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Martin Seymour-Smith, The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written: The History of Thought From Ancient Times to Today [1998]

136 entries: 127 monographical, 9 otherwise

Unranked—arranged chronologically

Seymour-Smith's book offers one of the best list of "great books," and perhaps the most provocative. Moreover, the book makes for an excellent read in and of itself. Clifton Fadiman's, also a list-as-book, is a fine read, but Seymour-Smith challenges received wisdom, addresses complex philosophical and scientific issues in depth, and takes the task he sets out—defining the "most influential" of books—very seriously. As with Kanigel's inclusion of Mein Kampf (which Seymour-Smith argues is actually not especially influential), books most humans would not want to read are included. As Seymour-Smith notes in his Introduction, "what is evil has on the whole, though by no means always or unequivocally—a balance is somehow achieved—been more influential than what is, shall we say, better."

Only a few works of fiction are included. Seymour-Smith's explanation of this, again, rests on the question of influence, but he falters in focusing on Gone with the Wind as an example of fiction's deficiency in this regard and in not considering serious countering arguments (we know at least that Harold Bloom, with his notion of Shakespeare's "invention of the human," would disagree). Seymour-Smith argues, "If some women thought they modeled themselves on Scarlet O'Hara [...] then, since Scarlet O'Hara was herself based [...] on a stereotype rather than on a real character, those women would have modeled themselves on another version of that stereotype." First, the term, "real character," is awkward: is he suggesting all non-fiction makes characters out of persons, yet whom remain real? More important, what of fictional characters not based on stereotypes (that is, why did he choose Gone with the Wind as his example)? Also, does he regard poetry, largely ignored here, in a similar way?

The few works of fiction he does include, Seymour-Smith acknowledges, "changed or colored the way in which people, even whole nations—as well as individuals—think of themselves." Ultimately, though, he sees philosophical and religious texts as primary: "Writers of imaginative literature are themselves, in any case, inevitably, initially influenced by a certain sort of predecessor." A supposition fair enough, but again his brief exposition does not satisfy. Such predecessors (Plato, Kant, etc.) "made it their first purpose not to express their personal vision but to determine what kind of a world it is that we live in." But that is precisely what poets and novelists do. If anything, in this day of a glut of non-fiction titles from university presses (even in the liberal arts)—not to mention the post-structuralist, Deconstructionist perspective on philosophical texts, countering their non-personal, objective nature—Seymour-Smith's position is in the minority. Still, the short essays accompanying each entry I have read so far serve as excellent overviews of their many pertinent subjects, and one only has to review the list below to see the breadth of Seymour-Smith's knowledge.

Unlike Van Doren's, Fadiman's, Dirda's, and Newman's list-as-book projects, in his explication of each choice Seymour-Smith does not recommend other works; when others are mentioned, they are meant to explain the author's overall work or context. In a few instances, Seymour-Smith does suggest that other works are superior. For example, the Evgeny Zamyatin novel We "is far above even Nineteen Eighty-Four at an imaginative level," but he is not satisfied with its translations to English. He acknowledges that Thoreau's Walden might be as important as 'Civil Disobedience' "in the long run"; Jan Amos Komensky's The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart [1631], compared to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, is a "priceless masterpiece"; and Anna Karenina "is perhaps a greater novel than War and Peace." He too speaks very highly of Sartre's Nausea and Cervantes' Exemplary Novels. However, given the book's purpose, the inclusion of these other works is not appropriate. Van Doren's, Fadiman's, Dirda's, and Newman's lists, first of all, do not give a precise number of listed works like Seymour-Smith does; and, compared to other listmakers who give a precise number, Seymour-Smith mostly lists actual books, not vague selections of texts or excerpts. Second, the works that I have included in the Greater Books lists, but which are not listed in Van Doren's, Fadiman's, Dirda's, or Newman's chapter or section headings, are often recommended as highly as the listed works. Seymour-Smith, on the other hand, includes, for example, Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson instead of P. D. Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous, and Spinoza's Ethics instead of his correspondence, precisely because of his focus on the question of influence; We is not picked for the same reason, as Orwell's novel has obviously been more influential. This stricter interpretation has the unfortunate effect of, for now, excluding Komensky's work from the Greater Books master list, as no other listmaker includes him.

