The Leonard Lopate Show
Underappreciated Literature
A Weekly Feature on The Leonard Lopate Show
This August, Leonard Lopate explores underappreciated and forgotten works of great literature as part of a special summer reading series. The series will focus on authors that are little-known in America, authors that mysteriously fell out of fashion, and authors who never gained wide recognition in the first place.
Underappreciated: Eileen Chang
The Leonard Lopate Show
September 03, 2007
Eileen Chang - also known as Zhang Ailing - is one of China's most widely read authors. After an unhappy childhood in Shanghai, she began publishing short stories as a college student in the 1940s. Her genius was recognized almost immediately, and there were soon rumors of her being considered for a Nobel Prize. In 1955 Chang resettled in America, where she continued to write but became increasingly reclusive. When she died in her Los Angeles apartment in 1995, it took neighbors days to realize she was gone. Translator Karen Sawyer Kingsbury will explain why Chang should never be forgotten again.
Purchase Chang's Love in a Fallen City and Lust, Caution, soon to be made into a feature film directed by Ang Lee, at amazon.com.
Underappreciated: Junichiro Tanizaki
The Leonard Lopate Show
August 27, 2007
In the rigid literary society of Japan, Junichiro Tanizaki stood out by constructing long narratives whose imaginative content, amplitude, and structure can rightly be called novelistic. He eschewed shishosetsu - the Japanese genre that most closely resembles the novel but includes autobiographical details - choosing instead to call attention to the fictionality of his texts. Translator Anthony Chambers will tell us why Tanizaki is considered one of the most important Japanese writers of the 20th century.
Purchase Tanizaki's Some Prefer Nettles and The Makioka Sisters at amazon.com.
Underappreciated: Roberto Arlt
The Leonard Lopate Show
August 20, 2007
Self-educated after the age of eight, Roberto Arlt worked many blue-collar jobs in his native Buenos Aires before embarking on a career as a writer. His novels had a huge influence on Jorge Luis Borges and others, but they are only now becoming available in English. Translator Michele Aynesworth will discuss the life and work of this great journalist, novelist, and playwright whose manic prose anticipated the likes of Irvine Welsh and William Burroughs.
Purchase Arlt's two best-known novels, Mad Toy and The Seven Madmen, at amazon.com.
Underappreciated: Stefan Zweig
The Leonard Lopate Show
August 13, 2007
In 1930, Stefan Zweig was considered the world's most translated author, with a circle of friends that included Rainer Maria Rilke, Auguste Rodin, and Sigmund Freud. Yet when he was forced into exile from his native Austria during World War II, Zweig's work faded from view, even more so after his suicide in 1942. George Prochnik, who is working on a book about Stefan and Lotte Zweig, will tell us why the author deserves a revival.
Purchase Zweig's major works - Amok, Beware of Pity, Chess Story, and The World of Yesterday - at amazon.com.
Weigh in: Who's your favorite underappreciated author?
Underappreciated Literature: George Gissing
The Leonard Lopate Show
August 06, 2007
George Gissing was one of the most accomplished British novelists of the late-Victorian era, penning strikingly modern stories populated by shamelessly self-promoting journalists, corrupt preachers, chauvinist husbands, and scheming wives. Biographer John Halperin tells us why Gissing belongs on your summer reading list.
Search for a used copy of John Halperin's Gissing: A Life in Books at amazon.com.
Read Gissing's best-known book, New Grub Street, for free online here, or check out the rest of his books available for download here.
Weigh in: Who's your favorite underappreciated author?
Underappreciated Literature: Yevgeny Zamyatin
The Leonard Lopate Show
August 18, 2006
In 1921, before the term “science fiction” was invented, Yevgeny Zamyatin wrote a novel set far in the future. The book, We, is a groundbreaking piece of dystopian literature. On today’s edition of our summer Underappreciated Literature series, translator Natasha Randall explains the book’s importance.
Available for purchase at amazon.com
Underappreciated Literature: Richard Hughes
The Leonard Lopate Show
August 11, 2006
The 1929 Richard Hughes novel A High Wind in Jamaica has all the trappings of a summer blockbuster: earthquakes, hurricanes, murder, and pirates. It’s also great literature—a book about five British children, and what their misadventures reveal about human nature. Francine Prose, who wrote the introduction for an edition of the book published by the New York Review of Books, joins us on today’s edition of our summer Underappreciated Literature series.
Available for purchase at amazon.com
Underappreciated Literature: Irmtraud Morgner
The Leonard Lopate Show
August 04, 2006
The East German writer Irmtraud Morgner won her country’s National Prize for Literature in 1978. But she’s practically unknown in the US. Today, only her epic novel The Life and Adventures of Trobadora Beatrice as Chronicled by her Minstrel Laura has been translated into English. Professor Silke von der Emde of Vassar joins us for today’s edition of our Underappreciated Literature series.
Available for purchase at amazon.com
Underappreciated Literature: James Hogg
The Leonard Lopate Show
July 28, 2006
In 1824, the poet and shepherd James Hogg wrote one of Scotland’s most important novels: The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner. The book was not seen as a masterpiece at the time, and for decades critics dismissed Hogg as a minor writer. Now, he’s recognized as a literary genius, and the author of one of the world’s first psychological novels. Dr. Gillian Hughes of the James Hogg Society joins us for our Underappreciated Literature series.
Available for purchase at amazon.com
Underappreciated Literature: Mouloud Feraoun
The Leonard Lopate Show
July 21, 2006
Mouloud Feraoun grew up in the rural Kabyle region of French-controlled Algeria. His classic first novel, The Poor Man’s Son, captured the realities of colonial occupation, and its effect on Algerians. Though Mouloud Feraoun became one of Algeria’s most important writers and intellectuals, his work wasn't translated into English until 2000. Professor James D. Le Sueur, a specialist in French and North African history, discusses Mouloud Feraoun as part of our Underappreciated Literature series.
The Poor Man's Son is available for purchase at amazon.com
Journal, 1955 - 1962: Reflections on the French-Algerian War is available for purchase at amazon.com
James D. Le Sueur’s Uncivil War: Intellectuals and Identity Politics During the Decolonization of Algeria is available for purchase at amazon.com
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