Reading Check Lists for Major Series: Harvard Classics a.k.a. Dr. Eliot’s Five Foot Shelf

Harvard Classics a.k.a. Dr. Eliot’s Five Foot Shelf

The Harvard Classics, originally known as Dr. Eliot’s Five Foot Shelf, is a 51-volume anthology of classic works from world literature, compiled and edited by Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot and first published in 1909. Eliot had stated in speeches that the elements of a liberal education could be obtained by spending 15 minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf.

• His Autobiography | The Harvard Classics 1: The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
• The Journal of John Woolman | The Harvard Classics 1: The Journal of John Woolman
• Fruits of Solitude | The Harvard Classics 1: The Fruits of Solitude by William Penn
• The Apology of Socrates | Plato
• Crito | Plato
• Phaedo | Plato
• The Golden Sayings | Epictetus
• Fragments attributed to Epictetus | Epictetus
• The Hymns of Cleanthese | Epictetus
• The Meditations | Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
• Essays Or Counsels: Civil and Moral |The New Atlantis | by Francis Bacon
• Areopagitica | and Tractate on Education | by John Milton
• Religio Medici | by Sir Thomas Browne
• Complete Poems in English | by John Milton
• Essays | and English Traits | by Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Poems and Songs | by Robert Burns
• The Confessions | by Saint Augustine
• The Imitation of Christ | by Thomas á Kempis
• Agamemnon | The Libation Bearers | The Furies |Prometheus Bound | by Aeschylus
• Oedius the King |Antigone | by Sophocles
• Hippolytus | The Bacchae | by Euripides
• The Frogs | by Aristophanes
• On Friendship | [On Old Age >> https://ref.ly/logosres/hvdcl09;ref=Page.p_44;off=699]] | Letters | by Cicero
• Letters | CORRESPONDENCE | by Pliny the Younger
• An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations | by Adam Smith
• The Origin of Species | by Charles Darwin
• Themistocles | Pericles | Aristides | Alcibiades | Coriolanus | Comparison of Alcibiades with Coriolanus | Demosthenes | Cicero | Comparison of Demosthenes and Cicero | Caeser | Antony | The Harvard Classics 12: Plutarch’s Lives, by Plutarch
• The Aeneid | The Harvard Classics 13: Virgil’s Aeneid, by Virgil
• Sonnets | Don Quixote9 | The Harvard Classics 14: Don Quixote, Part 1 by Miguel Cervantes by Cervantes
• The Pilgrim’s Progress | by John Bunyan
• The Life of Dr. Donne | The Life of Mr. George Herbert | by Izaak Walton
• Stories from the Thousand and One Nights | The Harvard Classics 16: Stories from The Thousand and One Nights
• Aesop’s Fables | by Aesop
• Grimm’s Tales | by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
• Anderson’s Tales | by Hans Christian Andersen
• All for Love or The World Well Lost | by John Dryden
• The School for Scandal | by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
• She Stoops to Conquer | by Oliver Goldsmith
• The Cenci | by Percy Bysshe Shelley
• A Blot in the ‘Scutcheon | by Robert Browning
• Manfred | by Lord Byron
• The Tragedy of Faust (Goethe) | The Tragedy of Dr. Faustus (Marlowe) | Egmont (Goethe) | Hermann and Dorothea (Goethe) | by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and Christopher Marlowe
• The Divine Comedy | by Dante Alighieri
• I Promessi Sposi | by Alessandro Manzoni
• The Odyssey | by Homer
• Two Years Before the Mast | by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
• On Taste | The Sublime and Beautiful | Reflections on the French Revolution | A Letter to a Noble Lord | by Edmund Burke
• Autobiography |and On Liberty | by John Stuart Mill
• Characteristics | Inaugural Address at Edinburgh | Sir Walter Scott | by Thomas Carlyle
• Life is a Dream | by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
• Polyeucte | by Pierre Corneille
• Phaedra | by Jean Racine
• Tartuffe | by Molière
• Minna von Barnhelm | by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
• Wilhelm Tell | by Friedrich von Schiller
• English Essays: Sidney to Macaulay | The Harvard Classics 27: English Essays: Sidney to Macaulay
• Essays: English and American | The Harvard Classics 28: Essays English and American
• The Voyage of the Beagle | by Charles Darwin
• The Forces of Matter | and The Chemical History of a Candle | by Michael Faraday
• On the Conservation of Force | and Ice and Glaciers | by Hermann von Helmholtz
• The Wave Theory of Light | and The Tides | by Lord Kelvin
• The Extent of the Universe | by Simon Newcomb
• Geographical Evolution | by Sir Archibald Geikie
