19th Century Literature

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What happened in the West during the 19th century was pretty much what you'd expect from a society whose religious and philosophical foundations had been shaken to the root after centuries of overt Christian influence. There were basically three possible responses: to reject Christianity and accept the new humanism wholesale; to try to maintain a balance between the two; or, to maintain complete allegiance to the Christian faith and defend it against the growing number of anti-Christian ideas.

Unfortunately, those in the latter group often reverted to a simple anti-intellectualism that, far from upholding a solid Christian worldview, undermined the faith to which they so desperately clung. Those who didn't go to that extreme often went to another—in their attempt to remain intellectually relevant, many Christian writers and thinkers began to embrace the increasingly unchristian ideas surfacing, and try to collate them with orthodox doctrine. It was a confusing time, and the lines of Christian culture and secular culture began to blur in increasingly bizarre ways.

For one thing, theologians began to adopt the view that science and faith were separate realms, and that each had its own realm of authority on which the other could not infringe. Charles Darwin's theory of general evolution was obviously instrumental in fostering this idea, but other forward strides in practical science like the mechanization of the Industrial Revolution, improvements in medical knowledge, and a growing sense that only what could be observed was "real" were just as influential.

It all went back to Progress, really. The Enlightenment ideal of man's interminable forward movement through the centuries meant that things were getting better, and with things demonstrably getting better it was hard for many to argue. Because many of the philosophical ideas that accompanied scientific progress were rooted in humanism rather than Christianity, people assumed the two were incompatible to some degree, and to be reconciled they had to be separated.

Not everyone was happily devoted to Progress, however. One of the 19th century's dominant literary movements was devoted to the opposite. Romanticism was as much a child of the Enlightenment as scientism, but instead of going forward they grasped Rousseau's idea that man is at his best when at his most natural, and went backward. Or tried—praising nature, deriding civilization and technology, and pursuing free love is easier evoked in poetry than practiced in real life, as its leaders soon discovered. Still, men like Lord Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and Samuel Taylor Coleridge left behind some of the greatest verse ever written.

The Victorians were certainly influenced by Romanticism and the Enlightenment, but they were a little more balanced. Writers like Charles Dickens (possibly the greatest novelist of all time) and William Makepeace Thackeray combined Christian themes, satire, social activism and a heightened aesthetic sense to simultaneously comment on and delight the culture at large. In many ways the novel came into its own during this period, though some of its best practitioners were still 50-100 years in the future.

In the New World a particularly American version of Romanticism took hold. Transcendentalism as espoused by Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, and Henry David Thoreau was less organized than its Continental counterpart. It was also less rooted in Western tradition, at least, in the Classical Western tradition; the Transcendentalists preferred biblical symbolism, particularly the Old Testament with its often unsettling and apocalyptic imagery.

No era can claim a single literary or intellectual trajectory, but each phase in human history has its own zeitgeist, the spirit of the age. For the 19th century it was the final shift of authority away from any Divine source and onto the shoulders of man. There were great Christian writers who tried to stem the tide (Robert Browning, R. L. Dabney, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, and Charles Ryrie come readily to mind), but secular man was having his heyday and mostly prevailed in the public sphere.

Without the 19th century we wouldn't have most of the fiction genres we enjoy now. Mystery and detective fiction, science fiction, fantasy, escapist adventure novels, realistic historical fiction, etc., all came into being between the beginning of the French Republic and the founding of Major League Baseball. Whatever your opinion of the ideas rampant in these works, these are some of the best philosophical treatises, novels, poems, short stories, and essays history has to offer.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he's a husband and father who loves church, good food, and weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur. Read more of his reviews here.

