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Literature by Place

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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Active Filters: 20th & 21st Century Literature, Novels, Trade Paperback, New Books & Materials
1984
by George Orwell
from Harcourt
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.45
And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie
75th Anniversary from HarperCollins
Murder Mystery for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.14
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
50th Anniversary Edition from Signet Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.49
Big Over Easy
by Jasper Fforde
from Penguin Putnam
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.30
Blood Meridian
by Cormac McCarthy
1st edition from Vintage Classics
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.45
Body in the Library
A Miss Marple Mystery #2
by Agatha Christie
2022 Reissue from William Morrow & Company
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.14
Bounty Trilogy
by Charles Nordhoff & James Norman Hall
from Little, Brown & Company
Nautical Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$25.49
Brideshead Revisited
by Evelyn Waugh
from Back Bay Books
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.99
Bridge of San Luis Rey
by Thornton Wilder
from HarperCollins
for 9th-Adult
1928 Pulitzer Prize Winner
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.59
Busman's Honeymoon (11)
A Lord Peter Mystery, Book 11
by Dorothy L. Sayers
Reprint from HarperCollins
Murder Mystery for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.14
Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk
from Back Bay Books
for 10th-Adult
1952 Pulitzer Prize Winner
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.14
Cannery Row
by John Steinbeck
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.60
Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller
from HarperCollins
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.44
Caribbean Mystery
A Miss Marple Mystery #9
by Agatha Christie
from William Morrow & Company
for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.59
Catch-22
by Joseph Heller
50th Anniversary Edition from Simon and Schuster
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.14
Chosen
by Chaim Potok
from Simon and Schuster
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.45
Clouds of Witness (2)
A Lord Peter Mystery, Book 2
by Dorothy Sayers
Reissue from HarperCollins
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.44
Code of the Woosters
by P. G. Wodehouse
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Humor for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.71
Complete Tolkien Companion
by J.R.R. Tolkien & J.E.A. Tyler
3rd edition from St. Martin's Griffin
Lord of the Rings Reference for 8th-Adult
in Lord of the Rings (Location: LIR-LOTR)
$27.00
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.45 $4.80 (2 in stock)
Cypresses Believe in God
by Jose Maria Gironella
from Ignatius Press
for Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$23.76
Daughter of Time
by Josephine Tey
1st edition from Touchstone
for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.60
Death Comes for the Archbishop
by Willa Cather
from Vintage Classics
Realistic Fiction for 9th-12th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.60
Death on the Nile
A Hercule Poirot Mystery #17
by Agatha Christie
from HarperCollins
Mystery & Suspense for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.44
Descent into Hell
by Charles Williams
from Eerdmans
Theological thriller for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$19.13
Dubliners
by James Joyce
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.95 $3.20 (1 in stock)
Earth Abides
by George R. Stewart
from Harper Voyager
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.14
East of Eden
by John Steinbeck
Revised from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.30
Egg and I
by Betty MacDonald
from HarperCollins
Biography for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.59
Enchantment
by Orson Scott Card
1st edition from Del Rey
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.45
Endless Knot
Song of Albion #3
by Stephen R. Lawhead
2nd edition from Thomas Nelson Publishers
Celtic Fantasy for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.59
Enter Jeeves
by P. G. Wodehouse
from Dover Publications
Humor for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.46
Eyre Affair
Thursday Next Book 1
by Jasper Fforde
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.30
Farewell to Arms
by Ernest Hemingway
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.75
Five Red Herrings (6)
A Lord Peter Mystery, Book 6
by Dorothy Sayers
from HarperCollins
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.44
For Whom the Bell Tolls
by Ernest Hemingway
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.14
Fourth Bear
by Jasper Fforde
Reprint from Penguin Putnam
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.45
Gaudy Night (10)
A Lord Peter Mystery, Book 10
by Dorothy L. Sayers
Reissue from HarperCollins
Murder Mystery for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.14
Giant
by Edna Ferber
from Harper Perennial
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.44
Go Down, Moses
by William Faulkner
from Vintage Classics
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$11.86
Good Earth
by Pearl S. Buck
from Washington Square Press
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.29
Gormenghast Novels
by Mervyn Peake
from Overlook Press
Historical Fiction for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$27.16
Great Divorce
by C. S. Lewis
from HarperCollins
Allegory for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.29
Great Gatsby
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Reissue from Charles Scribner's Sons
Realistic Fiction for 9th-12th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.45
Grendel
by John Gardner
from Vintage Classics
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.95 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Gringos
by Charles Portis
1st edition from Overlook Press
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.56
Gulag Archipelago Volume 1
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, foreword by Anne Applebaum
from Harper Perennial
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$18.69
Gulag Archipelago Volume 3
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, foreword by Anne Applebaum
