Person
Every book Dana Gioia recommended on podcasts
Across 3 podcasts. Every show Dana Gioia appears on, in one place — not just one.
Dana Gioia’s most recommended books
- Anna Karenina by Лев Толстой
- The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
- The flowers of evil by Charles Baudelaire
- War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy
- The Odyssey by Homer
- Anna Karenina by graf Leo Tolstoy
- Arcadia by Tom Stoppard
- City of God by Augustine of Hippo
- Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
- Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Cather
Michael Dana Gioia is an American poet, literary critic, literary translator, and essayist. Across multiple appearances on podcasts such as How I Write, Conversations with Tyler, and EconTalk, Gioia discussed and recommended several major works of classic literature and poetry. He praised John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath as one of the greatest American novels, specifically highlighting its ability to show the dignity of the poor and outvoted despite its imperfections. Gioia also expressed high praise for Leo Tolstoy's Anna Karenina, declaring it the greatest novel ever written, and recommended Homer's The Odyssey for its unmatched narrative quality and universal representation of human experience. In discussions regarding war literature, Gioia analyzed J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, describing it as the greatest novel in English written about the First World War because it depicts a decent person dragged reluctantly into honorable struggle, and compared its sweeping scope to Tolstoy's work. Through these conversations, Gioia offered deep critical insights into the enduring power of narrative art, canonical fiction, and epic storytelling across world literature.
Books recommended by Dana Gioia
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Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is a monumental 19th-century masterpiece of Russian literature that explores complex themes of love, adultery, social class, and tragic human choices.
Discussed“certainly Anna corena you know having read novels for over 60 years Anna corena is the best novel I've ever read”
Where to get it
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The Grapes of Wrath
The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is a classic American novel depicting the hardships of Oklahoma families migrating to California during the Great Depression.
Discussed“John Steinbeck, if you read The Grapes of Wrath, for all of Grapes of Wrath's imperfections, he has written one of the greatest American novels”
Where to get it
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The flowers of evil
The Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire, often published with material by translators such as Marthiel Mathews, is a classic volume of nineteenth-century French poetry that explores themes of decadence, beauty, mortality, and urban alienation.
Discussed“I just finished writing a 14,000-word essay on Charles Baudelaire. That's going to be the introduction to a new edition of The Flowers of Evil.”
Where to get it
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War and Peace
War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy is a sprawling Russian epic novel that chronicles elite society and military conflict during the Napoleonic era.
Discussed“I think the Lord of the Rings is the greatest novel in English written about the first world war and it's about a decent fellow who is dragged into a war which he doesn't want to fight but he conducts himself honorably going through great pain great loss uh and interestingly you know comes out of it morally strengthened in”
Where to get it
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The Odyssey
Homer's epic poem The Odyssey recounts the arduous ten-year journey of the Greek hero Odysseus as he strives to return home to Ithaca following the Trojan War, facing mythical monsters, divine wrath, and profound personal trials along the way.
Recommended“And so, let's just take the Odyssey, you know, which has to be one of the greatest stories ever told simply on a narrative level.”
Where to get it
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Anna Karenina
Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy is a classic nineteenth-century Russian novel that explores themes of betrayal, faith, family, and societal hypocrisy through the tragic romance of its title character.
Discussed“if I was asked you know the you know my top 10 great novels tolto and dovi would both be be honored I think Anna Corina is the greatest novel ever written I think Brothers katsov is one of the three or four greatest novels ever written crime and punishment is a tremendous novel but then you get the novels”
Where to get it
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Arcadia
Arcadia by Tom Stoppard is a celebrated contemporary play that explores the complex intersections of history, science, time, and the human search for meaning across different centuries.
Discussed“it's the line from uh Tom stoppard's Arcadia he says we shed as we pick up like Travelers who must carry everything in their arms”
Where to get it
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City of God
Augustine of Hippo's City of God is a monumental theological work written to comfort Christians and defend the faith against accusations that it caused the fall of the Roman Empire.
Discussed“one of the foundational books for me in my life is St Augustine's city of God”
Where to get it
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Crime and Punishment
Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a psychological masterpiece that explores the crushing guilt, moral torment, and eventual redemption of a destitute former student who commits a brutal murder in St.
Discussed“I think Brothers katsov is one of the three or four greatest novels ever written crime and punishment is a tremendous novel but then you get the novels like the idiot or the possessed which I think have great moments but they're kind of sprawling books which you know he doesn't reign in sufficiently”
Where to get it
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Death Comes for the Archbishop
Discussed“Willa Cather, who was not Catholic, wrote, you know, Death Comes for the Archbishop, maybe the best Catholic novel in American literature.”
Where to get it
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DON QUIXOTE
Miguel de Cervantes's Don Quixote is an early modern masterpiece following an idealistic nobleman who loses his sanity and sets out on chivalric quests to fix a flawed world.
Discussed“And you you know this from the very beginning, Don Quixote.”
