Marlon and Jake Read Dead People is a podcast hosted by the Booker Prize-winning and internationally bestselling author Marlon James and his editor, Jake Morrissey, Executive Editor at Riverhead Books. In each episode, Marlon and Jake talk about authors—specifically dead authors. Authors they like. Authors they hate. Great books, terrible books, and books they love that you’d never expect them to. As a writer and an editor, Marlon and Jake have read thousands of books between them, and they’re not shy in expressing their opinions about them. Sometimes they’ll agree, sometimes they won’t, but in every episode, they’ll tell you what they think— uncensored and with no holds barred. (That’s why the authors have to be dead.) So, listen along to hear about the spectacularly good, the hilariously bad, and the brutally honest.
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In the final episode of the season, Marlon and Jake weigh in on their favorite vacation reads, including the ones they started but never finished. Tune in to find out which classic novels Jake took to the beach and which ones Marlon says should have been thrown in the ocean.
Subscribe to our River-herd newsletter for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content. https://sites.prh.com/riverhead-reader-newsletter
The Goodbye Look by Ross McDonald
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
Moby Dick by Herman Melville
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
Chances by Jackie Collins
The Year of the French by Thomas Flanagan
All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque
The Golden Bowl by Henry James
The Ambassadors by Henry James
Portrait of a Lady by Henry James
Pronto by Elmore Leonard
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Smallbone Deceased by Michael Gilbert
The Mystery of the Stuttering Parrot by Robert Arthur, Jr.
Persuasion by Jane Austen
The Campus Novel
Episode 30
Tuesday, April 25, 2023 • Duration 38:14
It was the best of times; it was the worst of times—it was school. In this episode, Marlon and Jake discuss books where school is the setting or going to school is central to the plot. They debate which authors got school right and which got school wrong, what makes an inspiring teacher, and what the closed universe of a schoolyard or college campus can feel like. Tune in to hear Marlon and Jake reminisce over their own college experiences and what they were like as students.
Subscribe to our River-herd newsletter for sneak peeks of our upcoming books, free giveaways, and exclusive content. https://sites.prh.com/riverhead-reader-newsletter
Tom Brown’s School Days by Thomas Hughes
The History of Tom Jones, A Foundling by Henry Fielding
Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh
Decline and Fall by Evelyn Waugh
Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh
Scoop by Evelyn Waugh
The Crime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark
A Separate Peace by John Knowles
Look back in Anger by John Osborne
Tess of the D’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy
Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
Absalom, Absalom! By William Faulkner
Love Story by Erich Segal
The Miracle Worker by William Gibson
Stoner by John Williams
Zuleika Dobson by Max Beerbohm
The Corn is Green by Emlyn Williams
Appetizer 1: Unreliable Narrators
Episode 21
Friday, February 18, 2022 • Duration 45:25
Marlon & Jake are back to discuss the narrators they love but can't trust. From the delusional to the uninformed, the sociopathic to the sympathetic, they explore the characters that charm as much as they trick, begging the question: is there such a thing as a reliable narrator? So tune in to hear if Jake has warmed to Great Expectations (spoiler alert: he hasn’t) and so much more!
Select titles mentioned in this episode:
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe
Tristram Shandy by Laurence Stern
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson
"Charles" by Shirley Jackson (in The Lottery and Other Stories collection)
Appetizers for everyone!
Episode 20
Friday, February 18, 2022 • Duration 03:38
We didn't ghost you, dear listeners. Marlon had a novel to finish, which Jake had to edit. But the good news is it's officially out in the world, and so before Marlon—the very living author—takes off on his whirlwind book tour, he and Jake are back together for a brief (but delicious) reunion of discussing what they love most: DEAD AUTHORS. We'll be back for season three later this spring, but until then, stayed tuned for an amuse bouche, a canapé, an appetizer—take your pick!—to the glorious meal on the horizon.
Dead Authors Through History
Episode 19
Wednesday, September 1, 2021 • Duration 58:38
Prepare for what might be Marlon & Jake’s most controversial hot takes yet, as they travel back through the last four hundred years to decide which dead authors from each century stand the test of time and which can be left to gather dust on the shelf. Where do they fall on Paradise Lost? Who triumphs in the battle of the poets v. novelists of the 18th century? How much has the 1930s Hollywood studio system shaped classic stories? Which of them stans Huckleberry Finn, and who thinks it might be overrated? Marlon & Jake answer these questions and more as they discuss the timeless work of the freaky, the rebellious and the groundbreaking. From Mary Shelley to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Paul Laurence Dunbar to Daphne du Maurier—with a healthy dose of Alexander Pope-dissing—tune in to find out where you stand with their picks.
