Frank N. Magill, Masterpieces of World Literature [1989]
281 entries: 251 monographical, 30 otherwise
Unrankedarranged alphabetically by work
Masterpieces of World Literature was both a revival and culmination of Magill's earlier Masterplots series, which seemed to have set the template for student-oriented plot summaries and brief analyses of literary works published in pamphlet form, a market later dominated by Cliff's Notes. Masterplots continues on in the form of a large multi-volume reference set, the third edition published in 1996, the fourth in 2010, as well as several smaller thematic volumes, such as Women's Literature, Christian Literature, British and Commonwealth Fiction, and Nonfiction Series, that presumbly overlap with the general set. In the Nineties came the dual multi-volume books, Magill's Survey of World Literature and Magill's Survey of American Literature. These two series do not meet the Greater Books criteria for inclusion. Not only do they present a larger, and thus less discerning, selection of books than found in Masterpieces, but they are organized by author, not literary work, with each author having two to four works analyzed; that is, more like a directory of authors; a reference work rather than a refined selection/ canon/ reading plan. In this sense, they are similar to several lists noted on the Excluded Lists page, such as Hutchinson's The World's Best Books, Homer to Hemingway and What to Read by English and Pope.
Five of the entries by "unknown" in this list ('Hercules and the Twelve Labors', 'Jason and the Golden Fleece', 'Orpheus and Eurydice', 'Reynard the Fox', and 'Robin Hood's Adventures) are not specific literary works. Rather, Magill and his collaborators describe the story, or fable, more broadly, not emphasizing a specific work. Versions of the stories, or works in which the stories play a role, are mentioned, such as Ovid's Metamorphoses and Euripides' Alcestis for Hercules and the Twelve Labors. For Jason and the Golden Fleece, it is noted that Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica gave the myth its first "formal expanded treatment." "The first known compilation of prose and poetry of the Robin Hood legend came in 1490 with the publication of the Lytel Geste of Robin Hood, by Wynkyn de Worde, a noted British printer." And, "the longest and most familiar version of [Orpheus and Eurydice] is found in Ovid's Metamorphoses (c. A. D. 8), and Ovid may well have been inspired by Vergil's less florid account, carefully placed at the dramatic end of his Georgics (c. 37-29 B C)." Furthermore, "this myth became the subject of the first secular drama in vernacular, Orfeo (1480; Orpheus), composed in the era of the Medicis by Angelo Poliziano (Politian). In 1600, the first Italian opera, Euridice, was composed. Christoph Gluck's Orfeo ed Eurydice (1762) is considered the first "modern" opera for its balance of music and tragic drama." None of these works are included in the list here.
- William Faulkner
Absalom, Absalom!
1936English
Mark Twain
- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn>
1884English
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1876English
- Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)
Aeneid
First Century B CLatin
- Thomas Paine
The Age of Reason; Being an Investigation of True and Fabulous Theology
originally published in three volumes: 1794, 1795, and 1807English
- Ben Jonson
The Alchemist
1610English
- Lewis Carroll
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
1865English
- William Shakespeare
All's Well That Ends Well
ca. 1606-08English
- Henry James
The Ambassadors
originally published serially 1903 in the North American ReviewEnglish
Fables
Nineteenth CenturyDanish
- Leo Tolstoy
Anna Karenina
published in part serially 1873-7 in Rússkij Véstnik; in its entirety, 1877Russian
- Sophocles
Antigone
ca. 441 B CGreek
- William Shakespeare
Antony and Cleopatra
ca. 1606-08English
--
- Kitab alf Laylah Wa-Laylah
The Thousand and One Nights; The Arabian Nights
Ninth-Fifteenth centuriesArabic
- John Milton
Areopagitica; A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, to the Parliament of England
1644English
- Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Ars Poetica
ca. 10-8 B CLatin
- William Faulkner
As I Lay Dying
1930English
- William Shakespeare
As You Like It
1603English
- Benjamin Franklin
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, 1868English
William Butler Yeats
- Reveries Over Childhood and Youth
1915; included in The Autobiography of William Butler Yeats, Consisting of "Reveries Over Childhood and Youth," "The Trembling of the Veil," and "Dramatis Personae", 1938; and Autobiogarphies, 1955EnglishB C
- The Trembling of the Veil
