Literature by Place

It's kind of crazy to what extent geography can inform an author's work. Jack London spent most of his life at sea, dog-sledding across Alaska, boxing and generally being an adventurous guy who would put today's REI crowd to shame. Would he have penned some of the greatest American novels otherwise? especially ones concerned primarily with man battling the elements for survival in both a mental and physical sense? Very probably not, which explains why Oscar Wilde didn't write about wolves and crazy ship captains.

No, Oscar Wilde wrote primarily about fops and society people parrying witticisms incessantly. That's not to say his work has no place in a serious consideration of literature—au contraire, The Picture of Dorian Grey is one of the finest novels written in English. It's just more evidence that if you're an author who lives in the Canadian mountains or the clubs of London, your writing will reflect that.

Physical terrain isn't the only consideration. Sartre wrote about people lolling about with no real sense of purpose except to drink wine and smoke cigarettes and look languorous because he lived in France in the 1940s. Friedrich Nietzsche had immense mustaches and espoused a form of nihilism because he was German. The Russians wrote impossibly long novels because they lived in Russia. And Chinua Achebe was almost entirely influenced by his African upbringing.

That's not to say no one can write well about a context they haven't experienced firsthand. I'm pretty sure Robert Heinlein never visited Mars, and even if he did it wasn't as his books describe; the same goes for Bradbury. And no, Roald Dahl was never lost in a delightfully (though at times, terrifyingly) absurd chocolate factory. Yet even with these examples, the authors conveyed essentially the attitudes of the countries they came from—Heinlein and Bradbury from the U.S., Dahl from the U.K.

Our Literature by Place subcategories are admittedly Anglo-centric. North American literature features, well, American literature, and you can be pretty sure British literature reflects the same system; everything else goes in world literature. We have plenty of non-American or -British literature, we just don't have much from any one place besides those two. At any rate, we hope these categories are helpful, and if they guide you toward one book you're looking for (or maybe one you didn't even know existed), they've done their job.

