From the Archives: 1920 Classics
A TBR-toppling Patreon episode for our main feed & fun links to pair with our picks
We’re on our August break, working on getting some much-needed rest and using this time to restore our creative juices. While we’re out-of-office, we’re releasing a couple of Patreon episodes to the main podcast feed. In this week’s release, we’re sharing six classic titles from the 1920s that make excellent additions to any TBR, whether you’re reading them for the first time or pining for nostalgic days of childhood.
The 1920s is a time period we both love to read and explore. (Modernist literature for the win!) We’ve read quite a few 1920s classics over here on the podcast, and even a contemporary retelling of one of the great American 1920s classics. In this episode, you’ll have your picks from dense and delightfully nerdy tomes, a slim spiritual journey in translation, a children’s series that sparked one thousand fantasies about running away from home, and a work of nonfiction that shaped the way women thought about the spatial and financial freedom to create.
Make sure to download today’s episode wherever you get your podcasts!
More Links
Feeling intimidated just thinking about reading Ulysses by James Joyce? Check out this fun and informative breakdown on why you should read the novel many consider a literary masterpiece from Ted-Ed.
Curious about more works of Modernist literature? The New York Times has an essay about why 1925 may have been Modernism’s most important year.
While we’re certainly in the camp of knowing what it is like to daydream about harvesting blueberries and keeping our bottles of milk cool in a stream, we also appreciate this critical essay from the New Yorker that considers the way Gertrude Chandler Warner’s popular children’s series evokes “the spirit of capitalism.”
In this beautifully told and deeply personal essay, Veronica Esposito shares how their perspective on Modernist literature changed as they engaged with it over their lifetime.
Pulling from the Paris Review archives, check out this fascinating interview with author William Faulkner and the art of fiction. (Apologies for the paywall, but what you can access is still worth reading!)
Over on Patreon
If you enjoyed today’s episode and would like to hear more 1920s recommendations, head on over to our Patreon to sign up for access to our backlog of exclusive episodes. Sara also recently shared her classic picks to pair with the BARBIE movie, and it’s an episode you don’t want to miss.
It’s not too late to join this month’s book club discussion on Patreon at the Literature Scholar level. This month we’re reading Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Claire Dederer. There is still plenty of time to sign up and dig into Dederer’s work before our discussion on August 30th at 7 PM EST. To access all this, plus our catalog of classes and webinars, head on over to our Patreon at www.patreon.com/novelpairings to sign up today.
Final Words
Thanks for listening along and geeking out about 1920s literature with us. We hope you found a few more books to add your TBR. We’ll be back next week with our fall lineup announcement, and we can’t wait to share what’s in store.
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!