Reading Check Lists for Major Series: Great Books of the Western World

Homer

• The Iliad | (Richmond Lattimore)
• The Odyssey | (Richmond Lattimore)

Aeschylus

• The Suppliant Maidens | (Seth G. Benardete)
• The Persians | (Seth G. Benardete)
• Seven Against Thebes | (David Grene)
• Prometheus Bound | (David Grene)

Sophocles

Euripides

• Rhesus | (Richmond Lattimore)
• The Medea | (Rex Warner)
• Hippolytus | (David Grene)
• Alcestis | (Richmond Lattimore)
• The Heracleiadae | (Ralph Gladstone)
• The Suppliant Women | (Frank William Jones)
• The Trojan Women | (Richmond Lattimore)
• Ion | (Ronald Frederick Willetts)
• Helen | (Richmond Lattimore
• Andromache | (John Frederick Nims)
• Electra | (Emily Townsend Vermeule)
• The Bacchae | (William Arrowsmith)
• Hecuba | (William Arrowsmith)
• Heracles | (William Arrowsmith)
• The Phoenician Women | (Elizabeth Wyckoff)
• Orestes | (William Arrowsmith)
• Iphigenia in Tauris | (Witter Bynner)
• Iphigenia in Aulis | (Charles R. Walker)
• The Cyclops | (William Arrowsmith)

Aristophanes

• The Acharnians | (Alan H. Sommerstein)
• The Knights | (Alan H. Sommerstein)
• The Clouds | (Alan H. Sommerstein)
• The Wasps | (David Barrett)
• Peace | (Alan H. Sommerstein)
• The Birds | (David Barrett)
• The Frogs | (David Barrett)
• Lysistrata | (Alan H. Sommerstein)
• The Poet and the Women | (David Barrett)
• The Assemblywomen | (David Barrett)
• Wealth | (Alan H. Sommerstein)

Herodotus

• The History | (George Rawlinson)

Thucydides

• The History of the Peloponnesian War | (Richard Rawley)

Plato

Aristotle

• Categories (E.M. Edghill)
• On Interpretation (E.M. Edghill)
• Prior Analytics (A.J. Jenkinson)
• Posterior Analytics (G.R.G. Mure)
• Topics (W.A. Pickard-Cambridge)
• On Sophistical Refutations (W.A. Pickard-Cambridge)
• Physics (R.P. Hardie, and R.K. Gaye)
• On the Heavens (J.L. Stocks)
• On Generation and Corruption (H.H. Joachim)
• Meteorology (E.W. Webster)
• Metaphysiscs (W.D. Ross)
• On the Soul (J.A. Smith)
• On Sense and the Sensible (J.I. Beare)
• On Memory and Reminiscence (J.I. Beare)
• On Sleep and Sleeplessness (J.I. Beare)
• On Dreams, (J.I. Beare)
• On Prophesying by Dreams (J.I. Beare)
• On Longevity and Shortness of Life (G.R.T. Ross)
• On Youth and Old Age, On Life and Death, On Breathing (G.R.T. Ross)
• History of Animals (D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson)
• On the Parts of Animals (William Ogle)
• On the Motion of Animals (A.S.L. Farquharson)
• On the Gait of Animals (A.S.L. Farquharson)
• On the Generation of Animals (Arthur Platt)
• Nicomachean Ethics (W.D. Ross)
• Politics (Benjamin Jowett)
• The Athenian Constitution (Sir Frederic G. Kenyon)
• Rhetoric (W. Rhys Roberts)
• On Poetics (Ingram Bywater)

Hippocrates

Galen

• On the Natural Faculties (Arthur John Brock)

Euclid

• Euclid’s Elements (Sir Thomas L. Heath)

Archimedes

Apollonius of Perga

• Treatise on Conic Sections

Nicomachus of Gerasa

• The Introduction to Arithmetic of Nicomachus (Martin L. D’Ooge)

Lucretius

• The Way Things Are (Rolfe Humphries)

Epictetus

• Discourses (George Long)

Marcus Aurelius

• Meditations (George Long)

Plotinus

• The Six Enneads (Stephen MacKenna and B.S. Page)

Virgil

• Eclogues (C. Day Lewis)
• Georgics (C. Day Lewis)
• The Aeneid (C. Day Lewis)

Plutarch

• The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans (John Dryden)

Cornelius Tacitus

• The Annals (Alfred John Church, and William Jackson Brodribb)
• The Histories (Alfred John Church, and William Jackson Brodribb)

Ptolemy

• The Almagest (R. Catesby Taliaferro)

Nicolaus Copernicus (Renaissance)

• On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres (Charles Glenn Wallis)

Johannes Kepler (Renaissance)

