|
Revision: 60
Title: Reading Check Lists for Major Series: Great Books of the Western World
Author: Matt Hamrick
Date: 2016 Jun 14 at 14:25
Reading Check Lists for Major Series: Great Books of the Western World
Reading List
Great Books of the Western World
These books are listed in the sequence they appear in the series; links will be added when available. The idea is simply for one to be able to check off a book as read rather than to supply dates or sequence. In some cases the original language addition or alternative translations may also be given.
Ancient Greece
Plato
The Dialogues (translated by Benjamin Jowett)
- Charmides | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Lysis | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Laches | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Protagoras | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Euthydemus | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Cratylus | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Phaedrus | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Ion | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Symposium | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Meno | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Euthyphro | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Apology | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Crito | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Phaedo | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Gorgias | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- The Republic | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Timaeus | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Critias | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Parmenides | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Theaetetus | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Sophist | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Statesman | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Philebus | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Laws | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- The Seventh Letter | (translated by J. Harward)
Hippocrates
Hippocratic Writings (Francis Adams)
Archimedes
The Works of Archimedes, Including The Method (Sir Thomas L. Heath)
Apollonius of Perga
- Treatise on Conic Sections
Ancient Rome
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)
Late Medieval Period (to 1450)
Thomas Aquinas
- Summa Theologica (Father Laurence Shapcote)
Dante
- The Divine Comedy (Charles S. Singleton)
The Renaissance
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)
François Rabelais
- Gargantua and Pantagruel (Sir Thomas Urquhart and Peter Motteux)
Desiderius Erasmus
- Praise of Folly (Betty Radice)
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)
Seventeenth Century
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)
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
Eighteenth Century
George Berkeley
- The Principles of Human Knowledge
David Hume
- An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
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
Nineteenth Century
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
Karl Marx
- Capital | (Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
William James (also see below)
Twentieth Century
Philosophy and Religion: Philosophy
William James (also see above)
Alfred North Whitehead (also see below)
Philosophy and Religion: Religion
Natural Science: Physical Sciences
Alfred North Whitehead (also see above)
Natural Science: Life Sciences
Social Science: Economics
Social Science: Anthropology, History and Sociology
Imaginative Literature
Marcel Proust
- Swann in Love (from Remembrance of Things Past) | (C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin)
Gateway to the Great Books
Gateway to the Great Books is a 10-volume series of books designed as an introduction to the Great Books of the Western World, published by the same organization and editors in 1952. The set included selections – short stories, plays, essays, letters, and extracts from longer works – by more than one hundred authors. The selections were generally shorter and in some ways simpler than the full-length books included in the Great Books. - A Letter to the Reader
- Introduction
Imaginative Literature
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)
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)
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)
Samuel BUTLER (1835-1902)
- “Customs and Opinions of the Erewhonians” from Erewhon
Sherwood ANDERSON (1876-1941)
ANONYMOUS (c. early 13th Century)
Stephen CRANE (1871-1900)
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
Lucius APULEIUS (fl. 2nd Century)
- “Cupid and Psyche” from The Golden Ass
Ivan TURGENEV (1818-1883)
Fyodor DOSTOEVSKY (1828-1910)
John GALSWORTHY (1867-1933)
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)
Isaac SINGER (b. 1904)
- “The Spinoza of Market Street”
Alexander PUSHKIN (1799-1837)
D. H. LAWRENCE (1885-1930)
- “The Rocking-Horse Winner” from The Lovely Lady
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)
Anton CHEKHOV (1860-1904)
George Bernard SHAW (1856-1950)
John M. SYNGE (1871-1909)
Eugene O’NEILL (1888-1953)
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)
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)
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.)
Man and Society
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)
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
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)
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
Natural Science
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)
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
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)
Philosophical Essays
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”
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
Anthologies of World Poetry
- An Anthology of World Poetry, ed. Mark Van Doren. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
- A Little Treasury of World Poetry, ed. Hubert Creekmore. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons
- The Worlds Best Poems, ed. Mark Van Doren and Garibaldi M. Lapolla. Cleveland: World Publishing Co.
