Nephi Anderson's Added Upon - Home Literature

Nephi Anderson's novel is an interesting example of Home Literature. The plot is confused, and probably even more confusing to someone who is not acquainted with LDS Christian literature and doctrine. He quotes from random scriptures, and fails to pull together the coherence necessary. And yet, he is achieving at some level Orson Whitney's desire for a home literature. Whitney says, "In God's name and by his help we will build up a literature whose top shall touch heaven, though its foundations may now be low in earth." His goal for home literature is brilliance and spirituality.

Nephi Anderson approaches the epic tradition in a way similar to Milton. His is a novel epic, however, rather than a poem. He begins by describing the lives of spirits in the presence of God before their life on Earth, in the epic Miltonian tradition of the war in heaven, but with a very LDS twist. He pulls in allusions to Wordsworth, Isaiah, Amos, and many others. These would most certainly have been considered the "best books" by Whitney, and while modernly Anderson's story seems rather convoluted, for his context and the amount of doctrine he is using he does quite well. Prevalent within the text is an assumption that the reader is already familiar with the LDS doctrine of Lucifer's fall, Christ's volunteering, and the importance of Adam's and Eve's choice to eat the fruit in Eden.