The Great Books Foundation, The Great Books: A Reading List [1998]
74 entries: 40 monographical, 34 otherwise
Unranked—arranged alphabetically by author
The New York Public Library Desk Reference, 3rd ed., includes this list devised by the Great Books Foundation, the same organization founded by Mortimer Adler and Robert Hutchins, editors of the Great Books of the Western World set. Very likely this book is not the origin of this list. The Great Books Foundation published numerous periodicals and books over the years, and I would like to think this list exists in better form, perhaps accompanying a reader/ anthology.
- Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams
1918—English
Agamemnon
part of The Oresteia; 458 B C—Greek
- Aristotle
Politik
Politics
Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Ethika Nikomacheia [excerpted]
Nicomachean Ethics
'On Happiness'; Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Peri Poiêtikês [excerpted]
De Poetica; Poetics
'On Tragedy'; Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Augustine of Hippo
De Civitate Dei Contra Paganos
City of God
426—Latin
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part of the Bible—Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek
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part of the Bible—Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek
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part of the Bible—Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek
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part of the Bible—Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek
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- The Gospel According to Mark
part of the Bible—Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek
- Edmund Burke
Reflections on the Revolution in France
1790—English
- Geoffrey Chaucer
Canterbury Tales
1478—English
Anton Chekhov
'Rothschild's Violin'
originally published Feb. 1894 in Russkie Vedomosti—Russian
- Dâdâ Vanâ
Uncle Vanya
1897—Russian
Vom Kriege [excerpted]
On War
'What Is War?'; complete work published 1832—German
- Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness
originally published serially Feb.-Apr. 1899 in Blackwood's—English
Inferno
part of La Divina Commedia; written ca. 1308-21—Italian
'The Moral Sense of Man and the Lower Animals'
excerpts from On the Origin of Species and The Descent of Man—English
John Dewey
'The Virtues'; complete work published 1908
- Human Nature and Conduct [excerpted]
'Habits and Will'; complete work published 1922
- Denis Diderot
Le Neveu de Rameau ou la Satire Seconde
German traslation, 1805; original, 1823—French
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Zapaski iz Podpol'â
Notes From Underground
1864—Russian
Euripides
- Mēdeia
Medea
431 B C—Greek
- Iphigeneia en Aulidi
Iphigeneia in Aulis
405 B C—Greek
'Un Cœur Simple'
part of Trois Contes, 1877—French
Die Traumdeutung [excerpted]
The Interpretation of Dreams
'On Dreams'; complete work published 1899—German
- 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
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Faust. Der Tragödie Erster Teil
first of two volumes of Faust; published in part, 1790; in its entirey, 1808; revised 1829; second volume, Faust. Der Tragödie Zweiter Teil, 1832
'Šinel''
'The Overcoat'
1842—Russian
- Alexander Hamilton; John Jay; James Madison
The Federalist Papers
originally published 1787-1788 in the Independent Journal, the New-York Packet, and the Daily Advertiser—English
Historiē [excerpted]
History
'The Persian Wars'; Fifth Century B C—Greek
- Thomas Hobbes
Leviathan or, The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil
1651—English
- Homer
Iliad
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B C—Greek
David Hume
- A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects [excerpted]
'Of Personal Identity'; complete work originally published in three volumes: first-second, 1739; third, 1740—English
- Essays, Moral and Political [excerpted]
'Of Justice and Injustice'; complete work originally published in two volumes, 1741 and 1742—English
- Henry James
The Beast in the Jungle
originally published in The Better Sort, 1903—English
- Franz Kafka
Die Verwandlung
The Metamorphosis
originally published 1915 in Die Weißen Blätter—German
Immanuel Kant
- Kritik der Praktischen Vernunft [excerpted]
Critique of Practical Reason
'Conscience'; complete work published 1788
- Grundlegung zur Metaphysik der Sitten [excerpted]
Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals; Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals; Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Ethics
'First Principles of Morals'; complete work published 1785; revised 1786—German
Frygt og Baeven [excerpted]
Fear and Trembling
'The Knight of Faith'; complete work originally published under the pseudonym, Johannes de Silentio, 1843—Danish
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
- Niccolò Machiavelli
Il Principe
The Prince
1532—Italian
Dalalatul al-Hairin [excerpted]
Moreh Nevukhim; The Guide for the Perplexed
'On Evil'; written Twelfth Century; Hebrew version published 1204—Arabic
Das Kapital, Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie [excerpted]
'Alienated Labour'; complete work originally published in three volumes: 1867, 1885, and 1894—German
- Herman Melville
Billy Budd, Foretopman
Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative)
1924—English
John Stuart Mill
- On Liberty
1859—English
- Utilitarianism
originally published serially 1861 in Fraser's Magazine—English
- Molière
Le Misanthrope ou l'Atrabilaire Amoureux
The Misanthrope
1666—French
Les Essais [excerpted]
'Of Experience', Book III, Chapter 13; complete work published in three volumes: 1580, 1588, and 1595—French
- Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
De l'Esprit des Lois [excerpted]
The Spirt of Laws
'Principles of Government'; complete work originally anonymously published 1748
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Also Sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen
Thus Spake Zarathustra
originally published in four volumes, 1883-85—German
Plato
- Politeia
The Republic
early Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Symposium
early Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Crito
early Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Apologia Socratis
The Apology
early Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Du Contrat Social ou Principes du Droit Politique
The Social Contract
1762—French
Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung [excerpted]
The World as Will and Idea
'The Indestructibility of Our Inner Nature'; complete work originally published in two volumes, 1819 and 1844—German
William Shakespeare
- Hamlet
1602—English
- Othello
ca. 1604—English
- King Lear
1606—English
- Antony and Cleopatra
ca. 1606-08—English
- The Tempest
1611—English
- George Bernard Shaw
Caesar and Cleopatra
1901—English
Philosophie des Geldes [excerpted]
'Individual Freedom'; complete work, 1900—German
- Adam Smith
An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
1776; revised through third edition, 1784—English
Sophocles
- Antigone
ca. 441 B C—Greek
- Oidipous Tyrannos
Oedipus Rex; Oedipus the King
ca. 429 B C—Greek
- 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
'Civil Disobedience'
originally published 1849 in Aesthetic Papers—English
- Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War
early Fifth Century B C—Greek
De la Démocratie en Amérique [excerpted]
Democracy in America
'The Power of the Majority'; complete work originally published in two volumes, 1835 and 1840—French
- Leo Tolstoy
Smert' Ivana Il'icha
The Death of Ivan Ilyich
1886—Russian
- Max Weber
Die Protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus
The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
1905—German