Click on the author or work to find all the blog posts i made about them (Ongoing).
This books list is drawn from multiple sources where Mortimer Adler had an influence one way or another. Those sources are:
- How to Read a Book: The Art of Getting A Liberal Education (Alder is the author; original 1940 edition)
- How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading (revised 1972 edition with co-author Charles van Doren)
- Great Books of the Western World (Adler was an editor)
- Gateway to the Great Books (Adler was an editor)
This list is not comprehensive. There will be works missing that are considered classics or influential in the Western tradition.
This list covers a wide array of topics: history, politics, philosophy, theology, literature, poetry, the sciences, medicine, mathematics…
There will be outdated theories and ideas in these works. That doesn’t minimize the impact they have had on Western Civilization.
Lastly, “Great” does not mean morally good or that the work was written well. “Great” means they have stood the test of time and have had a substantial impact on Western Civilization – for better or worse.
table
- “Works”, “Tragedies”, “Plays”, “Essays”, etc. – Read all of that author’s known works, plays, essays, etc. (according to Adler)
- (In parentheses) – Read these at the minimum if you don’t want to read the author’s complete works (Adler’s recommendations)
- “In quotes” – These are essays or short stories from a collection or selections from a particular work; sometimes, they may exist independently
- [In brackets] – Additional notes by me
- * – author in 1940 edition but not 1972 edition of How To Read A Book
- + – Adler unsure author would become relevant (1940 edition only)
- ** – author in 1972 edition but not 1940 edition of How To Read A Book
- *** – author in Great Books of the Western World edited by Adler
- **** – author in Gateway to the Great Books edited by Adler
Great books reading list
1. HOMER (9th c. BCE?)
Iliad
Odyssey
2. THE OLD TESTAMENT [Adler’s placement; I will read OT after Apollonius]
3. AESCHYLUS (c. 525-456 BCE)
Tragedies (The Oresteia, Prometheus Bound)
4. SOPHOCLES (c. 495-406 BCE)
Tragedies (Antigone, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Electra)
5. HERODOTUS (c. 484-425 BCE)
Histories
6. EURIPIDES (c. 485-406 BCE)
Tragedies (Medea, Electra, Hippolytus, The Bacchae)
7. THUCYDIDES (c. 460-400 BCE)
History of the Peloponnesian War
8. HIPPOCRATES (C. 460-377? BCE)
Collected Medical Writings
9. ARISTOPHANES (c. 448-347 BCE)
Comedies (Lysistrata, The Clouds, The Birds, The Frogs)
10. ****XENOPHON (c. 431-354 BCE)
“The March to the Sea” from The Persian Expedition [Anabasis]
“The Character of Socrates” from Memorabilia
11. PLATO (c. 427-347 BCE)
Dialogues (The Republic, Symposium, Phaedo, Meno, Apology, Lysis, Phaedrus, Protagoras, Gorgias, Cratylus, Sophist, Philebus, Theaetetus, Parmenides)
The Seventh Letter of Plato
12. ARISTOTLE (384-322 BCE)
Works (Categories, On Interpretation, Prior Analytics, Posterior Analytics, Topics, Sophistical Refutations, Physics, Metaphysics, On the Soul, The Nichomachean Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, Poetics)
13. **EPICURUS (c. 341-270 BCE)
Letter to Herodotus
Letter to Menoeceus
14. EUCLID (fl. c. 300 BCE)
Elements [of Geometry]
15. **ARCHIMEDES (c. 287-212 BCE)
Works (On the Equilibrium of Planes, On Floating Bodies, The Sand-Reckoner)
16. **APOLLONIUS OF PERGA (fl. c. 240 BCE)
On Conic Sections
17. CICERO (106-43 BCE)
Works (Orations, Republic, Laws, Tusculan Disputations, Offices, On Friendship, On Old Age)
18. LUCRETIUS (c. 95-55 BCE)
On the Nature of Things [alternate title: The Way Things Are]
19. VIRGIL (70-19 BCE)
Works (Aeneid, Eclogues, Georgics)
20. HORACE (65-8 BCE)
Works (Odes and Epodes, The Art of Poetry)
21. LIVY (59 BCE – CE 17)
History of Rome [Bks. 1-10, 21-45 only survived]
22. OVID (43 BCE – CE 17)
Works (Metamorphoses)
23. *QUINTILIAN (c. 40-118)
Institutes of Oratory
24. PLUTARCH (c. 45-120)
Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
Moralia (esp. On Bashfulness, Contentment)
25. TACITUS (c. 55-117)
