The purpose of this study is to examine four adolescent novels exclusively from the viewpoint of literary criticims. Two of the novels, labeled adolescent by the publishers, are "The Pigman" by Paul Zindel and "His Enemy, His Friend" by John Tunis; the other two, not labeled adolescent by the publishers, are "The Chosen" by Chaim Potok, and "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles. The study demonstrates how the critic's work is concerned with the quality of the work of literature, a quality generated by the work itself and unique to it. This study concludes that: (1) The four novels demonstrate some degree of artistic execution. (2) The two novels labeled by the publishers as adolescent do not demonstrate an artistry comparable to the two not labeled adolescent. (3) Of the four novels, the one that seemed written with the adolescent audience in mind is the most superficial. (4) The three novels which use an adolescent narrator in the first person create more immediacy than the one book that uses the impersonal narrator. (5) The four books considered adolescent in this study concern themselves with Havighurst's developmental tasks. Implications are offered for the high school teacher of English. (Author/DB)