Greater Books

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The Jasper Lee Company, Have You Read 100 Great Books? [1946]

120 entries: 108 monographical, 12 otherwise

Unranked—arranged alphabetically by author

This curio of a book includes numerous lists:

Arthur Conan Doyle's goes back to ancient times but appears to exclude theatre; nonetheless, it's a compelling list with several important works that could end up not appearing in any other list; if I learn more the provenance of this list, it will be noted on the Excluded Lists page;

whereas in Baldwin's The Book Lover, we only got a faint idea (that is, some quotes) of John Ruskin's response to Lubbock's list in the Pall Mall Gazette, here we have the list Ruskin provided; it fits this project's criteria—I could use this book as the source and include this list, but I worry about including a few of these responses without having access to the Pall Mall original; I wouldd prefer either to include all the responses, or none;

Robert Louis Stevenson's, also short, also fits our criteria; it comes from a series of articles in the British Weekly, published in 1887, entitled Books Which Have Influenced Me. You can see the table of contents from the link provided, and thus the other noteworthy individuals of the time who contributed. Clearly, this series emerged in response to Lubbock's speech and accompanying articles, and the responses to his list. Though a full-text scan of the book should be floating around somewhere online, and I can get access to an actual copy via a university library, for now I'm not going to include these lists. Not only do I not have access to all of the earlier Pall Mall Gazette lists, which are more important historically, but the inclusion of several short lists doesn't seem to be a worthy task at this point in the project. Perhaps in the future. Notice that F. W. Farrar was one of the participants in the British Weekly series—according to Baldwin's The Book Lover, Farrar also contributed to the Pall Mall discussion—but this of course came before his Great Books book (noted on the Excluded Lists page);

Brander Matthews, a Columbia professor and a writer on theatre, has a list of 'A Hundred Best Novels in English';

James Bryce's response to Lubbock, one of those published in the Pall Mall Gazette, fits our criteria but the same problem applies as with Ruskin's;

Wilbur L. Cross, a professor at Yale and a governor of Connecticut, offers the 'Twenty-Five Great Prose Fictions';

novelist and dramatist Arnold Bennett has a huge list of English literature;

another Yale professor, William Lyon Phelps, gives his fifteen best novels of all time;

Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, a "noted bookseller," provides a list of "the five greatest detectives in the world of fiction, in this order: C. Auguste Dupin (Poe), Sherlock Holmes (Doyle), Monsieur Lecoq (Gaborian), Father Brown (Chesterton), Sergeant Cuff (W. Collins)," from his book, A Bookhunter's Holiday;

Hamilton Wright Mabie's list is very short, and fits our criteria, but a quick look at his oeuvre brings forth other potential lists, especially the Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, a 31-volume set he served as an editor of (again, see the Excluded Lists page);

the Grolier Club lists the '100 Books Famous in English Literature';

John Erskine, who played a major role in the rise of "great books" education at Columbia, has a short list from his The Delight of Great Books (not included; again, see the Excluded Lists page);

'3 Scholars Pick Greatest Books of Half Century', the scholars being Charles Beard, John Dewey, and Edward Weeks;

the Newark public library, the workplace of two of the most famous of this nation's librarians (John Cotton Dana and Beatrice Winser) and which, according to this book, "has been publishing book lists for almost half a century," lists One Hundred of the Best Novels;

a noted book collector and "manufacturer in Pennsylvania," A. Edward Norton, has a list of '100 Good Novels';

Christopher Morley's list, entitled 'Golden Florins', is certainly compelling, though limited temporally; he was a prolific author and theatre director; this list is discussed at the Excluded Lists page;

Frank Thomas, a bookseller, has a longish list that remains a bit of a mystery;

'The List of St. John's College', with no indication which year the reading course applies to;

and 'The 100 Outstanding Books of 1924-44', "Prepared for Life Magazine with the advice of Dr. Henry Seidel Canby," another Yale professor.

In addition, the Lubbock, Powys, Durant, and Invitation to Learning lists included at this site are reprinted, as is the Outline of Readings in Important Books list which has been excluded for the time being (see the Classics of the Western World list for an explanation). They are not all accurately recreated, given the simplicity of the lay-out and type fonts used.

This useful and rare book ends its presentation of lists with its own two, the first being a collection of 1,000: "a tabulation of all the books listed previously, with duplications eliminated," then a list of 100 derived from the 1,000, presented here. One-page excerpts from 31 of these works complete the book. The text gives no indication of how these hundred selections were made. While the 1,000 original set was determined by others' lists, including of course those four lists already included in this project, the 100 picked out from that 1,000 represents the editorial work of someone or group of persons involved in the publication of this book and, as such, is included at Greater Books.

