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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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103 Items found Print
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Active Filters: 9th grade (Ages 14-15), Mass market paperback
2001: A Space Odyssey
by Arthur C. Clarke
from ROC Science Fiction
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.99
Adventures of Tom Sawyer
Dover Thrift Editions
by Mark Twain
from Dover Publications
for 6th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
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
by Lewis Carroll
from Bantam Books
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
And Then There Were None
by Agatha Christie
from HarperCollins
Murder Mystery for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Ball and the Cross
by G. K. Chesterton
from Dover Publications
Allegory for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.96
Battlefield Earth
by L. Ron Hubbard
from Bridge Publications, Inc.
Science Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Ben-Hur
Dover Thrift Editions
by Lew Wallace
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.00
Ben-Hur
Signet Classics
by Lew Wallace
from Signet Classics
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.95
Ben-Hur
Dover Thrift Editions
by Lew Wallace
from HarperCollins
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$16.99
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
Black Coffee
A Hercule Poirot Mystery #7
by Agatha Christie
Reissue from St. Martin's Press
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
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
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
Dandelion Wine
by Ray Bradbury
from Spectra Books
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
by Robert Louis Stevenson
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
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)
Ender's Game
by Orson Scott Card
from Tor Classic
Science Fiction for 7th-Adult
in Science Fiction (Location: FIC-SCI)
$9.99
Farewell Summer
by Ray Bradbury
1st edition from William Morrow & Company
for 7th-12th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.99
Floating Admiral
by Agatha Christie, Dorothy L. Sayers, G.K. Chesterton
First Thus
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Foundation
Foundation Trilogy #1
by Isaac Asimov
Revised from Bantam Books
Science Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.99
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)
$8.99
Frankenstein
Dover Thrift Editions
by Mary Shelley
from Dover Publications
for 7th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$6.00
Gods and Generals
by Jeff Shaara
from Ballantine Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Gone with the Wind
by Margaret Mitchell
from Charles Scribner's Sons
Romance for 9th-12th grade
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$23.00
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
Heart of Darkness
Dover Thrift Editions
by Joseph Conrad
from Dover Publications
Realistic Modern Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.00
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
Hitchhiker's Trilogy #1
by Douglas Adams
from Ballantine Books
Humorous Science Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.99
Hobbit
by J.R.R. Tolkien
17th Printing from Ballantine Books
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Hound of the Baskervilles
Signet Classics
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
from Signet Classics
Mystery for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.96
Hound of the Baskervilles
Signet Classics
by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
from Penguin Classics
Mystery for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.80
Human Comedy
by William Saroyan
Revised from Dell Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.99
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Signet Classics
by Victor Hugo
from Signet Classics
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Hunchback of Notre Dame
Dover Classics
by Victor Hugo, translated by A. Langdon Alger
from Dover Publications
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
I, Robot
by Isaac Asimov
from Bantam Books
Science Fiction for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Inheritance
Penguin Classics
by Louisa May Alcott
from Penguin Classics
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$15.00
Innocents Abroad
Signet Classics
by Mark Twain
from Signet Classics
Travel books/Social Commentary for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.95
Invisible Man
by H. G. Wells, with an introduction by W. Warren Wagar and an afterword by Scott Westerfeld
from Signet Classics
Science Fiction for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Island of Dr. Moreau
Signet Classics
by H. G. Wells
from Signet Classics
Speculative Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.95
Island of Dr. Moreau
Signet Classics
by H. G. Wells
from Dover Publications
Speculative Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.00
Island of Dr. Moreau
by H. G. Wells
from SeaWolf Press
Speculative Fiction for 9th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$6.95
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott
from Bantam Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Ivanhoe
Signet Classics
by Sir Walter Scott
from Signet Classics
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Ivanhoe
Penguin Classics
by Sir Walter Scott, edited by Graham Tulloch
from Penguin Classics
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$13.00
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Bronte
from Dover Publications
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00 $4.50 (2 in stock)
Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara
from Ballantine Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Last of the Mohicans
Leatherstocking Tales #2
by James Fenimore Cooper
Reprint from Signet Classics
Realistic Action/Adventure Novel for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$6.95
Last of the Mohicans
Leatherstocking Tales #2
by James Fenimore Cooper, introduction by A.B. Guthrie, Jr.