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19th Century Literature

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	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain from Dover Publications Realistic Fiction for 7th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.00
	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain from Bantam Books Realistic Fiction for 7th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
	Adventures of Tom Sawyer Dover Thrift Editions by Mark Twain from Dover Publications for 6th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.00
	Adventures of Tom Sawyer Puffin Classics by Mark Twain from Penguin Classics Realistic Fiction for 6th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $10.00
	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll from Bantam Books for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $3.00 (1 in stock)
	Apologia Pro Vita Sua Dover Giant Thrift Editions by John Henry Newman from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $7.00
	Ben-Hur by Lew Wallace from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $7.00
	Ben-Hur A Tale of the Christ Signet Classics by Lew Wallace from Signet Classics Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $9.95
	Black Arrow Dover Evergreen Classics by Robert Louis Stevenson from Dover Publications Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV) $5.99
	Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology Age of Fable by Thomas Bulfinch from Dover Publications for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.00
	Bulfinch's Medieval Mythology by Thomas Bulfinch from Dover Publications for 6th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $10.00
	Captains Courageous Signet Classics by Rudyard Kipling from Signet Classics Nautical Fiction for 7th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
	Charge of the Light Brigade & Other Poems Dover Thrift Editions by Alfred Tennyson from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN) $4.00
	Christmas Carol Dover Thrift Editions by Charles Dickens from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $3.00
	Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, Enriched Classic from Pocket Books for 9th-12th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $3.00 (1 in stock)
	Civil Disobedience and Other Essays Dover Thrift Editions by Henry David Thoreau from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $3.00
	Civil War Stories by Ambrose Bierce from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.00
	Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court Signet Classics by Mark Twain from Signet Classics Social Satire/Humor for 8th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
	Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand from Bantam Books Drama for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $2.50 (2 in stock)
	Cyrano de Bergerac Dover Thrift Editions by Edmond Rostand from Dover Publications Drama for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $4.00 $2.00 (2 in stock)
	Diary of a Madman and Other Stories by Nikolai Gogol from Signet Classics for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
	Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
	Emma Penguin Classics by Jane Austen from Penguin Classics Romantic Realistic Fiction for 8th-12th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $9.00 $5.00 (1 in stock)
	Fifty Great Short Stories by Milton Crane from Bantam Books for 9th-Adult in Short Stories (Location: LIT-ANTH) $7.99
	Four Great American Classics by Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Herman Melville from Bantam Books for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
	Frankenstein Dover Thrift Editions by Mary Shelley from Dover Publications for 7th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.00
	Great American Short Stories by Wallace & Mary Stegner, editors from Dell Publishing Realistic Fiction for 9th-12th grade in Short Stories (Location: LIT-ANTH) $8.99
	Great Expectations (abridged) Puffin Classics by Charles Dickens from Puffin Books Realistic Fiction for 7th-10th grade in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF) $7.99
	Hound of the Baskervilles Signet Classics by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from Signet Classics Mystery for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $4.95
	House of the Seven Gables Signet Classics by Nathaniel Hawthorne from Signet Classics Fantasy for 9th-12th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
	Hunchback of Notre Dame Signet Classics by Victor Hugo from Signet Classics Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
	Ideal Husband Dover Thrift Editions by Oscar Wilde from Dover Publications Drama for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $2.50
	Importance of Being Earnest Dover Thrift Editions by Oscar Wilde from Dover Publications Drama/Comedy for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $3.00
	Importance of Being Earnest Dover Thrift Editions by Oscar Wilde from Signet Classics Drama/Comedy for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $4.95
	Inheritance Penguin Classics by Louisa May Alcott from Penguin Classics Realistic Romantic Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $15.00
	Innocents Abroad Signet Classics by Mark Twain from Signet Classics Travel books/Social Commentary for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $7.95
	Invisible Man by H. G. Wells from Signet Classics Science Fiction for 7th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
	Island of Dr. Moreau Signet Classics by H. G. Wells from Signet Classics Speculative Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $4.95
	Island of Dr. Moreau Signet Classics by H. G. Wells from Dover Publications Speculative Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $4.00
	Island of Dr. Moreau by H. G. Wells from SeaWolf Press Speculative Fiction for 9th-Adult in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
	Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott from Bantam Books Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
	Ivanhoe Signet Classics by Sir Walter Scott from Signet Classics Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
	Ivanhoe Penguin Classics by Sir Walter Scott, edited by Graham Tulloch from Penguin Classics Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $12.00
	Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte from Dover Publications Realistic Romantic Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.40
	Journals of Lewis & Clark Signet Classics by John Bakeless, editor from Signet Classics Primary Source Documents for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $8.95
	Last of the Mohicans Leatherstocking Tales #2 by James Fenimore Cooper Reprint from Signet Classics Realistic Action/Adventure Novel for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