• Epitome of Copernican Astronomy: IV-V (Charles Glenn Wallis)
• The Harmonies of the World: V (Charles Glenn Wallis)

Augustine of Hippo

• The Confessions (R.S. Pine-Coffin)
• The City of God (Marcus Dods)
• On Christian Doctrine (J.F. Shaw)

Thomas Aquinas

• Summa Theologica (Father Laurence Shapcote)

Dante

• The Divine Comedy (Charles S. Singleton)

Geoffrey Chaucer

• Troilus and Criseyde (Nevill Coghill)
• The Canterbury Tales (Nevill Coghill)

John Calvin

• Institutes of the Christian Religion (Henry Beveridge)

Nicolò Machiavelli

• The Prince (W.K. Marriott)

Thomas Hobbes

• Leviathan (Nelle Fuller)

François Rabelais

• Gargantua and Pantagruel (Sir Thomas Urquhart and Peter Motteux)

Desiderius Erasmus

• Praise of Folly (Betty Radice)

Michel de Montaigne

• Essays (Donald M. Frame)

William Shakespeare

• The First Part of King Henry the Sixth
• The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth
• The Third part of King Henry the Sixth
• The Life and Death of Richard the Third
• The Comedy of errors
• Titus Andronicus
• The Taming of the Shrew
• The Two Gentlemen of Verona
• Love’s Labour ‘s Lost
• Romeo and Juliet
• The Life and Death of Richard the Second
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• The Life and Death of King John
• The Merchant of Venice
• The first part of King Henry the Fourth
• The second part of King Henry the Fourth
• Much Ado About Nothing
• The Life of King Henry the Fifth
• The Life and Death of Julius Ceasar
• As you like it
• Twelfth Night; or, what you will
• The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
• The Merry Wives of Windsor
• The History of Troilus and Cressida
• All’s Well that Ends Well
• Measure for Measure
• Othello, the Moore of Venice
• King Lear
• Macbeth
• Antony and Cleopatra
• The Tragedy of Coriolanus
• The Life of Timon of Athens
• Pericles, Prince of Tyre
• Cymbeline
• The Winter’s Tale
• The Tempest
• The Life of King Henry the Eighth
• The Sonnets

William Gilbert

• On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies (P. Fleury Mottelay)

Galileo Galilei

• Concerning the Two New Sciences (Henry Crew and Alfonso de Salvio)

William Harvey

• On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals (Robert Willis)
• On the Circulation of the Blood (Robert Willis)
• On the Generation of Animals (Robert Willis)

Miguel de Cervantes

• The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha (Samuel Putnam)

Francis Bacon

• Advancement of Learning
• Novum Organum
• New Atlantis

René Descartes

• Rules for the Direction of the Mind (Elizabeth S. Haldane, and G.R.T. Ross)
• Discourse on the Method (Elizabeth S. Haldane, and G.R.T. Ross)
• Meditations on First Philosophy (Elizabeth S. Haldane, and G.R.T. Ross)
• Objections Against the Meditations and Replies (Elizabeth S. Haldane, and G.R.T. Ross)
• The Geometry (David Eugene Smith, and Marcia L. Latham)

Benedict de Spinoza

• Ethics (W.H. White)

John Milton

• English Minor Poems
• Paradise Lost
• Samson Agonistes
• Areopagitica

Blaise Pascal

• The Provincial Letters
• Pensées
• Scientific Treatises

Molière

• The School for Wives (Morris Bishop)
• The Critique of the School for Wives (Morris Bishop)
• Tartuffe (Morris Bishop)
• Don Juan (John Wood)
• The Miser (Wallace Fowlie)
• The Would-Be Gentleman (Morris Bishop)
• The Would-Be Invalid (Morris Bishop)

Jean Racine

• Berenice (Samuel Solomon)
• Phaedra (Samuel Solomon)

Sir Isaac Newton

• Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (Andrew Mott)
• Optics

Christiaan Huygens

• Treatise on Light (Silvanus P. Thompson)

John Locke

• A Letter Concerning Toleration (William Popple)
• Second Essay on Civil Government
• An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

George Berkeley

• The Principles of Human Knowledge

David Hume

• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

Jonathan Swift

• Gulliver’s Travels

Voltaire

• Candide (Peter Gay)

Denis Diderot

• Rameau’s Nephew (Jacques Brazu)

Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu

• The Spirit of Laws (Thomas Nugent)

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

• A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality (G.D.H. Cole)
• A Discourse on Political Economy (G.D.H. Cole)
• The Social Contract (G.D.H. Cole)