Anthologies Mainly or Wholly of English and American Poetry
- An Anthology of Famous English and American Poetry, ed. William Rose Benet and Conrad Aiken. New York: Modern Library
- A Concise Treasury of Great Poems, ed. Louis Untermeyer. New York: Permabooks, Inc.
- Fifty Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane. New York: Bantam Books
- The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics, ed. Francis Turner Palgrave. New York: Dolphin Books. This is a reprint of the original ( 1861) edition of this famous collection. The anthology, with additional selections, has been many times re-issued.
- Immortal Poems of the English Language, ed. Oscar Williams. New York: Washington Square Press, Inc.
- A Little Treasury of Modern Poetry, ed. Oscar Williams. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Williams has edited several other anthologies in the Little Treasury series, all published by Scribners.
- Modern American Poetry and Modern British Poetry, ed. Louis Untermeyer. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. This one-volume edition contains both of Untermeyer’s famous anthologies.
- The Oxford Book of American Verse, ed. F. O. Matthiessen. New York: Oxford University Press
- The Oxford Book of English Verse, ed. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. New York: Oxford University Press. This anthology, first published in 1900, has been recently brought up to date by the addition of later poems.
- The Pocket Book of Verse, ed. M. E. Speare. New York: Washington Square, Inc.
- Six Centuries of Great Poetry, ed. Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine. New York: Dell—Laurel Poetry Series
- The Viking Portable Poets of the English Language, ed. W. H. Auden and Norman Holmes Pearson, in five volumes: Vol. I, Medieval and Renaissance Poets; Vol. Il, Elizabethan and Jacobean Poets; Vol. Ill Restoration and Augustan Poets; Vol. IV, Romantic Poets; Vol. V, Victorian and Edwardian Poets. New York: Viking Press
Anthologies of Poetry in Other Languages
- Greek Lyric Poetry, tr. Willis Barnstone. New York: Bantam Books
- Poems from the Greek Anthology, tr. Dudley Fitts. New York: New Directions Paperbacks
- The Latin Poets, ed. Francis R. B. Godolphin. New York: Modern Library
- An Anthology of Spanish Poetry from Garciloso to Garcia Lorca, in English translation with Spanish originals, ed. Angel Flores. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books
- An Anthology of French Poetry from Newal to Valéry, in English translation with French originals, ed. Angel Flores. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books
- An Anthology of Russian Verse, ed. Avrahm Yarmolinsky. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books
- Exploring Poetry, ed. M. L. Rosenthal and A. J. M. Smith. New York: Macmillan Co. This is an introduction to poetry through the analysis of many individual poems.
- Introduction to Poetry, ed. Mark Van Doren. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc. This work combines an anthology of English and American poetry with discussion of many poems.
- The Poem Itself, ed. Stanley Burnshaw. Cleveland: Meridian Books. This is a collection of original poems in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, with translations and extensive comment.
- Understanding Poetry, ed. Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc. This is an anthology of English and American poetry with critical interpretations
The Great Ideas Program
The Great Ideas Program is a 10-volume series of books designed as a way to introduce a reader to the Great Books of the Western World, published by the same organization and editors in 1959. Each volume is a program of reading from the Great Books, organized around a particular theme or idea. Each reading is accompanied by a guide with background information and self-testing questions to check the thoroughness of your reading and make sure you made note of the major points of interest.
Volume 1 – An Introduction to the Great Books and to a Liberal Education
- Plato, Apology & Crito
- Plato, Republic, Book I & Book II
- Sophocles, Oedipus the King & Antigone
- Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Book I
- Aristotle, Politics, Book I
- Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans – Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Lycurgus and Numa Compared, Alexander, & Caesar
|
Revision: 61
Title: Reading Check Lists for Major Series: Great Books of the Western World
Author: Matt Hamrick
Date: 2016 Jun 14 at 14:34
Reading Check Lists for Major Series: Great Books of the Western World
Reading List
Great Books of the Western World
These books are listed in the sequence they appear in the series; links will be added when available. The idea is simply for one to be able to check off a book as read rather than to supply dates or sequence. In some cases the original language addition or alternative translations may also be given.
Ancient Greece
Plato
The Dialogues (translated by Benjamin Jowett)
- Charmides | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Lysis | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Laches | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Protagoras | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Euthydemus | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Cratylus | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Phaedrus | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Ion | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Symposium | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Meno | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Euthyphro | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Apology | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Crito | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Phaedo | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Gorgias | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- The Republic | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Timaeus | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Critias | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Parmenides | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Theaetetus | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Sophist | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Statesman | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Philebus | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- Laws | The Dialogues of Plato; The Seventh Letter
- The Seventh Letter | (translated by J. Harward)
Hippocrates
Hippocratic Writings (Francis Adams)
Archimedes
The Works of Archimedes, Including The Method (Sir Thomas L. Heath)
Apollonius of Perga
- Treatise on Conic Sections
Ancient Rome
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)
Late Medieval Period (to 1450)
Thomas Aquinas
- Summa Theologica (Father Laurence Shapcote)
Dante
- The Divine Comedy (Charles S. Singleton)
The Renaissance
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)
François Rabelais
- Gargantua and Pantagruel (Sir Thomas Urquhart and Peter Motteux)
Desiderius Erasmus
- Praise of Folly (Betty Radice)
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)
Seventeenth Century
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)
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
Eighteenth Century
George Berkeley
- The Principles of Human Knowledge
David Hume
- An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
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
Nineteenth Century
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
Karl Marx
- Capital | (Samuel Moore and Edward Aveling)
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
William James (also see below)
Twentieth Century
Philosophy and Religion: Philosophy
William James (also see above)
Alfred North Whitehead (also see below)
Philosophy and Religion: Religion
Natural Science: Physical Sciences
Alfred North Whitehead (also see above)
Natural Science: Life Sciences
Social Science: Economics
Social Science: Anthropology, History and Sociology
Imaginative Literature
Marcel Proust
- Swann in Love (from Remembrance of Things Past) | (C.K. Scott Moncrieff and Terence Kilmartin)
Gateway to the Great Books
Gateway to the Great Books is a 10-volume series of books designed as an introduction to the Great Books of the Western World, published by the same organization and editors in 1952. The set included selections – short stories, plays, essays, letters, and extracts from longer works – by more than one hundred authors. The selections were generally shorter and in some ways simpler than the full-length books included in the Great Books. - A Letter to the Reader
- Introduction
Imaginative Literature
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)
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)
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)
Samuel BUTLER (1835-1902)
- “Customs and Opinions of the Erewhonians” from Erewhon
Sherwood ANDERSON (1876-1941)
ANONYMOUS (c. early 13th Century)
Stephen CRANE (1871-1900)
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
Lucius APULEIUS (fl. 2nd Century)
- “Cupid and Psyche” from The Golden Ass
Ivan TURGENEV (1818-1883)
Fyodor DOSTOEVSKY (1828-1910)
John GALSWORTHY (1867-1933)
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)
Isaac SINGER (b. 1904)
- “The Spinoza of Market Street”
Alexander PUSHKIN (1799-1837)
D. H. LAWRENCE (1885-1930)
- “The Rocking-Horse Winner” from The Lovely Lady
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)
Anton CHEKHOV (1860-1904)
George Bernard SHAW (1856-1950)
John M. SYNGE (1871-1909)
Eugene O’NEILL (1888-1953)
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)
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)
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.)
Man and Society
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)
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
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)
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
Natural Science
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)
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
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)
Philosophical Essays
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”
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
Anthologies of World Poetry
- An Anthology of World Poetry, ed. Mark Van Doren. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.
- A Little Treasury of World Poetry, ed. Hubert Creekmore. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons
- The Worlds Best Poems, ed. Mark Van Doren and Garibaldi M. Lapolla. Cleveland: World Publishing Co.
