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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19th Century Literature,

9th grade (Ages 14-15),

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In-Stock Books & Materials

	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 Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain from Nelson Doubleday, Inc. for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $3.20 (1 in stock)
	Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass 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)
	Annotated Alice by Lewis Carroll from Bramhall House for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $8.00 (2 in stock)
	Celebrated Jumping Frog and Other Stories Reader's Digest World's Best Reading by Mark Twain from Reader's Digest for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.40 (2 in stock)
	Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Arthur Rackham from Gramercy Books for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $7.20 (1 in stock)
	Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens from Bantam Books for 6th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $3.95
	Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Roberto Innocenti Unabridged from Stewart, Tabori, & Chang Fantasy for 6th-10th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $12.00 (1 in stock)
	Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, illustrated by P.J. Lynch Unabridged from Candlewick Press Fantasy for 6th-10th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $16.99
	Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, illustrated by Robert Ingpen Unabridged from Palazzo Editions Limited Fantasy for 6th-10th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $24.99
	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
	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
	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)
	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) $7.20 (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
	Illustrated Origin of Species (abridged) by Charles Darwin, abridged and introduced by Richard E. Leakey from Hill and Wang Scientific Philosophy for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $8.00 (1 in stock)
	In His Steps by Charles Monroe Sheldon from Hendrickson Publishers for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $3.60 (1 in stock)
	Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne from Reader's Digest for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.40 (1 in stock)
	Jungle Books Macmillan Classics by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by Robert Shore from Macmillan Animal Stories for 7th-Adult in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC) $12.00 (1 in stock)
	Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott, edited with notes by William J. Rolfe from Houghton Mifflin for 9th-Adult in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET) $4.80 (1 in stock)
	Lady of the Lake The Students' Series of English Classics by Sir Walter Scott, edited with introduction and notes by James Arthur Tufts from Leach, Shewell & Sanborn for 9th-Adult in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET) $4.80 (1 in stock)
	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) $21.24
	Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories Reader's Digest World's Best Reading by Washington Irving from Reader's Digest for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.40 (2 in stock)
	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) $35.70
	Life of Our Lord Written for His Children During the Years 1846 to 1849 by Charles Dickens from Simon and Schuster for 7th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $13.60
	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) $29.75
	Old Curiosity Shop Everyman's Library by Charles Dickens from Everyman's Library Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $21.25
	Old Curiosity Shop Reader's Digest World's Best Reading by Charles Dickens from Reader's Digest for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.40 (2 in stock)
	Old Curiosity Shop by Charles Dickens, with original illustrations and an introduction by Andrew Lang from Book-of-the-Month Club Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $7.20 (1 in stock)
	Oregon Trail by Francis Parkman, Jr., illustrated by Maynard Dixon from Heritage Press for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $12.00 (1 in stock)
	Oregon Trail Famous Books for Young Americans by Francis Parkman from A. L. Burt Company for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $7.50 (1 in stock)
	Peer Gynt by E. H. Grieg, illustrated by Yoshiharu Suzuki, adapted by Makoto Oishi, translated by Ann Brannen from Silver Burdett Press for 9th-Adult in Vintage Picture Books (Location: VIN-PIC) $14.00 (1 in stock)
	Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain, illustrated by Frank Merrill from Reader's Digest for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.40 (1 in stock)
	Ramona by Helen Jackson from Little, Brown & Company for 9th-12th grade in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC) $14.00 (1 in stock)
	Selected Western Stories and Poems by Bret Harte from Walter J. Black, Inc. for 9th-Adult in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB) $4.00 (1 in stock)
	Shropshire Lad The Living Library by A. E. Housman, Illustrated by Jeanne Edwards from World Publishing Company for 7th-12th grade in Vintage Poetry (Location: VIN-POET) $5.00 (1 in stock)
	Tale of Two Cities (adapted) by Charles Dickens, adapted by Grace A. Benscotter & Merrill Howe and illustrated by Bernice Oehler 1923 printing from Longmans, Green & Co. Victorian Novel for 9th-Adult in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC) $9.60 (1 in stock)
	Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving 3^rd edition from Club Everest for 9th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.00 (1 in stock)
	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) $7.20 (2 in stock)
	Tom Sawyer Abroad by Mark Twain from SeaWolf Press for 7th-Adult in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW) $6.95
	Tom Sawyer Abroad and Other Stories by Mark Twain from Grosset & Dunlap for 7th-Adult in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC) $4.00 (1 in stock)
	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) $7.20 (2 in stock)
	Two Years Before the Mast by Richard Henry Dana, illustrated by Robert Frankenberg from Doubleday & Company for 9th-Adult in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC) $6.40 (1 in stock)
	Works of Doyle by Arthur Conan Doyle from Walter J. Black, Inc. for 9th-Adult in Walter J. Black Classics Club (Location: VIN-LITWJB) $4.00 (2 in stock)

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