LITERNAUT (PODCAST)

Raskolnikov murders a pawnbroker to prove his superiority but descends into guilt and madness before seeking redemption through confession.

The Headless Horseman is the ghost of a Hessian soldier who lost his head to a cannonball during the American Revolution. He haunts Sleepy Hollow, riding nightly to find his missing head and chasing the schoolmaster Ichabod Crane out of town.

A kind girl mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters. With the help of a Fairy Godmother who transforms a pumpkin into a carriage, she attends a royal ball and captures the Prince's heart.

Orpheus, a gifted musician, descends to the Underworld to retrieve his wife, Eurydice, after she dies from a snake bite. Hades agrees to let her go on one condition: Orpheus must not look back at her until they reach the surface.

"The Raven" is a gothic narrative poem about a grieving man's descent into madness. While mourning his lost love, Lenore, he is visited by a mysterious raven that answers every question with the haunting refrain, "Nevermore."

The Crucible is a 1953 play by Arthur Miller that uses the Salem witch trials as an allegory for McCarthyism. It depicts a community consumed by paranoia, false accusations, and religious extremism.

Set in 15th-century Paris, Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre-Dame centers on Quasimodo, a deformed bell-ringer, and his tragic love for the beautiful Esmeralda. The novel explores themes of social injustice, obsession, and fate, serving as a powerful plea to preserve the city's Gothic architecture.

Hamlet is a tragic play about Prince Hamlet, who seeks revenge against his uncle, Claudius, for murdering his father and seizing the throne. The story explores deep themes of betrayal, madness, and moral corruption as Hamlet struggles with his own indecision.

The Little Prince follows a young prince traveling between planets, discovering the absurdity of adulthood and the value of friendship. It famously explores the theme that "what is essential is invisible to the eye."

Frankenstein follows Victor Frankenstein, a scientist who creates a sentient being through an unorthodox experiment. Rejected by its creator and society, the creature turns to revenge and tragedy, exploring themes of ambition and isolation.

"The Tell-Tale Heart" follows an unnamed narrator who murders an elderly man because of his "vulture eye." Despite the "perfect" concealment of the body under floorboards, the narrator's mounting guilt manifests as a hallucinated heartbeat, driving him to confess to the police.

The story follows Othello, a high-ranking Moorish general in the Venetian army, who has secretly married the beautiful Desdemona. Their happiness is destroyed by Othello’s ensign, Iago, who secretly hates him. Iago weaves a web of lies to convince Othello that Desdemona is having an affair with his lieutenant, Cassio.

Macbeth is one of William Shakespeare's darkest and most powerful tragedies. Set in Scotland, it dramatizes the damaging physical and psychological effects of political ambition on those who seek power for its own sake.

Oliver Twist tells the story of an orphaned boy who escapes a miserable workhouse only to fall into a life of crime in London. Under the influence of the manipulative Fagin and his gang of young pickpockets, Oliver struggles to maintain his innocence while searching for his true identity and a better life.

Uncle Tom's Cabin explores the harsh realities of slavery in the American South. The story follows the virtuous Tom and other enslaved individuals as they struggle for freedom and maintain their humanity against systemic cruelty.

Pride and Prejudice is a classic novel by Jane Austen that follows the spirited Elizabeth Bennet as she navigates issues of manners, upbringing, and marriage in the British regency era. ​At its heart, it is the story of the turbulent relationship between Elizabeth and the wealthy landowner Fitzwilliam Darcy. To find happiness, they both must overcome their personal flaws: Elizabeth must look past...

Wuthering Heights is a Gothic novel by Emily Brontë centered on the intense and destructive relationship between Catherine Earnshaw and the foundling Heathcliff. Spanning two generations, it explores themes of revenge, social class, and eternal love set against the bleak Yorkshire moors.

A handsome young man remains eternally youthful while his hidden portrait ages and shows the scars of his sins. He lives a life of excess and cruelty until the painting's hideous transformation drives him to a tragic end.

Gregor Samsa wakes up transformed into a monstrous insect. The story explores his isolation and his family's rejection as he loses his humanity.

A psychological horror story about a man who, consumed by alcoholism and a spirit of perverseness, murders his beloved cat and, eventually, his wife. The plot culminates when a second cat exposes his crime to the police, symbolizing an inescapable sense of guilt.

While traveling from Istanbul to London on the legendary Orient Express, a wealthy American businessman is found murdered in his compartment—stabbed twelve times behind a locked door. ​When a snowdrift halts the train in the middle of the Yugoslavian mountains, the world-renowned detective Hercule Poirot must step in. He quickly realizes that the victim had a dark past, and among the twelve divers...