Histories
Annals
Agricola
Dialogue on Oratory
Germania
26. NICHOMACHUS OF GERASA (fl. c. 100 CE)
Introduction to Arithmetic
27. EPICTETUS (c. 60-120)
Discourses
Encheiridion [Handbook]
28. ****PLINY THE YOUNGER (61-c.113)
“The Eruption of Vesuvius”
29. **PTOLEMY (c. 100-178)
Almagest
30. LUCIAN (c. 120-c.190)
Works (The Way to Write History, The True History, Alexander the Oracle Monger, Charon, The Sale of Lives/The Sale of Creeds, The Fisherman, Dialogues of the Gods, Dialogues of the Sea-Gods, Dialogues of the Dead)
31. MARCUS AURELIUS (121-180)
Meditations
32. ****APULEIUS (c. 124-c.170)
“Cupid and Psyche” from The Golden Ass
33. GALEN (c. 130-200)
On the Natural Faculties
34. THE NEW TESTAMENT [Adler’s placement; I will read NT after Plotinus]
35. **PLOTINUS (205-270)
The Enneads
36. ST. AUGUSTINE (354-430)
Works (On the Teacher, Confessions, The City of God, Christian Doctrine)
37. SONG OF ROLAND (12th c.?)
38. ****AUCASSIN AND NICOLETTE (12th c.)
39. VOLSUNGA [SAGA OF THE VOLSUNGS] (12th c.)
40. THE NIBELUNGENLIED [SONG OF THE NIBELUNGS] (13th c.)
41. BURNT NJAL [NJAL’S SAGA] (13th c.)
42. *MAIMONIDES (c. 1135-1204)
Guide for the Perplexed
43. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS (c. 1225-1274)
On Being and Essence
Summa Contra Gentiles
On the Governance of Rulers
Summa Theologica
44. DANTE ALIGHIERI (1265-1321)
Works (The Divine Comedy, The New Life, On Monarchy (esp. On World Government))
45. GEOFFREY CHAUCER (c. 1340-1400)
The Canterbury Tales
Troilus and Criseyde
46. *THOMAS À KEMPIS (c. 1380-1471)
On the Imitation of Christ
47. LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519)
Notebooks
48. NICCOLO MACHIAVELLI (1469-1527)
The Prince
Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy
49. DESIDERIUS ERASMUS (c. 1469-1536)
The Praise of Folly
Colloquies
50. **NICOLAUS COPERNICUS (1473-1543)
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
51. SIR THOMAS MORE (c. 1478-1535)
Utopia
52. **MARTIN LUTHER (1483-1546)
Three Treatises
Table-Talk
53. FRANCOIS RABELAIS (c. 1495-1553)
Gargantua and Pantagruel
54. JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564)
Institutes of the Christian Religion
55. MICHEL DE MONTAIGNE (1533-1592)
Essays (On the Education of Children, On Friendship, On Cannibals, On Solitude, On Experience, On Moderation, On Books, On Custom, Upon Some Verses of Virgil, Apology for Raymond de Sebond)
56. **WILLIAM GILBERT (1540-1603)
On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies
57. MIGUEL DE CERVANTES (1547-1616)
Don Quixote
58. EDMUND SPENSER (c. 1552-1599)
Prothalamion
The Faerie Queene
59. FRANCIS BACON (1561-1626)
Essays (Of Beauty, Of Discourse, Of Studies, Of Youth and Age, Of Parents and Children, Of Marriage and Single Life, Of Great Place, Of Seditions and Troubles, Of Custom and Education, Of Followers and Friends, Of Usury, Of Riches, The Sphinx, Of Truth, Of Death, Of Adversity, Of Love, Of Friendship, Of Anger)
Advancement of Learning
Novum Organum
New Atlantis
60. WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (1564-1616)
Plays
Sonnets
61. GALILEO GALILEI (1564-1642)
The Starry Messenger
Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences
62. ****TOMMASO CAMPANELLA (1568-1639)
“Arguments for and against Galileo” from The Defense of Galileo
63. **JOHANNES KEPLER (1571-1630)
Epitome of Copernican Astronomy
Concerning the Harmonies of the World
64. WILLIAM HARVEY (1578-1657)
On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals
On the Circulation of the Blood
On the Generation of Animals
65. *HUGO GROTIUS (1583-1645)
The Law of War and Peace
66. THOMAS HOBBES (1588-1679)
Elements of Philosophy
The Leviathan
67. RENÉ DESCARTES (1596-1650)
Rules for the Direction of the Mind
Discourse on Method
Geometry
Principles of Philosophy
The Passions of the Soul
Meditations on First Philosophy w/ Objections Against the Meditations and Replies
68. ****THOMAS BROWNE (1605-1682)
“Immortality” from Urn-Burial
69. *PIERRE CORNIELLE (1606-1684)
Tragedies (The Cid, Cinna)
70. JOHN MILTON (1608-1674)
Works (minor poems, Areopagitica, Paradise Lost, Samson Agonistes)
