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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	American Poetry The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries by David S. Shields from Library of America for 11th-Adult in Poetry Anthologies (Location: POET-ANTH) $20.00 (1 in stock)
	Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates Signet Classics by Patrick Henry & John DeWitt from Signet Classics American Political Philosophy for 9th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $7.61
	Anti-Federalist Papers and the Constitutional Convention Debates Dover Thrift Editions by Patrick Henry & John DeWitt from Dover Publications American Political Philosophy for 9th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $8.50 $5.60 (1 in stock)
	Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Dover Thrift Editions by Benjamin Franklin from Dover Publications for 9th-Adult in Biographies (Location: BIO) $7.65
	Benjamin Franklin: The Autobiography and Other Writings Signet Classics by Benjamin Franklin Reprint from Signet Classics Autobiography for 9th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $5.06
	Candide by Voltaire from Penguin Books for 11th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $14.45
	Common Sense Dover Thrift Editions by Thomas Paine from Dover Publications Political Philosophy for 9th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $4.25
	Confessions by Jean-Jacques Rousseau from Penguin Classics for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $11.05
	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
	Federalist Papers Signet Classics by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison & John Jay from Signet Classics American Political Philosophy for 9th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $7.61
	Federalist Papers Dover Thrift series by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison & John Jay from Dover Publications American Political Philosophy for 9th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $6.80
	Goethe's Faust by Goethe, Walter Kaufmann (translator) from Anchor Books for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $11.01
	Great American Short Stories by Wallace & Mary Stegner, editors from Dell Publishing Realistic Fiction for 9th-12th grade in Short Stories (Location: LIT-ANTH) $7.64
	Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift from Everyman's Library for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $30.00
	Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift from Oxford University Satire/Social Commentary for 9th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $6.76
	Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift from Dover Publications for 7th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $5.10 $3.20 (1 in stock)
	History of Rasselas Prince of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson from Oxford University in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $7.61
	History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia by Samuel Johnson from Dover Publications for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $5.91
	Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano from Modern Library for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $12.75
	Jonathan Edwards' Resolutions And Advice to Young Converts by Jonathan Edwards from P&R Publishing for 9th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $4.24
	Life and Diary of David Brainerd by David Brainerd from Baker Books Biography for 10th-Adult in Biographies (Location: BIO) $14.45
	Life and Diary of David Brainerd by David Brainerd from Moody Press Biography for 10th-Adult in Vintage History & Biographies (Location: VIN-HIS) $19.20 (1 in stock)
	Major Works of William Wordsworth by William Wordsworth from Oxford University for 9th-Adult in Poetry (Location: POET-GEN) $18.95
	Modest Proposal and Other Satirical Works by Jonathan Swift from Dover Publications for 11th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $3.40
	Moll Flanders Signet Classics by Daniel Defoe from Signet Classics Realistic Fiction for 11th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $5.06
	Mysteries of Udolpho by Ann Radcliffe from Oxford University for 9th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $11.86
	On the Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau from Dover Publications Philosophy for 9th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $5.10
	Poor Richard's Almanack by Benjamin Franklin from Peter Pauper Press for 7th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $9.31
	Practical View of Christianity by William Wilberforce from Hendrickson Publishers Religion/Philosophy for 11th-Adult in Hendrickson Christian Classics (Location: XCL-DEV) $12.95 $6.00 (2 in stock)
	Robinson Crusoe Signet Classics by Daniel Defoe from Signet Classics Realistic Adventure Novel for 8th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $5.06
	Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe from Oxford University for 8th-12th grade in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $6.76
	Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe from Penguin Putnam for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $8.50
	Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe from Dover Publications for 8th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $9.35
	Robinson Crusoe Wordsworth Classics by Daniel Defoe 12^th edition from Wordsworth Classics Realistic Adventure Novel for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $3.00 (1 in stock)
	Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, with an introduction by Virginia Woolf Reissue from Modern Library for 8th-12th grade in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $8.50
	Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe, illustrated by Edward A. Wilson from Heritage Press for 8th-12th grade in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC) $12.80 (1 in stock)
	Robinson Crusoe Focus on the Family's Classic Collection by Daniel Defoe, Introduction and Afterword by Joe L. Wheeler from Focus on the Family for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $4.80 (1 in stock)
	Second Treatise of Civil Government by John Locke from Prometheus Books for 10th-Adult in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17) $11.04
	Second Treatise of Civil Government by John Locke from Dover Publications for 10th-Adult in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17) $4.25
	She Stoops to Conquer Dover Thrift Editions by Oliver Goldsmith from Dover Publications Comedic Drama for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $4.25
	Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards from P&R Publishing for 9th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $3.39
	Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan Edwards from P&R Publishing for 9th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $3.39 $1.60 (2 in stock)
	Social Contract Penguin Classics by Jean-Jacques Rousseau from Penguin Classics Philosophy/Politics for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $9.35
	The Federalist by Alexander Hamilton, James Madison & John Jay, introduction by Wayne LaPierre from Palladium Press American Political Philosophy for 9th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $16.00 (1 in stock)
	Thelma English American Literature Book List from Dover Publications for 8th-12th grade in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17) $50.00
	Tristram Shandy by Laurence Sterne from Wordsworth Classics for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $5.09
	Vicar of Wakefield Penguin Classics by Oliver Goldsmith from Penguin Classics Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $10.20
	Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith from Bantam Books for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $8.49
	Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, edited with an introduction and notes by Edwin Cannan from Modern Library for Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $12.80 (2 in stock)
	Wealth of Nations Great Minds Series by Adam Smith from Prometheus Books for 12th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $28.95
	Wit and Wisdom from Poor Richard's Almanack Dover Thrift Editions by Benjamin Franklin from Dover Publications for 10th-Adult in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18) $3.40 $1.60 (1 in stock)

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