• Benvenuto Cellini’s Autobiography | The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
• Essays of Michel Eyguem de Montaigne | Essays, by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
• Montaigne | and What is a Classic? | by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
• The Poetry of the Celtic Races | by Ernest Renan
• The Education of the Human Race | by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
• Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of Man | by Friedrich von Schiller
• Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals | by Immanuel Kant
• Byron and Goethe | by Giuseppe Mazzini
• An Account of Egypt | by Herodotus
• On Germany | by Tacitus
• Sir Francis Drake Revived | by Philip Nichols
• Sir Francis Drake’s Famous Voyage Around the World | by Francis Pretty
• Drake’s Great Armada | by Captain Walter Bigges
• Sir Humphrey Gilbert’s Voyage to Newfoundland | by Edward Haies
• The Discovery of Guiana | by Sir Walter Raleigh
• Discourse on Method | by René Descartes
• Letters on the English | by Voltaire
• A Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind | and Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar | by Jean Jacques Rousseau
• Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan | by Thomas Hobbes
• Chronicles | by Jean Froissart
• The Holy Grail | by Sir Thomas Malory
• A Description of Elizabethan Enland | by William Harrison
• The Prince | by Niccolò Machiavelli
• The Life of Sir Thomas More | by William Roper
• Utopia | by Sir Thomas More
• The Ninety-Five Theses | Address to the Nobility of the German Nation | Concerning Christian Liberty | by Martin Luther
• Some Thoughts Concerning Education | by John Locke
• Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous in Opposition to Sceptics and Atheists | by George Berkeley
• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding | by David Hume
• The Oath of Hippocrates | by Hippocrates
• Journeys in Diverse Places | by Ambroise Paré
• On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals | by William Harvey
• The Three Original Publications on Vaccination Against Smallpox | by Edward Jenner
• The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever | by Oliver Wendell Holmes
• On the Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery | by Joseph Lister
• Scientific Papers | by Louis Pasteur
• Scientific Papers | by Charles Lyell
• Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books | The Harvard Classics 39: Prefaces and Prologues to Famous Books
• English Poetry 1: Chaucer to Dodington | The Harvard Classics 40–42: Complete English Poetry, Chaucer to Whitman
• English Poetry 2: Collins to Fitzgerald | The Harvard Classics 40–42: Complete English Poetry, Chaucer to Whitman
• English Poetry 3: Tennyson to Whitman | The Harvard Classics 40–42: Complete English Poetry, Chaucer to Whitman
• American Historical Documents | The Harvard Classics 43: American Historical Documents
• Confucian: The Sayings of Confucius | The Harvard Classics 44–45: Complete Sacred Writings
• Hebrew: Job | Psalms | Ecclesiastes | The Harvard Classics 44–45: Complete Sacred Writings
• Christian I: Luke | Acts | The Harvard Classics 44–45: Complete Sacred Writings
• Christian II: Corinthians I | Corinthians II | Hymns of the Christian Church | The Harvard Classics 44–45: Complete Sacred Writings
• Buddhist: Writings | The Harvard Classics 44–45: Complete Sacred Writings
• Hindu: The Bhagavad-Gita | The Harvard Classics 44–45: Complete Sacred Writings
• Mohammedan: Chapters from the Koran | The Harvard Classics 44–45: Complete Sacred Writings
• Edward the Second | by Christopher Marlowe
• Hamlet | King Lear | Macbeth | The Tempest | by William Shakespeare
• The Shoemaker’s Holiday | by Thomas Dekker
• The Alchemist | by Ben Jonson
• Philaster | by Beaumont and Fletcher
• The Duchess of Malfi | by John Webster
• A New Way to Pay Old Debts | by Philip Massinger
• Thoughts | Letters | Minor Works | by Blaise Pascal
• Beowulf | The Harvard Classics 49: Epic and Saga
• The Song of Roland | The Harvard Classics 49: Epic and Saga
• The Destruction of Dá Derga’s Hostel | The Harvard Classics 49: Epic and Saga
• The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs | The Harvard Classics 49: Epic and Saga
• LECTURES | Lectures on the Harvard Classics

        The last volume contains sixty lectures introducing and summarizing the covered fields: history, poetry, natural science, philosophy, biography, prose fiction, criticism and the essay, education, political science, drama, travelogues, and religion.

Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction

The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction was selected by Charles W. Eliot, LLD (1834-1926), with notes and introductions by William Allan Neilson. It also features an index to Criticisms and Interpretations.

• The History of Tom Jones Vol 1 | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 1: The History of Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding
• The History of Tom Jones Vol 2 | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 2: The History of Tom Jones, by Henry Fielding
• A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 3: A Sentimental Journey, by Laurence Sterne
• Pride and Prejudice | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 3: Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
• Guy Mannering | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 4: Guy Mannering, by Sir Walter Scott
• Vanity Fair Vol 1 | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 5: Vanity Fair, Volume 1, by William Makepeace Thackeray
• Vanity Fair Vol 2 | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 6: Vanity Fair, Volume 2 by William Makepeace Thackeray
• David Copperfield Vol 1 | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 7: David Copperfield, Volume 1, by Charles Dickens
• David Copperfield Vol 2 | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 8: David Copperfield, Volume 2, by Charles Dickens
• The Mill on the Floss | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 9: The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot
• The Scarlet Letter | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 10: American Fiction, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Rappaccini’s Daughter | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 10: American Fiction, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
• Rip Van Winkle | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 10: American Fiction, by Washington Irving
• The Legend of Sleeping Hollow | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 10: American Fiction, by Washington Irving
• Eleonora | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 10: American Fiction, by Edgar Allan Poe
• The Fall of the House of Usher | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 10: American Fiction, by Edgar Allan Poe
• The Purloined Letter | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 10: American Fiction, by Edgar Allan Poe
• The Luck of Roaring Camp | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 10: American Fiction, by Francis Bret Harte
• The Outcasts of Poker Flat | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 10: American Fiction, by Francis Bret Harte
• The Idyl of Red Gulch | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 10: American Fiction, by Francis Bret Harte
• Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 10: American Fiction, by Samuel L. Clemens
• The Man Without a Country | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 10: American Fiction, by Edward Everett Hale
• The Portrait of a Lady | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 11: The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James
• Notre Dame de Paris | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 12: Notre Dame de Paris, by Victor Marie Hugo
• Old Goriot | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 13: French Fiction, by Honoré Balzac
• The Devil’s Pool | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 13: French Fiction, by George Sand
• The Story of a White Blackbird | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 13: French Fiction, by Alfred de Musset
• The Siege of Berlin | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 13: French Fiction, by Alphonse Daudet
• The Last Class: The Story of a Little Alsatian | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 13: French Fiction, by Alphonse Daudet
• The Child Spy | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 13: French Fiction, by Alphonse Daudet
• The Game of Billiards | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 13: French Fiction, by Alphonse Daudet
• The Bad Zouave | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 13: French Fiction, by Alphonse Daudet
• Walter Schnaffs’ Adventure | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 13: French Fiction , by Guy de Maupassant
• Two Friends | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 13: French Fiction, by Guy de Maupassant
• The Cripple | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 13: French Fiction
• Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 14: Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship, by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
• The Sorrows of Werther | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 15: German Fiction, by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
• The Banner of the Upright Seven | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 15: German Fiction, by Gottfried Keller
• The Rider on the White Horse | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 15: German Fiction, by Theodor Storm
• Trials and Tribulations | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 15: German Fiction, by Theodor Fontane
• Anna Karenin Vol 1 | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 16: Anna Karenin, Volume 1, by Leo Tolstoy
• Anna Karenin Vol 2 | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 17: Anna Karenin, Volume 2 by Leo Tolstoy
• Ivan the Fool | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 17: Ivan the Fool, by Leo Tolstoy
• Crime and Punishment | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 18: Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• A House of Gentlefolk | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 19: Ivan Turgenev
• Fathers and Children | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 19: Ivan Turgenev
• Pepita Jimenez | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 20: Valera, by Juan Valera
• A Happy Boy | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 20: Björnson, by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
• Skipper Worse | Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction 20: Kielland, by Alexander L. Kielland