuss the original cover and the design of the Norton Library edition, her first encounter with Woolf's writing during college, and a few of her favorite moments in the text. 
    Dora Zhang is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Strange Likeness: Description and the Modernist Novel (University of Chicago Press, 2020), which studies the works of Henry James, Marcel Proust, and, centrally, Virginia Woolf in order to reinvigorate our understanding of the ubiquitous but undertheorized category of novelistic description. Her writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, The Chronicle Review, and The Point.
    To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of A Room of One's Own, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393893991. 
    Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.
    Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social.
  • The Norton Library Podcast

    Shakespeare's Sister and a Spider's Web of Fiction (A Room of One's Own, Part 1)

    09/03/2026 | 32 mins.
    In Part 1 of our discussion on Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, we welcome editor Dora Zhang to discuss the author's early life in a literary and artistic household, the enduring nature and distinctive prose of Woolf's works, and the argument of certain necessary material conditions for creating art. 
    Dora Zhang is Associate Professor of English and Comparative Literature at the University of California, Berkeley. She is the author of Strange Likeness: Description and the Modernist Novel (University of Chicago Press, 2020), which studies the works of Henry James, Marcel Proust, and, centrally, Virginia Woolf in order to reinvigorate our understanding of the ubiquitous but undertheorized category of novelistic description. Her writing has also appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Public Books, The Chronicle Review, and The Point.
    To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of A Room of One's Own, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393893991. 
    Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.
    Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social.
  • The Norton Library Podcast

    Subtle, Remorseful—Self-Loathing?—Hypocrites (The Scarlet Letter, Part 2)

    23/02/2026 | 28 mins.
    In Part 2 of our discussion on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, editor Justine Murison returns to discuss the cover design of the Norton Library edition, her first encounter with The Scarlet Letter in high school (and the process of coming to understand the text as an adult), and the challenging irony of Hawthorne's narrative voice. 
    Justine S. Murison is Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research and teaching examine nineteenth-century American literature with special attention to its relation to the intertwined histories of health and religion. She is the author of The Politics of Anxiety in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (2011) and Faith in Exposure: Privacy and Secularism in the Nineteenth-Century United States (2023).
    To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of The Scarlet Letter, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393871616.

    Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.

    Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social.
  • The Norton Library Podcast

    The Perfect Time to Read The Scarlet Letter (The Scarlet Letter, Part 1)

    09/02/2026 | 33 mins.
    In Part 1 of our discussion on Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter, we welcome editor Justine Murison to discuss Hawthorne's life and views, the iconic symbolism in the text and how to analyze it, and the lasting relevance of The Scarlet Letter in the twenty-first century. 
    Justine S. Murison is Associate Professor of English at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Her research and teaching examine nineteenth-century American literature with special attention to its relation to the intertwined histories of health and religion. She is the author of The Politics of Anxiety in Nineteenth-Century American Literature (2011) and Faith in Exposure: Privacy and Secularism in the Nineteenth-Century United States (2023).
    To learn more or purchase a copy of the Norton Library edition of The Scarlet Letter, go to https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393871616.

    Learn more about the Norton Library series at https://wwnorton.com/norton-library.

    Have questions or suggestions for the podcast? Email us at [email protected] or find us on Twitter at @TNL_WWN and Bluesky at @nortonlibrary.bsky.social.

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About The Norton Library Podcast

Welcome to the Norton Library Podcast, where we explore influential works of literature and philosophy with the leading scholars and teachers behind Norton’s newest series of classics. In each episode, with a Norton Library editor or translator as our guide, we'll learn something new and surprising about these classic works—why they endure, and what it means to read them today. Hosted by Mark Cirino and produced by Michael Von Cannon, the co-creators of the Hemingway Society's popular show One True Podcast.
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