  1. Henry Adams

    2. The Education of Henry Adams
    1918—English

  2. Sherwood Anderson

    3. Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life
    1919; twenty-two stories, ten of which originally published in periodicals: 'The Book of the Grotesque', Feb. 1916 in Masses; 'Hands', Mar. 1916 in Masses; 'Paper Pills' (originally entitled 'The Philosopher'), Jun.-Jul. 1916 in the Little Review, ; 'The Strength of God', Aug. 1916 in Masses; 'Queer', Dec. 1916 in Seven Arts; 'The Untold Lie', Jan. 17 in Seven Arts; 'Mother', Mar. 1917 in Seven Arts; 'The Thinker', Sep. 1917 in Seven Arts; 'The Man of Ideas', Jun. 1918 in the Little Review; 'An Awakening', Dec. 1918 in the Little Review—English

  3. Augustine of Hippo

    4. Confessionum Libri Tredecim
    The Confessions of St. Augustine
    written 397-98—Latin

  4. Marcus Aurelius

    5. Ta Eis Heauton
    Meditations
    written 161-80—Greek

  5. Jane Austen

    6. Pride and Prejudice
    originally anonymously published 1813—English

  6. Francis Bacon

    7. Essays: Religious Meditations. Places of Perswasion and Disswasion. Seene and Allowed
    1597; expanded 1612; expanded and retitled Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall, 1625—English

  7. Honoré de Balzac

    8. Le Père Goriot
    Father Goriot
    originally published serially Dec. 1834-Feb. 1835 in Revue de Paris—French

  8. Charles and Mary Beard

    9. The Rise of American Civilization
    1927—English

  9. Edward Bellamy

    10. Looking Backward, 2000-1887
    1888—English

  10. Arnold Bennett

    11. The Old Wives' Tale
    1908—English

    --
  11. The Bible

    12. —Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek

  12. George Borrow

    13. Lavengro; The Scholar—The Gypsy—The Priest
    1851—English

  13. James Boswell

    14. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
    1791—English

  14. Emily Brontë

    15. Wuthering Heights
    originally published 1847 under the pseudonym, Ellis Bell; revised 1850—English

  15. Van Wyck Brooks

    16. The Flowering of New England, 1815-1865
    1836—English

  16. J B Bury

    17. A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great
    1900—English

  17. Samuel Butler

    18. The Way of All Flesh
    1903; written 1873-74—English

  18. Willa Cather

    19. My Ántonia
    1918—English

  19. Benvenuto Cellini

    20. Vita di Benvenuto di Maestro Giovanni Cellini Fiorentino, Scritta, per Lui Medesimo, in Firenze
    Autobiography
    written 1558-62—Italian

  20. Miguel de Cervantes

    21. El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
    Don Quixote
    originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615—Spanish

  21. Geoffrey Chaucer

    22. Canterbury Tales
    1478—English

  22. Joseph Conrad

    23. The Nigger of the 'Narcissus': A Tale of the Sea
    1897; original U S edition entitled The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle—English

  23. Charles Darwin

    24. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
    1859—English

  24. Daniel Defoe

    25. The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner
    originally anonymously published 1719—English

  25. René Descartes

    26. Discours de la Méthode Pour Bien Conduire sa Raison, et Chercher la Vérité dans les Sciences
    Discourse on the Method
    1637—French

  26. Charles Dickens

    27. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (The Pickwick Papers)
    originally published serially Apr. 1836-Nov. 1837 under the pseudonym, Boz—English

    John Dos Passos
  27. The 42nd Parallel

    28. 1930—English

  28. 1919

    29. 1932—English

  29. The Big Money

    30. 1936—English

  30. Fyodor Dostoevsky

    31. Brat'â Karamazovy
    The Brothers Karamazov
    originally published serially 1880 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian

    Arthur Conan Doyle
  31. A Study in Scarlet

    32. originally published 1887 in Beeton's Christmas Annual—English

  32. The Sign of the Four

    33. originally published Feb. 1890 in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine—English

  33. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

    34. 1892; stories originally published Jul. 1891-Jun. 1892 in the Strand—English

  34. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

    35. 1894; stories originally published 1892-3 in the Strand—English

  35. The Hound of the Baskervilles

    36. 1902; originally published serially Aug. 1901-Apr. 1902 in the Strand—English