71. MOLIÈRE (1622-1673)
Comedies (The Miser, The School for Wives, The Misanthrope, Tartuffe, Tradesman Turned Gentleman, The Imaginary Invalid, The Affected Ladies, The Doctor in Spite of Himself)
72. **BLAISE PASCAL (1623-1662)
The Provincial Letters
Pensees
Scientific and mathematical treatises
73. *ROBERT BOYLE (1626-1691)
The Skeptical Chymist
74. **CHRISTIAAN HUYGENS (1629-1695)
Treatise on Light
75. BENEDICT DE SPINOZA (1632-1677)
Political Treatises
Ethics
76. JOHN LOCKE (1632-1704)
Letter Concerning Toleration
Two Treatises on Government (esp. On Civil Government)
Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Some Thoughts Concerning Education
77. JEAN BAPTISTE RACINE (1639-1699)
Tragedies (Andromache, Phaedra, Athaliah)
78. ISAAC NEWTON (1642-1727)
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
Opticks
79. ****JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE (1645-1696)
“Characters” from A Book of Characters
80. GOTTFRIED WILHELM VON LEIBNIZ (1646-1716)
Discourse on Metaphysics
New Essays Concerning Human Understanding
Monadology
81. DANIEL DEFOE (1660-1731)
Robinson Crusoe
Moll Flanders
82. JONATHAN SWIFT (1667-1745)
Battles of the Books
Tale of a Tub
Journal to Stella
Gulliver’s Travels
A Modest Proposal
“Resolutions when I Come to be Old”
“An Essay on Modern Education”
“A Meditation upon a Broomstick”
83. **WILLIAM CONGREVE (1670-1729)
The Way of the World
84. GEORGE BERKELEY (1685-1753)
A New Theory of Vision
Principles of Human Knowledge
85. **ALEXANDER POPE (1688-1744)
Essay on Criticism
Rape of the Lock
Essay on Man
86. MONTESQUIEU (1689-1755)
Persian Letters
Spirit of Laws
87. THE ENGLISH BILL OF RIGHTS (1689)
88. VOLTAIRE (1694-1778)
Letters on the English (esp. English Men and Ideas)
Candide
Philosophical Dictionary
Toleration
Micromégas
“The Philosophy of Common Sense”
89. ****BENJAMIN FRANKLIN (1706-1790)
“A Proposal from Promoting Useful Knowledge among the British Plantations in America”
“Proposals Relating to the Education of Youth in Pennsylvania”
90. HENRY FIELDING (1707-1754)
Joseph Andrews
Tom Jones
91. ****LEONHARD EULER (1707-1783)
“The Seven Bridges of Königsberg”
92. **SAMUEL JOHNSON (1709-1784)
The Vanity of Human Wishes
Dictionary
Rasselas
The Lives of the Poets (esp. on Milton, Pope)
Preface to Shakespeare
93. DAVID HUME (1711-1776)
Treatise of Human Nature
Essays Moral and Political
An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding
History of England
“Of the Standard of Taste”
“Of Refinement in the Arts”
“Of Money”
“Of the Balance of Trade”
“Of Taxes”
“Of the Study of History”
94. JEAN JACQUES ROUSSEAU (1712-1778)
On the Origin of Inequality
On Political Economy
Emile
The Social Contract
Confessions
“A Lasting Peace through the Federation of Europe”
95. LAURENCE STERNE (1713-1768)
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
A Sentimental Journey Through France and Italy
96. ***DENIS DIDEROT (1713-1784)
Rameau’s Nephew
97. ADAM SMITH (1723-1790)
The Theory of Moral Sentiments
Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
98. *WILLIAM BLACKSTONE (1723-1780)
Commentaries on the Laws of England
99. IMMANUEL KANT (1724-1804)
Critique of Pure Reason
Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals
Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics
Critique of Practical Reason
The Science of Right
Critique of Judgment
Perpetual Peace
100. ****EDMUND BURKE (1729-1797)
“Letter to the Sheriffs of Bristol”
101. EDWARD GIBBON (1737-1794)
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Autobiography
102. ****THOMAS PAINE (1737-1809)
“A Call to Patriots – December 23, 1776”
103. ****GEORGE WASHINGTON (1732-1799)
“Circular Letter to the Governors of All the States on Disbanding the Army”
“The Farewell Address”
104. ****JEAN DE CRÈVEŒCUR (1735-1813)
“The Making of Americans” in Letters from an American Farmer
105. ****THOMAS JEFFERSON (1743-1826)
“The Virginia Constitution” from Notes on the State of Virginia
“First Inaugural Address”
“Biographical Sketches”
106. **JAMES BOSWELL (1740-1795)
Journal (esp. London Journal)
Life of Samuel Johnson Ll.D.
