Comments on: Novels of the Right

By: Mark Shoup

Mark Shoup — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 19:53:41 +0000

Mr. Miller,
Sorry I got in on this thread way too late. I saw the list and went through all that I hadn’t read. (Helprin is the most brilliant writer of our time, IMHO. Please ask him to write another novel!) Now that I’ve found this site, however, I have even more good recommendations from which to stock my library.

I’ve little else to add except that I look forward to the next installment of this topic in NR.

By: PolicyGuy › Is “conservative art” an oxymoron?

PolicyGuy › Is “conservative art” an oxymoron? — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 16:13:19 +0000

[...] You can find the list here, and many more suggestions, from readers of his personal website, here. I’m surprised there aren’t any Russian novels on his [...]

By: Jerry

Jerry — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 23:51:00 +0000

M.P.Shiel-The Purple Cloud. One of the most entertaining last man on earth novels. Also, his “Lord of the Sea”. Talk about free enterprise!

Wyndham Lewis–The Apes of God (His non-fiction is interesting. In “Men Without Art” he has a chapter entitled “William Faulkner:Moralist With A Corncob”)

Sarban-Ringstones. A compelling work of fiction.

George S. Schuyler-Black No More (a card carrying conservative)

Stella Gibbon-Cold Comfort Farm (self-possessed heroine)

Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam–Axel (Casting a cold eye…)

Heinrich von Kleist-Michael Kohlhaas John Wayne ain’t got
nothing on him

Donatien Alphonse Francois De Sode-Philosophy In The Boardroom

Lion Feuchtwanger-Power (English title of the novel which
became a Right Wing film classic)

Thomas Dixon-The Leopard’s Spots (one of this author’s other novels became a highly praised movie. Birth of the Republic)

By: Paul Janos

Paul Janos — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 05:37:30 +0000

I’m late to this discussion, but a book that belongs on a list of conservative titles is And Ladies Of The Club by Helen Hooven Santmyer. I read it several years ago but the book has stayed in my mind. The story takes place in a small Ohio town in the years after the Civil War and follows the lives of a circle of friends.
The main values of these people are loyalty, faith, custom, and hard work. And there are some pretty interesting observations about national politics. T.R. is seen as a dangerous radical and Woodrow Wilson is beyond the pale. A long but rewarding read.

By: Lincoln Hunter

Lincoln Hunter — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 20:26:09 +0000

I dragged my aching eyes through 128 comments and, as I expected, I did not find the names of two truly great conservative American novelists who continue to be either ignored or forgotten:
James Gould Cozzens
Wallace Stegner

By: Penny Leinwander

Penny Leinwander — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:44:05 +0000

There is a new novel about nuclear power that provides a conservative view.

“An entertaining, inventive mystery.” Kirkus Discoveries

It provides a lot of detail about nuclear power and the power supply business in the US in a compelling murder mystery format.

Murder in Containment by me, Penny Leinwander.

By: Roger

Roger — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 17:15:22 +0000

May I praise and agree with Patrick Sullivan’s November 20 evaluation of Heinlein’s entire oeuvre? And to follow that, a suggestion for a great conservative sf novel: Lord of Light by Roger Zelazny, winner of both Hugo and Nebula.

By: Ellen

Ellen — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 14:21:22 +0000

Lord of the World by R.H. Benson. Julian Felsenburg a charismatic, formerly unknown American politician captivates a secular Europe. He is proclaimed the President of World State. Only the Catholic Church holds out against the worship of Felsenburgh.

Reading this book sent cold chills up my spine. The leaders of the world in this novel reminded me so much of the current administration’s Czars.

By: Ted Smith

Ted Smith — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 20:31:27 +0000

Don: It would have been impossible for me to have said it better than the line you quoted from Gilead. Here are three more, all of which are fundamentally conservative.

On the perfectability of man (in this life at least): “Material things are so vulnerable to the humiliations of decay.”

On modernism’s rejection of the past: “It is hard to make people care about old things.”

On personal responsibility: “To say a thief is a brother man and beloved of God is true. To say therefore a thief is not a thief is an error.”

By: Don Fairchild

Don Fairchild — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 05:40:10 +0000

I agree with Ted about Gilead. It’s a beautiful book with a lot of interesting insights about faith. I have recommended it to several people and have even given it as a gift to a couple of Christian friends. I have never heard anything back from them one way or another about it, which leads me to believe they never read it. However, I hold out hope that someday they may pick it up and enjoy it as much as I did – even if they can’t remember by that time where it came from.

Any book that has family as a central theme as much as Gilead can’t be considered anything but conservative. If you need proof, let me quote the last few lines of the book. A prayer of John Ames for his son:

“I’ll pray that you grow up a brave man in a brave country. I will pray that you find a way to be useful. I’ll pray, and then I’ll sleep.”