Greater Books

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The Jasper Lee Company, Have You Read 100 Great Books? [1946]

120 entries: 108 monographical, 12 otherwise

Unranked—arranged alphabetically by author

This curio of a book includes numerous lists:

Arthur Conan Doyle's goes back to ancient times but appears to exclude theatre; nonetheless, it's a compelling list with several important works that could end up not appearing in any other list; if I learn more the provenance of this list, it will be noted on the Excluded Lists page;

whereas in Baldwin's The Book Lover, we only got a faint idea (that is, some quotes) of John Ruskin's response to Lubbock's list in the Pall Mall Gazette, here we have the list Ruskin provided; it fits this project's criteria—I could use this book as the source and include this list, but I worry about including a few of these responses without having access to the Pall Mall original; I wouldd prefer either to include all the responses, or none;

Robert Louis Stevenson's, also short, also fits our criteria; it comes from a series of articles in the British Weekly, published in 1887, entitled Books Which Have Influenced Me. You can see the table of contents from the link provided, and thus the other noteworthy individuals of the time who contributed. Clearly, this series emerged in response to Lubbock's speech and accompanying articles, and the responses to his list. Though a full-text scan of the book should be floating around somewhere online, and I can get access to an actual copy via a university library, for now I'm not going to include these lists. Not only do I not have access to all of the earlier Pall Mall Gazette lists, which are more important historically, but the inclusion of several short lists doesn't seem to be a worthy task at this point in the project. Perhaps in the future. Notice that F. W. Farrar was one of the participants in the British Weekly series—according to Baldwin's The Book Lover, Farrar also contributed to the Pall Mall discussion—but this of course came before his Great Books book (noted on the Excluded Lists page);

Brander Matthews, a Columbia professor and a writer on theatre, has a list of 'A Hundred Best Novels in English';

James Bryce's response to Lubbock, one of those published in the Pall Mall Gazette, fits our criteria but the same problem applies as with Ruskin's;

Wilbur L. Cross, a professor at Yale and a governor of Connecticut, offers the 'Twenty-Five Great Prose Fictions';

novelist and dramatist Arnold Bennett has a huge list of English literature;

another Yale professor, William Lyon Phelps, gives his fifteen best novels of all time;

Dr. A. S. W. Rosenbach, a "noted bookseller," provides a list of "the five greatest detectives in the world of fiction, in this order: C. Auguste Dupin (Poe), Sherlock Holmes (Doyle), Monsieur Lecoq (Gaborian), Father Brown (Chesterton), Sergeant Cuff (W. Collins)," from his book, A Bookhunter's Holiday;

Hamilton Wright Mabie's list is very short, and fits our criteria, but a quick look at his oeuvre brings forth other potential lists, especially the Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern, a 31-volume set he served as an editor of (again, see the Excluded Lists page);

the Grolier Club lists the '100 Books Famous in English Literature';

John Erskine, who played a major role in the rise of "great books" education at Columbia, has a short list from his The Delight of Great Books (not included; again, see the Excluded Lists page);

'3 Scholars Pick Greatest Books of Half Century', the scholars being Charles Beard, John Dewey, and Edward Weeks;

the Newark public library, the workplace of two of the most famous of this nation's librarians (John Cotton Dana and Beatrice Winser) and which, according to this book, "has been publishing book lists for almost half a century," lists One Hundred of the Best Novels;

a noted book collector and "manufacturer in Pennsylvania," A. Edward Norton, has a list of '100 Good Novels';

Christopher Morley's list, entitled 'Golden Florins', is certainly compelling, though limited temporally; he was a prolific author and theatre director; this list is discussed at the Excluded Lists page;

Frank Thomas, a bookseller, has a longish list that remains a bit of a mystery;

'The List of St. John's College', with no indication which year the reading course applies to;

and 'The 100 Outstanding Books of 1924-44', "Prepared for Life Magazine with the advice of Dr. Henry Seidel Canby," another Yale professor.

In addition, the Lubbock, Powys, Durant, and Invitation to Learning lists included at this site are reprinted, as is the Outline of Readings in Important Books list which has been excluded for the time being (see the Classics of the Western World list for an explanation). They are not all accurately recreated, given the simplicity of the lay-out and type fonts used.

