Will Durant, One Hundred Best Books for an Education [1933]
166 entries: 101 monographical, 65 otherwise
Unrankedarranged topically
Will Durant's 'List of One Hundred Best Books for an Education: The Road to Freedom' was originally included as part of an article for the American Magazine, Dec. 1929, entitled 'One Hundred Best Books'. Apparently, the next year, the American Library Association published the article as a monograph of some sort (a "broadside" according to one reference book). It was either revised for that version or for its inclusion in Durant's 1933 collection of essays, Adventures in Genius, the essay now entitled 'One Hundred Best Books for an Education', the list itself bearing the inscription, 'The Road to Freedom: Being One Hundred Best Books for an Education'. That version added Diogenes Laërtius's Lives of the Philosophers and removed Sidney Bradshaw Fay's Origins of the World War, which, having been published in 1929, perhaps had been a rash choice on Durant's part. Yet another version, found in Have You Read 100 Great Books? (the list) includes Diogenes, but excludes Dickens's Pickwick Papers. Yet—yet!—another version, included in Durant's The Greatest Minds and Ideas of All Time, a posthumous collection of essays that came out in 2002, includes both works. So was the '46 omission of Pickwick an error? As with the Lubbock and Rexroth lists, we make the last version made available during the author's life as our final version of the list, so that Fay is excluded, Pickwick remains.
- John Arthur Thomson
The Outline of Science
1922English
- Logan Clendening
The Human Body
1927; revised 1930, 1937, and 1945English
New Dietetics: A Guide to Scientific Feeding in Health and Disease [excerpted]
pp. 1-531, 975-1011; complete work published 1927English
- William James
The Principles of Psychology
1890English
- H G Wells
The Outline of History
originally published serially 1919-20; revised by the author through 1937 edition; later revisions made by Raymond Postgate and G P WellsEnglish
- William Graham Sumner
Folkways: A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals
1907English
- James George Frazer
The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion
originally entitled The Golden Bough: A Study in Comparative Religion, published in two volumes, 1890; expanded and retitled 1900 to three volumes; expanded 1906-15 to 12 volumes; supplemental volume added for 1937 edition; distinct abridged versions, 1922, 1959, and 1994; Durant specifies the 1922 abridged editionEnglish
- James Harvey Robinson
The Ordeal of Civilization
1926English
- James Henry Breasted
The Conquest of Civilization
1926English
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- The Wisdom of the Chinese: Their Philosophy in Sayings and Proverbs
1920; edited by Brian Brown; selections from (Confucius) Analects, The Doctrine of the Mean, Great Learning; (Mencius) The Real Man; (Lao Tzu) Tao-teh-king, Wu-wei, Precepts and Sayings; Chuang Tzu; Yang Chu; Kang-hsi's Sacred Edict; Kuan-yi-wu; Yu Tse; Tse-chan; plus sections entitled The Poetry of the Chinese, Proverbs and Maxims, and Moral MaximsChinese
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Song of Solomon; Canticles
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- The Gospel According to Matthew
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- The Gospel According to Mark
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- The Gospel According to Luke
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- The Gospel According to John
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- First Epistle to the Corinthians
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- Second Epistle to the Corinthians
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- Epistle to the Philippians
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- Epistle to the Colossians
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- First Epistle to the Thessalonians
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- Second Epistle to the Thessalonians
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- Second Epistle to Timothy
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Histoire de l'Art [excerpted]
vol. I, chs. 1-8; vol. II, chs. 1-9; vol. III, chs. 4-6; vol. IV, chs. 1-8; complete work published in five volumes, 1919-21French
- Henry Smith Williams
A History of Science
published in ten volumes, 1904-10English
- J B Bury
A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great
1900English
- Herodotus
Historiē
History
Fifth Century B CGreek
- Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War
early Fifth Century B CGreek
- Plutarch
Bìoi Paràllēloi
Parallel Lives; Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
First CenturyGreek
- Gilbert Murray
A History of Ancient Greek Literature
1897English
Homer
unspecified selections; ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B CGreek
The Odyssey
unspecified selections; ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B CGreek
- Aeschylus
Promētheus Desmōtēs
Prometheus Bound
disputed authorship; Fifth Century B CGreek
Sophocles