  1. Yì Jīng

    2. I Ching; Zhouyi; The Classic of Changes; The Book of Changes
    Eleventh-Third centuries B C—Chinese

    --
  2. The Bible

    3. —Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek

    Homer
  3. Iliad

    4. ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B C—Greek

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

    --
    • Upanishads

    5. Seventh-Fourth centuries B C—Sanskrit

  5. Lăozĭ (Lao-tzu) (Laocius)

    6. Dàodéjīng
    Tao te Ching
    ca. Sixth Century B C—Chinese

    --
  6. Avesta

    7. Avestan

  7. Confucius (Kŏng Zǐ) (Kŏng Fūzǐ) (K'ung Fu-tzu)

    8. Analects
    Lún Yǔ
    written and compiled by the author's pupils; ca. Fifth Century B C-Second Century—Chinese

  8. Thucydides

    9. History of the Peloponnesian War
    early Fifth Century B C—Greek

  9. Hippocrates
    Hippocratic Corpus
    late Fifth-early Fourth centuries B C—Greek

    • Aristotle

    10. Selected works
    Fourth Century B C—Greek

  10. Herodotus

    11. Historiē
    History
    Fifth Century B C—Greek

  11. Plato

    12. Politeia
    The Republic
    early Fourth Century B C—Greek

  12. Euclid

    13. Elements
    written ca. 300 B C—Greek

    --
  13. Dhammapada

    14. part of the Khuddaka Nikaya, fifth of five nikayas in the Sutta Pitaka; written ca. Third Century B C—Pali

  14. Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)

    15. Aeneid
    First Century B C—Latin

  15. Titus Lucretius Carus
    De Rerum Natura
    On the Nature of Things
    First Century B C—Latin

    • Philo of Alexandria

    16. "Allegorical Expositions of the Holy Laws"
    First Century—Greek

  16. Plutarch

    17. Bìoi Paràllēloi
    Parallel Lives; Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
    First Century—Greek

  17. Cornelius Tacitus

    18. Annales
    written First Century—Latin

    --
  18. The Gospel of Truth

    19. probably originally written in Greek; earliest extant copy is Coptic Egyptian translation; Second Century—Egyptian

  19. Marcus Aurelius

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

  20. Sextus Empiricus

    21. Pyrrhōneioi Hypotypōseis
    Outline of Pyrrhonism
    late First Century-early Second Century—Greek

  21. Plotinus

    22. Enneads
    Third Century—Greek

  22. Augustine of Hippo

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

    --
  23. Quran

    24. Koran
    Seventh Century—Arabic

  24. Maimonides (Moshe ben Maimon)
    Dalalatul al-Hairin
    Moreh Nevukhim; The Guide for the Perplexed
    written Twelfth Century—Arabic; Hebrew version, 1204

    --
    • Kabbalah

    25. Quabala; Cabala
    Aramaic; Hebrew

  25. Thomas Aquinas

    26. Summa Theologiae
    Summa Theologica
    written 1265-74—Latin

  26. Dante

    27. La Divina Commedia
    The Divine Comedy
    originally entitled La Commedia; written ca. 1308-21—Italian

  27. Desiderius Erasmus

    28. Stultitiae Laus
    In Praise of Folly
    1511; later revised—Latin

  28. Niccolò Machiavelli

    29. Il Principe
    The Prince
    1532—Italian


  29. Martin Luther

    30. De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesiae, Praeludium
    Von der Babylonischen Gefangenschaft der Kirche; On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church
    1520; German version published the same year—Latin

  30. François Rabelais

    31. 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

  31. John Calvin

    32. Christianae Religionis Institutio
    Institutes of the Christian Religion
    1536; French translation, Institution de la Religion Chrestienne, 1541—Latin

  32. Nicolas Copernicus

    33. De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium
    On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
    1543—Latin

