Best Christian Literature for Wisdom and Inspiration

   Scythrop Glowry on Feb 14 10:37:25

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1. A Girl of the Limberlost (1909) by Gene Stratton-Porter

This book is wonderful. This is what I say about it in another post:

A Girl of The Limberlost is one of the best books I have ever read. No other book has so humbled me as a writer. Full of nature and determination, this book is a good one for those who love Lucy Maud Montgomery. The book has two big faults, but it is still even better than L.M. Montgomery's books. More realistic, deeper. This book gave me such a longing to be outside! Elnora Comstock lives in a fertile swamp woods in Indiana just as the forests are disappearing. Her mother, a bitter widow, is not the perfect mother-angel of other books of the time. The Limberlost is a beautiful but dangerous place. Elnora's struggle to go to high school is beset with heart-aching difficulties, but Elnora, strong with the schooling of LIFE, is prepared to struggle.

2. The Chautauqua Girls books (6x) (1876-1913) by Pansy

The first book, Four Girls at Chautauqua follows four likable but very faulty friends - three nominal Christians and an atheist - as they go to the religious vacation spot, Chautauqua. Chautauqua was a different place back then - and a beautiful one. But it was more than those girls bargained for. They went just to have a good time, but they got something rather different. The next five books follow their subsequent lives (especailly that of Ruth Erskine) and show how that experience changed them. The wonderful thing about the books is that they are very religious (I actually missed it when they let it go for a while) but they are not "preachy". They're very entertaining and I was sad to finish them at the last.

3. The Anne of Green Gables books, Emily of Newmoon books, Pat of Silverbush books, and Jane of Lantern Hill (14x in all) (1908-1935) by Lucy Maud Montgomery

I lumped these all together because they all sort of blend in my mind on this subject. They all have wise lessons and beautiful little glimpses of love of God. They are all wholesome and gorgeously lovely and I would recommend them to almost any woman or little girl.

4. The Little Women books (3x) (1869-1886) by Louisa May Alcott

These are rather preachy until you get used to them and even once you do you still feel it some. I didn't like Little Women when I first tried to read it. But, that said, they are wonderful books. Once I got into Little Women I loved it. I would read another chapter when I was out of sorts for some reason and it would set me to rights right away. They have a delightful quality of wholesomeness, and a lot of good lessons. I loved Plumfield (don't be decieved by the TV series, Little Men is a comforting, not a traumatic book). Jo's Boys isn't as great (and the author knew it) but it has some very funny moments and a few very good lessons.

5. An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott (1869)

This is a really good book. It is funny, inspiring, wholesome, realistic, and has many good lessons. As for what it's about...it starts out with countrified (thankfully!) Polly Milton coming to visit the worldly family of Shaw, or more specifically, Fanny Shaw, a spoiled sixteen-year-old girl who greatly needs a breath of strong country air.

6. What Katy Did (1872) by Susan Coolidge

I like to call this book "The Cynic's Pollyanna" and you'll understand why when you read it. This is not a very stylish literary sort of book but it is literature. It has a simple, easy, nostalgic way of putting things. Katy Carr is just the sort of girl you probably know and she and her siblings have just the sort of adventures you probably had (with a little interesting difference). But "because I said so" is not always the best way to handle things and neither is "I'll do it anyway." This lesson becomes very apparent after a certain incident puts Katy in reckless mood...

7. Just David, Pollyanna + Pollyanna Grows Up, and Cross Currents + The Turn of the Tide (5x in all) by Eleanor H. Porter

These are all inspiring and full of good lessons as well as very entertaining.

8. The Vicar of Wakefield (1766) by Oliver Goldsmith

The Vicar doesn't always get it right and once in a while he makes a stupid choice - don't we all? - but he also has some fine wisdom and his faith pulls him through some sensationally rough times. A religious 18th century soap opera of sorts, The Vicar of Wakefield deserves more readers for its easy read and thrilling suspense.

9. Ramona (1888) by Helen Hunt Jackson

This heart-rending romance about a half-Scottish, half-Indian woman raised by Mexicans (Spanish) who falls in love with a noble Indian sheep-shearer is from a Catholic perspective but beautiful for Christains of any stamp. Ramona clearly loves God and it helps her to get through the many tormenting trials she has to endure.

10. Tom Jones (1749) by Henry Fielding

There is a great amount of wisdom in this book as well as over 800 pages and a lot of entertainment. Surprisingly, it is quite a Christian novel. Make sure to read the introductory chapters at the beginning of each "book". Tom Jones follows a handsome, good-hearted youth who falls into sin and, by natural consequence, gets into an immense quantity of trouble. Guiding him past and shaming him for the conduct which makes the author call him, almost unfairly, "this rascal who happens to be our hero" is his love for the virtuous Sophia, who is beset with people who make Tom Jones look like a saint by comparison.

11. Chrystabel or Clouds with a Silver Lining (1873) by Emma Jane Warboise

There is a lot of moral instruction in this book, and religion plays an important role in the story. This is part of what I wrote about it in another post:

Emma Jane Warboise had the descriptive ability of Charles Dickens, only better. You see what she describes. Reminiscent of Jane of Lantern Hill and Emily of New Moon , perfect for admirers of The Secret Garden or Jane Eyre , this story begins with Chrystabel Tyndale at nine years old, having just lost a father she never really had, destitute of love, money, or religion, very sympathetic to the reader but very disagreeable to those around her. An unusual, yet delightfully familiar book. I love it so far and look forward to rereading parts of it many times in future.

12. Cora and the Doctor (1855) by Mrs. Madeleine Leslie

Cora and the Doctor is kind of a post-wedding romance novel with a little of the usual on the side. Cora is a British woman educated in France who has just married an aristocratic American doctor and come home with him to the American North where he is administering encouragement, charity, and religion as well as medical help. The story is full unrealistic elements and romantacism, but it is quite an exciting read once you get into it and it has an encouraging message of redemption.

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If you want Christian Literature of a later, slightly different kind, I recommend The Chronicles of Narnia and The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. ( The Screwtape Letters were probably inspired by The Dialogues of Devils (1832) by Rev. John ^McGowan.) The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien also has religious significance if you look at it the right way.