- Oidipous Tyrannos
Oedipus Rex; Oedipus the King
ca. 429 B CGreek
- Antigone
ca. 441 B CGreek
Plays
late Fifth Century B CGreek
- Diogenes Laërtius
Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers
Third CenturyGreek
Plato
early Fourth Century B CGreek
- Apologia Socratis
The Apology
early Fourth Century B CGreek
- Phaedo
early Fourth Century B CGreek
The Republic
sections 327-32, 336-77, 384-85, 392-426, 433-35, 481-3, 512-20, 572-95; early Fourth Century B CGreek
Aristotle
- Ethika Nikomacheia
Nicomachean Ethics
Fourth Century B CGreek
- Politik
Politics
Fourth Century B CGreek
- Titus Lucretius Carus
De Rerum Natura
On the Nature of Things
First Century B CLatin
- Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)
Aeneid [excerpted]
unspecified selections; First Century B CLatin
- Marcus Aurelius
Ta Eis Heauton
Meditations
written 161-80Greek
- Edward Gibbon
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
originally published in six volumes: first, 1776; second-third, 1781; fourth-sixth, 1788English
- Omar Khayyam
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
ca. Eleventh-Twelfth centuries; compiled by Edward FitzGerald in five editions, 1859, 1868, 1872, 1879, and 1889Persian
- George Moore
Héloïse and Abélard
1921English
- Dante
La Divina Commedia
The Divine Comedy
originally entitled La Commedia; written ca. 1308-21Italian
- Hippolyte Taine
Histoire de la Littérature Anglaise
1863; revised 1866French
Canterbury Tales [excerpted]
unspecified selections; 1478English
- Henry Adams
Mont-Saint-Michel and Chartres
1913English
- Cecil Gray
The History of Music
1928English
- John Addington Symonds
Renaissance in Italy
originally published in seven volumes, 1875-86English
- Benvenuto Cellini
Vita di Benvenuto di Maestro Giovanni Cellini Fiorentino, Scritta, per Lui Medesimo, in Firenze
Autobiography
written 1558-62Italian
- Giorgio Vasari
Le Vite de' Più Eccellenti Pittori, Scultori, e Architettori da Cimabue Insino a' Tempi Nostri
The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects; The Lives of the Artists
1550; expanded 1568Italian
Den Nyere Filosofis Historie [excerpted]
A History of Modern Philosophy
sections on Bruno, Machiavelli, Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Locke, Spinoza, and Leibnitz; complete work published in two volumes, 1894 and 1895English
- Niccolò Machiavelli
Il Principe
The Prince
1532Italian
- Preserved Smith
The Age of the Reformation
1920English
Histoire de la Littérature Française [excerpted]
A Literary History of France
sections on the Sixteenth, Seventeenth, and Eighteenth centuries; complete work published 1900French
- François Rabelais
La Vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel
originally published in five volumes: Les Horribles et Épouvantables Faits et Prouesses du Très Renommé Pantagruel Roi des Dipsodes, Fils du Grand Géant Gargantua, 1532; La Vie Très Horrifique du Grand Gargantua, Père de Pantagruel, 1534; Le Tiers Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1546; Le Quart Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1552; Le Cinquiesme et Dernier Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1564French
- Michel de Montaigne
Les Essais
Essays
originally published in three volumes: 1580, 1588, and 1595French
- Miguel de Cervantes
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
Don Quixote
originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615Spanish
William Shakespeare
late Sixteenth-early Seventeenth centuriesEnglish
- Hamlet
1602English
- King Lear
1606English
- Macbeth
ca. 1607English
- Othello
ca. 1604English
- Romeo and Juliet
ca. 1591-97English
- Julius Caesar
1599English
- The First Part of Henry IV
1597English
- The Second Part of Henry IV
1600English
- The Merchant of Venice
ca. 1596-98English
- As You Like It
1603English
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
ca. 1595-1600English
- Timon of Athens
written ca. 1607English
- The Tempest
1611English
- François de la Rochefoucauld
Réflexions ou Sentences et Maximes Morales
originally anonymously published 1665French
Plays
Seventeenth CenturyFrench
- Tartuffe, ou l'Imposteur
1664French
- L'Avare ou L'École du Mensonge
The Miser
1668French
- Le Misanthrope ou l'Atrabilaire Amoureux
The Misanthrope
1666French
- Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme
1670French
- Dom Juan ou le Festin de Pierre
1660French
- Francis Bacon
Essays: Religious Meditations. Places of Perswasion and Disswasion. Seene and Allowed
1597; expanded 1612; expanded and retitled Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall, 1625English
John Milton
originally published in Justa Edouardo King Naufrago, 1638; revised for inclusion in Poems of Mr. John Milton, Both English and Latin, 1645English
originally published in Poems of Mr. John Milton, Both English and Latin, 1645English
originally published in Poems of Mr. John Milton, Both English and Latin, 1645English
Seventeenth CenturyEnglish
- Areopagitica; A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parliament of England
1644English
- Paradise Lost [excerpted]
unspecified selections; complete work published 1667; revised 1674English
