Great Books of the Western World List

1. The Syntopicon: An Index to the Great Ideas
   Angel to Love
   
2. The Syntopicon (continued)
   Man to World
   
3. Homer
   Iliad
   Odyssey
   
4. Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes
   Aeschylus. Plays
   Sophocles. Plays
   Euripides. Plays
   Aristophanes. Plays
   
5. Herodotus, Thucydides
   Herodotus. History
   Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War
   
6. Plato
   
   Dialogues
   Seventh Letter
   
7. Aristotle (I)
   
   Works
   
8. Aristotle (II)
   
   Works (continued)
   
9. Hippocrates, Galen
   
   Hippocrates. Hippocratic Writings
   Galen. On the Natural Faculties
   
10. Euclid, Archimedes, Nicomachus
    
    Euclid. Elements
    Archimedes. Works (including The Method)
    Nicomachus. Introduction to Arithmetic
    
11. Lucretius, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Plotinus
    
    Lucretius The Way Things Are
    Epictetus. Discourses
    Marcus Aurelius. The Meditations
    Plotinus. The Six Enneads
    
12. Virgil
    
    Eclogues
    Georgics
    Aeneid
    
13. Plutarch
    
    Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
    
14. Tacitus
    
    Annals
    Histories
    
15. Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler
    
    Ptolemy. Almagest
    Copernicus. On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
    Kepler. Epitome of Copernican Astronomy
    Kepler. The Harmonies of the World
    
16. Augustine
    
    The Confessions
    The City of God
    On Christian Doctrine
    
17. Thomas Aquinas (I)
    
    Summa Theologica
    
18. Thomas Aquinas (II)
    
    Summa Theologica (continued)
    
19. Dante, Chaucer
    
    Dante. Divine Comedy
    Chaucer. Troilus and Criseyde
    Chaucer. Canterbury Tales
    
20. Calvin
    
    Institutes of the Christian Religion
    
21. Machiavelli, Hobbes
    
    Machiavelli. The Prince
    Hobbes. Leviathan, or, Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical and Civil
    
22. Rabelais
    
    Gargantua and Pantagruel
    
23. Erasmus, Montaigne
    
    Erasmus. Praise of Folly
    Montaigne. Essays
    
24. Shakespeare (I)
    
    The Plays and Sonnets
    
25. Shakespeare (II)
    
    The Plays and Sonnets (continued)
    
26. Gilbert, Galileo, Harvey
    
    Gilbert. On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies
    Galileo. Concerning the Two New Sciences
    Harvey. On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals
    Harvey. On the Circulation of the Blood
    Harvey. On the Generation of Animals
    
27. Cervantes
    
    The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha
    
28. Bacon, Descartes, Spinoza
    
    Bacon. Advancement of Learning
    Bacon. Novum Organum
    Bacon. New Atlantis
    Descartes. Rules for the Direction of the Mind
    Descartes. Discourse on the Method
    Descartes. Meditations on First Philosophy
    Descartes. Objections Against the Meditations and Replies
    Descartes. The Geometry
    Spinoza. Ethics
    
29. Milton
    
    English minor poems
    Paradise Lost
    Samson Agonistes
    Areopagitica
    
30. Pascal
    
    The Provincial Letters
    Pensees
    Scientific Treatises
    
31. Moliere, Racine
    
    Moliere. The School for Wives
    Moliere. The Critique of the School for Wives
    Moliere. Tartuffe
    Moliere. Don Juan
    Moliere. The Miser
    Moliere. The Would-Be Gentleman
    Moliere. The Would-Be Invalid
    Racine. Berenice
    
32. Newton, Huygens
    
    Newton. Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
    Newton. Optics
    Huygens. Treatise on Light
    
33. Locke, Berkeley
    
    Locke. A Letter Concerning Toleration
    Locke. Concerning Civil Government, Second Essay
    Locke. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
    Berkeley. The Principles of Human Knowledge
    Hume. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
    
34. Swift, Voltaire, Diderot
    
    Swift. Gulliver's Travels
    Voltaire. Candide
    Diderot. Rameau's Nephew
    
35. Montesquieu, Rousseau
    
    Montesquieu. The Spirit of Laws
    Rousseau. On the Origin of Inequality
    Rousseau. On Political Economy
    Rousseau. The Social Contract
    
