Susan Wise Bauer, The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had [2016]
177 entries: 147 monographical, 30 otherwise
Unranked—arranged topically
The revised and expanded second edition of this book includes annotated reading lists at the end of each of the six chapters of its second part, Reading: Jumping into the Great Conversation. Those six chapters correspond to six genre distinctions: novel; autobiography and memoir; history and politics; drama; poetry; and science. Bauer recommends particular editions and translations of each work; these are not included (unlike in the case of the Bloom and "Smart" lists) because, comparatively, a larger number of versions are noted; that is, for most entries, multiple editions are suggested among which the reader can take his pick. This editorial decision, not to make note of the various editions of works, only encounters difficulties when we come to the poetry section, where we see many non-monographical, indeterminate selections. Bauer includes, for all of these, lists of poems that her reader should "be sure to read"; unfortunately, these lists come after her recommendations of particular collected editions of the poet's work similar to the recommendations of certain editions of the novels, etc., listed in the other sections. Moreover, some of the monographical works in the poetry section, such as The Canterbury Tales, also have certain portions listed in the "be sure to read" category. In other words, if we were to include the individual poems that Bauer has highlighted, to be consistent we also need to create separate entries for these excerpts of monographical works—and make note of the various editions noted for each entry in the entire list. If the "be sure to read" poems had been listed above the volumes of collected works, we would only have to do the former. Either way, for the time being, we take the simpler approach. If the Greater Books project comes to entail documenting the contents of every anthology named by all of our listmakers, and other elaborations of the entries in the submaster list, we could justify going back to include at least the individuals poems that Bauer notes.
- Miguel de Cervantes
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
Don Quixote
originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615—Spanish
- John Bunyan
The Pilgrim's Progress From This World to That Which Is to Come
1678—English
- Jonathan Swift
Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and Then a Captain of Several Ships
Gulliver's Travels
1726; revised 1735—English
- Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
originally anonymously published 1813—English
- Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress
originally published under the pseudonym, Boz, serially Feb. 1837-April 1839 in Bentley's Miscellany—English
- Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre: An Autobiography
originally published under the pseudonym, Currer Bell, 1847—English
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter
1850—English
- Herman Melville
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
1851—English
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncle Tom's Cabin
1852—English
- Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary
originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de Paris—French
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Prestuplénie i Nakazániye
Crime and Punishment
originally published serially Jan.-Dec. 1866 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian
- Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina
published in part serially 1873-7 in Rússkij Véstnik; in its entirety, 1877—Russian
- Thomas Hardy
The Return of the Native
originally published serially Jan.-Dec. 1878 in Belgravia, the Magazine of Fashion and Amusement—English
- Henry James
The Portrait of a Lady
originally published serially Oct. 1880-Nov. 1881 in Macmillan's and Nov. 1880-Dec. 1881 in the Atlantic Monthly—English
- Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1884—English
- Stephen Crane
The Red Badge of Courage
published in part serially Dec. 1894 in the Philadelphia Press; in its entirety, 1895—English
- Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness
originally published serially Feb.-Apr. 1899 in Blackwood's—English
- Edith Wharton
The House of Mirth
1905—English
- F Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
1925—English
- Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway
published in part, Jul. 1923, as 'Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street', in the Dial; in its entirety, 1925—English
- Franz Kafka
Der Prozess
The Trial
1925—German
- Richard Wright
Native Son
1940—English
- Albert Camus
L'Étranger
The Stranger
1942—French
- George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four
1949—English
- Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man
1952—English
- Saul Bellow
Seize the Day
1956—English
- Gabriel García Márquez
Cien Anõs de Soledad
One Hundred Years of Solitude
1967—Spanish
- Italo Calvino
Se una Notte d'Inverno un Viaggiatore
If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
1979—Italian
- Toni Morrison
Song of Solomon
1977—English
- Don DeLillo
White Noise
1985—English
- A S Byatt
Possession
1990—English
- Cormac McCarthy
The Road
2006—English
- Augustine of Hippo
Confessionum Libri Tredecim
The Confessions of St. Augustine
written 397-98—Latin
- Margery Kempe
The Book of Margery Kempe
written ca. 1430-8—English
- Michel de Montaigne
Les Essais
Essays
originally published in three volumes: 1580, 1588, and 1595—French
- Teresa of Ávila
La Vida de Santa Teresa de Jesús
1588—Spanish
- René Descartes
Meditationes de Prima Philosophia, in Qua Dei Existentia et Animae Immortalitas Demonstratur
Meditations on First Philosophy
1641; French version, Meéeditations Metaphysiques, 1647—Latin
- John Bunyan
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners: or, A Brief and Faithful Relation of the Exceeding Mercy of God in Christ, to his Poor Servant John Bunyan
1666—English
- Mary Rowlandson
The Sovereignty and Goodness of God: Being a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson
1682—English
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Les Confessions
1782—French
- Benjamin Franklin
Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
French translation published 1791 as Mémoires de la Vie Privée de Benjamin Franklin; first-third parts of the original English published 1818 as volume one of Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin; original English published in its entirety, 1868—English
- Frederick Douglass
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave
1845—English
- Henry David Thoreau
Walden; or, Life in the Woods
1854—English
- Harriet Ann Jacobs
Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl
published in part serially in the New-York Tribune; in its entirety, 1861—English
- Booker T Washington
Up From Slavery
originally published serially 1900 in the Outlook—English
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Ecce Homo: Wie Man Wird, Was Man Ist
1908—German
- Adolf Hitler
Mein Kampf
originally published in two volumes, 1925 and 1926—German
- Mohandas K Gandhi
The Story of My Experiments With the Truth
originally published serially 1925-9 in Navijan—Gujarati
- Gertrude Stein
The Autobiography of Alice B Toklas
published in part in the Atlantic Monthly; in its entirety, 1933—English
- Thomas Merton
The Seven Storey Mountain
1948—English
- C S Lewis
Surprised by Joy: The Shape of My Early Life
1955—English
- Alex Haley and Malcolm X
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
1965—English
- Maya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
1969—English
- May Sarton
Journal of a Solitude
1973—English
- Alexander Solzhenitsyn
Arhipelag GULAG
The Gulag Archipelago
1974-8—Russian
- Charles Colson
Born Again
1976—English
- Richard Rodriguez
Hunger of Memory: The Education of Richard Rodriguez
1982—English
- Jill Conway
The Road From Coorain
1989—English
- Elie Wiesel
Tous les Fleuves Vont à la Mer
All Rivers Run to the Sea: Memoirs, Vol. I, 1928–1969
1994—French
- Herodotus
Historiē
History
Fifth Century B C—Greek
- Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War
early Fifth Century B C—Greek
- Plato
Politeia
The Republic
early Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Plutarch
Bìoi Paràllēloi
Parallel Lives; Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
First Century—Greek
- Augustine of Hippo
De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos
City of God
426—Latin
- Bede
Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum
written ca. 731—Latin
- Niccolò Machiavelli
Il Principe
The Prince
1532—Italian
- Thomas More
Libellus Uere Aureus, nec Minus Salutaris Quam Festivus, de Optimo rei Publicae Statu Deque Nova Insula Utopia
Utopia
1516—Latin
Second Treatise [second part of Two Treatises of Government: In the Former, the False Principles, and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer, and His Followers, Are Detected and Overthrown. The Latter Is an Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent, and End of Civil Government]
