John Lubbock, The Choice of Books [1896]
121 entries: 96 monographical, 25 otherwise
Unranked, arranged topically
According to W. B. Carnochan's 'Where Did Great Books Come From Anyway', Lubbock offered an earlier version of his list in a lecture given at the Working Men's College in London, apparently in early January 1886; this list, edited at least for organizational purposes, was published in the Pall Mall Gazette, January 11th. An edited version of Lubbock's lecture, with list included, was published in the Contemporary Review, February 1886, entitled 'On the Pleasure of Reading'. Lubbock crafted a revised version of this list for his 1896 book, The Choice of Books. That version is the basis for our list here. The Contemporary Review version included unspecified listings for Heinrich Heine and Lucretius; two novels by Jane Austen, Emma and Pride and Prejudice; and two works by Robert Southey, Thalaba the Destroyer and The Curse of Kehema. While these were excluded from the '96 list, the Kalidasa and Schiller entries were added.
- The Bible
—Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek
- Marcus Aurelius
Ta Eis Heauton
Meditations
written 161-80—Greek
Epictetus
- Diatribai
Discourses
compiled by Arrian; Second Century—Greek
- Enchiridion of Epictetus
compiled by Arrian; Second Century—Greek
- Aristotle
Ethika Nikomacheia
Nicomachean Ethics
Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Confucius (Kǒng Zǐ) (Kǒng Fūzǐ) (K'ung Fu-tzu)
Analects
Lún Yǔ
written and compiled by the author's pupils; ca. Fifth Century B C-Second Century—Chinese
- Jules Barthélemy-Saint-Hilaire
Le Bouddha et Sa Religion
1860—French
Selected works
series of early Christian writings from the late First-early Second centuries; unspecified selection—Greek
- Thomas á Kempis
De Imitatione Christi
The Imitation of Christ
written ca. 1418-27—Latin
- Augustine of Hippo
Confessionum Libri Tredecim
The Confessions of St. Augustine
written 397-8—Latin
- Quran (Koran) [excerpted]
Lubbock does not specify his selections; Seventh Century—Arabic
- Baruch Spinoza
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus
originally anonymously published 1670—Latin
- Auguste Comte
Catéchisme Positiviste
1852—French
- Blaise Pascal
Pensées
Thoughts
1669—French
- Joseph Butler
Analogy of Religion, Natural and Revealed, to the Constitution and Course of Nature
1736—English
- Jeremy Taylor
Holy Living and Holy Dying
originally published in two volumes: The Rules and Exercises of Holy Living, 1650; and The Rules and Exercises of Holy Dying, 1651—English
- John Bunyan
The Pilgrim's Progress From This World to That Which Is to Come
1678—English
- John Keble
The Christian Year
1827—English
Plato
early Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Apologia Socratis
The Apology
early Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Crito
early Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Phaedo
early Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Xenophon
Memorabilia
Apomnemoneumata
early Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Aristotle
Politik
Politics
Fourth Century B C#151;Greek
- Demosthenes
On the Crown
330 B C#151;Greek
Marcus Tullius Cicero
- De Officiis
written 44 B C—Latin
- Cato Major de Senectute
written 44 B C—Latin
- Laelius de Amicitia
written 44 B C—Latin
- Plutarch
Bìoi Paràllēloi
Parallel Lives; Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
First Century—Greek
- George Berkeley (Bishop Berkeley)
A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
1710; revised 1734—English
- René Descartes
Discours de la Méthode Pour Bien Conduire sa Raison, et Chercher la Vérité dans les Sciences
Discourse on the Method
1637—French
- John Locke
Of the Conduct of the Understanding
originally published as part of the Posthumous Works of John Locke, 1706—English
Homer
- Iliad
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B C#151;Greek
- Odýsseia
The Odyssey
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B C#151;Greek
Poems
ca. Eighth-Seventh centuries B C—Greek
Selected works
First Century B C—Latin
- Vyasa
Mahabharata
includes Bhagavad Gita; ca. Ninth Century B C-Fourth Century—Sanskrit
- Valmiki
Ramayana
ca. Fifth-Second centuries B C—Sanskrit
- Ferdowsi
Shahnameh
The Book of Kings
written ca. 977-1010—Persian
--
- Nibelungenlied
ca. Twelfth-Thirteenth centuries—German
- Thomas Malory
Le Morte d'Arthur
1485; revised through sixth edition, 1634—English
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- Shījīng
Shih-Ching; The Classic of Poetry; The Book of Poetry; The Book of Songs; The Book of Odes
one of the Five Classics of Confucianism; Eleventh-Seventh centuries B C—Chinese
- Kalidasa
Abhijnanasakuntalam
The Recognition of Sakuntala
ca. Fifth Century—Sanskrit
Aeschylus
- Promētheus Desmōtēs
Prometheus Bound
disputed authorship; Fifth Century B C—Greek
- Oresteia
The House of Atreus
458 B C—Greek
Sophocles
- Antigone
ca. 441 B C—Greek
- Oidipous epi Kolōnō
Oedipus at Colonus
401 B C—Greek
- Oidipous Tyrannos
Oedipus Rex; Oedipus the King
ca. 429 B C#151;Greek
- Euripides
Mēdeia
Medea
431 B C#151;Greek
Aristophanes
- Hippeîs
The Knights
424 B C—Greek
- Nephelai
The Clouds
423 B C; revised 417 B C; only revised version remains—Greek
- Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Poems
First Century B C—Latin
- Geoffrey Chaucer
Canterbury Tales
1478—English
Selected works
late Sixteenth-early Seventeenth centuries—English
John Milton
- Paradise Lost
1667; revised 1674—English
