Robert Kanigel, Vintage Reading: From Plato to Bradbury: A Personal Tour of Some of the World's Best Books [1998]
80 entries: 74 monographical, 6 otherwise
Unrankedarranged topically
Kanigel's book, published in 1998 by Bancroft Press, is divided into thematic sections. These are as follows: 'On Everyone's List of Literary Classics' (nos. 1-12); 'Books on Many a List for Burning: Heretics, Subversives, Demagogues' (Dorothy Parker-no. 18); 'Books That Shaped the Western World' (nos. 19-27); 'Making Hard Work Easy: The Great Popularizers' (nos. 28-36); 'Not Robinson Crusoe, Not Brave New World: Lesser Known Classics' (nos. 37-43); 'Lighter Fare: Good Reads, Best Sellers (nos. 44-51); '"But I Know What I Like": On Aesthetics and Style' (nos. 52-56); 'One-of-a-Kinds' (nos. 57-65); 'The Realm of the Spirit' (nos. 66-74)
- Thomas Wolfe
Look Homeward, Angel
1929English
- Henry James
The Portrait of a Lady
originally published serially Oct. 1880-Nov. 1881 in Macmillan's and Nov. 1880-Dec. 1881 in the Atlantic MonthlyEnglish
- William Faulkner
As I Lay Dying
1930English
- Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights
originally published 1847 under the pseudonym, Ellis Bell; revised 1850English
- Rudyard Kipling
Kim
originally published serially Dec. 1900-Oct. 1901 in McClure's and Jan. 1901-Oct. 1901 in Cassell'sEnglish
- Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
1865English
- Lawrence Durrell
Justine
1957English
- 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
- Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
originally anonymously published 1813English
- E M Forster
A Passage to India
1924English
- Willa Cather
My Ántonia
1918English
- Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary
originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de ParisFrench
Here Lies: The Collected Stories
1939; stories originally published in the New Yorker and other periodicals, and previously collected in Laments for the Living, 1930, and After Such Pleasures..., 1933English
- Niccolò Machiavelli
Il Principe
The Prince
1532Italian
- Ambrose Bierce
The Devil's Dictionary
published in part serially in the News Letter, the Argonaut, the Wasp, and the Examiner; published in its entirety in two parts: 1906, entitled The Cynic's Word Book; and 1911, entitled The Devil's Dictionary, as part of volume 7 of The Collected Works of Ambrose Bierce; expanded 1967English
- Adolf Hitler
Mein Kampf
originally published in two volumes, 1925 and 1926German
- Émile Zola
Nana
originally published serially 1879-80 in La VoltaireFrench
- John Reed
Ten Days That Shook the World
1919English
- Richard Wright
Native Son
1940English
- Michel de Montaigne
Les Essais
Essays
originally published in three volumes: 1580, 1588, and 1595French
Dialogues
early Fourth Century B CGreek
- Adam Smith
An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
1776; revised through third edition, 1784English
- Thomas Robert Malthus
An Essay on the Principle of Population
originally anonymously published 1798; revised and published under the author's name, 1803English
- 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
- Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
1859English
- Herodotus
Historiē
History
Fifth Century B CGreek
- Alexander Hamilton; John Jay; James Madison
The Federalist Papers
originally published 1787-1788 in the Independent Journal, the New-York Packet, and the Daily AdvertiserEnglish
- Cornelius Tacitus
Annales
written First CenturyLatin
- Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War
early Fifth Century B CGreek
- Alexis de Tocqueville
De la Démocratie en Amérique
Democracy in America
originally published in two volumes, 1835 and 1840French
- Frederick Lewis Allen
Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s
1931English
- Paul de Kruif
Microbe Hunters
1926English
Selected works
First Century B CLatin
- Margaret Mead
Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization
1928English
- Henry Beston
The Outermost House
1928English
- Francis F Beirne
The Amiable Baltimoreans
1951English
- Aaron Copland
What to Listen for in Music
1939; edited lecturesEnglish
- C W Ceram
Götter, Gräber und Gelehrte
Gods, Graves, and Scholars
1949German
- Hans Selye
The Stress of Life
1956English
- Edith Hamilton
The Greek Way
1930English
- Daniel Defoe
A Journal of the Plague Year: Being Observations or Memorials, of the Most Remarkable Occurrences, as Well Public and Private, Which Happened in London During the Last Great Visitation in 1665
originally anonymously published 1722English
- Aldous Huxley
The Doors of Perception
1954English
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Die Wahlverwandtschaften
Elective Affinities
1809German
- George Orwell
Homage to Catalonia
1938English
- Sigmund Freud
Das Unbehagen in der Kultur
Civilization and Its Discontents
1930German
- Sinclair Lewis
Arrowsmith
1925English
- Mark Twain
Roughing It
1872English
- Arthur Conan Doyle
A Study in Scarlet
originally published 1887 in Beeton's Christmas AnnualEnglish
- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Song of Hiawatha
1855English
- Abraham Cahan
The Rise of David Levinsky
1917English
- Joseph Hergesheimer
Java Head
1918English
- R Austin Freeman
Mr. Pottermack's Oversight
1930English
- John Hersey
A Bell for Adano
1944English
- Ray Bradbury
The Martian Chronicles
1950; stories originally published in varied periodicals: Planet Stories, Maclean's, the Arkham Sampler, Thrilling Wonder Stories, Imagination, Weird Tales, Other Worlds, Super Science Stories, Charm, and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction; expanded U K edition, entitled Silver Locusts, published 1951; expanded 1974; revised 1997English
- Laura Z Hobson
Gentleman's Agreement
1947English
- Marcus Vitruvius Pollio
De Architectura
Ten Books on Architecture
written ca. 15 B CLatin
- 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
1550; expanded 1568Italian
- John Ruskin
The Seven Lamps of Architecture
1849English
- Kenneth Clark
The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form
1956; edited 1953 lecturesEnglish
- William Strunk, Jr.
The Elements of Style
1919; revised 1935, as The Elements and Practice of Composition; revised and expanded 1959 by E B WhiteEnglish
- Virginia Woolf
A Room of One's Own
1929English
- H L Mencken
The American Language: An Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United States
1919English
- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Le Petit Prince
1943French
- Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams
1918English
- Edwin S Abbott
Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions
originally published under the pseudonym, A Square, 1884English
- Zora Neale Hurston
Their Eyes Were Watching God
1937English
- G H Hardy
A Mathematician's Apology
1940English
- Isadora Duncan
My Life
1928English
- Thomas S Kuhn
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
1962English
--
- Sha Naqba Imuru
The Epic of Gilgamesh; He Who Saw the Deep
Eighteenth-Tenth centuries B CSumerian; Akkadian
- Augustine of Hippo
Confessionum Libri Tredecim
The Confessions of St. Augustine
written 397-98Latin
- Gustav Meyrink
Der Golem
originally published serially 1913-14 in Die Weissen BlätterGerman
- W Somerset Maugham
The Razor's Edge
1944English
- Thomas Merton
The Seven Storey Mountain
1948English
- John Gunther
Death Be Not Proud
1949English
--
part of the BibleHebrew; Aramaic; Greek
- James Hilton
Lost Horizon
1933English
Bhagavad Gita
part of the Mahabharata; ca. Ninth Century B C-Fourth CenturySanskrit
- Elie Wiesel
Un di Velt Hot Geshvign
1954; abridged French translation, entitled La Nuit, published 1958; alternate abridged version, in English, entitled Night, published 1960Yiddish
- William James
The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, Being the Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion Delivered at Edinburgh in 1901-1902
1902; edited lecturesEnglish