In this landmark fantasy novel, Tolkien introduces us to his richly imagined world of Middle Earth, where we meet a small creature named Bilbo Baggins, who reluctantly heeds the call of adventure to help reclaim a treasure from the dragon Smaug. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This classic western novel tells the story of a Mattie Ross, a young girl who, with her unlikely companions, traverses the American West to avenge the death of her father. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Herman Melville's landmark novel follows the obsessive quest of Captain Ahab as he seeks revenge on Moby Dick, the huge white wale which had previously maimed him, leading to a perilous and philosophical journey for the crew of the whaling ship The Pequod. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Tale of Two Cities is one of the most prolific fictional works to every be written in the English language. Its story explores the nature of sacrifice, revenge, and resurrection amongst several characters set around the French Revolution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Edith Wharton's 1920 novel is set in 1870s New York City, and explores the conflict between individual desire and cultural expectations in New York City's high society. This landmark jazz-age novel won Wharton the Pulitzer Prize in 1921, the first woman to recieve the award. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The landmark debut novel of author James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man tells the story of young Stephen Dedalus's spiritual and intellectual awakening in turn-of-the-century Ireland. Its modernist stylings and use of strict realism would come to define Joyce as an author. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Originally published alongside other famous Falkner works in an anthology titled "Go Down Moses", The Bear is about Issac "Ike" McCaslin, who trains to hunt and kill the legendary bear Old Ben. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Robert Louis Stevenson's seminal adventure novel "Treasure Island." The story follows young Jim Hawkins' journey aboard a pirate vessel, chasing hidden treasure and battling the fearsome Long John Silver. The novel's iconic pirate imagery, and rich and complex characters have made it a timeless classic in the adventure sub-genre. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A Handful of Dust by Evelyn Waugh is a satirical novel that follows the lives of members of London's wealthy elite. The focus of our story, Tony Last, his wife Brenda, and their son John Andrew, endure hardship and turmoil. By utilizing a satirical stance for the narrative, Waugh paints a farcical, tragic picture of 20th century religion and morality. The novel also famously features an alternate ending, setting a very different tone for the conclusion of the novel. Learn more about your ad...

Hey there listeners! We're nearly ready to get started with the next season of Novel Conversations, but in the meantime, we have a show that we think you'll love! If you enjoy this episode, be sure to go give Thoughts From A Page a follow. We appreciate it! We'll be back with fresh episodes of Novel Conversations before you know it. Thanks! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Graham Greene's final contribution to his 4 "Catholic Series" novels, The End of the Affair tells the story of Maurice Bendrix and his internal struggles navigating an affair with his partner, Catherine Walston. The novel's deeply introspective narrative is contrasted by the escalation of WWII in 1940s England. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In Conrad's landmark novel from 1899, English sailor Charles Marlow describes his voyage into the interior of the African jungle aboard a Belgian shipping vessel. The work levees a striking criticism of the imperial mindset of its era, reflected in its inclusion as one of the greatest texts of Western literature. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One of the greatest all-time works of American fiction, 'To Kill A Mockingbird' is a timeless account of the American South as seen through the eyes of a young girl named Scout. The novel's warm and approachable dissection of gender, society, and race have made it an enduring staple of the American literary canon. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

20,000 Leagues Under The Sea is classic science-adventure novel written by Jules Verne, and released serially through 1870. It tells the story of the Nautilus, a futuristic deep-sea submarine, and its long voyages through the ocean's depths through the eyes of our protagonist, the marine biologist Professor Aronnax, who is captive aboard the vessel with his companions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Emily Bronte's only novel, Wuthering Heights tells the story of the turbulent relationships between the Earnshaws and the Lintons, two families of landed gentry in 1847 West Yorkshire. In its time, the novel was controversial for its depictions of cruelty and abuse, and for its challenges to Victorian ideals and morality. In the time since however, has come to be regarded as one of the greatest novels ever written. Special thanks to our readers, Anthony Mahramus and Elizabeth Flood, our...

Titled "The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner: Who Lived Eight and Twenty Years, All Alone in an Un-inhabited Island on the Coast of America, Near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having Been Cast on Shore by Shipwreck, Wherein All the Men Perished but Himself. With an Account how he was at last as Strangely Deliver’d by Pyrates. Written by Himself,” at publication, Robinson Crusoe is an enduring fiction that set the standard for the...

This classic of English literature was originally penned under the name "Currer Bell", and details the story of the titular Jane as she struggles to find comfort and self-worth through the ups and downs of her life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

in 1897's West Sussex, a strangely dressed and unfriendly man named Griffin takes up lodging at a local inn, causing havoc and disharmony with his rude antics and constant scientific investigation. As the novel progresses, we see more and more of the evil within Griffin, even as he is seen less and less. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Bleak House" is a novel by Charles Dickens, first published as a 20-episode serial between March 1852 and September 1853. The story centers around a variety of characters whose livelihoods depend on the outcome of an active court case, Jarndyce and Jarndyce. Throughout the novel, our perspective shifts between an omniscient third person and the personal perspective of our main protagonist, Esther Summerson. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Evergreen Podcasts, the network that brought you From First Lady to Jackie O, is pleased to introduce Countdown to Dallas, another podcast from Host Paul Brandus.  On the sixtieth anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, former White House correspondent Paul Brandus takes an in-depth look at the seemingly unconnected events that led to that infamous afternoon in Dallas, Texas. He explores the troubled and broken life of Kennedy’s killer, Lee Harvey Oswald, and challenges...

My Antonia, the third of Willa Cather's "prairie trilogy", follows the story of a young bohemian immigrant to the town of Blackhawk, Nebraska. Narrated by our protagonist Jim Burden, Cather uses vivid imagery and beautiful prose to paint a picture of immigrant life on the prairie. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this famous Robert Louis Stevenson novel, we follow Gabriel Utterson, a London legal-practitioner who investigates the relationship between his old friend, Dr. Henry Jekyll, and a criminally abominable man by the name of Mr. Hyde. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In "The Hound of the Baskervilles" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, we see the preeminent Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes' solve the eerie murder of a Sir Arthur Baskerville on the moors of Dartmoor by an apparent fiendish hound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In F. Scott Fitzgerald's debut novel, published in 1920, he tells the story of Amory Blaine, a smart, attractive, ivy-league dropout with whom Fitzgerald makes observations about the greed and loneliness of the post WWI era. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices