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*

Frederic Raphael and Kenneth McLeish, List of Books [1981]

47 entries: 40 monographical, 7 otherwise

Unranked—arranged alphabetically by author, except no. 3, which appears to have been mistakenly placed ahead of no. 4

This list is just a small part of List of Books, which, despite its title, consists of many short lists, defined by genre and other categorizations. However, the editors each chose 25 books to take with them on a "desert island holiday" (not so morbid as the common tendency to assume that the listmaker is stranded on a desert island). With a few choices overlapping, this list is the result.

  1. Aeschylus

  2. Oresteia_19
    The House of Atreus
    458 B C—Greek

    *Lubbock* *Eliot* *Invitation* *Classics* *Downs* *Rexroth* *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Trinity* *Great* *Zane* *Newman*

  3. Edward Albee

  4. Who's Afraid of Virgina Woolf?_2
    1962—English
    *List* *Recommended*

  5. David Attenborough

  6. Life on Earth_1
    1975; book accompanying television series of the same name—English
    *List*

  7. Aristophanes

  8. Thesmophoriazousai_5
    411 B C—Greek
    *Classics* *List* *Ward* *Adler* *Trinity*

  9. Jane Austen

  10. Emma_11
    originally anonymously published 1815—English
    *Read* *List* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Guardian* *Zane* *Newman*

  11. Hector Berlioz

  12. Memoires de Hector Berlioz Comprenant ses Voyages en Italie, en Allemagne, en Russie et en Angleterre_2
    published in part in Journal des Débats and Le Monde Illustré; in its entirety, 1865—English
    *Classics* *List*

  13. Kenneth Burke
    A Grammar of Motives_1
    1945—English
    *List*

    • Lord Byron

    Letters and journals of Lord Byron_1
    early Nineteenth Century—English
    *List*

    • Constantine Cavafy

  14. Collected Poems_1
    1975—Greek
    *List*

  15. Dante
    La Divina Commedia_33
    The Divine Comedy
    originally entitled La Commedia; written ca. 1308-21—Italian

    *Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Eliot* *Powys* *Durant* *Invitation* *Classics* *France* *Downs* *Zulli* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Norway* *Great* *O'Hear* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Telegraph* *Harvard* *Reynolds* *World* *Newman* *Graphic*

    • John Donne

  16. Poems_8
    early Seventeenth Century—English
    *List* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Good* *Bloom* *Trinity* *Newman* *Educated*

  17. Fyodor Dostoevsky

  18. Brat'â Karamazovy_23
    The Brothers Karamazov
    originally published serially 1880 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian

    *Powys* *Durant* *Classics* *Hundred* *France* *Rexroth* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Trinity* *Norway* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Smart* *Reynolds* *World* *Newman*

  19. Gerard Durrell

  20. My Family and Other Animals_1
    1956—English
    *List*

  21. Lawrence Durrell

  22. Reflections on a Marine Venus_2
    1953—English
    *List* *Ward*

  23. George Eliot

  24. Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life _22
    originally published serially Dec. 1871-Dec. 1872—English
    *Baldwin* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Trinity* *Norway* *Great* *Guardian* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Telegraph* *Harvard* *Deposit* *Newman* *Graphic*

  25. T S Eliot

  26. Four Quartets_10
    originally published in four volumes: Burnt Norton, in Collected Poems 1909-1935, 1936; East Coker, in the New English Weekly, 1940; The Dry Salvages, in the New English Weekly, 1941; Little Gidding, in the New English Weekly, 1942—English
    *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Trinity* *GlobeMail* *Newman*

  27. Gustave Flaubert

  28. 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*

  29. Ford Madox Ford

  30. Parade's End_4
    originally published in four volumes: Some Do Not..., 1924; No More Parades, 1925; A Man Could Stand Up, 1926; Last Post, 1928—English
    *Rexroth* *List* *Bloom* *Zane*

  31. James George Frazer

  32. The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion_6
    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; Durant and the Jasper Lee Company list the 1922 abridged edition, while Good Reading lists the 1959—English
    *Durant* *Hundred* *Downs* *List* *Good* *Dirda*

  33. Edward Gibbon

  34. 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*

  35. Joseph Heller

  36. Catch-22_10
    1961—English
    *List* *Learning* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Campbell* *Guardian* *Zane* *Smart* *Harvard* *Deposit*