36. Smith
    
    An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
    
37. Gibbon (I)
    
    History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
    
38. Gibbon (II)
    
    History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (continued)
    
39. Kant
    
    The Critique of Pure Reason
    The Critique of Practical Reason, and Other Ethical Treatises
    The Critique of Judgment
    
40. American State Papers, The Federalist, Mill
    
    Declaration of Independence
    Articles of Confederation
    The Constitution
    Hamilton, Madison, Jay. The Federalist
    Mill. On Liberty
    Mill. Representative Government
    Mill. Utilitarianism
    
41. Boswell
    
    Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.
    
42. Lavoisier, Faraday
    
    Lavoisier. Elements of Chemistry
    Faraday. Experimental Researches in Electricity
    
43. Hegel, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche
    
    Hegel. The Philosophy of Right
    Hegel. The Philosophy of History
    Kierkegaard. Fear and Trembling
    Nietzsche. Beyond Good and Evil
    
44. Tocqueville
    
    Democracy in America
    
45. Goethe, Balzac
    
    Goethe. Faust: Parts One and Two
    Balzac. Cousin Bette
    
46. Austen, Eliot
    
    Austen. Emma
    Eliot. Middlemarch
    
47. Dickens
    
    Little Dorrit
    
48. Melville, Twain
    
    Melville. Moby Dick, or, The Whale
    Twain. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
    
49. Darwin
    
    The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
    The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex
    
50. Marx, Engels
    
    Marx (edited by Engels). Capital
    Marx and Engels. Manifesto of the Communist Party
    
51. Tolstoy
    
    War and Peace
    
52. Dostoyevsky, Ibsen
    
    Dostoyevsky. The Brothers Karamazov
    Ibsen. A Doll's House
    Ibsen. The Wild Duck
    Ibsen. Hedda Gabler
    Ibsen. The Master Builder
    
53. James
    
    The Principles of Psychology
    
54. Freud
    
    The Major Works of Sigmund Freud
    
55. 20th Century Philosophy and Religion
    
    James. Pragmatism
    Bergson. An Introduction to Metaphysics
    Dewey. Experience and Education
    Whitehead. Science and the Modern World
    Russell. The Problems of Philosophy
    Heidegger. What is Metaphysics?
    Wittgenstein. Philosophical Investigations
    Barth. The Word of God and the Word of Man
    
56. 20th Century Natural Science
    
    Poincare. Science and Hypothesis
    Planck. Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers
    Whitehead. An Introduction to Mathematics
    Einstein. Relativity: The Special and the General Theory
    Eddington. The Expanding Universe
    Bohr. Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (selections)
    Bohr. Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problemns in Atomic Physics
    Hardy. A Mathematician's Apology
    Heisenberg. Physics and Philosophy
    Schrodinger. What is Life?
    Dobzhansky. Genetics and the Origin of Species
    Waddington. The Nature of Life
    
57. 20th Century Social Science (I)
    
    Veblen. The Theory of the Leisure Class
    Tawney. The Acquisitive Society
    Keynes. The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
    
58. 20th Century Social Science (II)
    
    Frazer. The Golden Bough (selections)
    Weber. Essays in Sociology (selections)
    Huizinga. The Waning of the Middle Ages
    Levi-Strauss. Structural Anthropology (selections)
    
59. 20th Century Imaginative Literature (I)
    
    James. The Beast in the Jungle
    Shaw. Saint Joan
    Conrad. Heart of Darkness
    Chekhov. Uncle Vanya
    Pirandello. Six Characters in Search of an Author
    Proust. Remembrance of Things Past. "Swann in Love"
    Cather. A Lost Lady
    Mann. Death in Venice
    Joyce. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
    
60. 20th Century Imaginative Literature (II)
    
    Woolf. To the Lighthouse
    Kafka. Metamorphosis
    Lawrence. The Prussian Officer
    Eliot. The Waste Land
    O'Neill. Mourning Becomes Electra
    Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby
    Faulkner. A Rose for Emily
    Brecht. Mother Courage and Her Children
    Hemingway. The Short Happy Life of Macomber
    Orwell. Animal Farm
    Beckett. Waiting for Godot