Adam Smith

• An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

Edward Gibbon

• The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Immanuel Kant

• The Critique of Pure Reason (J.M.D. Meiklejohn)
• Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals (Thomas Kingsmill Abbott)
• The Critique of Practical Reason (Thomas Kingsmill Abbott)
• Preface and Introduction to the Metaphysical Elements of Ethics, With a Note on Conscience (Thomas Kingsmill Abbott)
• General Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals (W. Hastie)
• The Science of Right (W. Hastie)
• The Critique of Judgement (James Creed Meredith)

American State Papers

• Declaration of Independence
• Articles of Confederation
• The Constitution

Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay

• The Federalist

John Stuart Mill

*On Liberty
*Representative Government
*Utilitarianism

James Boswell

• The Life of Samuel Johnson

Antoine Laurent Lavoisier

• Elements of Chemistry (Robert Kerr)

Michael Faraday

• Experimental Researches in Electricity

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

• The Philosophy of Right (T.M. Knox)
• The Philosophy of History (J. Sibree)

Søren Kierkegaard

• Fear and Trembling (Walter Lowrie)

Friedrich Nietzsche

• Beyond Good and Evil (Walter Lowrie)

Alexis de Tocqueville

• Democracy in America (George Lawrence)

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• Faust (Philip Wayne)

Honoré de Balzac

• Cousin Bette (Marion Ayton Crawford)

Jane Austen

• Emma

George Eliot

• Middlemarch

Charles Dickens

• Little Dorrit

Herman Melville

• Moby Dick; or, The Whale

Mark Twain

• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Charles Darwin

• The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
• The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex

Karl Marx

• Capital (Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling)

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

• Manifesto of the Communist Party (Samuel Moore)

Leo Tolstoy

• War and Peace (Louise Maude and Aylmer Maude)

Fyodor Dostoevsky

• The Brothers Karamazov | (Constance Garnett)

Henrik Ibsen

• A Doll’s House | (James W. McFarlane)
• The Wild Duck | (James W. McFarlane)
• Hedda Gabler | (Jens Arup)
• The Master Builder | (James W. McFarlane)

William James (also see below)

• The Principles of Psychology

Sigmund Freud

• The Origin and Development of Psycho-analysis | (1910) (Harry W. Chase)
• Selected Papers on Hysteria (chapters 1–10) | (1893–1908) (A.A. Brill)
• The Sexual Enlightenment of Children
• The Future Prospects of Psycho-analytic Therapy | (1910) (Joan Riviere)
• Observations on “Wild” Psycho-analysis | (1910) (Joan Riviere)
• The Interpretation of Dreams | (1900) (A.A. Brill)
• On Narcissism | (1914) (Cecil M. Baines)
• Instincts and Their Vicissitudes | (1915) (Cecil M. Baines)
• Repression | (1915) (Cecil M. Baines)
• The Unconscious | (1915), (Cecil M. Baines)
• A General Introduction to Psycho-analysis | (1915–17) (Joan Riviere)
• Beyond the Pleasure Principle | (1920) (C.J.M. Hubback)
• Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego | (1921) (James Strachey)
• The Ego and the Id | (1923) (Joan Riviere)
• Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety | (1926) (Alix Strachey)
• Thoughts for the Times on War and Death | (1915) (E. Colburn Mayne)
• Civilization and Its Discontents | (1929) (Joan Riviere)
• New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-analysis | (1932) (W.J.H. Sprott)

Philosophy and Religion: Philosophy

Philosophy and Religion: Religion

Natural Science: Physical Sciences

Natural Science: Life Sciences

Social Science: Economics

Social Science: Anthropology, History and Sociology

Imaginative Literature

Daniel DEFOE (1660-1731)

• Robinson Crusoe

Rudyard KIPLING (1865-1936)

• “Mowgli’s Brothers” from The Jungle Book

Victor HUGO (1802-1885)

• “The Battle with the Cannon” from Ninety-three

Guy De MAUPASSANT (1850-1893)

• “Two Friends”

Ernest HEMINGWAY (1899-1961)

• “The Killers” from Men without Women

Sir Walter SCOTT (1771-1832)

• “The Two Drovers” from Chronicles of the Canongate

Joseph CONRAD (1857-1924)

• “Youth”

VOLTAIRE (1694-1778)

• Micromegas

Oscar WILDE (1854- 1900)

• “The Happy Prince” from The Happy Prince and Other Tales

Edgar Allan POE (1809-1849)

• “The Tell-Tale Heart”
• “The Masque of the Red Death”

Robert Louis STEVENSON (1850-1894)

• The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Mark TWAIN (Samuel Clemens 1835-1910)

• The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg

Charles DICKENS (1812-1870)

• “A Full and Faithful Report of the Memorable Trial of Bardell against Pickwick” from The Pickwick Papers

Nikolai GOGOL (1809-1852)

