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19th Century Literature

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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115 Items found Print
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Active Filters: British Literature, 9th grade (Ages 14-15), Hardcover
Adam Bede
Everyman's Library
by George Eliot
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$24.00
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, illustrated by Richard Lebenson
from Reader's Digest
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
Books of Wonder
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, illustrated by Barry Moser
from HarperCollins
for 7th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Alfred, Lord Tennyson
by Alfred, Lord Tennyson
from Sweetwater Press
for 9th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Macmillan
Fantasy for 7th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$18.00 (1 in stock)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
Rainbow Classics
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from World Publishing Company
for 4th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Annotated Alice
by Lewis Carroll
from Bramhall House
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$10.00 (2 in stock)
Annotated Alice
by Lewis Carroll
Definitive Edition from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Annotated Sherlock Holmes Volumes 1 & 2
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
from Clarkson Potter Publishers
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Black Arrow
Scribner Illustrated Classics
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
from Atheneum
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Brownings: Letters and Poetry
by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Robert Browning
from International Collectors Library
for 9th-12th grade
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
Captains Courageous
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Rudyard Kipling
from Reader's Digest
Nautical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from Gramercy Books
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens
from Bantam Books
for 6th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.95
Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Everett Shinn
from Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Greg Hildebrandt
Unabridged from Simon and Schuster
Fantasy for 6th-10th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by John Leech
from J. G. Ferguson Publishing Co.
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Roberto Innocenti
Unabridged from Stewart, Tabori, & Chang
Fantasy for 6th-10th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Trina Schart Hyman
Unabridged from Holiday House
Fantasy for 6th-10th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by P.J. Lynch
Unabridged from Candlewick Press
Fantasy for 6th-10th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$19.99
Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Robert Ingpen
Unabridged from Palazzo Editions Limited
Fantasy for 6th-10th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$24.99
Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens; illustrated by Julian Brazelton
from Pocket Books
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Classic Fairy Tales
by Peter Opie & Iona Opie
from Oxford University
for 6th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Cloister and the Hearth
by Charles Reade, illustrated by Lynd Ward
from Heritage Press
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
David Balfour
Scribner Illustrated Classics
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Action/Adventure for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
David Copperfield
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Charles Dickens
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Dickens: Five Christmas Novels
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Reginald B. Birch
from Heritage Press
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
ECL: Black Arrow
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Don Irwin
from Classic Press
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
ECL: Casebook of Sherlock Holmes (abridged)
Educator Classic Library #7
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, illustrated by Don Irwin
from Classic Press
for 8th-Adult
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
ECL: Time Machine & Invisible Man
by H. G. Wells, illustrated by Dick Cole
from Classic Press
Science Fiction/Dystopian literature for 7th-Adult
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
Emma
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Jane Austen
Reader's Digest ed
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Frankenstein
Everyman's Library
by Mary Shelley
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Horror for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$22.00
Frankenstein
Illustrated Junior Library Series 4
by Mary Shelley, illustrated by Larry Schwinger
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 7th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Frankenstein
Portland House Illustrated Classics
by Mary Shelley, illustrated by Lynd Ward and Aristides Ruiz
from Portland House
Horror for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
from International Collectors Library
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Scott McKowen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 8th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Illustrated Origin of Species (abridged)
by Charles Darwin, abridged and introduced by Richard E. Leakey
from Hill and Wang
Scientific Philosophy for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott
from International Collectors Library
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott, Illustrated by Edward A. Wilson
from Heritage Press
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ivanhoe
Windermere Series 4
by Sir Walter Scott, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Ivanhoe
Windermere Series 1
by Sir Walter Scott, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Ivanhoe
Windermere Series 2
by Sir Walter Scott, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Ivanhoe
Windermere Series 3
by Sir Walter Scott, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Jane Eyre
Portland House Illustrated Classics
by Charlotte Bronte, illustrated by Monroe S. Orr
from Portland House
Gothic Romance for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Jane Eyre
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Charlotte Bronte, illustrated by Richard Lebenson
1st edition from Reader's Digest
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
from International Collectors Library
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Jane Eyre & Wuthering Heights - 2 Volume Set
by Charlotte Bronte and Emily Bronte, illustrated by Fritz Eichenberg
from Random House
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Jungle Books
Macmillan Classics
by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by Robert Shore
from Macmillan
Animal Stories for 7th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Kidnapped
Scribner Illustrated Classics
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by N. C. Wyeth
from Atheneum
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Kidnapped
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by N. C. Wyeth and Graham Oakley
from Dilithium Press, Ltd.
