Literature by Place - Exodus Books

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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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History & Biography

	Black Odyssey The Case of the Slave Ship Amistad by Mary Cable from Penguin Classics for 10th-Adult in Slavery & the Underground Railroad (Location: HISA-19SL) $7.00 (1 in stock)
	Bridge Too Far by Cornelius Ryan from Simon and Schuster for 10th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
	Captain Dreyfus The Story of a Mass Hysteria by Nicholas Halasz from Grove Press, Inc. for 10th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $1.00 (1 in stock)
	Chronicles by Jean Froissart from Penguin Classics for 10th-Adult in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED) $18.00
	Civil War Together with The Alexandrian War, The African War, and The Spanish War by other Hands Penguin Classics by Julius Caesar from Penguin Classics Primary Source Documents for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $14.00
	Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burckhardt from Penguin Classics for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $17.00
	Conquest of Gaul Penguin Classics by Julius Caesar from Penguin Classics Primary Source Documents for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $12.00
	Cornelius Ryan World War II Trilogy by Cornelius Ryan from Simon and Schuster for 10th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
	Darwin and the Beagle by Alan Moorehead 1^st edition from Margaret Hamilton Books for 9th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
	Early History of Rome by Livy from Penguin Classics Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $16.00
	Ecclesiastical History of the English People Penguin Classics by Bede (translation by Leo Sherley-Price) from Penguin Classics Church History for 10th-Adult in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED) $15.00
	Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede (edited by Judith McClure & Roger Collins) from Oxford University Church History for 10th-Adult in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED) $13.95
	Fall of the Roman Republic Six Lives by Plutarch, translated by Rex Warner, introduction and notes by Robin Seager Revised from Penguin Classics for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $18.00
	Foxe's Book of Martyrs by John Foxe, edited by William Byron Forbush from Hendrickson Publishers for 10th-Adult in Hendrickson Christian Classics (Location: XCL-DEV)
	Foxe's Christian Martys of the World in Modern English by John Foxe from Barbour Publishing for 10th-Adult in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
	Genghis Khan by Harold Lamb from International Collectors Library for 10th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
	George MacDonald An Anthology by C. S. Lewis from HarperCollins Devotional Material for 9th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $13.99
	George MacDonald An Anthology by C. S. Lewis from Touchstone Devotional Material for 9th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $10.00 (1 in stock)
	George MacDonald: 365 Readings by C. S. Lewis, selections from George MacDonald from Collier Books Devotional Material for 9th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
	Greek Lives by Plutarch, translated by Robin Waterfield 1st Reissue from Oxford University Biography for 11th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $13.95
	Hiroshima by John Hersey from Vintage Classics Historical Non-Fiction for 9th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $7.95 $4.50 (1 in stock)
	Histories Penguin Classics by Herodotus (translation by Aubrey De Sélincourt) from Penguin Classics Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $13.00
	Histories Everyman's Library by Herodotus (translation by George Rawlinson) from Everyman's Library Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
	Histories Penguin Classics by Herodotus (translation by Robin Waterfield) from Oxford University Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $10.95 $6.00 (1 in stock)
	Histories Penguin Classics by Herodotus (translation by David Grene) from University of Chicago Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $16.00
	History of the Kings of Britain Penguin Classics by Geoffrey of Monmouth from Penguin Classics Historical Fairy Tale for 10th-12th grade in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED) $19.00 $10.00 (1 in stock)
	Josephus: New Complete Works by Flavius Josephus from Kregel Publications for 9th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $34.99
	Josephus: New Complete Works by Flavius Josephus from Kregel Publications for 9th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $24.99
	Josephus: The Essential Works by Flavius Josephus Revised from Kregel Publications for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $31.99
	Josephus: The Essential Writings by Flavius Josephus, translated by Paul L. Maier from Kregel Publications for 9th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $21.99
	Landmark Herodotus The Histories by Herodotus (translated by Andrea Purvis & edited by Robert Strassler) from Random House for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $30.00