complete work originally anonymously published 1689—English
The History of England [excerpted]
fifth volume; complete work originally published in six volumes: fifth, 1754; sixth, 1756; third-fourth, 1759; first-second, 1761—English
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Du Contrat Social ou Principes du Droit Politique
The Social Contract
1762—French
- Thomas Paine
Common Sense; Addresed to the Inhabitants of America
1776—English
- Edward Gibbon
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
originally published in six volumes: first, 1776; second-third, 1781; fourth-sixth, 1788—English
- Mary Wollstonecraft
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
1792—English
- Alexis de Tocqueville
De la Démocratie en Amérique
Democracy in America
originally published in two volumes, 1835 and 1840—French
- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei
The Communist Manifesto
1848—German
- Jacob Burckhardt
Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien
The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy; 1860—German
- W E B Du Bois
The Souls of Black Folk
published in part serially in the Atlantic; in its entirety, 1903—English
- Max Weber
Die Protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
1905—German
- Lytton Strachey
Queen Victoria
1921—English
- George Orwell
The Road to Wigan Pier
1937—English
- Perry Miller
The New England Mind: The Seventeenth Century
1939—English
- John Kenneth Galbraith
The Great Crash, 1929
1955; revised 1961, 1972, 1988, 1997, and 2009—English
- Betty Friedan
The Feminine Mystique
1963—English
- Eugene Genovese
Roll, Jordan, Roll: The World the Slaves Made
1974—English
- Barbara W Tuchman
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
1978—English
- Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein
All the President's Men
1974—English
- James M McPherson
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
1988; abridged version, 2003—English
- Laurel Thatcher Ulrich
A Midwife's Tale: The Life of Martha Ballard, Based on Her Diary, 1785-1812
1990—English
- Francis Fukuyuma
The End of History and the Last Man
1992; based in part on 'The End of History?" published Summer 1989 in the National Interest—English
Agamemnon
part of The Oresteia; 458 B C—Greek
- Sophocles
Oidipous Tyrannos
Oedipus Rex; Oedipus the King
ca. 429 B C—Greek
- Euripides
Mēdeia
Medea
431 B C—Greek
- Aristophanes
Ornithes
The Birds
414 B C—Greek
- Aristotle
Peri Poiêtikês
De Poetica; Poetics
Fourth Century B C—Greek
--
- The Somonyng of Everyman
late Fifteenth Century—English
- Christopher Marlowe
The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus
1592—English
William Shakespeare
- Richard III
ca. 1592-7—English
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
ca. 1595-1600—English
- Hamlet
1602—English
- Molière
Tartuffe, ou l'Imposteur
1664—French
- William Congreve
The Way of the World
1700—English
- Oliver Goldsmith
She Stoops to Conquer
1773—English
- Richard Brinsley Sheridan
School for Scandal
1777—English
- Henrik Ibsen
Et Dukkehjem
A Doll's House
1879—Norwegian
- Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest
1895—English
- Anton Chekhov
Višhnëvyj Sad
The Cherry Orchard
1904—Russian
- George Bernard Shaw
Saint Joan
1923—English
- T S Eliot
Murder in the Cathedral
1935—English
- Thornton Wilder
Our Town
1938—English
- Eugene O'Neill
Long Day's Journey Into Night
1956—English
- Jean-Paul Sartre
Huis Clos
No Exit
1944—French
- Tennessee Williams
A Streetcar Named Desire
1947—English
- Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman
1949—English
- Samuel Beckett
En Attendant Godot
Waiting for Godot
1953—French
- Robert Bolt
A Man for All Seasons
television version, 1957; theatrical version, 1960—English
- Tom Stoppard
Rosencratz and Guildenstern Are Dead
1966—English
- Peter Shaffer
Equus
1973—English
--
- Sha Naqba Imuru
The Epic of Gilgamesh; He Who Saw the Deep
Eighteenth-Tenth centuries B C—Sumerian; Akkadian
Homer
- Iliad
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B C—Greek
- Odýsseia
The Odyssey
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B C—Greek
Selected works
unspecified selection; Sappho, Pindar, and Solon are noted—Greek
- Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Carmina
Odes
originally published in four volumes: first-third, 23 B C; fourth, 13 B C—Latin
--
- Beowulf
ca. Eighth-Eleventh centuries—English
Inferno
part of La Divina Commedia; written ca. 1308-21—Italian
--
