Literature by Place - Exodus Books

Store Location

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.

Did you find this review helpful?

35 Items found Print

Active Filters:

19th Century Literature,

Novels,

6th grade (Ages 11-12)

	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 Sterling Classics by Jules Verne, translated by Lewis Page Mercier and illustrated by William O'Connor from Sterling Publishing Co. for 5th-10th grade in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
	Adventures of Tom Sawyer Dover Thrift Editions by Mark Twain from Dover Publications for 6th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
	Adventures of Tom Sawyer Puffin Classics by Mark Twain from Penguin Classics Realistic Fiction for 6th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $10.00
	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, illustrated by John Tenniel from Grosset & Dunlap for 5th-8th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass Penguin Classics by Lewis Carroll from Penguin Classics Fantasy for 5th-8th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $11.00
	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)
	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)
	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 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)
	Five Weeks in a Balloon by Jules Verne, translated by William Lackland and illustrated by Edouard Riou Illustrated Fir from SeaWolf Press for 5th-10th grade in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
	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 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)
	Little Men Reader's Digest World's Best Reading by Louisa May Alcott from Reader's Digest for 4th-9th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
	Prince and the Pauper Portland House Illustrated Classics by Mark Twain, illustrated by Franklin Booth from Portland House Historical Fiction for 5th-9th grade in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
	Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There Books of Wonder by Lewis Carroll, illustrated by John Tenniel from HarperCollins for 4th-6th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
	Treasure Island Whole Story Series by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Francois Place from Viking Press Action/Adventure for 5th-9th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
	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 by Sir Robert Louis Stevenson from Bantam Books for 6th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $4.95
	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)
	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)
	Treasure Island Windermere Series 4 by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Milo Winter 1939 Edition from Rand McNally for 5th-10th grade in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
	Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Macmillan Classics by Jules Verne, translated by Lewis Page Mercier and illustrated by Charles Molina from Macmillan for 5th-10th grade in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)

Shop

Support

Hours & Directions

Connect