107. **ANTOINE LAVOISIER (1743-1794)
Elements of Chemistry
108. THE FEDERALIST PAPERS (1787-88)
w/ The Articles of Confederation, The Constitution, The Declaration of Independence, The Virginia Declaration of Rights
109. JEREMY BENTHAM (1748-1832)
Comment on the Commentaries
Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
Theory of Fictions
110. ****PIERRE-SIMON LAPLACE (1749-1827)
“Probability” from A Philosophical Essay on Probabilities
111. JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE (1749-1832)
Faust
Poetry and Truth
112. ****RICHARD SHERIDAN (1751-1816)
The School for Scandal
113. ****FRIEDRICH SCHILLER (1759-1805)
“On Simple and Sentimental Poetry”
114. *DAVID RICARDO (1772-1823)
On the Principles of Political Economy and Taxation
115. *THOMAS MALTHUS (1766-1834)
An Essay on the Principles of Population (esp. The Principle of Population)
116. *JOHN DALTON (1766-1844)
A New System of Chemical Philosophy
117. **JOSEPH FOURIER (1768-1830)
Analytical Theory of Heat
118. GEORG WILHELM FRIEDRICH HEGEL (1770-1831)
Phenomenology of Spirit
Science of Logic
Philosophy of Right
Lectures on the Philosophy of History
119. **WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850)
Poems (Lyrical Ballads, Lucy poems, sonnets; The Prelude)
120. ****SIR WALTER SCOTT (1771-1832)
“The Two Drovers” from Chronicles of the Canongate
121. **SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834)
Poems (Kubla Khan, Rime of the Ancient Mariner)
Biographia Literaria
122. **JANE AUSTEN (1775-1817)
Pride and Prejudice
Emma
123. ****CHARLES LAMB (1775-1834)
“My First Play”
“Dream Children, a Reverie”
“Sanity of True Genius”
124. ****WILLIAM HAZLITT (1778-1830)
“My First Acquaintance with Poets”
“On Swift”
“On Persons One Would Have Wished to See”
“On the Feeling of Immortality in Youth”
125. **KARL VON CLAUSEWITZ (1780-1831)
On War (esp. What Is War?)
