Greater Books

*Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Eliot* *Powys* *Durant* *Invitation* *Classics* *Hundred* *France* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Zulli* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Oriental* *Adler* *Good* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Utne* *Campbell* *Norway* *Dirda* *Great* *Guardian* *O'Hear* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Smart* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Harvard* *Reynolds* *World* *Deposit* *Newman* *Graphic* *Educated*

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

Unranked—arranged 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)

  1. Thomas Wolfe

  2. Look Homeward, Angel_2
    1929—English
    *Recommended* *Kanigel*

  3. Henry James

  4. The Portrait of a Lady_14
    originally published serially Oct. 1880-Nov. 1881 in Macmillan's and Nov. 1880-Dec. 1881 in the Atlantic Monthly—English
    *Eliot* *Classics* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Bloom* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *Trinity* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Telegraph* *Newman* *Educated*

  5. William Faulkner

  6. As I Lay Dying_8
    1930—English
    *Magill* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *Campbell* *Zane* *Newman*

  7. Emily Brontë

  8. Wuthering Heights_17
    originally published 1847 under the pseudonym, Ellis Bell; revised 1850—English
    *Powys* *Hundred* *France* *Zulli* *Ward* *Magill* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *Norway* *Guardian* *Zane* *Deposit* *Newman* *Graphic*

  9. Rudyard Kipling

  10. Kim_6
    originally published serially Dec. 1900-Oct. 1901 in McClure's and Jan. 1901-Oct. 1901 in Cassell's—English
    *Magill* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Kanigel* *Dirda* *Newman*

  11. Lewis Carroll

  12. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland_17
    1865—English
    *Powys* *Invitation* *France* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *Guardian* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Harvard* *Deposit* *Graphic*

  13. Lawrence Durrell

  14. Justine_4
    1957—English
    *Ward* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Kanigel*

  15. Charles Dickens

  16. Oliver Twist; or, The Parish Boy's Progress _9
    originally published serially Feb. 1837-April 1839 in Bentley's Miscellany under the pseudonym, Boz—English
    *Classics* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Kanigel* *Campbell* *Guardian* *Newman* *Graphic* *Educated*

  17. Jane Austen

  18. Pride and Prejudice_30
    originally anonymously published 1813—English
    *Eliot* *Powys* *Hundred* *Zulli* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Good* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Norway* *Great* *Guardian* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Harvard* *Reynolds* *World* *Deposit* *Newman* *Graphic* *Educated*

  19. E M Forster

  20. A Passage to India_8
    1924—English
    *Ward* *Magill* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *Zane* *Smart*

  21. Willa Cather

  22. My Ántonia_8
    1918—English
    *Hundred* *Magill* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *Dirda* *Smart*

  23. Gustave Flaubert
    Madame Bovary_29
    originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de Paris; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Frances Steegmuller's English translation—French
    *Classics* *Durant* *Hundred* *France* *Zulli* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Magill* *Good* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Norway* *Great* *Guardian* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Smart* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Deposit* *Newman* *Graphic* *Educated*

    • Dorothy Parker

  24. Here Lies: The Collected Stories_1
    1939; stories originally published in the New Yorker and other periodicals, and previously collected in Laments for the Living, 1930, and After Such Pleasures..., 1933—English
    *Kanigel*

  25. Niccolò Machiavelli

  26. Il Principe_29
    The Prince
    1532—Italian

    *Eliot* *Durant* *Invitation* *Classics* *Hundred* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Zulli* *Read* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *World* *Deposit* *Educated*

  27. Ambrose Bierce

  28. The Devil's Dictionary_1
    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 1967—English
    *Kanigel*

  29. Adolf Hitler

  30. Mein Kampf_3
    originally published in two volumes, 1925 and 1926—German
    *Downs* *Kanigel* *Educated*

  31. Émile Zola

  32. Nana_6
    originally published serially 1879-80 in La Voltaire—French
    *Bloom* *Kanigel* *Trinity* *Dirda* *Zane* *Newman*

  33. John Reed

  34. Ten Days That Shook the World_2
    1919—English
    *Recommended* *Kanigel*

  35. Richard Wright

  36. Native Son_8
    1940—English
    *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Campbell* *Kanigel* *Zane* *Educated*

  37. Michel de Montaigne
    Les Essais_26
    Essays
    originally published in three volumes: 1580, 1588, and 1595—French

    *Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Durant* *Invitation* *France* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Zulli* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Norway* *Great* *GlobeMail* *World* *Newman* *Educated*

    • Plato

  38. Dialogues_10
    early Fourth Century B C—Greek
    *Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Durant* *Hundred* *France* *Read* *Magill* *Bloom* *Kanigel* *World*

