Jonah: I’ve been traveling and didn’t catch up with this thread until now. I agree with Rick that debating whether Chaucer is “conservative” is beside the point and not very edifying. Having said that, I do think we can identify pieces of fiction that will resonate more with conservatives than others. I’ll mention two: Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, and Shelley’s Heart, by Charles McCarry. The Golding book is of course assigned reading in lots of schools–it is a harrowing description of human behavior outside civilization, the desperate compulsion to organize, and the brutality that ensues. McCarry is a talented writer of espionage novels and a man (unlike, say, John Le Carre) who doesn’t have much patience for the Left. Shelley’s Heart is his best. The plot turns on a stolen presidential election.