The Aeneid - Virgil (70-19 BC)

Original Language: Latin
Genre: Epic
Written: 29-19 BC
Edition: Penguin Classics (1956)
Translator: W.F. Jackson Knight

Widely considered one of the pillars of Western Literature, the Aeneid tells the story of Aeneas, a Trojan hero who escapes the sack of Troy and finds a new home in Italy. He is sidetracked often on his journey, mostly by divine intervention. Virgil portrays the Roman gods as interested in mankind, and each god or goddess has their favorite. Aeneas' nemesis is Juno, who was for the Greeks in the Trojan War; she delays or hinders his travels many times. When Aeneas and his followers finally arrive in Italy, they becomes embroiled (thanks to the design of Juno) in a bloody conflict between the Trojans and the Rutulians, headed by Turnus. The last six books of the Aeineid resembles the Iliad with its descriptions of battle and conflict.

Virgil died before completing the Aeneid, but even so, it is a masterpiece of literature. If you have any designs of reading the best of ancient literature, this is one work you cannot miss. The edition I read contains a very nice prose translation by Knight, and also contains a very helpful glossary of names and locations. Obviously the best reading of the Aeneid will come in Latin, where Virgil's poetic genius truly shines, but I like the prose translation mainly because the translator was not bound by the limitations of a verse translation.

Lord Jim - Jospeh Conrad (1857-1924)

Original Language: English
Published: 1899-1900 (in serial form)
Genre: Fiction
Edition: Penguin Twentieth-Century Classics (1986); includes an Introduction written by Cedric Watts, as well as notes, a glossary, a timeline concerning the events of the novel, and a map of Southeast Asia
Pages: 307

That Joseph Conrad is recognized as one of the 20th Century's best authors is quite an achievement, given that English was not his native tongue. His first language was Polish, and his second was French, but to readers of the English language, we are fortunate indeed that he chose to write in his third language. Lord Jim is on the surface a tale of adventure, but lurking not far beneath is a character study that delves deep into the mind of its young protagonist, Jim.

The telling of the story is not linear; that is to say; we learn facets of Jim's life in bits, skipping time and place. Furthermore, most of Jim's story is told by Marlowe, his confidant and friend, who also makes appearances in several other of Conrad's works (including Heart of Darkness). So suffice to say, you may be confused at several points in the reading, but I believe that this method makes the novel much more interesting and thought-provoking; I simply can't imagine Lord Jim being as effective if it was written in a linear fashion. We start with a view of a simple water-clerk, and over the next 300 or so pages learn bits about his compelling experiences along the way, and are so deftly let into Jim's mind, that, by the end of the novel, can almost predict his reactions, and ultimately, his fate.

Conrad is viewed as a bridge between the classical and modernist schools of writing, which makes him such a unique literary figure. His enigmatic Heart of Darkness is justifiably known as his greatest work, but Lord Jim is also an outstanding literary achievement for the same reasons; in fact, Conrad had intended for Lord Jim to be a counterpoint to Heart of Darkness and had wanted both to published together along Youth.

The Histories - Herodotus (484-428 BC)

Original Language: Greek
Written: 5th century BC
Genre: History
Translation: George Rawlinson
Volume: Great Books of the Western World, Volume 6 (copy. 1952)
Pages: 314 (roughly 700 paperback-sized pages, as the text is condensed)
Difficulty (from 1 to 10, with 1 being the easiest): 4

This work is considered the world's first work of history, and is a fantastic introduction to Ancient Greek literature. This isn't your standard academic history book, however; Herodotus gives very interesting accounts of the various cultures spread across Europe and Asia along the way.

I heartily recommend having a map of the known world circa 450 BC handy when reading The Histories, as you may become lost in some places. Most editions include maps of Greece, the Persian Empire, and Africa with the text, which help immensely with the myriad of place names mentioned by Herodotus. Besides that, the book is pretty accessible without any prior knowledge of ancient history. The book relates mainly the histories of the Greeks and the Persians, with the climax being the two crucial battles between the two; The Battle of Marathon, and the Battle of Salamis. The last three "books" are the most entertaining of the work, as it concerns the clash between the clash of Xerxes' great invasion force with the (mostly) united Greeks in one of the most pivotal times in the history of civilization. After the conflict with the Persian Empire ended, one of the most remarkable intellectual periods in history began in Athens, judging by who followed Herodotus on my list.

The major difficulty in reading this book is keeping track of place names and people (this site should help). Herodotus sometimes shuttles people in and out and leaves the main storyline for pages at a time in examining side stories. But if you contain your frustrations, by the last third of The Histories, you won't be able to turn the pages fast enough.