Anthologies Mainly or Wholly of English and American Poetry
- An Anthology of Famous English and American Poetry, ed. William Rose Benet and Conrad Aiken. New York: Modern Library
- A Concise Treasury of Great Poems, ed. Louis Untermeyer. New York: Permabooks, Inc.
- Fifty Great Poets, ed. Milton Crane. New York: Bantam Books
- The Golden Treasury of English Songs and Lyrics, ed. Francis Turner Palgrave. New York: Dolphin Books. This is a reprint of the original ( 1861) edition of this famous collection. The anthology, with additional selections, has been many times re-issued.
- Immortal Poems of the English Language, ed. Oscar Williams. New York: Washington Square Press, Inc.
- A Little Treasury of Modern Poetry, ed. Oscar Williams. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. Williams has edited several other anthologies in the Little Treasury series, all published by Scribners.
- Modern American Poetry and Modern British Poetry, ed. Louis Untermeyer. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. This one-volume edition contains both of Untermeyer’s famous anthologies.
- The Oxford Book of American Verse, ed. F. O. Matthiessen. New York: Oxford University Press
- The Oxford Book of English Verse, ed. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch. New York: Oxford University Press. This anthology, first published in 1900, has been recently brought up to date by the addition of later poems.
- The Pocket Book of Verse, ed. M. E. Speare. New York: Washington Square, Inc.
- Six Centuries of Great Poetry, ed. Robert Penn Warren and Albert Erskine. New York: Dell—Laurel Poetry Series
- The Viking Portable Poets of the English Language, ed. W. H. Auden and Norman Holmes Pearson, in five volumes: Vol. I, Medieval and Renaissance Poets; Vol. Il, Elizabethan and Jacobean Poets; Vol. Ill Restoration and Augustan Poets; Vol. IV, Romantic Poets; Vol. V, Victorian and Edwardian Poets. New York: Viking Press
Anthologies of Poetry in Other Languages
- Greek Lyric Poetry, tr. Willis Barnstone. New York: Bantam Books
- Poems from the Greek Anthology, tr. Dudley Fitts. New York: New Directions Paperbacks
- The Latin Poets, ed. Francis R. B. Godolphin. New York: Modern Library
- An Anthology of Spanish Poetry from Garciloso to Garcia Lorca, in English translation with Spanish originals, ed. Angel Flores. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books
- An Anthology of French Poetry from Newal to Valéry, in English translation with French originals, ed. Angel Flores. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books
- An Anthology of Russian Verse, ed. Avrahm Yarmolinsky. New York: Doubleday Anchor Books
- Exploring Poetry, ed. M. L. Rosenthal and A. J. M. Smith. New York: Macmillan Co. This is an introduction to poetry through the analysis of many individual poems.
- Introduction to Poetry, ed. Mark Van Doren. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc. This work combines an anthology of English and American poetry with discussion of many poems.
- The Poem Itself, ed. Stanley Burnshaw. Cleveland: Meridian Books. This is a collection of original poems in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian, with translations and extensive comment.
- Understanding Poetry, ed. Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, Inc. This is an anthology of English and American poetry with critical interpretations
The Great Ideas Program
The Great Ideas Program is a 10-volume series of books designed as a way to introduce a reader to the Great Books of the Western World, published by the same organization and editors in 1959. Each volume is a program of reading from the Great Books, organized around a particular theme or idea. Each reading is accompanied by a guide with background information and self-testing questions to check the thoroughness of your reading and make sure you made note of the major points of interest.
Volume 1 – An Introduction to the Great Books and to a Liberal Education
- Plato, Apology & Crito
- Plato, Republic, Book I & Book II
- Sophocles, Oedipus the King & Antigone
- Aristotle, Nichomachean Ethics, Book I
- Aristotle, Politics, Book I
- Plutarch, The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans – Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Lycurgus and Numa Compared, Alexander, & Caesar
|