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
The Adventures of Amir Hamza by Ghalib Lakhnavi and Abdullah Bilgrami
Paradise Lost by John Milton
The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser
The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
The Provoked Wife by John Vanbrugh
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
Mathilda by Mary Shelley
The Last Man by Mary Shelley
The Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe
Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
The Complete Poems of William Blake
Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe
Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Nana by Émile Zola
Germinal by Émile Zola
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
The Awakening by Kate Chopin
“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin
A Study in Scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle
Forest of A Thousand Daemons by D.O. Fagunwa
Cane by Jean Toomer
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
The Story of a Shipwrecked Sailor by Gabriel García Márquez
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
Books to Gift
Episode 18
Wednesday, August 25, 2021 • Duration 47:33
This week Marlon & Jake discuss the books by dead authors they give as gifts and the very important decision-making that goes into that selection. Whether it’s for a younger, skeptical or pretentious reader, they share the unintentionally comedic and surprisingly engaging books they choose to bestow upon their loved ones.
Middlemarch by George Eliot
The Long Ships by Frans G. Bengtsson
Tai-Pan by James Clavell
The Godfather by Mario Puzo
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh
Kidnapped by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Water-Babies by Charles Kingsley
Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Black Arrow by Robert Louis Stevenson
The Gold-Bug by Edgar Allan Poe
The Radiance of the King by Camara Laye
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole, Aged 13¾ by Sue Townsend
Lord of the Flies by William Golding
Animal Farm by George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C. S. Lewis
The History of Jamaica by Edward Long
Nicholas and Alexandra by Robert K. Massie
One Thousand and One Nights
The Death of King Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
Oreo by Fran Ross
The Stories of Breece D'J Pancake by Breece D’J Pancake
The Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu
Les Liaisons dangereuses by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos
Our Favorite Characters
Episode 17
Wednesday, August 18, 2021 • Duration 45:34
This week Marlon & Jake discuss memorable characters from books by dead authors—who they love, who they despise and everything in between. What exactly makes a character great? Who would they invite to their literary dinner party and why? From Elmore Leonard’s Raylan to Louisa May Alcott’s Jo March, Lady Macbeth to Auntie Mame—tune in to hear which fictional personalities would get a seat at the table, who would be banished forever, and who Marlon and Jake would simply ignore.
David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
The Talented Mr. Ripley by Patricia Highsmith
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
Pronto by Elmore Leonard
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Sula by Toni Morrison
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
The Parker novels by Richard Stark
Macbeth by William Shakespeare
The Divine Comedy (Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso) by Dante Alighieri
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
Auntie Mame by Patrick Dennis
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy by John le Carré
The Palliser novels by Anthony Trollope
Hamlet by William Shakespeare
King Lear by William Shakespeare
The Hunchback of Notre-Dame by Victor Hugo
Moby-Dick by Herman Melville
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
The House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov
The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
The Chronicles of Narnia by C. S. Lewis
Charlotte’s Web by E. B. White
Literary Grudge Match
Episode 16
Wednesday, August 11, 2021 • Duration 44:46
Marlon and Jake take on literary giants in a grudge match for the ages. This time it's Charles Dickens vs. Anthony Trollope and Louisa May Alcott vs. Laura Ingalls Wilder in a no-holds-barred royal rumble. The two of them pull no punches, whether they're talking about racism or Edith Wharton's snobbery, colonialism or Hugh Grant's hair. So get ready to cheer on your favorite dead author and literary warrior as Marlon and Jake go mano a mano in a street fight you've definitely never come across before.