from Harper Perennial
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$19.54
Hannah Coulter
by Wendell Berry
from Counterpoint, LLC
for Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.41
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
from Modern Library
Realistic Modern Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.35
Hood
The King Raven Trilogy Book 1
by Stephen R. Lawhead
First Edition from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$18.99
House on Mango Street
by Sandra Cisneros
from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$11.95 $4.00 (1 in stock)
How Right You Are, Jeeves
by P. G. Wodehouse
from Touchstone
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.74
Howards End
by E. M. Forster
from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.35
Howards End
by E. M. Forster
from Penguin Putnam
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.35
I Capture the Castle
by Dodie Smith
from St. Martin's Griffin
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.29
Invisible Heart
by Russell Roberts
from MIT Press
for Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$27.95 $8.00 (2 in stock)
Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
2nd edition from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.60
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
from Bloomsbury Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.99
Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
from Riverhead Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.60 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Lancelot: A Novel
by Walker Percy
1st edition from Picador
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.15
Lathe of Heaven
by Ursula K. Le Guin
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.45
Leave it to Psmith
by P. G. Wodehouse
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Humor for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.71
Little Prince
by Antoine De Saint-Exupery
from Harvest House
Fantasy for 3rd-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$10.19 $6.00 (2 in stock)
Lord of Light
by Roger Zelazny
from HarperCollins
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$11.89
Lord of the Flies
by William Golding
from Penguin Putnam
Utopian and Dystopian Literature for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$10.20
Lost in a Good Book
Thursday Next Book 2
by Jasper Fforde
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.30
Love in the Time of Cholera
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
from Vintage Classics
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.71
Maltese Falcon
by Dashiell Hammett
from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.60
Manalive
by G.K. Chesterton
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.61
Many Dimensions
by Charles Williams
from Eerdmans
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$23.38
Matterhorn
by Karl Marlantes
Reprint from Hickory Grove Press
for Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.45
Monster Calls
by Patrick Ness, illustrated by Jim Kay
Reprint from Candlewick Press
for 5th-Adult
2012 Carnegie Medal
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$10.20
Morbid Taste for Bones
Brother Cadfael
by Ellis Peters
Reissue from Mysterious Press
for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.74
Mrs. Dalloway
by Virginia Woolf
from Mariner Books
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.59
Mrs. Dalloway
by Virginia Woolf
from Dover Publications
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.00
My Antonia
by Willa Cather
from Mariner Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.64
My Name is Asher Lev
by Chaim Potok
from Anchor Books
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.41
Nine Tailors (9)
A Lord Peter Mystery, Book 9
by Dorothy Sayers
from Harcourt
Murder Mystery for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.14
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #1
by Alexander McCall Smith
from Anchor Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.60
Octopus
by Frank Norris
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.61
Of Mice and Men
by John Steinbeck
from Penguin Putnam
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$10.20
Old Man and the Sea
by Ernest Hemingway
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$11.89
On the Road
by Jack Kerouac
from Penguin Putnam
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.45
One Corpse Too Many
Brother Cadfael
by Ellis Peters
Reissue from Mysterious Press
for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.74
One Hundred Years of Solitude
by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
from Harper Perennial
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.44
One of Our Thursdays Is Missing
Thursday Next Book 6
by Jasper Fforde
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.60
Passage to India
by E. M. Forster
from Harcourt
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.59
Peace Like a River
by Leif Enger
from Atlantic Monthly Press
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.45
Phantom of the Opera
by Gaston Leroux
from Bantam Books
Mystery/Horror for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.06
Place of the Lion
by Charles Williams
from Regent College
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.99
Plague, The
by Albert Camus, Stuart Gilbert
from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.75
Power and the Glory
by Graham Greene
2nd edition from Penguin Classics
for 12th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.30
Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
by Muriel Spark
from Harper Perennial
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$11.89
Rabble in Arms
by Kenneth Roberts
from Down East Books
for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.11
Red House Mystery
by A. A. Milne
from Bob Jones University Press
Mystery/Suspense for 7th-10th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.94
Riders of the Purple Sage
by Zane Grey
from Dover Publications
Westerns for 8th-Adult
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$5.10
Right Ho, Jeeves
by P. G. Wodehouse
Reprint from W. W. Norton and Co.
Humor for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$11.86
Room with a View
by E. M. Forster
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.70
Saga of Eric Brighteyes
by H. Rider Haggard
1st edition from Leaves of Gold Press
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$29.95
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