  37. David Hockney

  38. David Hockney_1
    1976—English
    *List*

  39. Homer

  40. Odýsseia_36
    The Odyssey
    ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B.C; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Robert Fitzgerald's English translation—Greek

    *Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Eliot* *Powys* *Classics* *Hundred* *France* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Zulli* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Norway* *Great* *O'Hear* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Smart* *Telegraph* *Harvard* *Reynolds* *Newman* *Graphic* *Educated*

  41. Michael Innes

  42. Operation Pax_1
    The Paper Thunderbolt
    1951—English

    *List*

  43. Randall Jarrell

  44. Pictures From an Institution_1
    1954—English
    *List*

  45. Ben Jonson

  46. The Alchemist_8
    1610—English
    *Eliot* *Classics* *Rexroth* *List* *Ward* *Magill* *Recommended* *Newman*

  47. Franz Kafka

  48. Der Prozess_16
    The Trial
    1925—German

    *France* *Read* *List* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Norway* *Great* *Zane* *Smart* *Newman* *Educated*

  49. John McCabe

  50. Laurel and Hardy_1
    1975; edited by Al Kilgore; includes filmography by Richard W Bann—English
    *List*

  51. Mary McCarthy

  52. The Groves of Academe_1
    1951—English
    *List*

  53. Michel de Montaigne

  54. 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*

  55. Vladimir Nabokov

  56. Pale Fire_8
    1962—English
    *List* *Ward* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Zane* *Smart* *Harvard*

  57. Friedrich Nietzsche
    Also Sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen_15
    Thus Spake Zarathustra
    originally published in four volumes, 1883-5—German

    *Powys* *Durant* *Hundred* *France* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Magill* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *World* *Graphic*

    • George Orwell

  58. Collected Essays_2
    1961—English
    *List* *Bloom*

  59. Blaise Pascal

  60. Pensées_20
    Thoughts
    1669—French

    *Lubbock* *Eliot* *Invitation* *Classics* *France* *Zulli* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Great* *O'Hear* *Reynolds*

  61. Marcel Proust

  62. À la Recherche du Temps Perdu_17
    In Search of Lost Time; In Remembrance of Things Past
    originally published in seven volumes, two of which originally published as two books each, 1913-27—French

    *Classics* *France* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Magill* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Trinity* *Utne* *Norway* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Telegraph* *Newman*

  63. François Rabelais

  64. La Vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel_22
    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; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Thomas Urquhart and Peter Motteux's English translation—French
    *Powys* *Durant* *Invitation* *Hundred* *France* *Rexroth* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Utne* *Norway* *Great* *Smart* *Newman*

  65. Jean Renoir

  66. Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Mon Père_1
    Renoir, My Father
    1962—French

    *List*

  67. Steven Runciman
    A History of the Crusades_2
    1951—English
    *List* *Telegraph*

    • William Shakespeare

    Complete works_4
    late Sixteenth-early Seventeenth centuries—English
    *Zulli* *List* *Fadiman* *Guardian*

    • Isaac Bashevis Singer

  68. A Crown of Feather and Other Stories_1
    1973—Yiddish
    *List*

  69. Stendhal

  70. Le Chartreuse de Parme_12
    The Charterhouse of Parma
    1839—French

    *Classics* *France* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Trinity* *Zane* *Newman*

  71. Wilfred Thesiger

  72. The Marsh Arabs_1
    1964—English
    *List*

  73. Thucydides

  74. 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*

  75. Leo Tolstoy
    Voyna i Mir"_25
    War and Peace
    originally entitled 1805, published in part, 1865 and 1867; retitled and published in its entirety, 1869—Russian

    *Durant* *Invitation* *Hundred* *France* *Rexroth* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Norway* *Guardian* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *World* *Newman*

    • François Villon

  76. Poems_3
    Fifteenth Century—French
    *List* *Ward* *Newman*

  77. Eric Walter White

  78. Stravinsky: The Composer and His Works_1
    1966—English
    *List*

  79. Ludwig Wittgenstein

  80. Philosophische Untersuchungen_3
    Philosophical Investigations
    1953—German

    *List* *Adler* *SeymourSmith*