My List

(Last edited 10-21-2004)

Note: When I note 'Works', this refers to the complete known output of that author

1. The Illiad - Homer (9th century BC)
2. The Odyssey - Homer
3. The Holy Bible
4. Tragedies - Aeschylus (525-456 BC)
5. Tragedies - Sophocles (495-406 BC)
6. The Histories - Herodotus (484-425 BC)
7. Tragedies - Euripidies (485-406 BC)
8. History of the Peloponnesian War - Thucydides (460-400 BC)
9. Hippocatic Writings - Hippocrates (460-377 BC)
10. Comedies - Aristophenes (448-380 BC)
11. The Republic - Plato (427-347 BC)
12. Dialogues - Plato
13. Works - Aristotle (384-322 BC)
14. Elements - Euclid (365-300 BC)
15. Works - Archimedes (287-212 BC)
16. Treatise on Conic Sections - Apollonius (240 BC)
17. Works - Marcus T. Cicero (106-43 BC)
18. On the Nature of Things - Lucretius (95-55 BC)
19. The Aenid - Virgil (70-19 BC)
20. The Ecologues -Virgil
21. The Georgics - Virgil
22. Works - Horace (65-8 BC)
23. History of Rome - Livy (59 BC-17 AD)
24. Metamorpheses - Ovid (43 BC-17 AD)
25. Lives - Plutarch (45-125)
26. Moralia - Plutarch
27. The Histories - Tacitus (55-117)
28. The Annals of Imperial Rome - Tacitus
29. Germania - Tacitus
30. Introduction to Arithmetic - Nichomachus (~100)
31. Discourses - Epictetus (60-120)
32. Enchiridion - Epictetus
33. Works - Lucian (117-180)
34. Meditations - Marcus Aurelius (121-180)
35. On the Natural Faculties - Galen (129-216)
36. The Enneads - Plotinus (205-270)
37. The Confessions - Saint Augustine (354-430)
38. City of God - Saint Augustine
39. On Christian Doctrine - Saint Augustine
40. Beowulf - Anonymous (~700-750)
41. The Song of Roland - Anonymous (~1185-1187)
42. The Nibelungenlied - Anonymous - (~1200)
43. The Saga of Burnt Njal - Anonymous (~13th Century)
44. Summa Theologica - Saint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
45. Of God and His Creatures - Saint Thomas Aquinas
46. The Divine Comedy - Dante Aligheri (1265-1321)
47. Monarchy - Dante Aligheri
48. The New Life - Dante Aligheri
49. The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)
50. Troilus and Criseyde - Geoffrey Chaucer
51. The Prince - Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
52. Discourses on Livy - Niccolo Machiavelli
53. Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight - Anonymous
54. Le Morte d'Arthur - Sir Thomas Malory (1446-1471)
55. In Praise of Folly - Desiderius Erasmus (1469-1536)
56. On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres - Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
57. Utopia - Sir Thomas More (1477-1535)
58. The History of King Richard the Third - Sir Thomas More
59. On the Freedom of a Christian - Martin Luther (1483-1546)
60. Gargantua and Pantagruel - Francois Rabelais (1494-1553)
61. Institutes of the Christian Religion - John Calvin (1509-1564)
62. Essays - Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592)
63. Don Quixote - Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)
64. The Faerie Queen - Edmund Spenser (1552-1599)
65. Poetry - Edmund Spenser
66. Works - Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
67. Works - William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
68. The Starry Messenger - Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
69. Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences - Galileo Galilei
70. Epitome of Copernican Astronomy - Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
71. Concerning the Harmonies of the World - Johannes Kepler
72. On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals - William Harvey (1578-1657)
73. On the Circulation of the Blood - William Harvey
74. On the Generation of Animals - William Harvey
75. Leviathan - Thomas Hobbes
76. Rules for the Direction of the Mind - Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
77. Geometry - Rene Descartes
78. Poetry - John Milton (1608-1674)
79. Don Juan - Moliere (1623-1688)
80. The Provincial Letters - Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
81. Pensees - Blaise Pascal
82. Pilgrim's Progress - John Bunyan (1628-1688)
83. Treatise on Light - Christaan Huygens (1629-1695)
84. Ethics - Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677)
85. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding - John Locke (1632-1704)
86. Of Civil Government - John Locke
87. Works - Jean-Baptiste Racine (1639-1699)
88. Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosphy - Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
89. Opticks - Isaac Newton
90. New Essays on Human Understanding - Gottfried Willhelm von Leibniz (1646-1716)
91. Discourse on Metaphysics - Gottfried Willhelm von Leibniz
92. Monadology - Gottfried Willhelm von Leibniz
93. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe (1660-1731)
94. Moll Flanders - Daniel Defoe
95. Gulliver's Travels - Jonathon Swift (1667-1745)
96. The Way of the World - William Congreve (1670-1729)
97. Treatise Concerning the Pinciples of Human Knowledge - George Berkeley (1685-1753)
98. Essay on Man - Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
99. Persian Letters - Charles de Montesquieu (1689-1755)
100. Letters Concerning the English Nation - Voltaire (1694-1778)
101. Philosophical Dictionary - Voltaire
102. Candide - Voltaire
103. Autobiography - Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)
104. Joseph Andrews - Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
105. Tom Jones - Henry Fielding
106. The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia - Samuel Johnson (1709-1784)
107. Treatise of Human Nature - David Hume (1711-1776)
108. An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding - David Hume
109. On Education - John Jaques Rousseau (1712-1778)
110. Social Contract - John Jacques Rousseau
111. The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy - Laurence Sterne (1713-1768)
112. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy - Laurence Sterne
113. The Wealth of Nations - Adam Smith (1723-1790)
114. The Theory of Moral Sentiments - Adam Smith
115. Critque of Practical Reason - Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
116. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire - Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
117. Autobiography - Edward Gibbon
118. Life of Samuel Johnson - James Boswell (1740-1795)
119. Elements of Chemistry - Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794)
120. Common Sense - Thomas Paine (1737-1809)
121. Declaration of Independence - Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826)
122. The Federalist Papers - John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton
123. An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation - Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832)
124. Faust - Johan Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
125. Poems - Johan Wolfgang von Goethe
126. A Vindication on the Rights of Woman - Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
127. An Analytical Theory of Heat - Jean-Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768-1830)
128. Philosophy of Right - George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
129. Works - William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
130. Ivanhoe - Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832)
131. Poetry - Samuel Coleridge Taylor (1772-1834)
132. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (1775-1817)
133. Emma - Jane Austen
134. On War - Karl von Clausewitz (1780-1831)
135. The Red and the Black - Stendhal (1783-1842)
136. The Charterhouse of Parma - Stendhal
137. Works - Washington Irving (1783-1859)
138. Don Juan - Lord Byron (1788-1824)
139. The Last of the Mohicans - James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851)
140. The Deerslayer - James Fenimore Cooper
141. The Pathfinder - James Fenimore Cooper
142. The Chemical History of a Candle - Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
143. Principles of Geology - Charles Lyell (1797-1875)
144. The Positive Philosophy - Auguste Comte (1798-1857)
145. Pere Goriot - Honore de Balzac (1799-1850)
146. Cousin Pons - Honore de Balzac
147. Eugenie Grandet - Honore de Balzac
148. The Hunchback of Notre Dame - Victor Hugo (1802-1885)
149. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
150. Essays - Ralph Waldo Emerson
151. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864)
152. The House of Seven Gables - Nathaniel Hawthorne
153. Democracy in America - Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
154. A System of Logic - John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
155. Utilitarianism - John Stuart Mill
156. Works - Charles Dickens (1812-1870)
157. Works - Edgar Allen Poe (1809-1849)
158. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray (1811-1863)
159. Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine - Claude Bernard (1813-1878)
160. Works - Anthony Trollope (1815-1882)
161. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855)
162. Walden - Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862)
163. Civil Disobedience - Henry David Thoreau
164. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (1818-1848)
165. Das Kapital - Karl Marx (1818-1883)
166. Silas Marner - George Eliot (1819-1880)
167. Adam Bede - George Eliot
168. Moby-Dick - Herman Melville (1819-1891)
169. Billy Budd - Herman Melville
170. Leaves of Grass - Walt Whitman (1819-1892)
171. The Brothers Karamazov - Fyodor Doesteovsky (1821-1881)
172. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Doesteovsky
173. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert (1821-1880)
174. Plays - Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906)
175. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
176. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
177. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll (1832-1898)
178. Through the Looking-Glass - Lewis Carroll
179. Works - Mark Twain (1835-1910)
180. The Education of Henry Adams - (1838-1918)
181. Short Stories - Bret Harte (1839-1902)
     