126. ****JOHN C. CALHOUN (1782-1850)
“The Concurrent Majority”
127. STENDHAL (1783-1842)
The Red and the Black
The Charterhouse of Parma
On Love
128. ****THOMAS DE QUINCEY (1785-1859)
“Literature of Knowledge and Literature of Power”
“On the Knocking of the Gate in Macbeth”
129. **LORD BYRON (1788-1860)
Don Juan
130. *FRANCOIS GUIZOT (1787-1874)
History of Civilization in France
“Civilization” from History of Civilization in Europe
131. **ARTHUR SCHOPENHAUER (1788-1860)
Studies in Pessimism
“On Style”
“On Some Forms of Literature”
“On the Comparative Place of Interest and Beauty in Works of Art”
“On Education”
132. ****THE DECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZEN (1789)
133. MICHAEL FARADAY (1791-1867)
Chemical History of a Candle
Experimental Researches in Electricity
“Observations on Mental Education”
134. ****PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822)
“A Defense of Poetry”
135. *NIKOLAI LOBACHEVSKI (1793-1856)
Geometrical Investigations on the Theory of Parallels
136. ****THOMAS CARLYLE (1795-1881)
“The Hero as King” from On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History
137. ****WILLIAM H. PRESCOTT (1796-1859)
“The Land of Montezuma” from The Conquest of Mexico
138. CHARLES LYELL (1797-1875)
Principles of Geology (esp. Geological Evolution)
The Antiquity of Man
139. AUGUSTE COMTE (1798-1857)
The Positive Philosophy
140. ****ALEXANDER PUSHKIN (1799-1837)
“The Queen of Spades”
141. HONORÉ DE BALZAC (1799-1850)
Works (Le Père Goriot, Cousin Pons, Eugénie Grandet, Cousin Betty, César Birotteau, A Passion in the Desert)
142. ****THOMAS BABINGTON MACAULAY (1800-1859)
“Machiavelli”
143. ****FRIEDRICH WÖHLER (1800-1882)
“On The Artifical Production of Urea”
144. ****VICTOR HUGO (1802-1885)
“The Battle with the Cannon” from Ninety-Three
145. **RALPH WALDO EMERSON (1803-1882)
Representative Men (esp. “Montaigne; or, The Skeptic”)
Essays (esp. Nature, Self-Reliance)
Journal
“Thoreau” [maybe read after reading Thoreau?]
146. **NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE (1804-1864)
The Scarlet Letter
“Rappaccini’s Daughter”
“Sketch of Abraham Lincoln”
147. ****CHARLES AUGUSTIN SAINTE-BEUVE (1804-1869)
“What is a Classic?”
“Montaigne”
148. **ALEXIS DE TOCQUEVILLE (1805-1859)
Democracy in America (esp. Observations on American Life and Government)
149. JOHN STUART MILL (1806-1873)
A System of Logic
Principles of Political Economy
On Liberty
On Representative Government
Utilitarianism
The Subjection of Women
Autobiography (esp. Childhood and Youth)
“Nature”
150. CHARLES DARWIN (1809-1882)
The Origin of Species
The Descent of Man
Autobiography
151. ****ABRAHAM LINCOLN (1809-1865)
“Address at Cooper Institute”
“First Inaugural Address”
“Letter to Horace Greeley”
“Meditation on the Divine Will”
“The Gettysburg Address”
“Second Inaugural Address”
“Last Public Address”
152. ****EDGAR ALLEN POE (1809-1849)
“The Tell-Tale Heart”
“The Masque of the Red Death”
153. ****NIKOLAI GOGOL (1809-1852)
“The Overcoat”
154. *WILLIAM THACKERAY (1811-1863)
Works (Vanity Fair, Henry Esmond, The Virginians, Pendennis)
155. ****ISAAC SINGER (1811-1875)
“The Spinoza of Market Street”
156. CHARLES DICKENS (1812-1870)
Works (Pickwick Papers (esp. A Full and Faithful Report of the Memorable Trial of Bardell against Pickwick), Our Mutual Friend, David Copperfield, Dombey and Son, Oliver Twist, A Tale of Two Cities, Hard Times, Little Dorrit)
157. ***SØREN KIERKEGAARD (1813-1855)
Fear and Trembling
158. CLAUDE BERNARD (1813-1878)
Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine
“Experimental Considerations Common to Living Things and Inorganic Bodies”
159. *GEORGE BOOLE (1815-1864)
Laws of Thought
160. **HENRY DAVID THOREAU (1817-1862)
Civil Disobedience
Walden
“A Plea for Captain John Brown”
161. KARL MARX (1818-1883)
Capital
The Communist Manifesto
162. ****IVAN TURGENEV (1818-1883)
“First Love”
163. **GEORGE ELIOT (1819-1880)
Adam Bede
Middlemarch
“The Lifted Veil”
164. HERMAN MELVILLE (1819-1891)
Typee
Moby Dick
Billy Budd
165. ****WALT WHITMAN (1819-1892)
Preface to Leaves of Grass
“Death of Abraham Lincoln”
166. ****JOHN RUSKIN (1819-1900)
“An Idealist’s Arraignment of the Age” from Four Clavigera
167. ****JOHN TYNDALL (1820-1893)
“Michael Faraday” from Faraday as a Discoverer
168. FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY (1821-1881)
Crime and Punishment
The Idiot
The Brothers Karamazov
“White Nights”
169. GUSTAVE FLAUBERT (1821-1880)
Madame Bovary
Three Stories (esp. The Legend of St. Julian the Hospitaller)
170. ****HERMANN VON HELMHOLTZ (1821-1894)
“On the Conservation of Force”
171. *HENRY BUCKLE (1822-1862)