  36. The Return of Sherlock Holmes

    37. 1905; stories originally published 1903-4 in the Strand—English

  37. The Valley of Fear

    38. 1915; originally published serially Sep. 1914-Feb. 1915 in the Strand—English

  38. His Last Bow: Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes

    39. 1917; stories originally published Sep. 1908-Dec. 1913 in the Strand; except one published Sep. 1917 in Collier's Weekly—English

  39. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

    40. 1927; stories originally published Oct. 1921-Apr. 1927 in the Strand—English

  40. George Eliot

    41. Adam Bede
    1859—English

  41. Havelock Ellis

    42. The Dance of Life
    1923—English


    Essays
    Nineteenth Century—English

  42. Epictetus

    43. Diatribai
    Discourses
    compiled by Arrian; Second Century—Greek

  43. Élie Faure

    44. Histoire de l'Art
    originally published in five volumes, 1919-21—English


    The Federalist Papers
    originally published 1787-1788 in the Independent Journal, the New-York Packet, and the Daily Advertiser—English

  44. Henry Fielding

    45. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
    1749—English

  45. Gustave Flaubert

    46. Madame Bovary
    originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de Paris—French

  46. Anatole France

    47. L'Île des Pingouins
    1908—French

  47. Benjamin Franklin

    48. 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

  48. James George Frazer

    49. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion
    originally entitled The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion, published in two volumes, 1890; expanded and retitled 1900, in three volumes; expanded 1906-15, in 12 volumes; supplemental volume added for 1937 edition; distinct abridged versions, 1922, 1959, and 1994; the Jasper Lee Company specifies the 1922 abridged edition—English

  49. Edward Gibbon

    50. 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

  50. George Gissing

    51. The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
    originally entitled An Author at Grass, published serially 1902-03 in the Fortnightly Review—English

  51. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

    52. Faust
    originally published in two volumes: first, Faust. Der Tragödie Erster Teil, published in part, 1790; in its entirey, 1808; revised 1829; second, Faust. Der Tragödie Zweiter Teil, 1832—German

  52. Thomas Hardy

    53. Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
    published in part serially Jul.-Dec. 1891 in the Graphic—English

  53. Nathaniel Hawthorne

    54. The Scarlet Letter
    1850—English

  54. Herodotus

    55. Historiē
    History
    Fifth Century B C—Greek

  55. Thomas Hobbes

    56. Leviathan or, The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil
    1651—English

  56. Homer

    57. Odýsseia
    The Odyssey
    ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B C;—Greek

  57. William Henry Hudson

    58. Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest
    1904—English

  58. Victor Hugo

    59. Les Misérables
    1862—French

  59. Henry James

    60. The Turn of the Screw
    originally published in The Two Magics, with a second novella, Covering End, 1898—English

  60. William James

    61. The Principles of Psychology
    1890—English

  61. James Jeans

    62. Mysterious Universe
    1930—English


    Poems
    early Nineteenth Century—English


    Soldiers Three and Other Stories
    1899; includes Soldiers Three: A Collection of Stories Setting Forth Certain Passages in the Lives and Adventures of Privates Terence Mulvaney, Stanley Ortheris and John Learoyd [1888]; The Story of the Gadsbys: A Tale Without a Plot [1888]; and In Black and White [1888]—English

  62. Soldiers Three: A Collection of Stories Setting Forth Certain Passages in the Lives and Adventures of Privates Terence Mulvaney, Stanley Ortheris and John Learoyd

    63. 1888—English

  63. The Story of the Gadsbys: A Tale Without a Plot

    64. 1888—English

  64. In Black and White

    65. 1888—English

    Charles Lamb
  65. Essays of Elia

    66. 1823; originally published serially 1820-25 in the London Magazine—English


  66. Last Essays of Elia

    67. 1833; originally published serially 1820-25 in the London Magazine—English


    The Collected Short Stories of Ring Lardner
    originally entitled Round Up: The Stories of Ring W Lardner, published 1929—English


    Notebooks
    late Fifteenth-early Sixteenth centuries—Italian

  67. Sinclair Lewis

    68. Babbitt
    1922—English

  68. Charles Lyell

    69. Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man
    1863—English

  69. Niccolò Machiavelli

    70. Il Principe
    The Prince
    1532—Italian

  70. Thomas Malory

    71. Le Morte d'Arthur
    1485; revised through sixth edition, 1634—English

  71. Thomas Robert Malthus

    72. An Essay on the Principle of Population
    originally anonymously published 1798; revised 1803 and published under the author's name—English