  39. Adam Smith

  40. An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations_15
    1776; revised through third edition, 1784—English
    *Eliot* *Durant* *Classics* *Downs* *Read* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Foundation* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor*

  41. Thomas Robert Malthus

  42. An Essay on the Principle of Population_6
    originally anonymously published 1798; revised and published under the author's name, 1803—English
    *Invitation* *Hundred* *Downs* *Good* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith*

  43. Edward Gibbon

  44. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_23
    originally published in six volumes: first, 1776; second-third, 1781; fourth-sixth, 1788—English
    *Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Durant* *Invitation* *Hundred* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Foundation* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Dirda* *Telegraph* *World* *Educated*

  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_23
    1859—English
    *Lubbock* *Eliot* *Classics* *Hundred* *Downs* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Learning* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Reynolds* *Deposit* *Graphic* *Educated*

  47. Herodotus
    Historiē_25
    History
    Fifth Century B.C—Greek

    *Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Durant* *Invitation* *Classics* *Hundred* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Bloom* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Harvard* *World* *Educated*

    • Alexander Hamilton; John Jay; James Madison

  48. The Federalist Papers_11
    originally published 1787-1788 in the Independent Journal, the New-York Packet, and the Daily Advertiser—English
    *Hundred* *Downs* *Read* *Van Doren* *Adler* *Good* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *Kanigel* *Trinity* *Great*

  49. Cornelius Tacitus

  50. Annales_11
    written First Century—Latin
    *Classics* *France* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Adler* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity*

  51. Thucydides

  52. History of the Peloponnesian War_23
    early Fifth Century B.C—Greek
    *Lubbock* *Durant* *Classics* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Utne* *Great* *Telegraph* *World* *Educated*

  53. Alexis de Tocqueville

  54. De la Démocratie en Amérique_12
    Democracy in America
    originally published in two volumes, 1835 and 1840—French

    *Downs* *Read* *Adler* *Magill* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *Trinity* *Great* *Telegraph* *Reynolds* *Educated*

  55. Frederick Lewis Allen

  56. Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920s_1
    1931—English
    *Kanigel*

  57. Paul de Kruif
    Microbe Hunters_1
    1926—English
    *Kanigel*

    • Marcus Tullius Cicero

  58. Selected works_3
    First Century B C—Latin
    *Read* *Kanigel* *Trinity*

  59. Margaret Mead

  60. Coming of Age in Samoa: A Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilization_2
    1928—English
    *Fadiman* *Kanigel*

  61. Henry Beston

  62. The Outermost House_1
    1928—English
    *Kanigel*

  63. Francis F Beirne

  64. The Amiable Baltimoreans_1
    1951—English
    *Kanigel*

  65. Aaron Copland

  66. What to Listen for in Music_1
    1939; edited lectures—English
    *Kanigel*

  67. C W Ceram

  68. Götter, Gräber und Gelehrte_1
    Gods, Graves, and Scholars
    1949—German

    *Kanigel*

  69. Hans Selye

  70. The Stress of Life_1
    1956—English
    *Kanigel*

  71. Edith Hamilton

  72. The Greek Way_1
    1930—English
    *Kanigel*

  73. Daniel Defoe

  74. 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_6
    originally anonymously published 1722—English
    *Classics* *Van Doren* *Bloom* *Kanigel* *Dirda* *Newman*

  75. Aldous Huxley

  76. The Doors of Perception_2
    1954—English
    *Kanigel* *Graphic*

  77. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  78. Die Wahlverwandtschaften_3
    Elective Affinities
    1809—German

    *Bloom* *Kanigel* *Trinity*

  79. George Orwell

  80. Homage to Catalonia_2
    1938—English
    *Kanigel* *Deposit*

  81. Sigmund Freud

  82. Das Unbehagen in der Kultur_7
    Civilization and Its Discontents
    1930—German

    *Classics* *Downs* *Read* *Van Doren* *Adler* *Fadiman* *Kanigel*

  83. Sinclair Lewis

  84. Arrowsmith_3
    1925—English
    *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Kanigel*

  85. Mark Twain

  86. Roughing It_2
    1872—English
    *Kanigel* *Newman*

  87. Arthur Conan Doyle

  88. A Study in Scarlet_6
    originally published 1887 in Beeton's Christmas Annual—English
    *Hundred* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Kanigel* *Taylor* *Telegraph*

  89. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  90. The Song of Hiawatha_2
    1855—English
    *Recommended* *Kanigel*