• “The Overcoat”

Samuel BUTLER (1835-1902)

• “Customs and Opinions of the Erewhonians” from Erewhon

Sherwood ANDERSON (1876-1941)

• “I’m a Fool”

ANONYMOUS (c. early 13th Century)

• Aucassin and Nicolette

Stephen CRANE (1871-1900)

• “The Open Boat”

Herman MELVILLE (1819-1891)

• “Billy Budd” from Billy Budd, Sailor

Ivan BUNIN (1870-1953)

• “The Gentleman from San Francisco”

Nathaniel HAWTHORNE (1804-1864)

• “Rappaccini’s Daughter” from Mosses from an Old Manse

George ELIOT (1819-1880)

• “The Lifted Veil”

Lucius APULEIUS (fl. 2nd Century)

• “Cupid and Psyche” from The Golden Ass

Ivan TURGENEV (1818-1883)

• “First Love”

Fyodor DOSTOEVSKY (1828-1910)

• “White Nights”

John GALSWORTHY (1867-1933)

• “The Apple-Tree”

Gustave FLAUBERT (1821-1880)

• “The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaller” from Three Tales

F. Scott FITZGERALD (1869-1940)

• “The Diamond as Big as the Ritz” from Tales of the Jazz Age

Honore De BALZAC (1799-1850)

• “A Passion in the Desert”

Anton CHEKHOV (1860-1904)

• “The Darling”

Isaac SINGER (b. 1904)

• “The Spinoza of Market Street”

Alexander PUSHKIN (1799-1837)

• “The Queen of Spades”

D. H. LAWRENCE (1885-1930)

• “The Rocking-Horse Winner” from The Lovely Lady

Henry JAMES (1843-1916)

• “The Pupil”

Thomas MANN (1875-1955)

• “Mario and the Magician” from Stories of Three Decades

Isak DINESEN (1885-1962)

• “Sorrow-Acre” from Winter’s Tales

Leo TOLSTOY (1828-1910)

• “The Death of Ivan Ilyitch”
• “The Three Hermits”
• “What Men Live By”

MOLIERE (1622-1673)

• The Misanthrope
• The Doctor in Spite of Himself

Richard SHERIDAN (1751-1816)

• The School for Scandal

Henrik IBSEN (1828-1906)

• An Enemy of the People

Anton CHEKHOV (1860-1904)

• The Cherry Orchard

George Bernard SHAW (1856-1950)

• The Man of Destiny

John M. SYNGE (1871-1909)

• Riders to the Sea

Eugene O’NEILL (1888-1953)

• The Emperor Jones

Critical Essays

Virginia WOOLF (1882-1941)

• “How Should One Read a Book?” from The Second Common Reader

Matthew ARNOLD (1822-1888)

• “The Study of Poetry” from The English Poets, T. H. Ward, Ed.

• “Sweetness and Light” from Culture and Anarchy

Charles Augustin SAINTE-BEUVE (1804-1869)

• “What Is a Classic?”
• “Montaigne”

Sir Francis BACON (1561-1626)

• “Of Beauty” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Discourse” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Studies” from Essays, Civil and Moral

David HUME (1711-1776)

• “Of the Standard of Taste” from Essays, Moral, Political, and Literary

Arthur SCHOPENHAUER (1788-1860)

• “On Style” from Essays in Ethics and Politics
• “On Some Forms of Literature” from Essays in Ethics and Politics
• “On the Comparative Place of Interest and Beauty in Works of Art”

Friedrich SCHILLER (1759-1805)

• “On Simple and Sentimental Poetry” from Essays Aesthetical and Philosophical

Percy Bysshe SHELLEY (1792-1822)

• “A Defence of Poetry”

Walt WHITMAN (1819-1892)

• Preface to Leaves of Grass

William HAZLITT (1778-1830)

• “My First Acquaintance with Poets”
• “On Swift”
• “Of Persons One Would Wish to Have Seen”

Charles LAMB (1775-1834)

• “My First Play”
• “Dream Children, a Reverie”
• “Sanity of True Genius”

Samuel JOHNSON (1709-1784)

• Preface to Shakespeare

Thomas DE QUINCEY (1785-1859)

• “Literature of Knowledge and Literature of Power”
• “On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth”

Thomas Stearns ELIOT (1888-1965)

• “Dante”
• “Tradition and the Individual Talent” from Selected Essays (New Ed.)