Where to get it
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Earthly Powers
Discussed“I think that perhaps Earthly Powers was his great novel. Because he takes the form of a Somerset Maugham novel and he overlays a mafia novel, a religious novel, a buildingsroman all in that.”
Where to get it
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Enemies of promise and other essays
Enemies of Promise and other essays by Cyril Connolly is a classic critical work examining the various traps, distractions, and psychological perils that threaten literary ambition and prose style.
Discussed“his first book called enemies of Promise which each chapter shows you a different way that you'll go wrong as a writer”
Where to get it
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Paul Bunyan
Discussed“For Britten he did Paul Bunyan. Well, here's here's the thing you learn from Auden. His greatest libretto in terms of poetry is his first one called Paul Bunyan, which made an absolutely terrible opera –”
Where to get it
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The Bassarids
Discussed“So I think, you know, his his greatest libretti I think his best two are the two that he wrote for Hans Werner Henze, The Elegy for Young Lovers and The Bacchae, The Bassarids.”
Where to get it
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The Brothers Karamazov
The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky is a complex philosophical novel that delves deeply into faith, doubt, free will, and morality through the turbulent relationships of the Karamazov family.
Discussed“I think Anna Corina is the greatest novel ever written I think Brothers katsov is one of the three or four greatest novels ever written crime and punishment is a tremendous novel but then you get the novels like the idiot or the possessed which I think have great moments but they're kind of sprawling books which you know he”
Where to get it
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The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories
The Death of Ivan Ilyich and Other Stories by Leo Tolstoy is a profound novella exploring mortality, self-deception, and the existential reckoning of a dying man.
Discussed“Death of Ivan Ilyich. Uh which I think Well, first of all, if you asked me who was the greatest fiction writer who ever lived, I would say Tolstoy. Uh and and his short stories are full of masterpieces, but The Death of Ivan Ilyich is simply one of the greatest considerations of human mortality”
Where to get it
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The Divine Comedy
The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri is a monumental medieval epic poem that charts a spiritual journey through Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.
Discussed“That's the beginning of the Divine Comedy and start to just you know, listen to the music, the meaning, the particular words.”
Where to get it
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The Illustrated Golden Bough
The Illustrated Golden Bough by James George Frazer is an expansive comparative study of mythology, folklore, and religion that examines the shared psychological and ritualistic foundations of human societies across history.
Discussed“well what's the connection here with Odus and wisdom because when he goes past the muses he puts the wax in his ears and that's one of the things that they entice him with In order for anus to do this he has to have the golden bow which becomes the the title of this this great mythological thing that's”
Where to get it
The other 3 books Dana Gioia recommended or discussed, ranked
- The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien
- The Unquiet Grave by Cyril Connolly
- To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
Books Dana Gioia wrote
- Studying with Miss Bishop
- 99 Poems
- Can poetry matter?
- Disappearing Ink
- Weep, Shudder, Die: On Opera and Poetry
Appearances
Other mentions (19: passing, ad reads, own books)
“anyway um I wrote an article which I think is one of the best things I've ever written called disappearing Inc poetry at the end of print culture”
“this is what became really the most famous piece I've ever written called can poetry matter of course it's probably the most best known essay on poetry for the last 30 40 years”
“yeah I just published a a book uh on opera called weep shudder die and I began it about 20 years ago”
“this is n called 99 poems and it's 40 years of work”
“next my my title is from vinchenzo bini the one great Sicilian opera composer who said uh the the purpose of Opera was to make the listener weep shudder and and die through singing”
“this book the B called you know weep shut or die it has a scene from Lao M on the cover and I'm talking about Italian opera and German Opera”
“in my book 99 poems you know I was publishing my selected poems uh you know I don't know about four years ago I think was five years ago”
“And my other two teachers, Elizabeth Bishop and Robert Fitzgerald, whom I write about in this book, were people who basically came to teaching very late.”
“I adore W.C. Fields. Bank Dick is a great movie.”
“Tremendously influential, rather clumsy visionary early science fiction writer who wrote novels like Odd John and the First and Last Men.”
“Tremendously influential, rather clumsy visionary early science fiction writer who wrote novels like Odd John and the First and Last Men.”
“Tremendously influential, rather clumsy visionary early science fiction writer who wrote novels like Odd John and the First and Last Men.”
“And we did Dostoevsky's The Idiot. Right now we're reading Cousin Bette by Balzac.”
“We did The Red and the Black. We did Catch-22.”
“We did Catch-22. But we all agree that the greatest thing we've ever read together was Anna Karenina.”
“Well, let me uh recapitulate, you know, the argument in my book.”
“you know, the book we were, you know, uh that I just published Studying with Miss Bishop is not a book I could have written as a young man.”
“And I think that and I think that that is what people are responding to in the book.”
“And so, I wrote I ended up my book night night of a book called 99 Poems.”