John Mark Reynolds, ed., The Great Books Reader: Excerpts and Essays on the Most Influential Books in Western Civilization [2011]
29 entries: 28 monographical, one otherwise
Unranked—arranged chronologically
Reynolds takes a fresh approach to canon-forming/ reading-course literature in this book: offering excerpts of the works instead of extensive interpretation or summarizing. The selections reflect Reynolds' status as a religious scholar.
- Homer
Odýsseia
The Odyssey
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B C—Greek
- Plato
Politeia
The Republic
early Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Aristotle
Ethika Nikomacheia
Nicomachean Ethics
Fourth Century B C—Greek
- Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)
Aeneid
First Century B C—Latin
- Augustine of Hippo
Confessionum Libri Tredecim
The Confessions of St. Augustine
written 397-98—Latin
- Boethius
Consolatio Philosophiae
The Consolation of Philosophy
written ca. 524—Latin
- Thomas Aquinas
Summa Theologiae
Summa Theologica
written 1265-74—Latin
- Dante
La Divina Commedia
The Divine Comedy
originally entitled La Commedia; written ca. 1308-21—Italian
- Geoffrey Chaucer
Canterbury Tales
1478—English
- Desiderius Erasmus
Stultitiae Laus
In Praise of Folly
1511; revised—Latin
- John Calvin
Christianae Religionis Institutio
Institutes of the Christian Religion
1536; French translation, Institution de la Religion Chrestienne, 1541—Latin
- Edmund Spenser
The Faerie Queene
originally published in two volumes, 1590 and 1596—English
- Miguel de Cervantes
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
Don Quixote
originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615—Spanish
- William Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing
ca. 1598-99—English
- 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 Milton
Paradise Lost
1667; revised 1674—English
- Blaise Pascal
Pensées
Thoughts
1669—French
John Locke
- An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
1689—English
- 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
- Isaac Newton
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
1687; revised 1713 and 1726—Latin
- John Wesley
Sermons
141 sermons; Eighteenth Century—English
- Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
originally anonymously published 1813—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
- 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
- Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina
published in part serially 1873-7 in Rússkij Véstnik; in its entirety, 1877—Russian
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Brat'â Karamazovy
The Brothers Karamazov
originally published serially 1880 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Zur Genealogue der Moral: Eine Streitschrift
On the Genealogy of Morals
1887—German
- G K Chesterton
Orthodoxy
1908—English