182. Works - Thomas Hardy (1840-1928)
183. The Principles of Psychology - William James (1842-1910)
184. Pragmatism - William James
185. The Ambassadors - Henry James (1843-1916)
186. Works - Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844-1900)
187. Science and Hypothesis - Jules Henri Poincare (1854-1912)
188. Plays - George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950)
189. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad (1857-1924)
190. Lord Jim - Joseph Conrad
191. Where is Science Going? - Max Planck (1858-1947)
192. Time and Free Will - Henri Bergson (1859-1941)
193. How We Think - John Dewey (1859-1952)
194. Short Stories - Anton Chekhov (1860-1904)
195. Works - Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947)
196. The House of Mirth - Edith Wharton (1862-1937)
197. Ethan Frome - Edith Wharton
198. The Age of Innocence - Edith Wharton
199. Works - George Santayana (1863-1952)
200. The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane (1971-1900)
201. Remembrance of Things Past - Marcel Proust (1871-1922)
202. The Problems of Philosophy - Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
203. The Magic Mountain - Thomas Mann (1875-1962)
204. Siddhartha - Hermann Hesse (1877-1962)
205. A Passage to India - E.M. Foster (1879-1970)
206. Ulysses - James Joyce (1882-1941)
207. A Room of One's Own - Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
208. Works - Franz Kafka (1883-1924)
     

Introduction

The following is what I hope becomes a lifelong project; to present to you the literature of the Western Civilization.

Literature, especially the so-called Great Books is a subjective enterprise; each person you talk to has his or her ideas on what elevates a book into the Western Canon. My goal is not to judge whether each belongs for everyone, but to simply introduce works that I myself feel are worthy of inclusion. Please feel free to comment below each review.

I won't be tackling this project in chronological order; the first batch of titles I've already read over the past decade or so, but even after I've "caught up," I'll skip around quite a bit. If you're the type who wants to read along with me, but in the correct order, I'll post shortly a list of the works that I'll be reading from in order of appearance.