A History of Civilization in England
172. ****MATTHEW ARNOLD (1822-1888)
“The Study of Poetry”
“Sweetness and Light”
173. *FRANCIS GALTON (1822-1911)
Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development
“The Classification of Human Ability” from Hereditary Genius
174. ****JEAN-HENRI FABRE (1823-1915)
“A Labratory of the Open Fields”
“The Sacred Beetle”
175. ****THOMAS HENRY HUXLEY (1825-1895)
“On the Relations of Man to the Lower Animals”
“On a Piece of Chalk”
176. *BERNHARD RIEMANN (1826-1866)
The Hypotheses of Geometry
177. HENRIK IBSEN (1828-1906)
Plays (Peer Gynt, Brand, Hedda Gabler, Emperor and Galilean, A Doll’s House, The Wild Duck, The Master Builder, An Enemy of the People)
178. LEO TOLSTOY (1828-1910)
War and Peace
Anna Karenina
What is Art?
Twenty-three Tales (esp. The Three Hermits)
“The Death of Ivan Ilyich”
“What Men Live By”
179. *RICHARD DEDEKIND (1831-1916)
Theory of Numbers
180. *WILHELM WUNDT (1832-1920)
Physiological Psychology
Outline of Psychology
181. ****DMITRI MENDELEEV (1834-1907)
“The Genesis of a Law of Nature” from The Periodic Law of the Chemical Elements
182. MARK TWAIN (1835-1910)
Innocents Abroad
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
The Mysterious Stranger
The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg
“Learning the River” from Life on the Mississippi
183. ****SAMUEL BUTLER (1835-1902)
“Customs and Opinions of the Erewhonians” from Erewhon
184. *HENRY ADAMS (1838-1918)
History of the United States (esp. “The United States in 1800”)
Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres (esp. St. Thomas Aquinas)
The Education of Henry Adams
Degradation of the Democratic Dogma
185. ****WALTER PATER (1839-1894)
“The Art of Life” from The Renaissance
186. *CHARLES SANDERS PEIRCE (1839-1914)
Chance, Love, and Logic
Collected Papers
“The Red and the Black”
187. *WILLIAM GRAHAM SUMNER (1840-1910)
Folkways
188. *OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES (1841-1910)
The Common Law
Collected Legal Papers
189. WILLIAM JAMES (1842-1910)
The Principles of Psychology
The Varieties of Religious Experience
Pragmatism
A Pluralistic Universe
Essays in Radical Empiricism
“On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings”
“The Energies of Man”
“Great Men and their Environment”
“The Will to Believe”
“The Sentiment of Rationality”
190. **HENRY JAMES (1843-1916)
The American
The Ambassadors
The Beast in the Jungle
“The Pupil”
191. FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE (1844-1900)
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Beyond Good and Evil
The Genealogy of Morals
The Will to Power
192. ****WILLIAM CLIFFORD (1845-1879)
“The Postulates of the Science of Space”
“The Ethics of Belief”
193. *GEORG FERDINAND LUDWIG PHILIPP CANTOR (1845-1918)
Transfinite Numbers
194. *+IVAN PAVLOV (1849-1936)
Conditioned Reflexes
“Scientific Study of the So-Called Psychical Processes in the Higher Animals”
195. ****GUY DE MAUPASSANT (1850-1893)
“Two Friends”
196. ****ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON (1850-1894)
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
“The Lantern-Bearers” from Across the Plains
197. +HENRI POINCARÉ (1854-1912)
The Foundations of Science
Science and Hypothesis
Science and Method
“Space”
“Mathematical Creation”
“Chance”
198. ***SIR JAMES GEORGE FRAZER (1854-1941)
The Golden Bough
199. ****OSCAR WILDE (1854-1900)
“The Happy Prince” from The Happy Prince and Other Tales
200. +SIGMUND FREUD (1856-1939)
Studies on Hysteria
The Interpretation of Dreams
Three Contributions to a Theory of Sex
The Sexual Enlightenment of Children
“Wild” Psycho-analysis
On Narcissisim
Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis
Thoughts for the Times on War and Death
Instincts and their Vicissitudes
Repression
The Unconscious
Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
The Ego and the Id
Inhibitions, Symptoms, and Anxiety
Civilization and Its Discontents
New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis
201. +GEORGE BERNARD SHAW (1856-1950)
Plays w/ Prefaces (Man and Superman, Androcles and the Lion, Major Barbara, Caesar and Cleopatra, Pygmalion, Saint Joan, The Man of Destiny)
Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant
202. ***JOSEPH CONRAD (1857-1924)
Heart of Darkness
“Youth”
203. *+THORSTEIN VEBLEN (1857-1929)
The Theory of the Leisure Class
The Higher Learning in America
The Place of Science in Modern Civilization
Vested Interests and the State of Industrial Arts
Absentee Ownership and Business Enterprise in Recent Times
204. **MAX PLANCK (1858-1947)
Origin and Development of the Quantum Theory
Where Is Science Going?