  33. Michel de Montaigne

    34. Les Essais
    Essays
    originally published in three volumes: 1580, 1588, and 1595—French

  34. Miguel de Cervantes

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

  35. Johannes Kepler

    36. Harmonices Mundi
    The Harmony of the World
    1619—Latin

  36. Francis Bacon
    Novum Organum Scientiarium
    1620—English

    William Shakespeare
    • Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies

    37. The First Folio
    1623; includes 36 of the author's plays—English

  37. The Two Gentlemen of Verona

    38. ca. 1590-94—English

  38. Romeo and Juliet

    39. ca. 1591-97—English

  39. The First Part of Henry VI

    40. ca. 1592—English

  40. The Second Part of Henry VI

    41. ca. 1592—English

  41. The Third Part of Henry VI

    42. ca. 1592—English

  42. The Taming of the Shrew

    43. ca. 1592-94—English

  43. Richard III

    44. ca. 1592-7—English

  44. Titus Andronicus

    45. 1594—English

  45. The Comedy of Errors

    46. 1594—English

  46. A Midsummer Night's Dream

    47. ca. 1595-1600—English

  47. The Merchant of Venice

    48. ca. 1596-98—English

  48. The Merry Wives of Windsor

    49. ca. 1597-1602—English

  49. The First Part of Henry IV

    50. 1597—English

  50. Richard II

    51. 1597—English

  51. Love's Labour Lost

    52. 1598—English

  52. King John

    53. ca. 1598—English

  53. Much Ado About Nothing

    54. ca. 1598-99—English

  54. Julius Caesar

    55. 1599—English

  55. Henry V

    56. 1599—English

  56. The Second Part of Henry IV

    57. 1600—English

  57. Twelfth Night; or, What You Will

    58. 1602—English

  58. Hamlet

    59. 1602—English

  59. Troilus and Cressida

    60. ca. 1602-09—English

  60. As You Like It

    61. 1603—English

  61. Measure for Measure

    62. 1604—English

  62. Othello

    63. ca. 1604—English

  63. Coriolanus

    64. written ca. 1605-08—English

  64. King Lear

    65. 1606—English

  65. All's Well That Ends Well

    66. ca. 1606-08—English

  66. Macbeth

    67. ca. 1607—English

  67. Antony and Cleopatra

    68. ca. 1606-08—English

  68. Timon of Athens

    69. written ca. 1607—English

  69. The Tempest

    70. 1611—English

  70. The Winter's Tale

    71. ca. 1611—English

  71. Henry VIII

    72. ca. 1613—English

  72. Cymbeline

    73. written ca. 1609—English

  73. Galileo

    74. Dialogo Sopra i due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo
    Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
    1632—Italian

  74. René Descartes

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

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

    • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz

    76. Selected works
    late Seventeenth-early Eighteenth centuries—French

  76. Blaise Pascal

    77. Pensées
    Thoughts
    1669—French

  77. Baruch Spinoza

    78. Ethica, Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata
    Ethics
    1677—Latin

  78. John Bunyan

    79. The Pilgrim's Progress From This World to That Which Is to Come
    1678—English

  79. Isaac Newton

    80. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
    The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
    1687; revised 1713 and 1726—Latin

  80. John Locke

    81. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
    1689—English

  81. George Berkeley (Bishop Berkeley)

    82. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
    1710; revised 1734—English

  82. Giambattista Vico

    83. Principi di Scienza Nuova d'Intorno Alla Comune Natura Delle Nazioni
    The New Science
    1725; revised 1730 and 1744—Italian

  83. David Hume
    A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects
    originally published in three volumes: first-second, 1739; third, 1740—English

    • Denis Diderot et al.