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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231 Items found Print
Active Filters: 19th Century Literature, Novels, Hardcover
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Sterling Classics
by Jules Verne, translated by Lewis Page Mercier and illustrated by Scott McKowen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 5th-10th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Readers #19
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
1956 printing from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$10.00 (2 in stock)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 2 (Cover 1)
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 2 (Cover 2)
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 3
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 4
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
1935 Edition from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
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 Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Mark Twain, illustrated by Paul Geiger
from Reader's Digest
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Alice in Wonderland
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Blushing Rose Publishing
for 5th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Illustrated Junior Library Series 2
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 5th-8th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-IJL)
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Illustrated Junior Library Series 1
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 5th-8th grade
in Illustrated Junior Library (Location: VIN-IJL)
Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
Illustrated Junior Library Series 1
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by Roberta Paflin
from Whitman Publishing Company
for 5th-8th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
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
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from St. Martin's Press
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
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)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
Ambassadors
by Henry James
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
American Claimant / Pudd'nhead Wilson
from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.00 (2 in stock)
Anna Karenina
by Leo Tolstoy, translated by Constance Garnett, illustrated by Barnett Freedman
from Heritage Press
for 11th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
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)
Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
from Paul S. Eriksson, INC.
Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Around the World in 80 Days
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Jules Verne
from Reader's Digest
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Around the World in Eighty Days
Sterling Classics
by Jules Verne, illustrated by Scott McKowen
Unabridged from Sterling Publishing Co.
Adventure for 6th-10th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Around the World in Eighty Days
Books of Wonder
by Jules Verne, illustrated by Barry Moser
from William Morrow & Company
Adventure for 6th-10th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
At the Back of the North Wind
Macmillan Classics
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Harvey Dinnerstein
from Macmillan
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
At the Back of the North Wind
New Children's Classics
by George MacDonald, illustrated by George & Doris Hauman
from Macmillan
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Charles Mozley
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Maria Kirk
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
At the Back of the North Wind
by George MacDonald, illustrated by Frank C. Pape
for 4th-8th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Barnaby Rudge
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by James Daugherty
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Ben-Hur
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Lew Wallace
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ben-Hur
by Lew Wallace
from Heritage Press
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ben-Hur
by Lew Wallace
from Harper & Brothers
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
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)
Bleak House
by Charles Dickens
from Everyman's Library
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$22.50
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, 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 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 Julian Brazelton
from Pocket Books
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Cloister and the Hearth
by Charles Reade, illustrated by Lynd Ward
from Heritage Press
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Complete Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, translated by Emanuel J. Mickel
from Indiana University Press
for 10th-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)
David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by John Austen
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Deerslayer
Leatherstocking Tales #1
by James Fenimore Cooper, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
from Atheneum
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Deerslayer
Leatherstocking Tales #1
by James Fenimore Cooper, illustrated by Louis Rhead & Frank Schoonover
from Blue Ribbon Books, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Deerslayer
Leatherstocking Tales #1
by James Fenimore Cooper, illustrated by Edward A. Wilson
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Dracula
Books of Wonder
by Bram Stoker (illustrated by Barry Moser)
from HarperCollins
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Dracula
Sterling Classics
by Bram Stoker, illustrated by Scott McKowen
Unabridged from Sterling Publishing Co.
for 10th-Adult
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
ECL: Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain, illustrated by Al Davidson
from BiblioLife
for 4th-8th grade
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
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: Black Beauty
Educator's Classic Library
by Anna Sewell, illustrated by Michael Rios
from Classic Press
for 3rd-7th grade
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)
Eugenie Grandet
by Honore de Balzac, translated by Ellen Marriage, introduction by Richard Aldington, illustrations by Rene ben Sussan
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Fathers and Sons
by Ivan Turgenev
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
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
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)
Gilded Age
by Mark Twain, Charles Dudley Warner
from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
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)
Great Expectations
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Charles Dickens
from Reader's Digest
Realistic Fiction for 10th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Hard Times
by Charles Dickens
from Everyman's Library
Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
History of Henry Esmond, Esq.
by William Makepeace Thackeray, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone
from Heritage Press
for 11th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
History of Henry Esmond, Esq.
by William Makepeace Thackeray, illustrated by Edward Ardizzone
from Walter J. Black, Inc.
for 11th-Adult
in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB)
House of the Seven Gables
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from International Collectors Library
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
House of the Seven Gables
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
Reprint from Reader's Digest
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
House of the Seven Gables
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Houghton Mifflin
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
In His Steps
by Charles Monroe Sheldon
from Hendrickson Publishers
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Innocents Abroad
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Mark Twain
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Invisible Man
by H.G. Wells
from Heritage Press
for 10th grade-adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Invisible Man & Island of Dr. Moreau
by H.G. Wells
from Reader's Digest
for 10th grade-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)
Journey to the Center of the Earth
Sterling Classics
by Jules Verne, illustrated by Scott McKowen
from Sterling Publishing Co.
Science Fiction for 6th-10th grade
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
Journey to the Center of the Earth
by Jules Verne
from Reader's Digest
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Journey to the Centre of the Earth
Great Illustrated Classics
by Jules Verne
from Dodd, Mead & Co.
Science Fiction for 6th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Jude the Obscure
by Thomas Hardy
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
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)
Last Days of Pompeii
by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
from International Collectors Library
for 10th-Adult
in Clearance: Literature (Location: ZCLE-LIT)
Last Days of Pompeii
by Edward Bulwer-Lytton
from International Collectors Library
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Last of the Mohicans
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by James Fenimore Cooper
from Reader's Digest
Realistic Action/Adventure Novel for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Last of the Mohicans
Leatherstocking Tales #2
by James Fenimore Cooper, illustrated by Edward A. Wilson
from Heritage Press
Realistic Action/Adventure Novel for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Last of the Mohicans
Leatherstocking Tales #2
by James Fenimore Cooper, illustrated by N.C. Wyeth
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Realistic Action/Adventure Novel for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Last of the Mohicans
Leatherstocking Tales #2
by James Fenimore Cooper
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Realistic Action/Adventure Novel for 9th-Adult
in Scribner Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SCRIB)
$24.99
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