Select titles mentioned in this episode:
The Palliser Novels by Anthony Trollope The Warden by Anthony Trollope A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens Bleak House by Charles Dickens Great Expectations by Charles Dickens Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens The Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens David Copperfield by Charles Dickens Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder Lorna Doone by R. D. Blackmore Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens Maurice by E. M. Forster Stuart Little by E.B. White The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck East of Eden by John Steinbeck Travels with Charley by John Steinbeck The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway by Ernest Hemingway Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino
Books We Wish We had Written
Episode 15
Wednesday, August 4, 2021 • Duration 56:34
Literary speculation abounds as Marlon and Jake reveal which books they wish they had written andwhich they think would have been better if they’d been written by someone completely different. Listen in as they explore the questions you never knew you needed answers to. Would The Confessions of Nat Turner have been better if Zora Neale Hurston had written it? Who could have written a funnier Ulysses? Were members of the Bloomsbury Group actually total bores? And perhaps most important: Does Marlon’s mom still have his Tom Jones fan-fiction and if so, how much is Jake willing to pay for it? Tune in for all this and more, including a lively discussion about plays that are as enjoyable to read as they are to see on stage. (And spoiler: Jake is not a fan of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.)
Select title discussed:
Tom Jones by Henry Fielding
Dubliners by James Joyce
Tai-Pan by James Clavell
Wide Sargasso Sea by Jean Rhys
Before Night Falls by Reinaldo Arenas
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
A Bend in the River by V.S. Naipaul
Airships by Barry Hannah
Joseph Andrews by Henry fielding
Pamela by Samuel Richardson
The Luck of Barry Lyndon by William Makepeace Thackeray
Shōgun by James Clavell
Trent's Last Case by E. C. Bentley
The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins
Middlemarch by George Eliot
A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens
The Obscene Bird of Night by José Donoso
The Confessions of Nat Turner by William Styron
Barracoon by Zora Neale Hurston
Terrorist by John Updike
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë
A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woolf
Ulysses by James Joyce
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
Orlando by Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde
The Edwardians by Vita Sackville-West
The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton
House of Mirth by Edith Wharton
Highland Fling by Nancy Mitford
Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad
Gateway Books
Episode 14
Wednesday, July 28, 2021 • Duration 49:45
Marlon and Jake share their "gateway" books by dead authors, the first books they read that that turned them on—or off—the rest of an author's work. From John Steinbeck to Dorothy Parker, Umberto Eco to Norman Mailer, Ayn Rand to Carson McCullers, Marlon and Jake don't hold back in discussing the imprints, footprints, and thumbprints these books left on them. They also ponder the long-lasting consequences of the high school lit class, whether a gateway book can be assigned, and the enduring power of dullness in a novel, no matter the century. Listen for this and more, including what Marlon and Jake think of The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara, edited by one Toni Morrison.
The Pearl by John Steinbeck
The Red Pony by John Steinbeck
Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Mrs. Caliban by Rachel Ingalls
The Ballad of the Sad Café by Carson McCullers
Sula by Toni Morrison
For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enuf by Ntozake Shange
Night of January 16th by Ayn Rand
The Fountainhead Ayn Rand
Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin
The Dispossessed by Ursula K. Le Guin
One Hundred Years of Solitude by Gabriel García Márquez
Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez
News of a Kidnapping by Gabriel García Márquez
Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
The Autumn of the Patriarch by Gabriel García Márquez
Enough Rope by Dorothy Parker
The collected poetry of Dorothy Parker
The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco
Foucault’s Pendulum by Umberto Eco
The Island of the Day Before by Umberto Eco
In the hand of Dante by Nicholas Tosches
Ancient Evenings by Norman Mailer
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
Miami and the Siege of Chicago by Norman Mailer
Harlot’s Ghost by Norman Mailer
An American Dream by Norman Mailer
Arrow of God by Chinua Achebe
No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe
The Gulag Archipelago by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier
A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
The Lord of the Rings by J. R. R. Tolkien
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum
Stuart Little by E.B. White
Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes
The Merchant of Venice by William Shakespeare
The Two Gentleman of Verona by William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare
As You Like It by William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare
An Ideal Husband by Oscar Wilde
His Girl Friday by Charles Lederer (screenplay), adapted from The Front Page by Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur (play)
Sleuth by Anthony Shaffer
Amadeus by Peter Shaffer
Endgame by Samuel Beckett
Why Are We In Vietnam? by Norman Mailer
The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer
Look Back in Anger by John Osborne
Loot by Joe Orton
What the Butler Saw by joe Orton
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning by Alan Sillitoe
"The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner" by Alan Sillitoe