John Stuart MILL (1806-1873)

• “Childhood and Youth” from Autobiography

Mark TWAIN (Samuel Clemens 1835-1910)

• “Learning the River” from Life an the Mississippi

Jean De LA BRUYERE (1645-1696)

• “Characters” from A Book of Characters

Thomas CARLYLE (1795-1881)

• “The Hero as King” from On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History

Ralph Waldo EMERSON (1803-1882)

• “Thoreau”

Nathaniel HAWTHORNE (1804-1864)

• “Sketch of Abraham Lincoln”

Walt WHITMAN (1819-1892)

• “Death of Abraham Lincoln”

Virginia WOOLF (1882-1941)

• “The Art of Biography” from The Death of the Moth

XENOPHON (c. 430 B.C.-c. 355 B.C.)

• “The March to the Sea” from The Persian Expedition
• “The Character of Socrates” from Memorabilia

William H. PRESCOTT (1796-1859)

• “The Land of Montezuma” from The Conquest of Mexico

Haniel LONG (1888-1956)

• “The Power within Us”

PLINY the Younger (c. 61-c. 113)

• “The Eruption of Vesuvius” from Letters

Cornelius TACITUS (c. 55-c. 120)

• “The Life of Gnaeus Julius Agricola”

Francois GUIZOT (1787-1874)

• “Civilization” from History of Civilization in Europe

Henry ADAMS (1838-1918)

• “The United States in 1800” from History of the United States of America

John Bagnell BURY (1861-1927)

• “Herodotus” from The Ancient Greek Historians

LUCIAN (c. 125-c. 190)

• “The Way to Write History”

Great Documents

• The English Bill of Rights (1689)
• Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)
• The Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776)
• The Declaration of Independence (1776)
• Charter of the United Nations (1945)
• Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)

Thomas PAINE (1737-1809)

• “A Call to Patriots – December 23, 1776” from The Crisis

George WASHINGTON (1732-1799)

• “Circular Letter to the Governors of All the States on Disbanding the Army”
• “The Farewell Address”

Thomas JEFFERSON (1743-1826)

• “The Virginia Constitution” from Notes on Virginia
• “First Inaugural Address”
• “Biographical Sketches”

Benjamin FRANKLIN (1706-1790)

• “A Proposal for Promoting Useful Knowledge among the British Plantations in America”
• “Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania”

Jean De CREVECOEUR (1735-1813)

• “The Making of Americans” from Letters from an American Farmer

Alexis De TOCQUEVILLE (1805-1859)

• “Observations on American Life and Government” from Democracy in America

Henry David THOREAU (1817-1862)

• “Civil Disobedience”
• “A Plea for Captain John Brown”

Abraham LINCOLN (1809-1865)

• “Address at Cooper Institute”
• “First Inaugural Address”
• “Letter to Horace Greeley”
• “Meditation on the Divine Will”
• “The Gettysburg Address”
• “Second Inaugural Address”
• “Last Public Address”

Sir Francis BACON (1561-1626)

• “Of Youth and Age” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Parents and Children” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Marriage and Single Life” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Great Place” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Seditions and Troubles” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Custom and Education” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Followers and Friends” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Usury” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Riches” from Essays, Civil and Moral

Jonathan SWIFT (1667-1745)

• “Resolutions when I Come to Be Old”
• “An Essay on Modern Education”
• “A Meditation upon a Broomstick”
• “A Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country”

David HUME (1711-1776)

• “Of Refinement in the Arts” from Essays, Moral, Political and Literary
• “Of Money” from Essays, Moral, Political and Literary
• “Of the Balance of Trade” from Essays, Moral, Political and Literary
• “Of Taxes”from Essays, Moral, Political and Literary
• “Of the Study of History” from Essays, Moral, Political and Literary

PLUTARCH (c. 46-120)

• “Of Bashfulness” from Moralia

Robert Louis STEVENSON (1850-1894)

• “The Lantern-Bearers” from Across the Plains

John RUSKIN (1819-1900)

• “An Idealist’s Arraignment of the Age” from Four Clavigera

William JAMES (1842-1910)

• “On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings”
• “The Energies of Men”
• “Great Men and Their Environment”

Arthur SCHOPENHAUER (1788-1860)

• “On Education” from Studies in Pessimism

Michael FARADAY

• “Observations on Mental Education” from Lectures on Education

Edmund BURKE (1729-1797)

• “Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol”

John C. CALHOUN (1782-1850)

• “The Concurrent Majority” from A Disquisition on Government

Thomas Babington MACAULAY

• “Machiavelli” from Critical and Historical Essays

VOLTAIRE (1694-1778)

• “English Men and Ideas” from Letters on the English

DANTE Aligheri (1265-1321)

• “On World Government” from De Monarchia

Jean Jacques ROUSSEAU (1712-1778)

• “A Lasting Peace through the Federation of Europe” from A Lasting Peace through the Federation of Europe and the State of War

Immanuel KANT (1724-1804)

• “Perpetual Peace”

