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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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Active Filters: Historical Fiction, 10th grade (Ages 15-16)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Readers #19
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen with a frontispiece by Milo Winter
1956 printing from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$10.00 (2 in stock)
Alexandre Dumas Three Musketeers Collection
Oxford World's Classics
by Alexandre Dumas
from Oxford University
Historical Fiction/Adventure for 9th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Anna and the King of Siam
by Margaret Landon
from HarperCollins
Historical fiction for 9th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$14.95
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
Dover Thrift Editions
by Lew Wallace
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.00
Ben-Hur
Signet Classics
by Lew Wallace
from Signet Classics
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.95
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)
Ben-Hur
Dover Thrift Editions
by Lew Wallace
from HarperCollins
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$16.99
Billy Budd
Signet Classics
by Herman Melville
from Signet Classics
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.95
Billy Budd, Sailor, and Other Stories
by Herman Melville
from Bantam Books
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.95
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)
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)
$6.99
Black Arrow
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by N. C. Wyeth
from SeaWolf Press
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$8.95
Black Arrow
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Frances Brundage
from Living Book Press
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
Black Tulip
by Alexandre Dumas
from Living Book Press
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$11.99
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
Captains Courageous
by Rudyard Kipling
from Living Book Press
Nautical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99
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)
Catriona (David Balfour)
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Living Book Press
for 9th-Adult
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$11.95
David Elginbrod
by George MacDonald
from CreateSpace
for 9th-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)
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
by Sir Walter Scott
from Dover Publications
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
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 Frank E. Schoonover
200th Anniversary from SeaWolf Press
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$14.95
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
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)
$13.00
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott, Illustrated by Edward A. Wilson
from Easton Press
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Leather Bound Collectible Books (Location: VIN-LEA)
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)
Jack Nastyface
by William Robinson
from US Naval Institute Press
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.00 (1 in stock)
Kenilworth
Penguin Classics
by Sir Walter Scott
from Penguin Classics
Historical Fiction for 9th-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)
$14.50 (1 in stock)
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
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Living Book Press
Historical Romance for 9th-Adult
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$11.99
Last Castle
by George MacDonald, edited for today's reader by Dan Hamilton
from Victor Books
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Last Cavalier
by Alexandre Dumas
from Pegasus Books
Historical Romance for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
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
Modern Library
by Victor Hugo, translated by Julie Rose
from Modern Library
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$20.00
Les Miserables
by Victor Hugo, translated by Charles Wilbour
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$42.00
Les Miserables
by Victor Hugo, translated by Isabel F Hapgood
from Fall River Press
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Les Miserables
Penguin Classics
by Victor Hugo, translated by Norman Denny
from Penguin Classics
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Les Miserables
by Victor Hugo, translated by Lascelles Wraxall and illustrated by Lynd Ward
from Heritage Press
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Les Miserables
by Victor Hugo, translated by Christine Donagher
from Penguin Classics
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$27.00
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)
$9.99
Les Miserables (abridged)
by Victor Hugo, translated by Charles E. Wilbour
from Book League of America
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Louise de la Valliere
Alexandre Dumas Collection #4
by Alexandre Dumas
from Oxford University
Historical Fiction/Adventure for 9th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$15.95
Man in the Iron Mask
Signet Classics
by Alexandre Dumas
from Signet Classics
Historical Fiction/Adventure for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.95
Man in the Iron Mask
Signet Classics
by Alexandre Dumas
from International Collectors Library
Historical Fiction/Adventure for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Man in the Iron Mask
Alexandre Dumas Collection #5
by Alexandre Dumas
from Oxford University
Historical Fiction/Adventure for 9th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$14.95
Master of Ballantrae
Penguin Classics
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from Penguin Classics
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Master of Ballantrae
Penguin Classics
by Robert Louis Stevenson
from SeaWolf Press
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$8.95
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
Moby-Dick
Everyman's Library
by Herman Melville
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$32.00
Moby-Dick