This useful and rare book ends its presentation of lists with its own two, the first being a collection of 1,000: "a tabulation of all the books listed previously, with duplications eliminated," then a list of 100 derived from the 1,000, presented here. One-page excerpts from 31 of these works complete the book. The text gives no indication of how these hundred selections were made. While the 1,000 original set was determined by others' lists, including of course those four lists already included in this project, the 100 picked out from that 1,000 represents the editorial work of someone or group of persons involved in the publication of this book and, as such, is included at Greater Books.

  1. Henry Adams

  2. The Education of Henry Adams
    1918—English

  3. Sherwood Anderson

  4. Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life
    1919; twenty-two stories, ten of which originally published in periodicals: 'The Book of the Grotesque', Feb. 1916 in Masses; 'Hands', Mar. 1916 in Masses; 'Paper Pills' (originally entitled 'The Philosopher'), Jun.-Jul. 1916 in the Little Review, ; 'The Strength of God', Aug. 1916 in Masses; 'Queer', Dec. 1916 in Seven Arts; 'The Untold Lie', Jan. 17 in Seven Arts; 'Mother', Mar. 1917 in Seven Arts; 'The Thinker', Sep. 1917 in Seven Arts; 'The Man of Ideas', Jun. 1918 in the Little Review; 'An Awakening', Dec. 1918 in the Little Review—English

  5. Augustine of Hippo

  6. Confessionum Libri Tredecim
    The Confessions of St. Augustine
    written 397-98—Latin


  7. Marcus Aurelius

  8. Ta Eis Heauton
    Meditations
    written 161-80—Greek


  9. Jane Austen

  10. Pride and Prejudice
    originally anonymously published 1813—English

  11. Francis Bacon

  12. Essays: Religious Meditations. Places of Perswasion and Disswasion. Seene and Allowed
    1597; expanded 1612; expanded and retitled Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall, 1625—English

  13. Honoré de Balzac

  14. Le Père Goriot
    Father Goriot
    originally published serially Dec. 1834-Feb. 1835 in Revue de Paris—French


  15. Charles and Mary Beard

  16. The Rise of American Civilization
    1927—English

  17. Edward Bellamy

  18. Looking Backward, 2000-1887
    1888—English

  19. Arnold Bennett

  20. The Old Wives' Tale
    1908—English

    --
  21. The Bible

  22. —Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek

  23. George Borrow

  24. Lavengro; The Scholar—The Gypsy—The Priest
    1851—English

  25. James Boswell

  26. The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
    1791—English

  27. Emily Brontë

  28. Wuthering Heights
    originally published 1847 under the pseudonym, Ellis Bell; revised 1850—English

  29. Van Wyck Brooks

  30. The Flowering of New England, 1815-1865
    1836—English

  31. J B Bury

  32. A History of Greece to the Death of Alexander the Great
    1900—English

  33. Samuel Butler

  34. The Way of All Flesh
    1903; written 1873-74—English

  35. Willa Cather

  36. My Ántonia
    1918—English

  37. Benvenuto Cellini

  38. Vita di Benvenuto di Maestro Giovanni Cellini Fiorentino, Scritta, per Lui Medesimo, in Firenze
    Autobiography
    written 1558-62—Italian


  39. Miguel de Cervantes

  40. El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
    Don Quixote
    originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615—Spanish


  41. Geoffrey Chaucer

  42. Canterbury Tales
    1478—English

  43. Joseph Conrad

  44. The Nigger of the 'Narcissus': A Tale of the Sea
    1897; original U S edition entitled The Children of the Sea: A Tale of the Forecastle—English

  45. Charles Darwin

  46. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
    1859—English

  47. Daniel Defoe

  48. The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner
    originally anonymously published 1719—English

  49. René Descartes

  50. Discours de la Méthode Pour Bien Conduire sa Raison, et Chercher la Vérité dans les Sciences
    Discourse on the Method
    1637—French


  51. Charles Dickens

  52. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club (The Pickwick Papers)
    originally published serially Apr. 1836-Nov. 1837 under the pseudonym, Boz—English

    John Dos Passos
  53. The 42nd Parallel

  54. 1930—English

  55. 1919

  56. 1932—English

  57. The Big Money

  58. 1936—English

  59. Fyodor Dostoevsky

  60. Brat'â Karamazovy
    The Brothers Karamazov
    originally published serially 1880 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian


    Arthur Conan Doyle
  61. A Study in Scarlet

  62. originally published 1887 in Beeton's Christmas Annual—English

  63. The Sign of the Four

  64. originally published Feb. 1890 in Lippincott's Monthly Magazine—English

  65. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes

  66. 1892; stories originally published Jul. 1891-Jun. 1892 in the Strand—English

  67. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes

  68. 1894; stories originally published 1892-3 in the Strand—English

  69. The Hound of the Baskervilles

  70. 1902; originally published serially Aug. 1901-Apr. 1902 in the Strand—English