Karl Von CLAUSEWITZ (1780-1831)

• “What Is War?” from On War

Thomas Robert MALTHUS (1766-1834)

• “The Principle of Population” from Population: The First Essay

Francis BACON (1561-1626)

• “The Sphinx” from The Wisdom of the Ancients: A Series of Mythological Fables

John TYNDALL (1820-1893)

• “Michael Faraday” from Faraday as a Discoverer

Eve CURIE (b. 1904)

• “The Discovery of Radium” from Madame Curie

Charles Robert DARWIN (1809-1882)

• “Autobiography” from Charles Darwin’s Autobiography

Jean Henri FABRE (1823-1915)

• “A Laboratory of the Open Fields” from The Life of the Fly
• “The Sacred Beetle” from The Sacred Beetle and Others

Loren EISELEY (b. 1907)

• “On Time” from The Immense Journey

Rachel L. CARSON (1907-1964)

• “The Sunless Sea” from The Sea Around Us

J. B. S. HALDANE (1892-1964)

• “On Being the Right Size” from Possible Worlds

Thomas Henry HUXLEY (1825-1895)

• “On the Relations of Man to the Lower Animals” from Man’s Place in Nature and Other Anthropological Essays
• “On a Piece of Chalk”

Sir Francis GALTON (1822-1911)

• “The Classification of Human Ability” from Hereditary Genius

Claude BERNARD (1813-1878)

• “Experimental Considerations Common to Living Things and Inorganic Bodies” from An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine

Ivan Petrovich PAVLOV (1849-1936)

• “Scientific Study of the So-called Psychical Processes in the Higher Animals” from Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes

Friedrich WOHLER (1800-1882)

• “On the Artificial Production of Urea”

Sir Charles LYELL (1797-1875)

• “Geological Evolution” from The Principles of Geology

GALILEO Galilei (1564-1642)

• “The Starry Messenger”

Tommaso CAMPANELLA (1568-1639)

• “Arguments for and against Galileo” from The Defense of Galileo

Michael FARADAY (1791-1867)

• The Chemical History of a Candle

Dmitri MENDELEEV (1834-1907)

• “The Genesis of a Law of Nature” from The Periodic Law of the Chemical Elements

H. L. F. Von HELMHOLTZ (1821-1894)

• “On the Conservation of Force”

Albert EINSTEIN (1879-1955) & Leopold INFELD (1898-1968)

• “The Rise and Decline of Classical Physics” from The Evolution of Physics

Sir Arthur EDDINGTON (1882-1944)

• “The Running-Down of the Universe” from Nature and the Physical World

Sir James JEANS (1877-1946)

• “Beginnings and Endings” from The Universe Around Us

Kees BOEKE (b. 1884)

• “Cosmic View”

Lancelot HOGBEN (b. 1895)

• “Mathematics, the Mirror of Civilization” from Mathematics for the Million

Andrew Russell FORSYTH (1858-1942)

• “Mathematics, in Life and Thought”

Alfred North WHITEHEAD (1861-1947)

• “On Mathematical Method” from An Introduction to Mathematics
• “On the Nature of a Calculus” from A Treatise on Universal Algebra

Bertrand RUSSELL (1872-1970)

• “The Study of Mathematics” from Mysticism and Logic
• “Mathematics and the Metaphysicians” from Mysticism and Logic
• “Definition of Number” from Introduction to Mathematical Philosophy

Edward KASNER (1878-1955) and James R. NEWMAN (1907-1966)

• “New Names for Old” from Mathematics and the Imagination
• “Beyond the Googol” from Mathematics and the Imagination

Tobias DANTZIG (1884-1956)

• “Fingerprints” from Number: the Language of Science
• “The Empty Column” from Number: the Language of Science

Leonhard EULER (1707-1783)

• “The Seven Bridges of Konigsberg”

Norman Robert CAMPBELL (1880-1949)

• “Measurement” from What Is Science?
• “Numerical Laws and the Use of Mathematics in Science” from What Is Science?

William Kingdon CLIFFORD (1845-1879)

• “The Postulates of the Science of Space” from The Common Sense of the Exact Sciences

Henri POINCARE

• “Space” from Science and Hypothesis
• “Mathematical Creation”
• “Chance” from Science and Method

Pierre Simon De LAPLACE (1749-1827)

• “Probability” from A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities

Charles Sanders PEIRCE (1839-1914)

• “The Red and the Black”

John ERSKINE (1879-1951)

• “The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent” from The Moral Obligation to Be Intelligent

William Kingdon CLIFFORD (1845-1879)

• “The Ethics of Belief” from Lectures and Essays

William JAMES (1842-1910)

• “The Will to Believe” from The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy
• “The Sentiment of Rationality” from The Will to Believe and Other Essays in Popular Philosophy

John DEWEY (1859-1852)

• “The Process of Thought” from How We Think

EPICURUS (c. 341 B.C.-c. 271 B.C.)