    84. Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers
    published in 28 volumes, 1751-72—French

  84. Samuel Johnson

    85. A Dictionary of the English Language
    1755—English

  85. Voltaire

    86. Candide, ou L'Optimisme
    1759—French

  86. Thomas Paine

    87. Common Sense; Addresed to the Inhabitants of America
    1776—English

  87. Adam Smith

    88. An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
    1776; revised through third edition, 1784—English

  88. Edward Gibbon

    89. 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

  89. Immanuel Kant

    90. Kritik der Reinen Vernunft
    Critique of Pure Reason
    1781; revised 1787—German

  90. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    91. Les Confessions
    1782—French

  91. Edmund Burke

    92. Reflections on the Revolution in France
    1790—English

  92. Mary Wollstonecraft

    93. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
    1792—English

  93. William Godwin

    94. An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness
    1793—English

  94. Thomas Robert Malthus

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

  95. George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

    96. Die Phänomenologie des Geistes
    Phenomenology of Spirit
    1807—German

  96. Arnold Schopenhauer

    97. Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung
    The World as Will and Idea
    published in two volumes, 1819 and 1844—German

  97. Auguste Comte

    98. Cours de Philosophie Positive
    published in six volumes, 1832, 1835, 1838-1842—French

  98. Carl von Clausewitz

    99. Vom Kriege
    On War
    1832—German

  99. Sǿren Kierkegaard

    100. Enten - Eller
    Either/ Or
    originally published under the pseudonym, Victor Eremita, 1843—Danish

  100. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
    Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei
    The Communist Manifesto
    1848—German

    • Henry David Thoreau

    101. 'Civil Disobedience'
    originally published 1849 in Aesthetic Papers—English

  101. Charles Darwin

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

  102. John Stuart Mill

    103. On Liberty
    1859—English

  103. Herbert Spencer
    First Principles
    1862—English

    • Gregor Mendel

    104. 'Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden'
    'Experiments on Plant Hybrids'
    originally published 1866 in Verhandlungen des Naturforschenden Vereins Brünn; edited 1865 lecture—German

  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. James Clerk Maxwell

    106. A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism
    originally published in two volumes, 1873—English

  106. Friedrich Nietzsche

    107. Also Sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen
    Thus Spake Zarathustra
    originally published in four volumes, 1883-85—German

  107. Sigmund Freud

    108. Die Traumdeutung
    The Interpretation of Dreams
    1899—German

  108. William James

    109. Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking
    1907—English

  109. Albert Einstein

    110. Die Grundlage der Allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie
    Foundations of the General Theory of Relativity
    1916—German

  110. Vilfredo Pareto

    111. Trattato di Sociologia Generale
    The Mind and Society
    1916—Italian

  111. Carl Jung

    112. Psychologische Typen
    Psychological Types
    1921—German

  112. Martin Buber

    113. Ich und Du
    I and Thou
    1923—German

  113. Franz Kafka

    114. Der Prozess
    The Trial
    1925—German

  114. Karl Popper

    115. Logik der Forschung
    The Logic of Scientific Discovery
    1934—German

  115. John Maynard Keynes

    116. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
    1936—English

  116. Jean-Paul Sartre

    117. L'Être et le Néant: Essai d'Ontologie Phénoménologique
    Being and Nothingness
    1943—French

  117. Friedrich von Hayek

    118. The Road to Serfdom
    1944—English

  118. Simone Beauvoir

    119. Le Deuxième Sexe
    The Second Sex
    published in part serially in Les Temps Modernes; in its entirety in two volumes, 1949—French

  119. Norbert Wiener

    120. Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and Machine
    1948; revised 1961—English

  120. George Orwell

    121. Nineteen Eighty-Four
    1949—English

  121. George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff

    122. Rasskazy Vel'zevula Svoemu Vnuku
    Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson
    1950—Russian

  122. Ludwig Wittgenstein

    123. Philosophische Untersuchungen
    Philosophical Investigations
    1953—German

  123. Noam Chomsky

    124. Syntactic Structures
    1957—English

  124. Thomas S Kuhn

    125. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
    1962; expanded 1970—English

  125. Betty Friedan

    126. The Feminine Mystique
    1963—English

  126. Máo Zédōng

    127. Máo Zhuxí Yulù
    Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-tung
    1966—Chinese

  127. B F Skinner

    128. Beyond Freedom and Dignity
    1971—English