Just Listen Podcast

Today we examine another one of the three hundred short stories written by the French author Guy de Maupassant, who is featured here on Just Listen several times already but a great favorite of this podcast and considered by many, still, to be the father of the short story.

Today’s author, Mary Lerner, had her 1916 story “Little Selves” published in the September issue of Atlantic Monthly and was chosen by editor Edward J. O’Brien for The Twenty Best American Short Stories of 1916, as well as the Best American Short Stories of the Century collection edited by John Updike and Katrina Kenison, published in 1999.In his criticism of the story, O’Brien wrote: “Little Selves” by Mary Lerner is little more than a succession of dream pictures portrayed as they cross the consciousness of an old woman who has lived well and is dying happily. But these pictures are so delicately woven, and so tenderly touched with beauty, that they will not easily be forgotten. I am tempted to say that a success such as this could not be repeated. It is a happy accident.”

"Mademoiselle Fifi" is a short story by Guy de Maupassant. In Brussels in 1882 and in Paris the next year, a book with the same name included it in a collection of Maupassant's short stories. It has been reprinted many times.

One of the things I most enjoy about presenting stories here is the great fun I find in discovering the personal lives of authors. Not only do our authors present us with brilliant literature, but they also give us glimpses into lives that are indeed majestic and fascinating. People like Jack London and Edith Wharton certainly come readily to mind, giants in their own time, and for me, H.G. Wells stands out among his peers for both the quantity of his work (over l00 books!) and for the human intricacies of his private life – as colorful as almost any of his books.

Today’s story, “The Ledge” by Lawrence Sargent Hall, won first place in the 1960 O Henry Prize Collection, and has appeared in more than 30 anthologies.

Today’s story, “The Farmer’s Children” by Elizabeth Bishop, an American poetry and short story writer, seems a showcase for the evil stepmother archetype.

Among the stories in the collection Bayou Folk by Kate Chopin is today's story, "Désirée's Baby," a tale of miscegenation in antebellum Louisiana, first published in 1893.

Through her different genres of work including children's stories, poems, and short stories, Mary Wilkins Freeman sought to demonstrate her values as a feminist.

Turning once again to one of America’s greatest fiction voices, we present today a story that displays Willa Cather’s keen observation and understanding of men, particularly when they are placed in a locus of trouble or consternation.

We are happy today to bring you our third Jack London story here on Just Listen.

Thomas Reid Pearson, aka T.R. Pearson, is fun, fun, fun to read. If you haven’t yet encountered this very imaginative author, you’re in for a treat today. What a story we have to tell here at Just Listen.

Welcome back to Just Listen! Today's story, by one of our foremost story contributors, Edith Wharton, has been the subject of scores of critical analyses and touches on numerous themes such as motherhood, aging, the accuracy of memory, and the search for truth, to name just a few.

Almost anyone could tell you the story of Rip Van Winkle in a sentence or three. Today we get to enjoy the tale in its entirety as presented by one of our favorite authors, Washington Irving.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman, also known by her first married name Charlotte Perkins Stetson, lived from July 3, 1860 to August 17, 1935, and witnessed everything from the American Civil War to the Roaring Twenties to the Great Depression.

The characters in Kate Chopin’s stories are usually residents of Louisiana, and many are Creoles of various ethnic or racial backgrounds. Many of her works are set in Natchitoches in north-central Louisiana, a region where she lived.

Welcome back to our Christmas celebration of ghost stories by Edith Wharton. For the curious, alert, and not-too-easily frightened, we have several collections of Edith Wharton’s ghost stories here at the Nashville Public Library.

Happy Holiday greetings! We continue today with our celebration of ghost stories by Edith Wharton and the conclusion of “Afterward,” one of her most famous and loved ghost stories.

Gathering around a fire to share ghost stories was a beloved Christmas tradition in the late 1800s into the early 1900s.

We are back with our old friend Oscar Wilde, who has several stories to hear here on Just Listen, with a didactic tale meant to be read to children called “The Devoted Friend.”

We welcome again our friend O. Henry, master short story author, poet, and newsman.