  72. Karl Marx

    73. Das Kapital, Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie
    originally published in three volumes: 1867, 1885, and 1894—German

  73. W Somerset Maugham

    74. Of Human Bondage
    1915—English


    Stories
    Nineteenth Century—French

  74. Herman Melville

    75. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
    1851—English

  75. George Meredith

    76. The Ordeal of Richard Feverel
    1859—English

  76. John Stuart Mill

    77. Autobiography
    1873—English

  77. Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu

    78. De l'Esprit des Lois
    The Spirit of Laws
    originally anonymously published 1748—French

  78. Friedrich Nietzsche

    79. Also Sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen
    Thus Spake Zarathustra
    originally published in four volumes, 1883-5—German

  79. Frank Norris

    80. McTeague: A Story of San Francisco
    1899—English

    --

    originally entitled The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900, published 1900; revised and retitled 1939; edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch—English

  80. Thomas Paine

    81. The Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution
    originally published in two volumes, 1791 and 1792—English

  81. Samuel Pepys

    82. Diary
    written 1660-69; published in part, 1825; expanded and revised 1875-79; further revised versions, 1893-99 and 1926; final work, in nine volumes, 1970-83


    Dialogues
    early Fourth Century B C—Greek


    Stories
    Nineteenth Century—English


    Flowering Judas and Other Stories
    1935—English

  82. François Rabelais

    83. La Vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel
    originally published in five volumes: Les Horribles et Épouvantables Faits et Prouesses du Très Renommé Pantagruel Roi des Dipsodes, Fils du Grand Géant Gargantua, 1532; La Vie Très Horrifique du Grand Gargantua, Père de Pantagruel, 1534; Le Tiers Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1546; Le Quart Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1552; Le Cinquiesme et Dernier Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1564—French

  83. Charles Reade

    84. The Cloister and the Hearth
    1861—English

  84. Erich Maria Remarque

    85. Im Westen Nichts Neues
    All Quiet on the Western Front
    originally published Dec. 1928 in Vossische Zeitung—German

  85. Ernest Renan

    86. Vie de Jésus
    1863; revised 1867—French

  86. Romain Rolland

    87. Jean Christophe
    published in ten volumes: L'Aube, 1904; Le Matin, 1904; L'Adolescent, 1904; La Révolte, 1905; La Foir sur la Place, 1908; Antoinette, 1908; Dans la Maison, 1908; Les Amies, 1910; Le Buisson Ardent, 1911; La Nouvelle Journée, 1912—French

  87. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    88. Du Contrat Social ou Principes du Droit Politique
    The Social Contract
    1762—French

  88. Walter Scott

    89. Ivanhoe
    originally anonymously published 1819—English

    George Bernard Shaw
  89. Candida

    90. published in 1898 as part of Plays Pleasant; originally performed 1903—English

  90. Man and Superman

    91. performed in part, 1905; in its entirety, 1915—English

    William Shakespeare
  91. Macbeth

    92. ca. 1607—English

  92. Hamlet

    93. 1602—English

  93. King Lear

    94. 1606—English

  94. As You Like It

    95. 1603—English

  95. A Midsummer Night's Dream

    96. ca. 1595-1600—English

  96. Upton Sinclair

    97. The Jungle
    originally published serially Feb.-Nov. 1905 in Appeal to Reason—English

  97. Baruch Spinoza

    98. Ethica, Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata
    Ethics
    1677—Latin

  98. Robert Louis Stevenson

    99. Weir of Hermiston
    1896—English

  99. John Steinbeck

    100. The Grapes of Wrath
    1939—English

  100. Jonathan Swift

    101. 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

  101. William Makepeace Thackeray

    102. The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. A Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Q. Anne. Written by Himself
    1852—English

    Thomas Aquinas
  102. De Ente et Essentia

    103. On Being and Essence
    written ca. 1252-56—Latin


    Summa Theologica
    Treatise on God; Treatise on Man; written 1265-74—Latin

  103. Henry David Thoreau

    104. Walden; or, Life in the Woods
    1854—English

  104. Leo Tolstoy

    105. Voyna i Mir"
    War and Peace
    originally entitled 1805, published in part, 1865 and 1867; retitled and published in its entirety, 1869—Russian

  105. Mark Twain

    106. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
    1884—English

  106. Voltaire

    107. Candide, ou L'Optimisme
    1759—French

  107. H G Wells

    108. Tono-Bungay
    1909—English

  108. Walt Whitman

    109. Leaves of Grass
    1855; expanded and revised through ninth edition, 1892—English