  91. Abraham Cahan

  92. The Rise of David Levinsky_2
    1917—English
    *Bloom* *Kanigel*

  93. Joseph Hergesheimer

  94. Java Head_1
    1918—English
    *Kanigel*

  95. R Austin Freeman

  96. Mr. Pottermack's Oversight_1
    1930—English
    *Kanigel*

  97. John Hersey

  98. A Bell for Adano_2
    1944—English
    *Fadiman* *Kanigel*

  99. Ray Bradbury

  100. The Martian Chronicles_2
    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 1997—English
    *Recommended* *Kanigel*

  101. Laura Z Hobson

  102. Gentleman's Agreement_1
    1947—English
    *Kanigel*

  103. Marcus Vitruvius Pollio

  104. De Architectura_2
    Ten Books on Architecture
    written ca. 15 B C—Latin

    *Downs* *Kanigel*

  105. Giorgio Vasari

  106. Le Vite de' Più Eccellenti Pittori, Scultori, e Architettori da Cimabue Insino a' Tempi Nostri_5
    The Lives of the Most Excellent Italian Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
    1550; expanded 1568—Italian

    *Durant* *Ward* *Bloom* *Kanigel* *Telegraph*

  107. John Ruskin

  108. The Seven Lamps of Architecture_1
    1849—English
    *Kanigel*

  109. Kenneth Clark

  110. The Nude: A Study in Ideal Form_1
    1956; edited 1953 lectures—English
    *Kanigel*

  111. William Strunk, Jr.

  112. The Elements of Style_1
    1919; revised 1935, as The Elements and Practice of Composition; revised and expanded 1959 by E B White—English
    *Kanigel*

  113. Virginia Woolf

  114. A Room of One's Own_4
    1929—English
    *Kanigel* *Smart* *Deposit* *Newman*

  115. H L Mencken

  116. The American Language: An Inquiry Into the Development of English in the United States_1
    1919—English
    *Kanigel*

  117. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

  118. Le Petit Prince_4
    1943—French
    *Van Doren* *Kanigel* *Guardian* *Deposit*

  119. Henry Adams

  120. The Education of Henry Adams_11
    1918—English
    *Durant* *Invitation* *Hundred* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Foundation* *Fadiman* *Kanigel*

  121. Edwin S Abbott

  122. Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions_1
    originally published under the pseudonym, A Square, 1884—English
    *Kanigel*

  123. Zora Neale Hurston

  124. Their Eyes Were Watching God_7
    1937—English
    *Bloom* *Kanigel* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Dirda* *Zane* *Harvard*

  125. G H Hardy

  126. A Mathematician's Apology_2
    1940—English
    *Adler* *Kanigel*

  127. Isadora Duncan

  128. My Life_1
    1928—English
    *Kanigel*

  129. Thomas S Kuhn

  130. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions_5
    1962—English
    *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Utne* *Great*

    --
  131. Sha Naqba Imuru_11

  132. The Epic of Gilgamesh; He Who Saw the Deep
    Eighteenth-Tenth centuries B.C—Sumerian; Akkadian

    *Rexroth* *Ward* *Magill* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *Norway* *Great* *Graphic* *Educated*

  133. Augustine of Hippo

  134. Confessionum Libri Tredecim_23
    The Confessions of St. Augustine
    written 397-98—Latin

    *Lubbock* *Eliot* *Classics* *Hundred* *France* *Downs* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *O'Hear* *GlobeMail* *Telegraph* *Reynolds* *Newman* *Educated*

  135. Gustav Meyrink

  136. Der Golem_1
    originally published serially 1913-14 in Die Weissen Blätter—German
    *Kanigel*

  137. W Somerset Maugham

  138. The Razor's Edge_2
    1944—English
    *Kanigel* *Harvard*

  139. Thomas Merton

  140. The Seven Storey Mountain_2
    1948—English
    *Kanigel* *Educated*

  141. John Gunther
    Death Be Not Proud_1
    1949—English
    *Kanigel*

    --
    • Ecclesiastes_5

  142. part of the Bible—Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek
    *Eliot* *Durant* *Classics* *Foundation* *Kanigel*

  143. James Hilton
    Lost Horizon_1
    1933—English
    *Kanigel*

    • Vyasa

  144. Bhagavad Gita_8
    part of the Mahabharata; ca. Ninth Century B C-Fourth Century—Sanskrit
    *Eliot* *Rexroth* *Ward* *Oriental* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *Great* *Zane*

  145. Elie Wiesel

  146. Un di Velt Hot Geshvign_1
    1954; abridged French translation, entitled La Nuit, published 1958; alternate abridged version, in English, entitled Night, published 1960—Yiddish
    *Kanigel*

  147. William James

  148. The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature, Being the Gifford Lectures on Natural Religion Delivered at Edinburgh in 1901-1902_6
    1902; edited lectures—English
    *Classics* *Read* *Bloom* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *Great*