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Novels

To be great, a novel must show an old thing in a new way. It's equally disastrous to espouse tradition for its own sake as to propose novelty for the sake of novelty—only together can these elements have meaning.

Modernist and postmodernist authors are infatuated with newness as a thing in itself. They subject language to increasingly complicated gymnastic maneuvers, play with ideas rather than defending them, and generally wreak havoc on established forms. This results in novels that may or may not be aesthetically pleasing, but are surely meaningless.

If we adhere too closely to the forms of the past, however, we run the risk of shortsightedness, bigotry, and prejudice. Humans too often must be shaken from their stupor, made to see things as others see them in order to promote equality and peace and goodwill. A good novel rooted in universal ideals freshly presented can do just that.

Novels are seldom the impetus for social movements, but they often augment cultural change. As a literary form, they came into being because writers wanted a venue for espousing or exploring ideas that wasn't rooted in history or "real life." They wanted, in short, to write fiction.

Before the novel, works modern readers would view as fictional were generally considered in a different light. Either they were actual history, or they were meta-narratives, or they were religious, or they were simply narrative philosophy. The idea was to impart truth, not simply data. As writers became more concerned with the world-as-it-is and scientific understanding, they turned toward forms more consistent with the Enlightenment emphasis on knowledge-acquisition as a means to truth.

The novel was such a form. Symbolism was never abandoned wholesale (except by certain eccentric groups at various times), but a new attention was paid to detail—not just detail integral to the story or signifying something else, but detail that set the scene, that gave the reader a sense of place, mood, circumstance and character. It was this attention to detail that helped fiction emerge as a respectable genre.

For ancient and Medieval writers, the seen world and the world beyond were indistinguishable. The famed Celtic knot was intended to show the interrelatedness of all things, how each realmbled into the other and held everything in place. Pre-Enlightenment writing reflected this view, and any detail provided in a poem or narrative was intended, not to portray physical or human "realities," but to demonstrate truths consistent between realms.

When the Enlightenment came around and proclaimed scientific observation and empiricism the new guides (replacing revelation and divine authority), a new approach was needed. No longer were things primarily representative of other things, things were essentially what they were—meaning things were eseentially physical.

Description evolved to fit the new ethos, and creative literature evolved with it. The novel, prose rather than poetry, devoted to detail and incident rather than sweeping generalization, was one of the best weapons in the Enlightenment arsenal. Writers were no longer primarily concerned with affecting readers' attitudes and hearts, they wanted to change their minds. Western culture has never recovered.

Fortunately, the novel was never stagnant, and never fully enslaved by Enlightenment practitioners. Novels have diversified: there are philosophical novels, poetic novels, experimental novels, comic novels, historical novel, all of them aimed at the reader in such a way that the encounter is either devastating or uplifting, frightening or comforting, horrible and sad or fresh and beautiful.

We don't pretend to carry every important novel ever penned. We don't apologize for that....or for the fact that we carry novels at all. It's easy to look at fiction as mere escapism, much harder to engage it seriously hoping to be transformed. Our goal is to offer books (whether "classics" or not) that offer new ways of seeing, opportunities for transformation, encounters with the sublime as harrowing as they are exhilerating.

