13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven't Read)
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A discussion of 13 works of literary fiction in the context of their relevance to conservative beliefs.
Great novels are a remarkable confluence of complex characters, powerful storytelling, and beautiful language. They ask important questions and explore major ideas that can reflect a culture—and shape it. Yet if you talk to right-of-center readers about literary fiction that considers ideas of particular interest to conservatives, they tend to mention the same handful of books. They neglect greatness from across the centuries—hardly a conservative thing to do!
Christopher J. Scalia’s 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read) helps anyone interested in conservatism both restock their fiction shelves and better understand a great intellectual tradition. A former English professor and a widely published critic and opinion writer, Scalia discusses outstanding works of fiction by anglophone writers from Samuel Johnson to Zora Neale Hurston, Nathaniel Hawthorne to P. D. James, Willa Cather to Walter Scott. These novels explore topics like national identity, tradition, religion, human nature, and many more—without descending into simplistic propaganda. Scalia connects the themes of great works spanning four centuries to the insights of such thinkers as Edmund Burke, William F. Buckley, Roger Scruton, Michael Oakeshott, Gertrude Himmelfarb, and Russell Kirk.
Engaging, insightful, and funny, 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read) introduces readers to great literature and teaches them about principles central to conservativism.
Great novels are a remarkable confluence of complex characters, powerful storytelling, and beautiful language. They ask important questions and explore major ideas that can reflect a culture—and shape it. Yet if you talk to right-of-center readers about literary fiction that considers ideas of particular interest to conservatives, they tend to mention the same handful of books. They neglect greatness from across the centuries—hardly a conservative thing to do!
Christopher J. Scalia’s 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read) helps anyone interested in conservatism both restock their fiction shelves and better understand a great intellectual tradition. A former English professor and a widely published critic and opinion writer, Scalia discusses outstanding works of fiction by anglophone writers from Samuel Johnson to Zora Neale Hurston, Nathaniel Hawthorne to P. D. James, Willa Cather to Walter Scott. These novels explore topics like national identity, tradition, religion, human nature, and many more—without descending into simplistic propaganda. Scalia connects the themes of great works spanning four centuries to the insights of such thinkers as Edmund Burke, William F. Buckley, Roger Scruton, Michael Oakeshott, Gertrude Himmelfarb, and Russell Kirk.
Engaging, insightful, and funny, 13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven’t Read) introduces readers to great literature and teaches them about principles central to conservativism.
Christopher J. Scalia is a senior fellow in the Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies department at the American Enterprise Institute. A former English professor, Dr. Scalia specialized in 18th-century and early 19th-century British literature. He also spent three years as director of AEI’s Academic Programs department, where he led educational and professional-development programs and events for college students around the country. His articles, essays, and reviews on literature, music, higher education, and other topics have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, USA Today, Commentary, National Review, First Things, the Washington Free Beacon, the Times Literary Supplement, the Spectator World, and FoxNews.com, among other outlets. Dr. Scalia is the coeditor of On Faith: Lessons from an American Believer and Scalia Speaks: Reflections on Law, Faith, and Life Well Lived. He holds a PhD and MA in English from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and a BA in English from the College of William & Mary. He lives in Virginia with his wife and their four children.