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Kidnapped (The Original Text)
by Robert Louis Stevenson, edited with an introduction and notes by Barry Menikoff
from Huntington Library
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Kim
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Rudyard Kipling
1st edition from Reader's Digest
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
King Solomon's Mines
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by H. Rider Haggard
Reader's Digest ed from Reader's Digest
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Lady of the Lake
by Sir Walter Scott, edited with notes by William J. Rolfe
from Houghton Mifflin
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Lady of the Lake
The Students' Series of English Classics
by Sir Walter Scott, edited with introduction and notes by James Arthur Tufts
from Leach, Shewell & Sanborn
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Life of Our Lord
by Charles Dickens
from Simon and Schuster
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$16.00
Lorna Doone
by R. D. Blackmore, illustrated by John Austen
from Heritage Press
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Lorna Doone (abridged)
by R. D. Blackmore, illustrated by Pauline D. Baynes
from American Education Publications
for 7th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Mansfield Park
by Jane Austen
from Penguin Classics
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 8th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Master of Ballantrae
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Heritage Press
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Master of Ballantrae
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Arthur Conan Conan Doyle
from Reader's Digest
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Mill on the Floss
by George Eliot
from Heritage Press
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
New Annotated Sherlock Holmes Volume 1
by Arthur Conan Doyle
Non-slipcased edition from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
New Annotated Sherlock Holmes Volume 2
by Arthur Conan Doyle
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
New Annotated Sherlock Holmes Volume 3
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
New Arabian Nights
Arcadia
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Arcadia House
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Old Curiosity Shop
Everyman's Library
by Charles Dickens
from Everyman's Library
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$25.00
Old Curiosity Shop
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Charles Dickens
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00 (2 in stock)
Old Curiosity Shop
by Charles Dickens, with original illustrations and an introduction by Andrew Lang
from Book-of-the-Month Club
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Oliver Twist
Books of Wonder
by Charles Dickens (illustrated by Don Freeman)
from HarperCollins
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
Original Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Eric Kincaid
from Brimax Books
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Pickwick Papers
by Charles Dickens
from International Collectors Library
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Pride and Prejudice
Macmillan Classics
by Jane Austen, illustrated by Bernarda Bryson
from Macmillan
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
from International Collectors Library
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Pride and Prejudice
Illustrated Junior Library Series 3
by Jane Austen
from Grosset & Dunlap
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Pride and Prejudice
Rainbow Classics
by Jane Austen, illustrated by Edgard Cirlin
from World Publishing Company
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Prince Otto
Arcadia
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Arcadia House
for 7th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Return of Sherlock Holmes
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Arthur Conan Doyle
from Reader's Digest
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Sense and Sensibility
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Jane Austen
from Reader's Digest
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Sentimental Tommy
by J. M. Barrie
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Shropshire Lad
The Living Library
by A. E. Housman, Illustrated by Jeanne Edwards
from World Publishing Company
for 7th-12th grade
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Silas Marner
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by George Eliot
1st edition from Reader's Digest
Realistic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Silas Marner
by George Eliot
from Heritage Press
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Stalky & Co.
by Rudyard Kipling
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Sterling Classics
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Scott McKowen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 7th-10th grade
in Mystery & Suspense (Location: FIC-MYS)
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Joseph Ciardiello
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Study in Scarlet & Hound of the Baskervilles
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
from Reader's Digest
Mystery for 6th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Tale of Two Cities
Portland House Illustrated Classics
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Harvey Dunn
from Portland House
for 7th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
from International Collectors Library
Victorian Novel for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Tale of Two Cities
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Charles Dickens
from Reader's Digest
Victorian Novel for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
from Pocket Books
Victorian Novel for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
from Modern Library
Victorian Novel for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Tale of Two Cities (adapted)
by Charles Dickens, adapted by Grace A. Benscotter & Merrill Howe and illustrated by Bernice Oehler
1923 printing from Longmans, Green & Co.
Victorian Novel for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Dilithium Press, Ltd.
for 5th-10th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Treasure Island
Windermere Readers #16
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Milo Winter
1954 Edition from Rand McNally
for 5th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.00 (2 in stock)
Treasure Island
Windermere Series 1
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 5th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Treasure Island
Windermere Series 2
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Milo Winter
1921 printing from Rand McNally
for 5th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Treasure Island
Windermere Series 3
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Milo Winter
1924 Printing from Rand McNally
for 5th-10th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
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