Grand Podcast Abyss

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit grandhotelabyss.substack.com

Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2026 season is here. The 2024 and 2025 archives are here. This episode, of which the first 10 minutes are free, is about D. H. Lawrence’s banned book of 1915, The Rainbow, the family saga of the Brangwens from the introduction of industrialism to rural England in the mid-19th century to the cultural modernity of the early 20th century. We discuss Lawrence’s many productive contradictions and conflicts, his style’s mix of the Biblical and the modern-abstract, his creation of characters that are not stable egos but zones of affect, his critique of Christianity and elevation of antinomian and gnostic ideas, his portrayal of sexuality and nature, his anti-natalism and rejection of family, his attack on political abstractions like the state and democracy, his anarchic individualism and attraction to power, and more. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow corresponding to the episode can be downloaded behind the paywall:

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit grandhotelabyss.substack.com

Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2026 season is here. The 2024 and 2025 archives are here. This episode, of which the first 10 minutes are free, is about Thomas Hardy’s Tess of the d’Urbervilles. We consider Hardy’s unique status as great novelist and great poet and his role as transitional figure between Victorian and modernist; we discuss common criticisms of his fiction, rehearse his biography, and broach his views on literature. Then we examine the contradictory views of nature and society offered by his most famous novel, paying special attention to the mythic roots of his modern tragedy, or his reinvention of the ancient rite of tragedy to renew its purpose in modern times. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow corresponding to the episode can be downloaded behind the paywall:

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit grandhotelabyss.substack.com

Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2026 season is here. The 2024 and 2025 archives are here. This episode, of which the first 15 minutes are free, is about Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre. We consider the novel’s mix of Gothic romance with social realism, its invitation to a psychological reading and projection of the psyche onto exteriors and landscapes, its allegorical and Christian quality, its nostalgia for the Romantic era, its political implications for questions of gender and empire and class, its changing reputation in modern criticism, and more. Please also like, share, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow corresponding to the episode can be downloaded behind the paywall:

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit grandhotelabyss.substack.com

Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2026 season is here. The 2024 and 2025 archives are here. This episode, of which the first 15 minutes are free, is about Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights. We discuss the collective biography of the Brontë family up until Emily and Anne’s death, then we consider the novel’s beginning in the mode of Gothic romance and ending in that of domestic realism, its intricate structure and nested narrators, the combination of social and metaphysical meanings the narrative may hold, Brontë’s dialogue with the Romantic tradition and with Milton, interpretations of the novel offered by prominent critics (Terry Eagleton, Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar, Nancy Armstrong, Camille Paglia), and more. Please also like, share, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow corresponding to the episode can be downloaded behind the paywall:

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit grandhotelabyss.substack.com

Welcome back to The Invisible College, my series of literature courses for paid subscribers. The introduction to and schedule for the 2026 season is here. The 2024 and 2025 archives are here. This episode, of which the first 10 minutes are free, is about Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. We consider the novel’s context in Shelley’s biography and milieu; its criticism of revolutionary politics, sublime aesthetics, and overweening science; the connection it draws between magic and science; its intricate, complex structure; its roots in Greek myth and Christian religion; its inception of the science fiction genre, as well as its participation in epic, tragic, Gothic, sentimental, and domestic genres; the differences between the 1818 and 1831 texts; the possibility that Mary Shelley is a neglected figure in the tradition of conservative literature; and more. Please like, share, comment, and subscribe! The slideshow for to the episode can be downloaded behind the paywall: