W. John Campbell, The Book of Great Books [2000]
105 entries: 104 monographical, one otherwise
Unrankedarranged alphabetically by work
This book, one could say, provides us an English professor doing better versions of Cliff's Notes and putting them together in a book.
- Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)
Aeneid
First Century B CLatin
- Erich Maria Remarque
Im Westen Nichts Neues
All Quiet on the Western Front
originally published Dec. 1928 in Vossische ZeitungGerman
- Robert Penn Warren
All the King's Men
1946English
- George Orwell
Animal Farm
1945English
- William Faulkner
As I Lay Dying
1930English
- William Shakespeare
As You Like It
1603English
- Kate Chopin
The Awakening
1899English
--
- Beowulf
ca. Eighth-Eleventh centuriesEnglish
- Herman Melville
Billy Budd, Foretopman
Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative)
1924English
- Toni Morrison
The Bluest Eye
1970English
- Aldous Huxley
Brave New World
1932English
- Jack London
The Call of the Wild
originally published serially 1903 in the Saturday Evening PostEnglish
- Voltaire
Candide, ou L'Optimisme
1759French
- Geoffrey Chaucer
Canterbury Tales
1478English
- Joseph Heller
Catch-22
1961English
- Alice Walker
The Color Purple
1982English
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Prestuplénie i Nakazániye
Crime and Punishment
originally published serially Jan.-Dec. 1866 in Rússkij VéstnikRussian
- Arthur Miller
The Crucible
1953English
- Henry James
Daisy Miller
originally published serially in Cornhill Magazine Jun.-Jul. 1878English
- Charles Dickens
The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account)
originally published serially May 1849-Nov. 1850English
- Arthur Miller
Death of a Salesman
1949English
- Anne Frank
Het Achterhuis. Dagboekbrieven 14 Juni 1942 - 1 Augustus 1944
The Diary of a Young Girl
1947Dutch
Inferno
part of La Divina Commedia; complete work written ca. 1308-21Italian
- Christopher Marlowe
The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus
1592English
- Henrik Ibsen
Et Dukkehjem
A Doll's House
1879Norwegian
- Miguel de Cervantes
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
Don Quixote
originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615Spanish
- Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome
1911English
Plato
- Euthyphro
early Fourth Century B CGreek
- Apologia Socratis
The Apology
early Fourth Century B CGreek
- Crito
early Fourth Century B CGreek
- Phaedo
early Fourth Century B CGreek
- Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms
1929English
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Faust
originally published in two volumes: first, Faust. Der Tragödie Erster Teil, published in part, 1790; in its entirey, 1808; revised 1829; second, Faust. Der Tragödie Zweiter Teil, 1832German
- Ernest Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls
1940English
- Mary Shelley
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
originally anonymously published 1818English
- Tennessee Williams
The Glass Menagerie
1944English
- Pearl Buck
The Good Earth
1931English
- John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath
1939English
- Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
originally published serially Dec. 1860-Aug. 1861 in All the Year RoundEnglish
- F Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
1925English
- Jonathan Swift
Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and Then a Captain of Several Ships
Gulliver's Travels
1726; revised 1735English
- William Shakespeare
Hamlet
1602English
- Charles Dickens
Hard Times - For These Times
originally published serially in Household Words, Apr. 1854-Aug. 1854English
- Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness
originally published serially Feb.-Apr. 1899 in Blackwood'sEnglish
- William Shakespeare
The First Part of Henry IV
1597English
- N Scott Momaday
House Made of Dawn
1969English
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
The House of Seven Gables
1851English
- Mark Twain
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1884English
- Maya Angelou
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
1969English
- Homer
Iliad
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B CGreek
- Ralph Ellison
Invisible Man
1952English
- Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre: An Autobiography
originally published under the pseudonym, Currer Bell, 1847English
- Amy Tan
The Joy Luck Club
1989English
- William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar
1599English
- Upton Sinclair
The Jungle
originally published serially Feb.-Nov. 1905 in Appeal to ReasonEnglish
- William Shakespeare
King Lear
1606English
- William Faulkner
Light in August
1932English
- Joseph Conrad
Lord Jim
originally published serially Oct. 1899-Nov. 1900 in Blackwood's MagazineEnglish
- William Golding
Lord of the Flies
1954English
- J R R Tolkien
The Lord of the Rings
originally published in three volumes: The Fellowship of the Ring; The Two Towers; The Return of the King, 1954-55English
- William Shakespeare
Macbeth
ca. 1607English
- Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary
originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de ParisFrench
- Thomas Hardy
The Mayor of Casterbridge: The Life and Death of a Man of Character
1886English
William Shakespeare
- The Merchant of Venice
ca. 1596-98English
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
ca. 1595-1600English
- Herman Melville
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
1851English
- Richard Wright
Native Son
1940English
- George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four
1949English
- Homer
Odýsseia
The Odyssey
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B CGreek
Sophocles
- Antigone
ca. 441 B CGreek
- Oidipous epi Kolōnō
Oedipus at Colonus
401 B CGreek
- Oidipous Tyrannos
Oedipus Rex; Oedipus the King
ca. 429 B CGreek
- John Steinbeck
Of Mice and Men
1937English
- Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea
1952English
- Charles Dickens
Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress
originally published serially Feb. 1837-April 1839 in Bentley's Miscellany under the pseudonym, BozEnglish
- Ken Kesey
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
1962English
- William Shakespeare
Othello
ca. 1604English
- John Milton
Paradise Lost
1667; revised 1674English
- John Steinbeck
The Pearl
1947English
- Albert Camus
La Peste
The Plague
1947French
- James Joyce
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
originally published serially Feb. 1914-Sep. 1915, in the EgoistEnglish
- Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
originally anonymously published 1813English
- Niccolò Machiavelli
Il Principe
The Prince
1532Italian
- Stephen Crane
The Red Badge of Courage
published in part serially Dec. 1894 in the Philadelphia Press; in its entirety, 1895English
- Plato
Politeia
The Republic
early Fourth Century B CGreek
- Thomas Hardy
The Return of the Native
originally published serially Jan.-Dec. 1878 in Belgravia, the Magazine of Fashion and AmusementEnglish
William Shakespeare
- Richard III
ca. 1592-7English
- Romeo and Juliet
ca. 1591-97English
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter
1850English
- John Knowles
A Separate Peace
1959English
- George Eliot
Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe
1861English
- D H Lawrence
Sons and Lovers
1913English
- William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury
1929English
- Herman Hesse
Der Steppenwolf
1927German
- Albert Camus
L'Étranger
The Stranger
1942French
- Ernest Hemingway
The Sun Also Rises
1926English
William Shakespeare
- The Taming of the Shrew
ca. 1592-94English
- The Tempest
1611English
- Thomas Hardy
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
published in part serially Jul.-Dec. 1891 in the GraphicEnglish
- Zora Neale Hurston
Their Eyes Were Watching God
1937English
- Mark Twain
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1876English
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island
originally entitled Treasure Island or, The Mutiny of the Hispaniola, published serially 1891-92 in Young Folks under the pseudonym, Captain George NorthEnglish
- William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night; or, What You Will
1602English
- Samuel Beckett
En Attendant Godot
Waiting for Godot
1953French
- Henry David Thoreau
Walden; or, Life in the Woods
1854English