• “Letter to Herodotus”
• “Letter to Menoeceus”

EPICTETUS (c. 60-c. 138)

• The Enchiridion

Walter Horatio PATER (1839-1894)

• “The Art of Life” from The Renaissance

PLUTARCH (c. 46-120)

• “Contentment” from Moralia

CICERO (106-43 B.C.)

• “On Friendship”
• “On Old Age”

Sir Francis BACON (1561-1626)

• “Of Truth” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Death” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Adversity” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Love” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Friendship” from Essays, Civil and Moral
• “Of Anger” from Essays, Civil and Moral

George SANTAYANA (1863-1952)

• “Lucretius” from Three Philosophical Poets
• “Goethe’s Faust” from Three Philosophical Poets

Henry ADAMS (1838-1910)

• “St. Thomas Aquinas” from Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres

VOLTAIRE (1694-1778)

• “The Philosophy of Common Sense” from Philosophical Dictionary

John Stuart MILL (1806-1873)

• “Nature” from Three Essays on Religion

Ralph Waldo EMERSON (1803-1882)

• “Nature” from Essays, Second Series
• “Self-Reliance” from Essays, First Series
• “Montaigne; or, the Skeptic” from Representative Men

William HAZLITT (1778-1830)

• “On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth”

Sir Thomas BROWNE (1605-1682)