  71. The Return of Sherlock Holmes

  72. 1905; stories originally published 1903-4 in the Strand—English

  73. The Valley of Fear

  74. 1915; originally published serially Sep. 1914-Feb. 1915 in the Strand—English

  75. His Last Bow: Some Later Reminiscences of Sherlock Holmes

  76. 1917; stories originally published Sep. 1908-Dec. 1913 in the Strand; except one published Sep. 1917 in Collier's Weekly—English

  77. The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes

  78. 1927; stories originally published Oct. 1921-Apr. 1927 in the Strand—English

  79. George Eliot

  80. Adam Bede
    1859—English

  81. Havelock Ellis

  82. The Dance of Life
    1923—English


    Essays
    Nineteenth Century—English

  83. Epictetus

  84. Diatribai
    Discourses
    compiled by Arrian; Second Century—Greek


  85. Élie Faure

  86. Histoire de l'Art
    originally published in five volumes, 1919-21—English


    The Federalist Papers
    originally published 1787-1788 in the Independent Journal, the New-York Packet, and the Daily Advertiser—English

  87. Henry Fielding

  88. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
    1749—English

  89. Gustave Flaubert

  90. Madame Bovary
    originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de Paris—French

  91. Anatole France

  92. L'Île des Pingouins
    1908—French

  93. Benjamin Franklin

  94. Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
    French translation published 1791 as Mémoires de la Vie Privée de Benjamin Franklin; first-third parts of the original English published 1818 as volume one of Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Benjamin Franklin; original English published in its entirety, 1868—English

  95. James George Frazer

  96. 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, in three volumes; expanded 1906-15, in 12 volumes; supplemental volume added for 1937 edition; distinct abridged versions, 1922, 1959, and 1994; the Jasper Lee Company specifies the 1922 abridged edition—English

  97. Edward Gibbon

  98. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
    originally published in six volumes: first, 1776; second-third, 1781; fourth-sixth, 1788—English

  99. George Gissing

  100. The Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft
    originally entitled An Author at Grass, published serially 1902-03 in the Fortnightly Review—English

  101. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  102. 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, 1832—German

  103. Thomas Hardy

  104. Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
    published in part serially Jul.-Dec. 1891 in the Graphic—English

  105. Nathaniel Hawthorne

  106. The Scarlet Letter
    1850—English

  107. Herodotus

  108. Historiē
    History
    Fifth Century B C—Greek


  109. Thomas Hobbes

  110. Leviathan or, The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil
    1651—English

  111. Homer

  112. Odýsseia
    The Odyssey
    ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B C;—Greek


  113. William Henry Hudson

  114. Green Mansions: A Romance of the Tropical Forest
    1904—English

  115. Victor Hugo

  116. Les Misérables
    1862—French

  117. Henry James

  118. The Turn of the Screw
    originally published in The Two Magics, with a second novella, Covering End, 1898—English

  119. William James

  120. The Principles of Psychology
    1890—English

  121. James Jeans

  122. Mysterious Universe
    1930—English


    Poems
    early Nineteenth Century—English


    Soldiers Three and Other Stories
    1899; includes Soldiers Three: A Collection of Stories Setting Forth Certain Passages in the Lives and Adventures of Privates Terence Mulvaney, Stanley Ortheris and John Learoyd [1888]; The Story of the Gadsbys: A Tale Without a Plot [1888]; and In Black and White [1888]—English

  123. Soldiers Three: A Collection of Stories Setting Forth Certain Passages in the Lives and Adventures of Privates Terence Mulvaney, Stanley Ortheris and John Learoyd

  124. 1888—English

  125. The Story of the Gadsbys: A Tale Without a Plot

  126. 1888—English

  127. In Black and White

  128. 1888—English

    Charles Lamb
  129. Essays of Elia

  130. 1823; originally published serially 1820-25 in the London Magazine—English


  131. Last Essays of Elia

  132. 1833; originally published serially 1820-25 in the London Magazine—English


    The Collected Short Stories of Ring Lardner
    originally entitled Round Up: The Stories of Ring W Lardner, published 1929—English