	Landmark Thucydides A Comprehensive Guide to the Peloponnesian War by Thucydides from Simon and Schuster Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $32.00
	Last Battle The Classic History of the Battle for Berlin by Cornelius Ryan Reprint from Simon and Schuster for 10th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $20.00
	Lives of the Noble Romans by Plutarch from International Collectors Library for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
	Lives of the Twelve Caesars by Suetonius, translated by Philemon Holland, edited by Moses Hadas, and illustrated by Salvatore Fiume from Heritage Press for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
	Longest Day The Classic Epic of D-Day by Cornelius Ryan from Touchstone for 10th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $18.99
	Meaning of Everything Story of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester Reprint from Oxford University for 10th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $7.00 (1 in stock)
	Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee by Charles J. Shields Reprint from Henry Holt and Company for 10th-Adult in Biographies (Location: BIO) $6.00 (1 in stock)
	New Testament by Richmond Lattimore from North Point Press for 9th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $25.00
	Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17) $14.95
	Of Plymouth Plantation Bradford's History of the Plymouth Settlement 1608-1650 by William Bradford from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. Historical Non-Fiction for 9th-Adult in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
	Oregon Trail Penguin Classics by Francis Parkman Jr. from Penguin Classics Historical Non-fiction for 10th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $16.00
	Peloponnesian War by Thucydides from University of Chicago Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $15.00 (1 in stock)
	Peloponnesian War by Rex Warner (translator) from Penguin Putnam for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
	Persian Expedition by Xenophon Revised from Penguin Classics for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $17.00
	Plutarch's Lives Volume I by Plutarch, translated by John Dryden from Modern Library Biography for 9th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $19.00
	Plutarch's Lives Volume I by Plutarch, translated by John Dryden from Modern Library Biography for 9th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $20.00 $15.00 (1 in stock)
	Plutarch's Lives Volume II by Plutarch, translated by John Dryden from Modern Library Biography for 11th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $20.00
	Professor and the Madman A Tale of Murder, Insanity, and the Making of the Oxford English Dictionary by Simon Winchester from HarperCollins for 10th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $18.99
	Rise and Fall of Athens Nine Greek Lives by Plutarch, translated by Ian Scott-Kilvert from Penguin Classics for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $17.00
	River and the Gauntlet by S. L. A. Marshall from Time-Life Books for 11th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $4.50 (1 in stock)
	Roman Lives A Selection of Eight Roman Lives by Plutarch, translated by Robin Waterfield Reissue from Oxford University Biography for 9th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $14.95 $7.50 (1 in stock)
	Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder from Vintage Classics for 9th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $5.00 (1 in stock)
	The Bounty The True Story of the Mutiny on the Bounty by Caroline Alexander Reprint from Viking Press for 11th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
	Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo from Penguin Classics Historical Non-Fiction for 10th-Adult in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED) $17.00 $9.00 (1 in stock)
	Travels of Marco Polo by Marco Polo, Translated by W. Marsden, Revised and Edited by Peter Harris from Everyman's Library for 10th-Adult in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
	Twelve Caesars Penguin Classics by Suetonius from Penguin Classics History for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $16.00
	Two Lives of Charlemagne Penguin Classics by Einhard & Notker the Stammerer, translated by Lewis Thorpe from Penguin Classics Biography for 10th-Adult in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED) $16.00
	Two Lives of Charlemagne Penguin Classics by Einhard & Notker the Stammerer, translated by David Ganz from Penguin Classics Biography for 10th-Adult in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED) $16.00
	War with Hannibal by Titus Livius Livy from Penguin Classics Animal Stories: Realistic for 10th-Adult in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC) $18.00
	William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England by John Allen Giles from BiblioLife for 9th-Adult in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED) $39.99
	William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England by John Allen Giles from BiblioLife for 9th-Adult in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
	William of Malmesbury's Chronicle of the Kings of England by John Allen Giles from Legare Street Press for 9th-Adult in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED) $32.95

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