	Les Miserables Signet Classics by Victor Hugo, translated by Lee Fahnestock & Norman MacAfee from Signet Classics Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $11.99
	Les Miserables (abridged) by Victor Hugo, supplementary materials written by Margaret Brantley from Simon and Schuster Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $7.99
	Lewis and Clark Expedition - 3-volume Set by Meriwether Lewis from J.B. Lippincott Co. Primary Source Documents for 9th-Adult in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS) $32.00 (1 in stock)
	Life on the Mississippi Signet Classics by Mark Twain from Signet Classics Autobiography for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $4.95
	Looking Backward Dover Thrift Editions by Edward Bellamy from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.00
	Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $3.50 $2.00 (1 in stock)
	Mansfield Park Penguin Classics by Jane Austen from Penguin Classics Romantic Realistic Fiction for 8th-12th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $9.00
	Middlemarch by George Eliot from Signet Classics Realistic Fiction for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $9.99
	Moby-Dick Signet Classics by Herman Melville from Signet Classics Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
	Moonstone Signet Classics by Wilkie Collins from Signet Classics Mystery for 9th-12th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
	Northanger Abbey Penguin Classics by Jane Austen from Penguin Classics Romantic Realistic Fiction for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $8.00
	On Slavery and the Civil War Selections from His Writings Dover Thrift Editions by Frederick Douglass from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $2.00
	Open Boat and Other Stories Dover Thrift Editions by Stephen Crane from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $2.50 $1.50 (2 in stock)
	Pathfinder The Inland Sea Leatherstocking Tales #3 by James Fenimore Cooper from Penguin Classics Realistic Fiction for 9th-12th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $15.00
	Persuasion Penguin Classics by Jane Austen from Penguin Classics Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-12th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $7.00
	Pioneers Leatherstocking Tales #4 by James Fenimore Cooper from Signet Classics Realistic Fiction for 9th-12th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $7.95
	Pride and Prejudice Penguin Classics by Jane Austen from Penguin Classics Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-12th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $9.00
	Pride and Prejudice Dover Thrift Editions by Jane Austen from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.00
	Pride and Prejudice (abridged) Puffin Classics by Jane Austen, Abridged by Linda Jennings from Puffin Books Realistic Romantic Fiction for 7th-12th grade in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
	Prince and the Pauper Signet Classics by Mark Twain from Signet Classics Historical Fiction for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
	Pudd'nhead Wilson Signet Classics by Mark Twain from Signet Classics Mystery for 8th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $4.95
	Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane from Bantam Books Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $4.95
	Rise of Silas Lapham Signet Classics by William Dean Howells Reissue from Notgrass Company for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $7.95
	Roughing It by Mark Twain from Penguin Classics for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
	Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne from Pocket Books Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.99
	Scarlet Letter Dover Thrift Editions by Nathaniel Hawthorne from Dover Publications Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.00 $3.00 (1 in stock)
	Self-Reliance and Other Essays Dover Thrift Editions by Ralph Waldo Emerson from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $4.00
	Sense and Sensibility Penguin Classics by Jane Austen from Penguin Classics Romantic Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $8.00
	Short Stories of Louisa May Alcott by Louisa May Alcott from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
	Silas Marner Signet Classics by George Eliot from Signet Classics Realistic Fiction for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $4.95
	Song of Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN) $2.00 (1 in stock)
	Story of King Arthur and His Knights Signet Classics by Howard Pyle from Signet Classics Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 7th-9th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.95
	Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Revised from Penguin Classics Mystery/Suspense for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $9.00
	Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Signet Classics by Robert Louis Stevenson from Signet Classics Mystery/Suspense for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
	Study in Scarlet & The Sign of Four Dover Thrift Editions by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from Dover Publications Mystery for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.00 $3.00 (1 in stock)
	Tale of Two Cities Signet Classics by Charles Dickens from Signet Classics Victorian Novel for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.95
	Tale of Two Cities Dover Thrift Editions by Charles Dickens from Dover Publications Victorian Novel for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.00
	Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs Centennial Edition from Signet Classics for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.95
	Time Machine by H. G. Wells from Dover Publications for 7th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $2.00 (1 in stock)
	Time Machine by H. G. Wells from Signet Classics Science Fiction/Dystopian Literature for 7th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
	Treasure Island by Sir Robert Louis Stevenson from Bantam Books for 6th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $4.95
	Walden Or, Life in the Woods Copper Lodge Library by Henry David Thoreau, annotated by Stephanie B. Meter from Classical Conversations for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $14.95
	Walden and Other Writings by Henry David Thoreau, edited and an introduction by Joseph Wood Krutch from Bantam Books for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $3.00 (1 in stock)
	When I Was a Slave Memoirs from the Slave Narrative Collection Dover Thrift Editions by Norman Yetman (editor) from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.00 $3.00 (1 in stock)

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