    Notebooks
    late Fifteenth-early Sixteenth centuries—Italian

  133. Sinclair Lewis

  134. Babbitt
    1922—English

  135. Charles Lyell

  136. Geological Evidences of the Antiquity of Man
    1863—English

  137. Niccolò Machiavelli

  138. Il Principe
    The Prince
    1532—Italian


  139. Thomas Malory

  140. Le Morte d'Arthur
    1485; revised through sixth edition, 1634—English

  141. Thomas Robert Malthus

  142. An Essay on the Principle of Population
    originally anonymously published 1798; revised 1803 and published under the author's name—English

  143. Karl Marx

  144. Das Kapital, Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie
    originally published in three volumes: 1867, 1885, and 1894—German

  145. W Somerset Maugham

  146. Of Human Bondage
    1915—English


    Stories
    Nineteenth Century—French

  147. Herman Melville

  148. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
    1851—English

  149. George Meredith

  150. The Ordeal of Richard Feverel
    1859—English

  151. John Stuart Mill

  152. Autobiography
    1873—English

  153. Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu

  154. De l'Esprit des Lois
    The Spirit of Laws
    originally anonymously published 1748—French


  155. Friedrich Nietzsche

  156. Also Sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen
    Thus Spake Zarathustra
    originally published in four volumes, 1883-5—German


  157. Frank Norris

  158. McTeague: A Story of San Francisco
    1899—English

    --

    originally entitled The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250–1900, published 1900; revised and retitled 1939; edited by Arthur Quiller-Couch—English

  159. Thomas Paine

  160. The Rights of Man: Being an Answer to Mr. Burke's Attack on the French Revolution
    originally published in two volumes, 1791 and 1792—English

  161. Samuel Pepys

  162. Diary
    written 1660-69; published in part, 1825; expanded and revised 1875-79; further revised versions, 1893-99 and 1926; final work, in nine volumes, 1970-83


    Dialogues
    early Fourth Century B C—Greek


    Stories
    Nineteenth Century—English


    Flowering Judas and Other Stories
    1935—English

  163. François Rabelais

  164. 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, 1564—French

  165. Charles Reade

  166. The Cloister and the Hearth
    1861—English

  167. Erich Maria Remarque

  168. Im Westen Nichts Neues
    All Quiet on the Western Front
    originally published Dec. 1928 in Vossische Zeitung—German


  169. Ernest Renan

  170. Vie de Jésus
    1863; revised 1867—French

  171. Romain Rolland

  172. 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, 1912—French

  173. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  174. Du Contrat Social ou Principes du Droit Politique
    The Social Contract
    1762—French


  175. Walter Scott

  176. Ivanhoe
    originally anonymously published 1819—English

    George Bernard Shaw
  177. Candida

  178. published in 1898 as part of Plays Pleasant; originally performed 1903—English

  179. Man and Superman

  180. performed in part, 1905; in its entirety, 1915—English

    William Shakespeare
  181. Macbeth

  182. ca. 1607—English

  183. Hamlet

  184. 1602—English

  185. King Lear

  186. 1606—English

  187. As You Like It

  188. 1603—English

  189. A Midsummer Night's Dream

  190. ca. 1595-1600—English

  191. Upton Sinclair

  192. The Jungle
    originally published serially Feb.-Nov. 1905 in Appeal to Reason—English

  193. Baruch Spinoza

  194. Ethica, Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata
    Ethics
    1677—Latin


  195. Robert Louis Stevenson

  196. Weir of Hermiston
    1896—English

  197. John Steinbeck

  198. The Grapes of Wrath
    1939—English

  199. Jonathan Swift

  200. 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 1735—English


  201. William Makepeace Thackeray

  202. The History of Henry Esmond, Esq. A Colonel in the Service of Her Majesty Q. Anne. Written by Himself
    1852—English

    Thomas Aquinas
  203. De Ente et Essentia

  204. On Being and Essence
    written ca. 1252-56—Latin



    Summa Theologica
    Treatise on God; Treatise on Man; written 1265-74—Latin


  205. Henry David Thoreau

  206. Walden; or, Life in the Woods
    1854—English

  207. Leo Tolstoy

  208. Voyna i Mir"
    War and Peace
    originally entitled 1805, published in part, 1865 and 1867; retitled and published in its entirety, 1869—Russian


  209. Mark Twain

  210. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
    1884—English

  211. Voltaire

  212. Candide, ou L'Optimisme
    1759—French

  213. H G Wells

  214. Tono-Bungay
    1909—English

  215. Walt Whitman

  216. Leaves of Grass
    1855; expanded and revised through ninth edition, 1892—English