Announcing Our Spring Semester

Two plays, a frequently requested novel, and a classic retelling

We’re knee deep in Wharton in Winter (and it’s certainly not to late to join our readalong!), but we’re also already prepping for an exciting Spring semester of Novel Pairings University.

This Spring, we’ll be exploring comedy and satire, and we’ve selected four titles we’ve long been eager to bring to the podcast. Satirical classics provide great fodder for reading and conversation as they reveal so much about the social conventions, morals, and attitudes of a given time period. These books make for easier reading than some of the darker, denser classics we’ve covered, but they still allow for close reading, interpretation, and lots of nerdiness. Let’s take a look at what’s coming up for our Spring semester!

Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh - One of our most requested classics, Evelyn Waugh’s Brideshead Revisited is the story of outsider Charles Ryder who becomes entangled with charismatic Sebastian Flyte and his family. Staunch Catholics and crumbling aristocrats, the Flytes introduce Charles to a world he could never have imagined and introduce readers to some of the most unforgettable characters in literature. Blending Waugh’s signature satire with the lush and sensuous style he matured into, this masterpiece of British fiction is a crowd-pleasing read ripe with deeper meaning.

Measure for Measure by William Shakespeare & The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde - This April is theatre month at NPU, and because reading a play is quicker than tackling a novel, we get to fit in two—very different—dramas. First, we’ll be covering one of Shakespeare’s problem plays, Measure for Measure, with our favorite Shakespeare nerd, Traci Thomas of The Stacks Podcast. Traci describes this as Shakespeare’s messiest play and we can’t wait to dig into it with her. We’ll also be (finally!!) reading The Importance of Being Earnest, a truly laugh out loud comedy filled with word play, double entendres, and madcap escapades. This is a genuinely fun read that’s doing a lot of heavy lifting, and as one of Chelsey’s all-time favorites, we’re glad we can finally bing it to the podcast.

On Beauty by Zadie Smith - In a Novel Pairings first, we’re ending the semester with a book that can’t yet be called a modern classic, but we’re betting on it being a future classic. On Beauty is prolific British novelist Zadie Smith’s reimagining of the classic Howard’s End. Smith’s rendition features two families—one British, one American; one progressive, one conservative—whose patriarchs are warring professors of aesthetics. The dialogue is sharp, pointed, and philosophical, and Smith skewers the world of academia through these bumbling, self-serious figures. We’re so excited to cap off the semester with a thoroughly modern take on classic British satire.

Join Our Community

As always, we would love to see you this semester in Classics Club, our Patreon community for curious readers and lifelong learners. We’ll release a full Spring Schedule soon, but know that you can expect better-than-ever classes, bonus episodes, book club discussions, and behind the scenes content with a membership starting at just $5.

Final Words

We hope you are as excited for this semester of public scholarship as we are, readers! And we hope to see you in our learning community this season as we explore comedy and satire together. In the meantime, keep your eyes out for an upcoming bonus Patreon episode where we discuss our buzzy summer reads. We can’t wait to hear what you think.

Speaking of buzzy books, we’ll be back in your inbox next week with another main feed release from the Patreon archives.

Until then, we declare after all, there is no enjoyment like reading. How much sooner one tires of anything than of a book!

Thank you for supporting the podcast and our work to make public scholarship fun and accessible. If you would like to stay connected to what’s happening at Novel Pairings, make sure to subscribe to this Substack and follow us over on Instagram. Make sure you never miss an episode by subscribing to the show wherever you get your podcasts. And if you love the work we’re doing, please consider leaving us a review on Apple Podcasts!