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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142 Items found Print
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Active Filters: North American Literature, 20th & 21st Century Literature, 10th grade (Ages 15-16), In-Stock Books & Materials
Age of Innocence
by Edith Wharton
from SeaWolf Press
for 10th-Adult
1921 Pulitzer Prize winner
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$9.95
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
50th Anniversary Edition from Signet Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.49
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
Reprint from Plume Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
Centennial from Plume Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Beejum Book
by Alice O. Howell
Revised
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.00 (1 in stock)
Book of the Dun Cow
by Walter Wangerin Jr.
from HarperCollins
for 8th grade-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.44
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
Bridge of San Luis Rey
by Thornton Wilder
from SeaWolf Press
for 9th-Adult
1928 Pulitzer Prize Winner
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$5.91
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
Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk
from Doubleday & Company
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk, illustrated by John Thompson
from Reader's Digest
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
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)
$2.55
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
Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller
from Bantam Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.64
Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller
from Harper & Row
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$3.60 (1 in stock)
Catcher in the Rye
by J. D. Salinger
from Little, Brown & Company
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.49
Children of Dune
Dune Chronicles Book 3
by Frank Herbert
from ACE Publishing
Science Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.49
Children of Dune
Dune Chronicles Book 3
by Frank Herbert
from ACE Publishing
Science Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$42.50
Chosen
by Chaim Potok
from Simon and Schuster
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.45
Christ the Lord Out of Egypt
by Anne Rice
from Fawcett Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.79
Dandelion Wine
by Ray Bradbury
from Spectra Books
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.64
Dandelion Wine
by Ray Bradbury
Reprint from Avon Books
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$21.25
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
Dune
Dune Chronicles Book 1
by Frank Herbert
from ACE Publishing
Science Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.34
Dune
Dune Chronicles Book 1
by Frank Herbert, introduction by Brian Herbert
Second Ace hardcover, 2019 from ACE Publishing
Science Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$42.50
Dune Messiah
Dune Chronicles Book 2
by Frank Herbert
from ACE Publishing
Science Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.49
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
ECL: Call of the Wild
Educator Classic Library #11
by Jack London, illustrated by Ron King
Complete and Unabridged Edition from Classic Press
Action/Adventure for 7th-10th grade
in Educator Classic Library (Location: VIN-ECL)
$4.80 (1 in stock)
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
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
from Tor Classic
Science Fiction for 7th-Adult
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$8.49
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
Ethan Frome
Dover Thrift Editions
by Edith Wharton
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$2.55 $0.80 (2 in stock)
Ethan Frome
by Edith Wharton
from Popular Publishing
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Exodus
by Leon Uris
from Bantam Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.49
Farewell Summer
by Ray Bradbury
1st edition from William Morrow & Company
for 7th-12th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.64
Flannery O'Connor: Collected Works
by Flannery O'Connor
from Library of America
for 11th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$34.00
Foundation
Foundation Trilogy #1
by Isaac Asimov
Revised from Bantam Books
Science Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.64
Foundation and Empire
Foundation Trilogy #2
by Isaac Asimov
from Bantam Books
Science Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.64
Giant
by Edna Ferber
from Harper Perennial
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.44
Gods and Generals
by Jeff Shaara
from Ballantine Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.64 $4.00 (1 in stock)
Good Earth
by Pearl S. Buck
from Washington Square Press
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.29
Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
from Penguin Classics
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.15
Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
3rd printing from Viking Press
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$19.20 (1 in stock)
Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
from Penguin Books
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.85
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
Great Gatsby and Winter Dreams
by F. Scott Fitzgerald
from SeaWolf Press
Realistic Fiction for 9th-12th grade
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$6.76
Home to Holly Springs
by Jan Karon
1st edition from Viking Press
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
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)
Human Comedy
by William Saroyan
Revised from Dell Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.79
I, Robot
by Isaac Asimov
from Bantam Books
Science Fiction for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.79
In the Beginning
by Chaim Potok
1st edition from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.00 (1 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
Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
from Quality Paperback Book Club
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Jayber Crow
by Wendell Berry
from Counterpoint, LLC
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.26
Jungle, The
Signet Classics
by Upton Sinclair
from Signet Classics
Social Commentary for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.06
Jungle, The
by Upton Sinclair
from Bantam Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.06
Jungle, The
Norton Critical Editions
by Upton Sinclair
Norton Critical Edition from W. W. Norton and Co.
Social Commentary for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara
from Ballantine Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara
from Ballantine Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.49
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)
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
Life of Pi
by Yann Martel
from Harvest Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.60 (1 in stock)
Life of Pi
by Yann Martel
from Canon Gate
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.60 (1 in stock)
Light in the Window
Mitford Series Book 2
by Jan Karon
from Penguin Putnam
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Lord of Light
by Roger Zelazny
from HarperCollins
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$11.89
Main Street
by Sinclair Lewis
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$1.60 (1 in stock)
Maltese Falcon
by Dashiell Hammett
from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.60
Martian Chronicles
by Ray Bradbury
from Bantam Books
Science Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00
Martian Chronicles
by Ray Bradbury
Reprint from Simon & Schuster Macmillan
Science Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.64
My Antonia
by Willa Cather
from Mariner Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.64
New Song
Mitford Series Book 5
by Jan Karon
from Penguin Putnam
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
O Pioneers
by Willa Cather
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Octopus
by Frank Norris
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.61
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
Out to Canaan
Mitford Series Book 4
by Jan Karon
from Penguin Putnam
Adult Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Ox-Bow Incident
by Walter Van Tilburg Clark
Reissue from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$2.80 (1 in stock)
Patriot
by Pearl S. Buck
from The John Day Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$14.40 (1 in stock)
Penrod
by Booth Tarkington
from Living Book Press
Realistic Fiction for 7th-Adult
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$10.19
Penrod
by Booth Tarkington, illustrated by Gordon Grant
from Grosset & Dunlap
Realistic Fiction for 7th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$11.20 (1 in stock)
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
by Seth Grahame-Smith, Jane Austen
from Quirk Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$3.20 (1 in stock)
Princess of Mars
by Edgar Rice Burroughs
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.06
Promise
by Chaim Potok
from Anchor Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.40 (1 in stock)
Rabble in Arms
by Kenneth Roberts
from Down East Books
for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.11
Rabble in Arms
by Kenneth Roberts
from Doubleday & Company
for 10th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$5.20 (1 in stock)
Ready Player One
by Ernest Cline
from Broadway Books
for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.30
Riders of the Purple Sage
by Zane Grey
from Dover Publications
Westerns for 8th-Adult
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$5.10
Riders of the Purple Sage
by Zane Grey
from Oxford University
Westerns for 8th-Adult
in Action & Adventure Stories (Location: FIC-ADV)
$2.40 (1 in stock)
Rumble Fish
by S. E. Hinton
from Delacorte Press
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.64
Samurai's Garden
by Gail Tsukiyama
from St. Martin's Griffin
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.74
Scarlet
by Stephen R. Lawhead
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.60 (1 in stock)
Scarlet
The King Raven Trilogy Book 2
by Stephen R. Lawhead
from Thomas Nelson Publishers
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$18.99
Sea Wolf
by Jack London, illustrated by Fletcher Martin
from Easton Press
Naturalism for 10th-Adult
in Leather Bound Collectible Books (Location: VIN-LEA)
$28.00 (1 in stock)
Seabiscuit
by Laura Hillenbrand
from Ballantine Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.80 (2 in stock)
Second Book of the Dun Cow: Lamentations
by Walter Wangerin
from Diversion Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$11.89
Second Coming
by Walker Percy
from Picador
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.45
Second Foundation
Foundation Trilogy #3
by Isaac Asimov
from Bantam Books
Science Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.79
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