13 Novels Conservatives Will Love (but Probably Haven't Read)

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.
 
 

“In this excellent study of thirteen underappreciated works of fiction, Christopher Scalia gives us an insightful, witty, and powerful argument for why literature matters. If, as Horace claimed, great literature instructs and delights, then we readers are fortunate indeed to have a writer as perceptive as Scalia as our delightful instructor.”

—Christine Rosen, author of The Extinction of Experience: Being Human in a Disembodied World

“Christopher Scalia’s learning is wide and deep, but (don’t worry!) he wears it lightly. Indeed, there’s a gossamer lightness to everything about this wise and funny book—a trustworthy guide to the adventures of reading, writing, and living well.”

—Andrew Ferguson, contributing writer for the Atlantic

“If conservatives want to pass down tradition, they need to step more fully into the fruits of its imagination. This book shows that reading is an invitation into a preceding conversation. Thanks to Christopher Scalia for asking us to enjoy this feast of discourse!”

—Jessica Hooten Wilson, Fletcher Jones Chair of Great Books at Pepperdine University

“Christopher Scalia’s wise and witty book is a complete course in the English-language novel—but it’s a lot more fun than you would have in any classroom.”

—Matthew Continetti, author of The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism

“A life of reading takes a lot of planning—and a lot of thinking about what to read. That’s why Christopher Scalia’s smart guide to novels is so useful with its surprising but persuasive suggestions. It may point you to your next great book. But you should start by reading this great book.”

—John J. Miller, director of the Dow Journalism

"All the books in Scalia’s splendid list make the conservative case, imaginatively rather than pedantically, that this life cannot be perfect, that we each have duties to ourselves, to others, to the wisdom of the past, and to the desires of the future.

All 13 novels would be good additions to anyone’s bookshelves. Scalia’s book would be a good 14th."

—Hugo Gurdon, The Washington Examiner

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.
 

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