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Herman Melville
from Reader's Digest
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Moby-Dick
by Herman Melville
from Penguin Putnam
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$16.00
Moby-Dick
Macmillan Classics
by Herman Melville, illustrated by Robert Shore
from Macmillan
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Moby-Dick
Calla Editions
by Herman Melville
from Dover Publications
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Moby-Dick
by Herman Melville
from Franklin Library
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Moby-Dick
Modern Library
by Herman Melville
from Modern Library
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Moby-Dick
by Herman Melville, illustrated by Boardman Robinson
from Easton Press
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Leather Bound Collectible Books (Location: VIN-LEA)
Moby-Dick (abridged)
International Collector's Library
by Herman Melville
from International Collectors Library
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym
by Edgar Allan Poe, illustrated by Rene Clarke
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
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
Quo Vadis
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by W. S. Kuniczak
from Hippocrene Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$24.95
Quo Vadis
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by Jeremiah Curtin
from Dover Publications
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$14.95
Quo Vadis
by Henryk Sienkiewicz, translated by Jeremiah Curtin, introduction by Harold Lamb, illustrated by Salvatore Fiume
from Heritage Press
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ramona
by Helen Jackson
from Little, Brown & Company
for 9th-12th grade
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
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
Red Badge of Courage
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Stephen Crane
from Reader's Digest
for 7th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Red Badge of Courage
by Stephen Crane & Ambrose Bierce
from SeaWolf Press
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$7.45
Red Badge of Courage
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Stephen Crane
from Reader's Digest
for 7th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Rob Roy
Penguin Classics
by Sir Walter Scott
from Penguin Classics
Historical Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$15.00
Short Stories of G. A. Henty Volume One
by G. A. Henty
from Preston Speed
Historical Fiction for 6th-10th grade
in G. A. Henty Books (Location: FIC-HEN)
Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
from Ignatius Press
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Talisman
International Collector's Library
by Sir Walter Scott
from International Collectors Library
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Talisman
by Sir Walter Scott, illustrated by Federico Castellon
from Easton Press
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Leather Bound Collectible Books (Location: VIN-LEA)
Three Musketeers
Signet Classics
by Alexandre Dumas
from Signet Classics
Historical Fiction/Adventure for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.95
Three Musketeers
Alexandre Dumas Collection #1
by Alexandre Dumas
from Oxford University
Historical Fiction/Adventure for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$12.95
Three Musketeers
Everyman's Library
by Alexandre Dumas
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$32.00
Three Musketeers
Rainbow Classics
by Alexandre Dumas, illustrated by C. Walter Hodges
from World Publishing Company
Historical Fiction/Adventure for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Three Musketeers
Windermere Readers #20
by Alexandre Dumas, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
1954 Edition from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction/Adventure for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Three Musketeers
Easton Press Library
by Alexandre Dumas, illustrated by Edy Legrand
from Easton Press
for 10th-Adult
in Leather Bound Collectible Books (Location: VIN-LEA)
Three Musketeers
Reader's Digest World's Best Reading
by Alexandre Dumas, illustrated by Rowland Wheelwright
1999 Edition from Reader's Digest
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Three Musketeers
Macmillan Classics
by Alexandre Dumas, illustrated by James Daugherty
2nd Printing, 1923 from Macmillan
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas, illustrated by Valenti Angelo
from Three Sirens Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Three Musketeers
Windermere Series 3
by Alexandre Dumas, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
1954 Edition from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction/Adventure for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Three Musketeers
Windermere Series 4
by Alexandre Dumas, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen
1933 printing from Rand McNally
Historical Fiction/Adventure for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Three Musketeers
by Alexandre Dumas, translator unknown
from Barnes & Noble
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Treasure Island
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Frank Godwin
from Reader's Digest
for 5th-10th grade
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, illustrated by Milo Winter
from Barnes & Noble
for 10th-Adult
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen and illustrated by Joseph Ciardiello
from Reader's Digest
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, translated by Lewis Page Mercier, with essays by Matthew Booth and David Stuart Davis
from Worth Press
for 10th-Adult
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 2 (Cover 1)
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen and illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 2 (Cover 2)
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen and illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
Windermere Series 3
by Jules Verne, translated by Philip Schuyler Allen and illustrated by Milo Winter
from Rand McNally
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
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