- Thomas Hobbes
Leviathan or, The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil
1651English
Baruch Spinoza
- Ethica, Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata
Ethics
1677Latin
- Tractatus de Intellectus Emendatione
1677Latin
- Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
Portraits of the Eighteenth Century
1905; English translations of excerpts from Causeries du Lundi, Portraits de Femmes, and Portraits LittérairesFrench
Selected works
Eighteenth CenturyFrench
- Candide, ou L'Optimisme
1759French
- Zadig
1747French
- Traité sur la Tolérance
1763French
part of the eighth volume of Diderot's Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers, 1765French
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Les Confessions
1782French
- Hippolyte Taine
Les Origines de la France Contemporaine
originally published in five volumes: L'Ancien Régime, 1875; La Révolution: I - L'Anarchie, 1878; La Révolution: II - La Conquête Jacobin, 1881; La Révolution: III - Le Gouvernement Révolutionnaire, 1883; La Régime Moderne: I - Napoleon, 1890; La Régime Moderne: II, 1893French
- Thomas Carlyle
The French Revolution
1837; revised 1857English
- James Boswell
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
1791English
- Henry Fielding
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
1749English
- Laurence Sterne
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
originally published in nine volumes, 1759-67English
- 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
- David Hume
A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects
first-seccond volumes, 1739; third volume, 1740English
- Mary Wollstonecraft
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
1792English
- Adam Smith
An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
1776; revised through third edition, 1784English
- Emil Ludwig
Napoleon
1925German
- Georg Brandes
Hovedstrømninger i det 19de Aarhundredes Litteratur
Main Currents in Nineteenth Century Literature
published in six volumes, 1872-90Danish
- 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
- Johann Peter Eckermann
Gespräche mit Goethe
originally published in three volumes: first and second, 1836; third, 1848German
Poems
Nineteenth CenturyGerman
Poems
early Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
Poems
early Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
Poems
early Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
- Honoré de Balzac
Le Père Goriot
Father Goriot
originally published serially Dec. 1834-Feb. 1835 in Revue de ParisFrench
Selected works
Nineteenth CenturyFrench
- Madame Bovary
originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de ParisFrench
- Salammbô
1862French
- Victor Hugo
Les Misérables
1862French
- Anatole France
L'Île des Pingouins
1908French
Poems
Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
- Charles Dickens
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
The Pickwick Papers
originally published serially Apr. 1836-Nov. 1837 under the pseudonym, BozEnglish
- William Makepeace Thackeray
Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero
originally published serially Jan. 1847-Jul. 1848English
- Ivan Turgenev
Otcy i Deti
Fathers and Children; Fathers and Sons
originally published Feb. 1862 in Rússkij VéstnikRussian
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Brat'â Karamazovy
The Brothers Karamazov
originally published serially 1880 in Rússkij VéstnikRussian
- Leo Tolstoy
Voyna i Mir"
War and Peace
originally entitled 1805, published in part, 1865 and 1867; retitled and published in its entirety, 1869Russian
- Henrik Ibsen
Peer Gynt
1867Norwegian
- Charles Darwin
The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
1871English
- Henry Thomas Buckle
Introduction to the History of Civilization in England
1857English
Selected works
Nineteenth CenturyGerman
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Also Sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen
Thus Spake Zarathustra
originally published in four volumes, 1883-5German
- Charles and Mary Beard
The Rise of American Civilization
1927English
Edgar Allan Poe
Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
Essays
Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
- Henry David Thoreau
Walden; or, Life in the Woods
1854English
- Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
1855; expanded and revised through ninth edition, 1892English
Abraham Lincoln
Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
- Romain Rolland
Jean Christophe
published in ten volumes: L'Aube, 1904; Le Matin, 1904; L'Adolescent, 1904; La Révolte, 1905; La Foir sur la Place, 1908; Antoinette, 1908; Dans la Maison, 1908; Les Amies, 1910; Le Buisson Ardent, 1911; La Nouvelle Journée, 1912French
Studies in the Psychology of Sex [excerpted]
first-third and sixth volumes; complete work published in seven volumes, 1897-1928English
- Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams
1918English
- Henri Bergson
L'Evolution Créatrice
1907French
- Oswald Spengler
Der Untergang des Abendlandes
The Decline of the West
published in two volumes, 1918 and 1923; first volume revised 1922German