• “Immortality” from Urn-Burial

Appendix II Recommended Novels

• ALAIN-FOURNIER (real name Henri Alban Fournier), The Wanderer, 1913
• ALCOTT, LOUISA MAY, Little Women, 1868
• AMIS, KINGSLEY, Lucky Jim, 1954
• ANONYMOUS, The Arabian Nights, 8th to 15th Century
• ANONYMOUS, Burnt Nial, tr. G. W. Dasent, 12th Century
• ANONYMOUS, The Nibelungenlied, c. 1200
• ANONYMOUS, The Song of Roland, tr. A. S. Way, c. 800
• ANONYMOUS, The Romance of Tristan and Iseult, tr. H. Belloc and P. Rosenfeld, 1210
• AUSTEN, JANE, Pride and Prejudice, 1813
• AUSTEN, JANE, Emma, 1815
• BAKER, DOROTHY, Young Man with a Horn, 1938
• BALZAC, HONORE DE, Eugénie Grandet, 1833
• BALZAC, HONORE DE, Old Goriot, 1835
• BELLAMY, EDWARD, Looking Backward: 2000—1887, 1888
• BOWEN, ELIZABETH, The Death of the Heart, 1938
• BRONTË, CHARLOTTE, Jane Eyre, 1847
• BRONTË, EMILY, Wuthering Heights, 1847
• BUCK, PEARL, The Good Earth, 1931
• BUNYAN, JOHN, The Pilgrim’s Progress from This World to the Next, 1678
• BUTLER, SAMUEL, The Way of All Flesh, 1903
• CAMUS, ALBERT, The Stranger, 1942
• CARROLL, LEWIS, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, 1865
• CARROLL, LEWIS, Through the Looking-Glass, 1872
• CATHER, WILLA, My Antonia, 1918
• CLARK, WALTER VAN TILBURG, The Ox-Bow Incident, 1940
• CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE (“Mark Twain”), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884
• COLLINS, WILKIE, The Woman in White, 1860
• CONRAD, JOSEPH, Heart of Darkness, 1902
• CONSTANT, BENJAMIN, Adolphe, 1815
• COZZENS, JAMES GOULD, Guard of Honor, 1948
• CRANE, STEPHEN, The Red Badge of Courage, 1895
• DICKENS, CHARLES, David Copperfield, 1850
• DICKENS, CHARLES, A Tale of Two Cities, 1859
• DICKENS, CHARLES, Great Expectations, 1861
• DIDEROT, DENIS, Rameau’s Nephew, 1785
• DOSTOESSKY, FYODOR, Crime and Punishment, 1S66
• DOYLE, CONAN, The White Company, 1891
• DREISER, THEODORE, An American Tragedy, 1925
• DUMAS, ALEXANDRE (père), The Three Musketeers, 1844
• ELIOT, GEORGE, Middlemarch, 1872
• FITZGERALD, F. SCOTT, The Great Gatsby, 1925
• FLAUBERT, GUSTAVE, Madame Bovary, 1857
• FORESTER, C. S., Captain Horatio Hornblower, 1939
• FORSTER, E. M., A Passage to India, 1924
• GALSWORTHY, JOHN, The Man of Property, 1906
• GIDE, ANDRÉ, The Counterfeiters, 1925
• GLASGOW, ELLEN, Vein of Iron, 1935
• GOGOL, NIK0LA1, Dead Souls, 1842
• GOODRICH, MARCUS, Delilah, 1941
• GUTHRIE, JR., A. B., The Big Sky, 1947
• HARDY, THOMAS, The Return of the Native, 1878
• HASEK, JAROSLAV, The Good Soldier, Schweik, 1923
• HAWTHORNE, NATHANIEL, The Scarlet Letter, 1850
• HEMINGWAY, ERNEST, The Old Man and the Sea, 1952
• HERSEY, JOHN, A Bell for Adano, 1944
• HUDSON, W. H., Green Mansions, 1904
• HUGHES, RICHARD, The Innocent Voyage (also published as A High Wind in Jamaica), 1929
• HUGO, VICTOR, Les Misérables, 1862
• HUXLEY, ALDOUS, Brave New World, 1932
• JAMES, HENRY, The American, 1877
• JAMES, HENRY, The Portrait of a Lady, 1881
• JOHNSON, SAMUEL, Rasselas Prince of Abyssinia, 1759
• JOYCE, JAMES, Dubliners, 1914
• KAFKA, FRANZ, The Trial, 1925
• KAFKA, FRANZ, The Castle, 1926
• KIPLING, RUDYARD, Kim, 1901
• LAFAYETTE, MME. DE, The Princess of Cleves, 1678
• LAWRENCE, D. H., Sons and Lovers, 1913
• LEWIS, SINCLAIR, Babbitt, 1922
• LONDON, JACK, The Sea-Wolf, 1904
• LONGUS, Daphnis and Chloe, 4th or 5th century
• MCCULLERS, CARSON, A Member of the Wedding, 1946
• MALORY, THOMAS, Le Morte dArthur, 1485
• MANZONI, ALESSANDRO, The Betrothed, 1826
• MAUGHAM, W. SOMERSET, Of Human Bondage, 1915
• MEREDITH, GEORGE, The Egoist, 1879
• MERIMÉE, PROSPER, Carmen, 1847
• MITCHELL, MARGARET, Gone with the Wind, 1936
• MUNTZ, HOPE, The Golden Warrior, 1948
• ORWELL, GEORGE, Animal Farm, 1945
• PATON, ALAN, Cry, The Beloved Country, 1948
• PUSHKIN, ALEXANDER, The Captain’s Daughter, 1836
• RAWLINGS, MARJORIE KINNAN, The Yearling, 1938
• RENAULT, MARY, The Last of the Wine, 1956
• SALINGER, J. D., The Catcher in the Rye, 1951
• SCOTT, WALTER, The Heart of Midlothian, 1818
• SCOTT, WALTER, Ivanhoe, 1820
• SHELLEY, MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT, Frankenstein, 1818
• SMOLLETT, TOBIAS, The Expedition of Humphry Clinker, 1770
• SNOW, C. P., The Masters, 1951
• STEINBECK, JOHN, The Red Pony, 1937
• STENDHAL (Marie Henri Beyle), The Red and the Black, 1830
• STENDHAL (Marie Henri Beyle), The Charterhouse of Parma, 1839
• STEPHENS, JAMES, The Crock of Gold, 1912
• STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS, Treasure Island, 1883
• STEVENSON, ROBERT LOUIS, Kidnapped, 1886
• THACKERAY, WILLIAM MAKEPEACE, Vanity Fair, 1847—48
• TOLSTOY, LEO, Anna Karenina, 1875—77
• TROLLOPE, ANTHONY, Barchester Towers, 1857
• TURGENEV, IVAN, Fathers and Sons, 1862
• VERGA, GIOVANNI, The House by the Medlar Tree, 1890
• VITTORINI, ELIO, In Sicily, 1949
• VOLTAIRE, FRANÇOIS MARIE AROUET DE, Candide, 1759
• WELLS, H. G., The Time Machine, 1895
• WOLFE, THOMAS, Look Homeward, Angel, 1929
• WOOLF, VIRGINIA, To the Lighthouse, 1927
• WOUK, HERMAN, The Caine Mutiny, 1951
• YOURCENAR, MARGUERITE, Memoirs of Hadrian, 1954

Appendix III Recommended Anthologies of Poetry

Volume 1 – An Introduction to the Great Books and to a Liberal Education

1. Plato, Apology & Crito
2. Plato, Republic, Book I & Book II
3. Sophocles, Oedipus the King & Antigone
4. Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Book I
5. Aristotle, Politics, Book I
6. Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans – Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Lycurgus and Numa Compared, Alexander, & Caesar