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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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258 Items found Print
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Active Filters: 10th grade (Ages 15-16), Trade Paperback, In-Stock Books & Materials
1984
by George Orwell
from Harcourt
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.00 $11.00 (4 in stock)
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
New Ed from University of California Press
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$15.95
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
by Mark Twain
from Penguin Classics
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.00
Alas, Babylon
by Pat Frank
from HarperCollins
Apocalyptic novel for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.99
Alchemist
by Paulo Coelho
25th Anniversary Edition from HarperCollins
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.99
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass
by Lewis Carroll
from Modern Library
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$11.00
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)
$18.99
Annotated Pride and Prejudice
by Jane Austen
Revised & Expanded from Anchor Books
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$20.00 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Appointment with Death
A Hercule Poirot Mystery #19
by Agatha Christie
1975 Printing from Dell Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$2.00 (1 in stock)
Around the World in Eighty Days
by Jules Verne, George M. Towle (Translator)
from Bantam Books
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Around the World in Eighty Days
by Jules Verne, translated by William Butcher
Reprint from Oxford University
for 8th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.95
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
50th Anniversary Edition from Signet Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.99
Atlas Shrugged
by Ayn Rand
Reprint from Plume Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00 (1 in stock)
Atonement
by Ian McEwan
Reprint Edition from Anchor Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Bertie Wooster Sees it Through
by P. G. Wodehouse
from Touchstone
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.95
Betsy and the Great World & Betsy's Wedding
Betsy-Tacy #9-10
by Maud Hart Lovelace
from Harper Perennial
for 7th-10th grade
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$19.99
Big Four
A Hercule Poirot Mystery #5
by Agatha Christie
Reissue from SeaWolf Press
for 9th-Adult
in Seawolf Illustrated Classics (Location: FIC-SW)
$8.95
Billy Budd, Sailor, and Other Stories
by Herman Melville
from Bantam Books
Realistic Nautical Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.95
Bleak House
by Charles Dickens
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$13.00
Blue at the Mizzen
Aubrey/Maturin #20
by Patrick O'Brian
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Blue Shoes and Happiness
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #7
by Alexander McCall Smith
Edition from Anchor Books
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.50 (2 in stock)
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)
$18.99
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)
$29.99
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)
$15.99
Caine Mutiny
by Herman Wouk
from Back Bay Books
for 10th-Adult
1952 Pulitzer Prize Winner
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$18.99
Cannery Row
by John Steinbeck
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.00
Canticle for Leibowitz
by Walter M. Miller
from HarperCollins
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.99
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)
$18.99
Chosen
by Chaim Potok
from Simon and Schuster
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.99
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)
$14.95
Commodore
Aubrey/Maturin #17
by Patrick O'Brian
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
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
Coraline
by Neil Gaiman
from William Morrow & Company
for 9th-Adult
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$16.99
Crime and Punishment
by Fyodor Dostoevsky
3rd edition from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$10.00 (1 in stock)
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton
5th edition from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Cry, the Beloved Country
by Alan Paton
from Charles Scribner's Sons
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.00 $6.00 (1 in stock)
David Copperfield
by Charles Dickens
Revised from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$11.00
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)
$16.00
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)
$18.99
Deerslayer
Leatherstocking Tales #1
by James Fenimore Cooper
from Penguin Classics
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$16.00
Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes, translated by John Rutherford
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$17.00
Don Quixote
by Miguel de Cervantes, translated by Edith Grossman
Reprint from Harper Perennial
for 10th-Adult
in 17th Century Literature (Location: LIT4-17)
$19.99
Dubliners
Dover Thrift Editions
by James Joyce
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.00 $4.00 (1 in stock)
Earth Abides
by George R. Stewart
from Harper Voyager
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$18.99
East of Eden
by John Steinbeck
Revised from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$19.00
Egg and I
by Betty MacDonald
from HarperCollins
Biography for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$15.99
Enchantment
by Orson Scott Card
1st edition from Del Rey
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.00
Enchantress of Florence
by Salman Rushdie
Reprint from Anchor Books
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
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)
$12.00
Enter Jeeves
by P. G. Wodehouse
from Dover Publications
Humor for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$9.95
Eyre Affair
Thursday Next Book 1
by Jasper Fforde
from Penguin Putnam
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$18.00
Flames of Rome
by Paul L. Maier
2nd edition from Kregel Publications
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$18.99 $8.00 (1 in stock)
Fortune of War
Aubrey/Maturin #6
by Patrick O'Brian
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
Frankenstein
by Mary Shelley
from Penguin Putnam
Horror for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$10.00
Full Cupboard of Life
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #5
by Alexander McCall Smith
from Anchor Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
Giant
by Edna Ferber
from Harper Perennial
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.99
Gilead
by Marilynne Robinson
from Picador
for 10th-Adult
2005 Pulitzer Prize Winner
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Golden Ocean
by Patrick O'Brian
from W. W. Norton and Co.