Reprint from Bantam Books
Realistic Action/Adventure Novel for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
Les Miserables
Signet Classics
by Victor Hugo, translated by Lee Fahnestock & Norman MacAfee
from Signet Classics
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$11.99
Les Miserables (abridged)
by Victor Hugo, supplementary materials written by Margaret Brantley
from Simon and Schuster
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.99
Life on the Mississippi
Signet Classics
by Mark Twain
from Signet Classics
Autobiography for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.95
Life, the Universe and Everything
Hitchhiker's Trilogy #3
by Douglas Adams
from Ballantine Books
Humorous Science Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Madame Bovary
by Gustave Flaubert
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.00
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
Middlemarch
by George Eliot
from Signet Classics
Realistic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.99
Moby-Dick
Signet Classics
by Herman Melville
from Signet Classics
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Mostly Harmless
Hitchhiker's Trilogy #5
by Douglas Adams
from Del Rey
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Murder Must Advertise (8)
A Lord Peter Mystery, Book 8
by Dorothy Sayers
from HarperCollins
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Murder on the Orient Express
A Hercule Poirot Mystery #10
by Agatha Christie
Reprint from HarperTrophy
Murder Mystery for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Northanger Abbey
Penguin Classics
by Jane Austen
from Penguin Classics
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00
Notre-Dame de Paris
Penguin Classics
by Victor Hugo, translated by John Sturrock
from Penguin Classics
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$15.00
Once and Future King
by T. H. White
from ACE Publishing
for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Once and Future King / Book of Merlyn
by T. H. White
from ACE Publishing
for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Pathfinder
Leatherstocking Tales #3
by James Fenimore Cooper
from Penguin Classics
Realistic Fiction for 9th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$15.00
Persuasion
Penguin Classics
by Jane Austen
from Penguin Classics
Realistic Romantic Fiction for 8th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.00
Pioneers
Leatherstocking Tales #4
by James Fenimore Cooper
from Signet Classics
Realistic Fiction for 9th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.95
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
Pride and Prejudice
Dover Thrift Editions
by Jane Austen
from Dover Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.00 $3.50 (2 in stock)
Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
from Bantam Books
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Prince and the Pauper
Signet Classics
by Mark Twain
from Signet Classics
Historical Fiction for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Pudd'nhead Wilson
Signet Classics
by Mark Twain
from Signet Classics
Mystery for 8th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.95
Rebecca
by Daphne du Maurier
from Avon Books
Mystery/Suspense for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Red Badge of Courage
by Stephen Crane
from Bantam Books
Historical Fiction for 7th-10th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.95
Restaurant At the End of the Universe
Hitchhiker's Trilogy #2
by Douglas Adams
from Ballantine Books
Humorous Science Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.99
Robinson Crusoe
Signet Classics
by Daniel Defoe
from Signet Classics
Realistic Adventure Novel for 8th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$5.95 $3.50 (1 in stock)
Roughing It
by Mark Twain
from Penguin Classics
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Rumble Fish
by S. E. Hinton
from Delacorte Press
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.99
Sackett's Land
The Sacketts Book 1
by Louis L'amour
from Bantam Books
for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.99
Scaramouche
Signet Classics
by Rafael Sabatini
from Signet Classics
Historical Romance for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Scarlet Letter
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Pocket Books
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.99
Scarlet Letter
Dover Thrift Editions
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from Dover Publications
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$6.00
Scarlet Pimpernel
Signet Classics
by Baroness Orczy
from Signet Classics
Action/Adventure for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.95
Scarlet Pimpernel
by Baroness Orczy
from Bantam Books
Action/Adventure for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.95
Second Foundation
Foundation Trilogy #3
by Isaac Asimov
from Bantam Books
Science Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.99
Sense and Sensibility
Penguin Classics
by Jane Austen
from Penguin Classics
Romantic Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00
Shane
by Jack Schaefer
from Harcourt
for 7th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.99
Shirley
Penguin Classics
by Charlotte Bronte
from Penguin Classics
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
Silas Marner
Signet Classics
by George Eliot
from Signet Classics
Realistic Fiction for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.95
So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish
Hitchhiker's Trilogy #4
by Douglas Adams
from Ballantine Books
Humorous Science Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
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)
Tale of Two Cities
Signet Classics
by Charles Dickens
from Signet Classics
Victorian Novel for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$6.95
Tale of Two Cities
Dover Thrift Editions
by Charles Dickens
from Dover Publications
Victorian Novel for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$7.00 $4.00 (1 in stock)
Tale of Two Cities
by Charles Dickens
from Ignatius Press
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
Thirty-Nine Steps
Dover Thrift Editions
by John Buchan
from Dover Publications
Action Adventure for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$3.00
Thirty-Nine Steps
by John Buchan
from Penguin Classics
Action Adventure for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$13.00
Time Machine
by H. G. Wells
from Dover Publications
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Treasure Island
by Sir Robert Louis Stevenson
from Bantam Books
for 6th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.95
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