Scientific Autobiography
205. *+FRANZ BOAS (1858-1938)
The Mind of Primitive Man
Anthropology and Modern Life
206. ****ANDREW FORSYTH (1858-1942)
“Mathematics, in Life and Thought”
207. +HENRI BERGSON (1859-1941)
Time and Free Will
Matter and Memory
Creative Evolution
The Two Sources of Morality and Religion
An Introduction to Metaphysics
208. +JOHN DEWEY (1859-1952)
How We Think
Democracy and Education
Experience and Nature
The Quest for Certainty
Experience and Education
Logic: the Theory of Inquiry
209. ***ANTON CHEKHOV (1860-1904)
Uncle Vanya
“The Darling”
The Cherry Orchard
210. ****J. B. BURY (1861-1927)
“Herodotus” from The Ancient Greek Historians
211. +ALFRED NORTH WHITEHEAD (1861-1947)
A Treatise on Universal Algebra
An Introduction to Mathematics (esp. On Mathematical Method)
Science and the Modern World
Process and Reality
The Aims of Education and Other Essays
Adventures of Ideas
“On the Nature of a Calculus”
212. +GEORGE SANTAYANA (1863-1952)
The Life of Reason
Skepticism and Animal Faith
Persons and Places
The Realms of Being
“Lucretius”
“Goethe’s Faust”
213. ***MAX WEBER (1864-1920)
Essays in Sociology
214. ****RUDYARD KIPLING (1865-1936)
“Mowgli’s Brothers” from The Jungle Book
215. ****JOHN GALSWORTHY (1867-1933)
“The Apple-Tree”
216. ***LUIGI PIRANDELLO (1867-1936)
Six Characters in Search of an Author
217. +NIKOLAI LENIN (1870-1924)
Imperialism
State and Revolution
218. ****IVAN BUNIN (1870-1953)
“The Gentleman from San Francisco”
219. ****STEPHEN CRANE (1871-1900)
“The Open Boat”
220. ****JOHN SYNGE (1871-1909)
Riders to the Sea
221. +MARCEL PROUST (1871-1922)
Remembrance of Things Past
222. ***JOHAN HUIZINGA (1872-1945)
The Autumn of the Middle Ages
223. +BERTRAND RUSSELL (1872-1970)
Principles of Mathematics
The Problems of Philosophy
The Analysis of Mind
An Inquiry into Meaning and Truth
Human Knowledge; Its Scope and Limits
“The Study of Mathematics”
“Mathematics and the Metaphysicians”
“Definition of Number”
224. ***WILLA CATHER (1873-1947)
A Lost Lady
225. +THOMAS MANN (1875-1955)
Death in Venice
The Magic Mountain
Joseph and His Brothers (Joseph in Egypt)
“Mario and the Magician”
226. ****SHERWOOD ANDERSON (1876-1941)
“I’m a Fool”
227. ****JAMES JEANS (1877-1946)
“Beginnings and Endings” from The Universe Around Us
228. ***G. H. HARDY (1877-1947)
A Mathematician’s Apology
229. ****EDWARD KASNER (1878-1955)
“New Names for Old” [w/ James R. Newman]
“Beyond the Googol” [w/ James R. Newman]
230. +ALBERT EINSTEIN (1879-1955)
The Meaning of Relativity
Sidelights on Relativity
Relativity: The Special and General Theory
On the Method of Theoretical Physics
The Evolution of Physics [w/ L. Infeld] (esp. The Rise and Decline of Classical Physics)
231. *+LEON TROTSKY (1879-1940)
The History of the Russian Revolution
232. ****JOHN ERSKINE (1879-1951)
“The Moral Obligation to be Intelligent”
233. ***R. H. TAWNEY (1880-1962)
The Acquisitive Society
234. ****NORMAN ROBERT CAMPBELL (1880-1949)
“Measurement”
“Numerical Laws and the Use of Mathematics in Science”
235. ***ARTHUR EDDINGTON (1882-1944)
The Expanding Universe
“The Running-Down of the Universe” from Nature and the Physical World
236. ***VIRGINIA WOOLF (1882-1941)
To the Lighthouse
“How Should One Read a Book?”