Nautical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Good Earth
by Pearl S. Buck
from Washington Square Press
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.99
Good Husband of Zebra Drive
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #8
by Alexander McCall Smith
from Anchor Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.50 (2 in stock)
Good Husband of Zebra Drive
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #8
by Alexander McCall Smith
from Pantheon Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
from Penguin Classics
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$19.00
Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
from Penguin Books
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$21.00
Great Divorce
by C. S. Lewis
from HarperCollins
Allegory for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.99 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Great Expectations
by Charles Dickens
from Penguin Classics
Realistic Fiction for 10th-12th grade
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$11.00
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)
$17.00
Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
by Mary Ann Shaffer
from Sun Dial Press
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.00 $9.00 (1 in stock)
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
from Oxford University
Satire/Social Commentary for 9th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$7.95
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
from Dover Publications
for 7th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$6.00 $4.00 (2 in stock)
Gulliver's Travels
by Jonathan Swift
from Barnes & Noble
for 10th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$3.00 (1 in stock)
H. M. S. Surprise
Aubrey/Maturin #3
by Patrick O'Brian
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$7.50 (1 in stock)
Hard Times
by Charles Dickens
Reissue from Penguin Classics
Realistic Fiction for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.00
Hawk and the Dove Series
by Penelope Wilcock
from Lion Hudson
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad
from Modern Library
Realistic Modern Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$12.00
Hero Born
by Jin Yong, translated by Anna Holmwood
from St. Martin's Griffin
for 8th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$18.99
History of Rasselas
by Samuel Johnson
from Oxford University
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$8.95
History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
by Samuel Johnson
from Dover Publications
for 10th-Adult
in 18th Century Literature (Location: LIT5-18)
$6.95
Home to Holly Springs
by Jan Karon
1st edition from Viking Press
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$4.00 (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
Hound of the Baskervilles
by Arthur Conan Doyle
from Dover Publications
for 7th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$4.00
House of the Seven Gables
by Nathaniel Hawthorne
from W. W. Norton and Co.
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
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)
$14.99
Howards End
by E. M. Forster
from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$11.00
I Capture the Castle
by Dodie Smith
from St. Martin's Griffin
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$17.99
In the Company of Cheerful Ladies
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #6
by Alexander McCall Smith
from Anchor Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.50 (1 in stock)
In the Hall of the Dragon King
by Stephen R. Lawhead
from Crossway Books
for 9th-Adult
in Fantasy Fiction (Location: FIC-FAN)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
2nd edition from Vintage Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.00
Invisible Man
by Ralph Ellison
from Quality Paperback Book Club
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$8.00 (1 in stock)
Israel Potter
by Herman Melville
from Penguin Classics
for 10th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$16.00
Ivanhoe
by Sir Walter Scott
from Dover Publications
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$5.95
Jane Eyre
by Charlotte Brontë
from Penguin Classics
for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$9.00
Jeeves and the Tie That Binds
by P. G. Wodehouse
from Touchstone
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$14.99
Joan of Arc
by Mark Twain
from Ignatius Press
Biography for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$18.95 $12.00 (1 in stock)
Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell
by Susanna Clarke
from Bloomsbury Publishing
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$19.99
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)
$15.00 (1 in stock)
Kalahari Typing School for Men
No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency #4
by Alexander Mccall Smith
1st Anchor Books Edition from Anchor Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.50 (2 in stock)
Killer Angels
by Michael Shaara
from Ballantine Books
Historical Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
King Solomon's Mines, Allan Quatermain and She
by H. Rider Haggard
from Dover Publications
Action/Adventure for 9th-Adult
in 19th Century Literature (Location: LIT6-19)
$16.95
Kite Runner
by Khaled Hosseini
from Riverhead Books
for 10th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$16.00 $10.00 (1 in stock)
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