Despite not originally planning this short story for our “Fallen Women” season, in a weird way, it may fit…Spoilers, ahoy!

If you have not read Shirley Jackson’s 1948 short story, “The Lottery,” go treat yourself to a very special reading experience. It will take you just a few minutes, and it’s one of the greatest short stories EVER.

Then, join Sonja and Vanessa to learn the origins of this legendary story. Was it based on real events? What did contemporary readers make of it? Why did it puzzle critics? Does the fact that a woman wrote it matter? What does this brief piece reveal about Jackson’s larger views on humanity? Nearly 80 years later, is it still relevant today? Could it be said that we, too, conduct our own deadly “lotteries”?

Along the way, Sonja reveals her surprising knowledge of mid-twentieth century game shows, and Vanessa, not-so-surprisingly, finds another opportunity to diss Papa Hemingway.

REFERENCES:

Again, we owe a debt of gratitude to Ruth Franklin biography, Shirley Jackson: A Rather Haunted Life. If you are a Jackson fan, you just have to go get a copy of this thoroughly researched, insightfully-written study of a complicated woman living in a challenging time for women in American history and literature. We promise that you’ll find it tremendously rewarding.

There will be SPOILERS, so if you’ve gotten this far in life without hearing about the ending to this novel o' novels, don’t push your luck further: go block off a month to read it, and then hit play!

Sonja and Vanessa are thrilled to welcome their dear friend, Rev. Heather Coates, who fell in love with Russian literature, and was eager (willing?) to re-read Tolstoy’s 1878 (in full book form) novel about a love affair that spans the hundreds of miles between Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Heather offers some tips on how to navigate the names in Russian novels, and Sonja offers a little bio of Tolstoy. In our lively discussion, we ask if this is the best novel ever written–as many have said it is. Can you have this novel without the railway? Is it a novel about a person or a culture? Can Tolstoy love Anna and kill her at the same time? Should this novel even be named after Anna? And what does her slice of the story add to the “fallen woman” narrative? Should you read this novel? And is it possible to read without vodka breaks?

Along the way, Heather finds some mushrooms for Sonja, Sonja reveals she’s a romantic after all, and Vanessa finds a way to link a character to Jay Gastby–again.

REFERENCES:

If you are interested in Tolstoy taking down Shakespeare, here is a link to "Tolstoy on Shakespeare: A Critical Essay on Shakespeare" –emphasis on the word “critical”. It was published in 1906, four years before Tolstoy dies, so well into his super religious/cranky old man phase, which explains a lot.

Also, please know that we are always thinking about how a writer’s biography intersects with their work, and Tolstoy is no exception. While we give a brief overview of Tolstoy here, we are aware that he and his wife, Sophia Tolstaya, was a writer and artist in her own right, and by all accounts, absolutely essential to Tolstoy’s success as a writer (and, perhaps, day-to-day survival as a human). It is ironic that a man who could “write” women so well was terrible at treating his own wife well. It is one of the famous awful marriages in literature. Just search Tolstoy+Sophia+marriage, and loads of articles will come up. Also, if you are interested in hearing from Sophia herself, she was a life-long diarist, and there are translations of her diaries and a full biography available in English.

Spoiler alert!!! Many literary-curious readers have Flaubert’s 1857 debut novel, Madame Bovary, in their TBR stack. If that’s you, circle back to us after you’ve read this landmark of realism.

This episode offers a concise Flaubert biography, a sense of why this novel is considered important in the context of literary history, and whether or not you might want to read it. In terms of the fallen-woman narrative, we explore the role fantasy plays in women’s societal downfall. Is being a member of a lending library a precursor to disaster? Or does society fail women by educating them and then trapping them in mundane lives as wives and mothers? Is Emma Bovary a victim? Or is Emma Bovary a woman with agency who recklessly discards a perfectly wholesome life with a devoted husband, respectability, financial security, and a lovely, healthy child? In pursuing these questions, Flaubert claims to be objective…but can he be?

Along the way, Sonja shares TMI about truffles, and Vanessa doubts the wisdom of Dr. Bovary’s ride-with-a-hottie-in-the-woods remedy for curing a nervous wife.