“The Art of Biography”
237. +JAMES JOYCE (1882-1941)
“The Dead” in Dubliners
Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
Ulysses
238. +JACQUES MARITAIN (1882-1973)
Art and Scholasticism
The Degrees of Knowledge
Freedom in the Modern World
A Preface to Metaphysics
The Rights of Man and Natural Law
True Humanism
239. ***JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES (1883-1946)
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
240. **FRANZ KAFKA (1883-1924)
The Metamorphosis
The Trial
The Castle
241. ****TOBIAS DANTZIG (1884-1956)
“Fingerprints”
“The Empty Column”
242. ****KEES BOEKE (1884-1966)
“Cosmic View”
243. ***D. H. LAWRENCE (1885-1930)
The Prussian Officer
“The Rocking-Horse Winner”
244. ***NIELS BOHR (1885-1962)
Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature
Discussion with Einstein on Epistemology
245. ****ISAK DINESEN (1885-1962)
“Sorrow-Acre”
246. ***KARL BARTH (1886-1968)
The Word of God and the Word of Man
247. ***ERWIN SCHRÖDINGER (1887-1961)
What is Life?
248. ***EUGENE O’NEILL (1888-1953)
Mourning Becomes Electra
The Emperor Jones
249. ****HANIEL LONG (1888-1956)
“The Power Within Us”
250. ***T. S. ELIOT (1888-1965)
The Waste Land
“Dante”
“Tradition and the Individual Talent”
251. ***MARTIN HEIDEGGER (1889-1976)
What is Metaphysics?
252. ***LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN (1889-1951)
Philosophical Investigations
253. **ARNOLD TOYNBEE (1889-1975)
A Study of History
Civilization on Trial
254. ****J. B. S. HALDANE (1892-1964)
“On Being the Right Size” from Possible Worlds
255. ****LANCELOT HOGBEN (1895-1975)
“Mathematics, the Mirror of Civilization” from Mathematics for the Million
256. ***F. SCOTT FITZGERALD (1896-1940)
The Great Gatsby
“The Diamond as Big as the Ritz”
257. ***WILLIAM FAULKNER (1897-1962)
A Rose for Emily
258. ***BERTOLT BRECHT (1898-1956)
Mother Courage and Her Children
259. ***ERNEST HEMINGWAY (1899-1961)
The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
“The Killers” from Men Without Women
260. ***THEODOSIUS DOBZHANSKY (1900-1975)
Genetics and the Origin of Species
261. ***WERNER HEISENBERG (1901-1976)
Physics and Philosophy
262. ***GEORGE ORWELL (1903-1950)
Animal Farm
263. ****ÈVE CURIE (1904-2007)
“The Discovery of Radium” from Madame Curie
264. ****RACHEL CARSON (1907-1964)
“The Sunless Sea” from The Sea Around Us
265. ****LOREN EISELEY (1907-1977)
“On Time”
266. ****THE CHARTER OF THE UNITED NATIONS (1945)
267. ****THE UNIVERSAL DECLARATION OF HUMAN RIGHTS (1948)
268. ***C. H. WADDINGTON (1905-1975)
The Nature of Life
269. **JEAN-PAUL SARTRE (1905-1980)
Nausea
No Exit
Being and Nothingness
270. ***SAMUEL BECKETT (1906-1989)
Waiting for Godot
271. ***CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS (1908-2009)
Structural Anthropology
272. **ALEKSANDR I. SOLZHENITSYN (1918-2008)
The First Circle
Cancer Ward