originally published in Justa Edouardo King Naufrago, 1638; revised for inclusion in Poems of Mr. John Milton, Both English and Latin, 1645—English
- A Mask Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: On Michelmas Night, Before the Right Honorable, John Earl of Bridgewater, Viscount Brackly, Lord President of Wales, and One of His Maiesties Most Honorable Privie Councill
'Comus'
originally anonymously published 1637; included in Poems of Mr. John Milton, Both English and Latin, 1645—English
Lubbock uses the term, "Shorter poems"; Seventeenth Century—English
- Dante
La Divina Commedia
The Divine Comedy
originally entitled La Commedia; written ca. 1308-21—Italian
- Edmund Spenser
The Faerie Queene
originally published in two volumes, 1590 and 1596—English
Poems
Seventeenth Century—English
Poems
Nineteenth Century—English
Poems of Wordsworth
1879; edited by Matthew Arnold—English
Alexander Pope
- Essay on Criticism
1711—English
- Essay on Man
1734—English
- The Rape of the Lock
originally anonymously published 1712 in Linot's Miscellany; expanded 1714 and 1717—English
Poems
late Eighteenth Century—English
- Lord Byron (George Gordon, Lord Byron)
Childe Harold's Pilgrimage
1812-8—English
Poems
Eighteenth Century—English
- Herodotus
Historiē
History
Fifth Century B C#151;Greek
- Xenophon
Anabasis
early Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War
early Fifth Century B C#151;Greek
- Cornelius Tacitus
De Origine et Situ Germanorum
Germania
written ca. 98—Latin
- Livy (Titus Livius)
Ab Urbe Condita Libri
History of Rome
First Century B C—Latin
- 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
- David Hume
The History of England
originally published in six volumes: fifth, 1754; sixth, 1756; third-fourth, 1759; first-second, 1761—English
- George Grote
History of Greece; From the Earliest Period to the Close of the Generation Contemporary With Alexander the Great
originally published in twelve volumes, 1846-56—English
- Thomas Carlyle
The French Revolution
1837; revised 1857—English
- John Richard Green
A Short History of the English People
1874—English
- George Henry Lewes
The Biographical History of Philosophy
1848; later revised—English
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- Kitab alf Laylah Wa-Laylah
The Thousand and One Nights; The Arabian Nights
Ninth-Fifteenth centuries—Arabic
- 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
- Daniel Defoe
The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner
originally anonymously published 1719—English
- Oliver Goldsmith
The Vicar of Wakefield
1766—English
- Miguel de Cervantes
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
Don Quixote
originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615—Spanish
- James Boswell
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
1791—English
Plays
Seventeenth Century—French
- Friedrich Schiller
Wilhelm Tell
1804—German
Richard Brinsley Sheridan
- The Critic: or, a Tragedy Rehearsed
1779—English
- School for Scandal
1777—English
- The Rivals
1775—English
- Thomas Carlyle
Past and Present
1843—English
- Francis Bacon
Novum Organum Scientiarium
1620—English
An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations [excerpted]
unspecified selection; complete work, 1776; revised through third edition, 1784—English
- John Stuart Mill
Principles of Political Economy
1848; revised through seventh edition, 1871—English
Journals
Eighteenth Century—English
"Travels"
unspecified selection; early Nineteenth Century—French, German
- Gilbert White
The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne
1789—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
- The Voyage of the Beagle
originally published as Journal and Remarks, 1832-1835, volume three of Narrative of the Surveying Voyages of His Majesty's Ships Adventure and Eagle, 1838; also published that year as Journal of Researches Into the Geology and Natural History of the Various Countries Visited by H M S Beagle; revised 1845—English
- John Stuart Mill
A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
1843—English
- Francis Bacon
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
- Michel de Montaigne
Les Essais
Essays
originally published in three volumes: 1580, 1588, and 1595—French
Essays
Eighteenth Century—English
- Thomas Macaulay (Lord Macaulay)
Essays
Nineteenth Century—English
Essays
early Eighteenth Century—English
Essays
Nineteenth Century—English
Selected works
late Eighteenth Century—English
- Samuel Smiles
Self-Help; With Illustrations of Character and Conduct
1859—English
Voltaire
- Zadig
1747—French
- Micromégas
1752—French
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- 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
- Aus Mienem Leben: Dichtung und Warheit
From My Life: Poetry and Truth
originally published in four volumes: first-third, 1811-3; fourth, 1833—German
William Makepeace Thackeray
- Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero
originally published serially Jan. 1847-Jul. 1848—English
- The History of Pendennis: His Fortunes and Misfortunes, His Friends and Greatest Enemy
originally published serially 1848-50—English
Charles Dickens
- The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
The Pickwick Papers
originally published serially Apr. 1836-Nov. 1837 under the pseudonym, Boz—English
- The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account)
originally published serially May 1849-Nov. 1850—English
- Edward Bulwer-Lytton
The Last Days of Pompeii
1834—English
- George Eliot
Adam Bede
1859—English
- Charles Kingsley
Westward Ho!
1855—English
Novels
Nineteenth Century—English