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Literature & Adult Fiction

The value of a book lies in the author's ability to convey meaning. This is the most basic—and in recent years most overlooked—fact about writing. Words on the page must tell us something or they're worthless. Experimenters are free to try new methods, but if the result is empty drivel their creation will end up just another misguided novelty.

Almost equally important is the value of the author's message. Anyone can understand a cheap romance novel or mystery thriller, but if there's a message it's typically trite. Paradise Lost takes more work, but the beauty of Milton's style and the depth of his perception and observations on human (and divine, and demonic) nature have steeled readers to make the effort for centuries.

Which implies—reading is not merely for entertainment. The art of reading to empty the mind is not brand-new (as any perusal of titles in the Rare Old Books room of your local mega-bookstore will reveal), though with the increasing ease of publication it has grown. People have always looked to get the same experience from books that comes from watching a TV show. But there is a still better way.

Reading-to-Broaden-the-Soul is even older than reading-to-induce-a-comatose-state. Each person that comes by it makes the discovery in a different way, whether by hearing a line from a Keats poem, or finding a derelict copy of All Quiet on the Western Front on a discount shelf and reading the whole thing in an afternoon, or realizing that Aristophanes is still funny 2400 years later.

Reading the right books is good for us, but it's also enjoyment of the highest and best kind, and both for the same reason: reading great literature is dangerous. You don't get to leave the last page of Crime and Punishment unchanged. After hundreds of pages with David Copperfield it's a different You that peers back from the mirror. King Arthur will pull apart your insides and rearrange them with the violence of a medieval warlord.

You won't find a lot of rainbows and sunshine here. At least, you won't find them alone, certainly not without the lightning storms that always come first. You'll find humanity, with all the bloodshed and terror and sorrow and weakness and confusion of the race. But you'll also find joy and beauty and goodness and comfort, as much as any of those things are part of life.

These are some of the best poems, novels, plays and philosophical treatises ever written. Hopefully you'll find some enjoyment, though if it's not all as "fun" as you expected, try adjusting your expectations before starting a burn pile. Hopefully, you'll grow a little with each Boo Radley, Romeo Montague, Esther Summerson, Starbuck, and Rose of Sharon Joad you encounter.