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
probably the same author as Pearl (the "Gawain poet" or "Pearl poet"); late Fourteenth Century—English
- Geoffrey Chaucer
Canterbury Tales
1478—English
- William Shakespeare
Sonnets
1609; two sonnets originally published in The Passionate Pilgrim, 1599—English
Poems
early Seventeenth Century—English
--
part of the Bible—Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek
- John Milton
Paradise Lost
1667; revised 1674—English
- William Blake
Songs of Innocence and Experience Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul
published in part, 1789, as Songs of Innocence; in its entirety, 1794—English
Poems
late Eighteenth-early Nineteenth centuries—English
Poems
late Eighteenth-early Nineteenth centuries—English
Poems
early Nineteenth Century—English
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Poems
Nineteenth Century—English
Poems
Nineteenth Century—English
- Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
1855; expanded and revised through ninth edition, 1892—English
Poems
Nineteenth Century—English
Poems
Nineteenth Century—English
Poems
Nineteenth Century—English
Poems
late Nineteenth-early Twentieth centuries—English
Poems
late Nineteenth-early Twentieth centuries—English
Poems
Twentieth Century—English
Poems
Twentieth Century—English
Poems
Twentieth Century—English
Poems
Twentieth Century—English
Poems
Twentieth Century—English
Poems
Twentieth Century—English
Poems
Twentieth Century—English
Hippocratic Corpus [excerpted]
On Airs, Waters, and Places; late Fifth-early Fourth centuries B C—Greek
- Aristotle
Physics
Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Titus Lucretius Carus
De Rerum Natura
On the Nature of Things
First Century B C—Latin
'Commentariolus'
written ca. 1514—Latin
- Francis Bacon
Novum Organum Scientiarium
1620—English
- Galileo
Dialogo Sopra i due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
1632—Italian
- Robert Hooke
Micrographica: Or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses With Observations and Inquiries Thereupon
1665—English
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica [excerpted]
The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
Rules; General Scholium; complete work published 1687; revised 1713 and 1726—Latin
'Discours Préliminaire'
part of Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles de Quadrupèdes, 1812—French
Principles of Geology: Being an Attempt to Explain the Former Changes of the Earth's Surface, by Reference to Causes Now in Operation [excerpted]
first volume; complete work originally published in three volumes: 1830, 1832, and 1833—English
- Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
1859—English
'Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden'
'Experiments on Plant Hybrids'
originally published 1866 in Verhandlungen des Naturforschenden Vereins Brünn; edited 1865 lecture—German
- Alfred Wegener
Die Entstehung der Kontinente und Ozeane
The Origin of Continents and Oceans
1915; revised 1920, 1922, and 1929—German
- Albert Einstein
Über die Spezielle und die Allgemeine Relativitätstheorie, Gemeinverständlich
Relativity, the Special and the General Theory: A Popular Exposition
1917; revised through fourteenth edition, 1922—German
- Max Planck
Die Entstehung und Bisherige Entwicklung der Quantentheorie
Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory: Being the Nobel Prize Address Delivered Before the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences at Stockholm, 2 June, 1920
1922—German
- Julian Huxley
Evolution: The Modern Synthesis
1942—English
- Erwin Schrödinger
What Is Life?
1944; edited 1943 lectures—English
- Rachel Carson
Silent Spring
originally published Jun. 1962 in the New Yorker—English
- Desmond Morris
The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal
1967—English
- James D Watson
The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of D N A
1968—English
- Robert Dawkins
The Selfish Gene
1976—English
- Steven Weinberg
The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universe
1977; expanded 1993—English
- E O Wilson
On Human Nature
1978—English
- James Lovelock
Gaia: A New Look at Life on Earth
1979—English
- Stephen Jay Gould
The Mismeasure of Man
1981—English
- James Gleick
Chaos: Making a New Science
1987—English
- Stephen Hawking
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes
1988; expanded 1996; abridged and edited version co-authored with Leonard Mlodinow entitled A Briefer History of Time published 2005—English
- Walter Alvarez
T Rex and the Crater of Doom
1997—English