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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	Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain from Dover Publications Realistic Fiction for 7th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.00
	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'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 and Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll from Bantam Books for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $3.00 (1 in stock)
	All Creatures Great and Small James Herriot Series Book 1 by James Herriot from St. Martin's Press Realistic Fiction for 7th-Adult in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI) $19.00
	All Things Bright and Beautiful James Herriot Series Book 2 by James Herriot from St. Martin's Press Realistic Fiction for 7th-12th grade in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI) $18.00
	All Things Wise and Wonderful James Herriot Series Book 3 by James Herriot from St. Martin's Press Realistic Fiction for 7th-Adult in Animal Stories (Location: FIC-ANI) $17.99
	Ben-Hur A Tale of the Christ Signet Classics by Lew Wallace from Signet Classics Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $9.95
	Beowulf Dover Thrift Editions by Anonymous, translated by R. K. Gordon from Dover Publications Medieval Epic for 8th-Adult in Medieval Literature (Location: LIT2-MED) $4.00 $2.00 (2 in stock)
	Black Arrow Dover Evergreen Classics by Robert Louis Stevenson from Dover Publications Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV) $6.99
	Book of the Dun Cow by Walter Wangerin Jr. from HarperCollins for 8th grade-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $16.99
	Bulfinch's Greek and Roman Mythology Age of Fable Dover Thrift Editions by Thomas Bulfinch from Dover Publications for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.00
	Bulfinch's Medieval Mythology Dover Thrift Editions by Thomas Bulfinch from Dover Publications for 6th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $10.00
	Call of the Wild Dover Thrift Editions by Jack London from Dover Publications Action/Adventure for 7th-10th grade in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $3.00
	Captain Blood Penguin Classics by Rafael Sabatini from Penguin Classics Historical Romance for 7th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $16.00
	Captains Courageous Signet Classics by Rudyard Kipling from Signet Classics Nautical Fiction for 7th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
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	Emma Penguin Classics by Jane Austen from Penguin Classics Romantic Realistic Fiction for 8th-12th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $9.00 $5.00 (1 in stock)
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	Favorite Father Brown Stories Dover Thrift Editions by G. K. Chesterton from Dover Publications Mystery for 8th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $4.40 $2.00 (3 in stock)
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	Five Great Short Stories Dover Thrift Editions by Jack London from Dover Publications for 6th-9th Grade in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $4.00
	Frankenstein Dover Thrift Editions by Mary Shelley from Dover Publications for 7th-10th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $6.00
	Gift of the Magi & Other Short Stories Dover Thrift Editions by O. Henry from Dover Publications for 4th-10th grade in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $5.00 $2.00 (4 in stock)
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	Great American Short Stories from Dover Publications for 7th-Adult in Short Stories (Location: LIT-ANTH) $8.00
	Great Expectations (abridged) Puffin Classics by Charles Dickens from Puffin Books Realistic Fiction for 7th-10th grade in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF) $7.99
	Hobbit There and Back Again by J. R. R. Tolkien 2^nd edition from Ballantine Books Fantasy for 5th-9th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $8.99
	Hobbit & Lord of the Rings - Mass-Market Boxed Set by J. R. R. Tolkien Mti from Ballantine Books Fantasy for 4th-12th grade in Boxed Sets & Literature Packages (Location: FIC-BOX) $35.96
	Hound of the Baskervilles Puffin Classics by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Reissue from Puffin Books for 6th-10th grade in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF) $6.39
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	Mansfield Park Penguin Classics by Jane Austen from Penguin Classics Romantic Realistic Fiction for 8th-12th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $9.00
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	Pride and Prejudice Penguin Classics by Jane Austen from Penguin Classics Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-12th grade in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $9.00
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	Sir Gawain and the Green Knight / Pearl / Sir Orfeo by Anonymous, J. R. R. Tolkien (Translator) from Ballantine Books Medieval Fairy Tale/Poetry for 8th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $8.99
	Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson Revised from Penguin Classics Mystery/Suspense for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $9.00
	Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde Signet Classics by Robert Louis Stevenson from Signet Classics Mystery/Suspense for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $5.95
	Study in Scarlet & The Sign of Four Dover Thrift Editions by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle from Dover Publications Mystery for 8th-Adult in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19) $4.00 $2.40 (1 in stock)
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	Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan from Penguin Classics Action Adventure for 8th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $13.00
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	Two Towers Lord of the Rings Trilogy #2 by J. R. R. Tolkien from Ballantine Books Fantasy for 8th-12th grade in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN) $8.99
	Wit and Wisdom of the American Presidents Dover Thrift Editions by Joslyn Pine from Dover Publications for 8th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $5.00
	Wuthering Heights OSI Puffin Classics by Emily Brontë Reissue from Puffin Books for 7th-9th grade in Puffin Classics (Location: FIC-PUF) $8.99
	Yearling by Marjorie Rawlings from Simon Pulse Realistic Animal Stories for 6th-Adult in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20) $9.99

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