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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Literature & Adult Fiction
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295 Items found Print
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Active Filters: 12th grade (Ages 17-18), Hardcover, In-Stock Books & Materials
'Tis
by Frank McCourt
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Autobiographies & Memoirs for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
by Jules Verne, Translated by Lewis Page Mercier, edited by Allen Grove
from Chartwell Books
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
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)
$8.00 (2 in stock)
Accordion Crimes
by E. Annie Proulx
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
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)
$20.40
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Other Stories
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
from Canterbury Classics
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Aesop's Fables
by Aesop, illustrated by Arthur Rackham
from Macmillan
Fairy Tales, Fables, and Legends for 1st-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$12.74
Again Calls the Owl
by Margaret Craven
from G.P. Putnam's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Macmillan Classics
by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Macmillan
Fantasy for 7th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$14.40 (1 in stock)
All Hands Aloft!
by Lou A. Schmitt
from Howell-North
for 9th-Adult
in Nautical History (Location: VIN-NAUT)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
All the World's A Stage
by William Shakespeare
from Fulcrum Group
for 4th-Adult
in Shakespeare Materials (Location: LIR-SHA)
$14.00 (1 in stock)
Ambassadors
by Henry James
from Heritage Press
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
America the Beautiful
by Ben Carson with Candy Carson
from Zondervan
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
American Claimant / Pudd'nhead Wilson
from Nelson Doubleday, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
American Poetry
by David S. Shields
from Library of America
for 11th-Adult
in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH)
$20.00 (1 in stock)
American Poetry
by Gay Wilson Allen, Walter B. Rideout, James K. Robinson
from Harper & Row
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Andersonville
by MacKinlay Kantor
from World Publishing Company
for 9th-Adult
1955 Pulitzer Prize Winner
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Annotated Arabian Nights
by Paulo Lemos Horta (editor), translated by Yasmine Seale
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$38.25
Arabian Nights
Scribner Illustrated Classics
by Kate Douglas Wiggin and Nora A. Smith, editors, illustrated by Maxfield Parrish
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Eastern Fairy Tales for 9th-Adult
in Scribner Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SCRIB)
$29.99
Arctic Twilight
by Samuli Paulaharju
1982 Edition from Finnish American Literary Heritage Foundation
for 7th-Adult
$9.60 (1 in stock)
At Bertram's Hotel
A Miss Marple Mystery #10
by Agatha Christie
from Dodd, Mead & Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Atlantis Rising
by Robert Sullivan, drawings by Glenn Wolff
from Simon and Schuster
for 6th-12th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
by Benvenuto Cellini
from International Collectors Library
for 9th-Adult
in Renaissance & Reformation Literature (Location: LIT3-REN)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Autumn's Brightness
by Daisy Newman
Special Family Bookshelf Edition, 1989 from Macmillan
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Battle of Maldon together with The Homecoming of Beorhtnoth
by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Peter Grybauskas
from HarperCollins
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$30.00
Becoming C. S. Lewis
by Harry Lee Poe
from Crossway Books
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$19.54
Becoming C. S. Lewis - 3 Volume Set
by Harry Lee Poe
from Crossway Books
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$77.32
Beejum Book
by Alice O. Howell
Revised
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Behind the Scenes
by Elizabeth Keckley, edited by Frances Smith Foster
from Lakeside Press
for 10th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Beowulf: A Translation and Commentary
by Anonymous (translation by J. R. R. Tolkien)
from Houghton Mifflin
for 9th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$27.20
Best Short Stories of O. Henry
by O. Henry
from Modern Library
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$22.95
Bilbo's Last Song
by J.R.R. Tolkien, Illustrated by Pauline Baynes
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 3rd-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.44
Bleak House
by Charles Dickens
from Everyman's Library
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$22.50
Book of Christmas
from Reader's Digest
for 6th-Adult
in Christmas & Advent (Location: HOLIDAY)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Born Free
by Joy Adamson
Anniversary from Pantheon Books
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
Brave Men
by Ernie Pyle
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$7.20 (1 in stock)
Bull from the Sea
by Mary Renault
from Pantheon Books
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk, illustrated by John Thompson
from Reader's Digest
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Calamity Town
by Ellery Queen
from ImPress Mystery
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Carl Sandburg
by Milton Meltzer
from Twenty-first Century Books
for 9th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Carry On, Jeeves
by P.G. Wodehouse
from Harry N. Abrams, Inc.
for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$19.95
Children of Dune
Dune Chronicles Book 3
by Frank Herbert
from ACE Publishing
Science Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$50.00
Children of Hurin
by J. R. R. Tolkien
from Houghton Mifflin
Fantasy for 7th-12th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$30.00
Chord of Steel
by Thomas B. Costain
from Doubleday & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Christmas Carol
by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger
from North-South Books
for 9th-12th grade
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$21.24
Christmas Carol and Other Christmas Books
by Charles Dickens, introduction by Margaret Atwood
from Everyman's Library
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$24.00
Christmas Stories
by Diana Secker Tesdell, editor
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in Short Stories (Location: LIT-ANTH)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
City of God
by St. Augustine, translated by Marcus Dods
from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$25.50
Collected Poems of Robert Service
by Robert W. Service
1966 Edition from Dodd, Mead & Co.
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Collected Poems of T. S. Eliot
by T. S. Eliot
1st edition from Harcourt
for 10th-Adult
in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN)
$25.50
Collected Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe
by Edgar Allan Poe
from Modern Library
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$21.25
Comes the Comrade!
by Alexandra Orme, translated from the Polish by M.A. Michael and L. Meyer
from William Morrow & Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Complete Novels of Jane Austen
by Jane Austen
from Canterbury Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$21.25
Complete Tales of Uncle Remus
by Joel Chandler Harris
from Houghton Mifflin
Animal Fantasy for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$33.99
Complete Tales of Uncle Remus
by Joel Chandler Harris, retold by Julius Lester, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney
from Dial Press
Animal Fantasy for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$50.00
Completion of C. S. Lewis
by Harry Lee Poe
from Crossway Books
for 10th-Adult
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$29.74
Confessions of St. Augustine
by St. Augustine (translation by Philip Burton)
from Everyman's Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$18.70
Conrad Argosy
by Joseph Conrad; with woodcuts by Hans A. Mueller
from Doubleday, Doran & Company Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Constitution of the United States of America
by Founding Fathers
from Applewood Books
Primary Source Documents for 9th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$8.46
Cross Creek
by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Cruel as the Grave
by Mrs. E.D.E.N. Southworth
from M. A. Donohue & Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Cunning Little Vixen
by Rudolf Tesnohlidek
First Edition from Farrar, Straus and Giroux
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Cyrano de Bergerac
by Edmond Rostand, translated by Brian Hooker
1963 Reprint from Heinemann Educational Books
Drama for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Dandelion Wine
by Ray Bradbury
Reprint from Avon Books
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$21.25
Dawn by Galilee
by Ralph Connor
from Hodder & Stoughton
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Diedrich Knickerbocker's A History of New York
by Washington Irving, illustrated by F.O.C. Darley, introduction by Andrew B. Myers
Facsimile, First Printing from Sleepy Hollow Press
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Distant Mirror
by Barbara W. Tuchman
from Ballantine Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$20.00
Divine Comedy
by Dante Alighieri, translated by Allan Mandelbaum
from Everyman's Library
for 10th-Adult
in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED)
$29.75
Dream Angus
by Alexander McCall Smith
from Canongate Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Dune
Dune Chronicles Book 1
by Frank Herbert, introduction by Brian Herbert
Second Ace hardcover, 2019 from ACE Publishing
Science Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$50.00
Dune Messiah
Dune Chronicles Book 2
by Frank Herbert
from ACE Publishing
Science Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$50.00
Early Days of a Cowboy on the Pecos
by James F. Hinkle
from Unknown Publisher
for 7th-12th grade
in Cowboys & Cattlemen (Location: HISA-19CO)
$2.80 (1 in stock)
Earth is the Lord's
by Taylor Caldwell
from Literary Guild of America
for 11th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Edinburgh
by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by William Wilson
from Robert Grant & Son Ltd.
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Egg and I
by Betty MacDonald
from J.B. Lippincott Co.
Biography for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.80 (1 in stock)
Egypt: Gods, Myths and Religion
by Lucia Gahlin
from Barnes & Noble
for 11th-Adult
in Oversized History Books (Location: HISW-OVER)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Emma
by Jane Austen, illustrated by Niroot Puttapipat with an inroduction by Deirdre Le Faye
from The Folio Society
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 8th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$75.00 (1 in stock)
Escape from Corregidor
by Edward D. Whitcomb
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
for 6th-12th grade
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Essential American
by Jackie Gingrich Cushman
from Regnery Publishing, Inc.
for 9th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$15.00
Esther's Gift
by Jan Karon
from Viking Press
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Eternal Cycle
Time-Life Myth & Mankind
from Time-Life Books
for 7th-Adult
in Time-Life Myth & Mankind Series (Location: FIC-MYTH)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton
from Popular Publishing
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
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)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Eusebius: The Church History
by Eusebius & Paul L. Maier (translator)
from Kregel Publications
Church History for 10th-Adult
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$32.99
Even the Stars Look Lonesome
by Maya Angelou
First Edition 2nd Printing from Random House
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Fables of Aesop
by Aesop, illustrated by John Tenniel
from Book-of-the-Month Club
for 7th-12th grade
in Ancient Literature (Location: LIT1-ANC)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
Fall of Arthur
by J. R. R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien
from Houghton Mifflin
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$25.00
Fall of Gondolin
by J.R.R. Tolkien
from Houghton Mifflin
for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$35.00
Fall of Numenor
by J. R. R. Tolkien; edited by Brian Sibley, illustrated by Alan Lee
from William Morrow & Company
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$40.00
Far Lands
by James Norman Hall
from Little, Brown & Company
for 8th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Faulkner Reader
by William Faulkner
from Random House
for 11th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Feast of Thanksgiving: A Play
by June Behrens, Illustrated by Anne Siberell
from Children's Press
for 6th-Adult
in Holidays / Church Calendar (Location: HOLIDAY)
$5.00 (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)
$18.70
From a Name to a Number
by Alter Wiener
from Authorhouse
for 11th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$10.40 (1 in stock)
From Immigrant to Inventor
by Michael Pupin
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Full Cupboard of Life
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #5
by Alexander McCall Smith
1st edition from Pantheon Books
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Gift from the Sea
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh, illustrated by George W. Thompson
from Pantheon Books
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Gift from the Sea
by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
from Pantheon Books
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Go Set a Watchman
by Harper Lee
from HarperTrophy
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$27.99
Gods of Sun & Sacrifice
Time-Life Myth & Mankind
from Time-Life Books
for 7th-Adult
in Time-Life Myth & Mankind Series (Location: FIC-MYTH)
$5.60 (1 in stock)
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