Friday, August 20, 2004

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.




Monday, August 16, 2004

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)


Sunday, August 15, 2004

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.