1922; included in The Autobiography of William Butler Yeats, Consisting of "Reveries Over Childhood and Youth," "The Trembling of the Veil," and "Dramatis Personae", 1938; and Autobiogarphies, 1955EnglishB C
- The Bounty of Sweden: A Meditation, and a Lecture Delivered Before the Royal Swedish Academy, and Certain Notes
1925; included in Autobiogarphies, 1955English
- Estrangement: Being Some Fifty Thoughts From a Diary Kept by William Butler Yeats in the Year Nineteen Hundred and Nine
1926; included in Autobiogarphies, 1955English
- The Death of Synge and Other Passages From an Old Diary
1928; included in Autobiogarphies, 1955English
- Dramatis Personae
1935; included in The Autobiography of William Butler Yeats, Consisting of "Reveries Over Childhood and Youth," "The Trembling of the Veil," and "Dramatis Personae", 1938; and Autobiogarphies, 1955EnglishB C
- Sinclair Lewis
Babbitt
1922English
- Euripides
Bakchai
The Bacchae
405 B CGreek
- Anthony Trollope
Barchester Towers
1857English
'Benito Cereno'
originally published serially 1855 in Putnam's Monthly; revised for inclusion in The Piazza Tales, 1856English
--
- Beowulf
ca. Eighth-Eleventh centuriesEnglish
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Jenseits von Gut und Böse: Vorspiel Einer Philosophie der Zukunft
Beyond Good and Evil
1886German
- Herman Melville
Billy Budd, Foretopman
Billy Budd, Sailor (An Inside Narrative)
1924English
- Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions
originally published in two volumes, 1817English
- Aristophanes
Ornithes
The Birds
414 B CGreek
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Brat'â Karamazovy
The Brothers Karamazov
originally published serially 1880 in Rússkij VéstnikRussian
- Thomas Mann
Buddenbrooks
1901German
- Voltaire
Candide, ou L'Optimisme
1759French
- Geoffrey Chaucer
Canterbury Tales
1478English
- Ezra Pound
Cantos
published in part in Poetry, Jun.-Aug. 1917; the Criterion, Jul. 1923; the Transatlantic Review, Jan. 1924; and in the following volumes: The Fourth Canto, 1919; A Draft of XVI Cantos, 1925; A Draft of Cantos 17-27, 1928; A Draft of XXX Cantos, 1930; Eleven New Cantos XXXI-XLI, 1934; The Fifth Decad of Cantos, 1937; Cantos LII-LXXI, 1940; The Pisan Cantos, 1948; Seventy Cantos, 1950; Section: Rock-Drill, 85-95 de los Cantares, 1955; Thrones: 96-109 de los Cantares, 1959; Drafts and Fragments of Cantos CX-CXVII, 1968; in its entirety, revised and expanded, 1987English
- Alexander Pushkin
Kapitanskaâ Dočka
The Captain's Daughter
originally published 1836 in SovremennikRussian
- Franz Kafka
Das Schloss
The Castle
1926German
- Pierre Corneille
Le Cid
1637French
Collected Poems 1934-1952
1952; includes 18 Poems [1934]; Twenty-five Poems [1936]; The Map of Love [1939]; Deaths and Entrances [1946] (excluding 'Paper and Stick', adding 'Once Below a Time'); In Country Sleep and Other Poems [1952]English
- 18 Poems
1934English
- Twenty-five Poems
1936English
- The Map of Love
1939English
- Deaths and Entrances
1946; published in part, 1943, as New PoemsEnglishEnglish
- In Country Sleep and Other Poems
1952English
- William Shakespeare
The Comedy of Errors
1594English
- Augustine of Hippo
Confessionum Libri Tredecim
The Confessions of St. Augustine
written 397-98Latin
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Les Confessions
1782French
- Alexandre Dumas
Le Comte de Monte-Cristo
originally published serially Aug. 1844-Jan. 1846 in Journal des DébatsFrench
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Prestuplénie i Nakazániye
Crime and Punishment
originally published serially Jan.-Dec. 1866 in Rússkij VéstnikRussian
- Immanuel Kant
Kritik der Reinen Vernunft
Critique of Pure Reason
1781; revised 1787German
- Edmond Rostand
Cyrano de Bergerac
1897French
- Longus
Daphnis kai Chloē
Daphnis and Chloe
Second CenturyGreek
- Charles Dickens
The Personal History, Adventures, Experience and Observation of David Copperfield the Younger of Blunderstone Rookery (Which He Never Meant to Publish on Any Account)
originally published serially May 1849-Nov. 1850English
- Nikolai Gogol
Mërtvyâ Duši
Dead Souls
1842Russian
- Willa Cather
Death Comes for the Archbishop
1927English
- Thomas Mann
Der Tod in Venedig
Death in Venice
1911German
- Giovanni Boccaccio
Il Decameron, Cognominato Prencipe Galeotto
ca. 1351-53Italian
- Alexis de Tocqueville
De la Démocratie en Amérique
Democracy in America
originally published in two volumes, 1835 and 1840French
Dialogues
early Fourth Century B CGreek
- Dante
La Divina Commedia
The Divine Comedy
originally entitled La Commedia; written ca. 1308-21Italian
- Christopher Marlowe
The Tragical History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus
1592English
Henrik Ibsen
- Et Dukkehjem
A Doll's House
1879Norwegian
- Lord Byron (George Gordon, Lord Byron)
Don Juan
originally published in six volumes: Jul. 1819; Aug. 1821; Jul. 1823; Aug. 1823; Dec. 1823; Mar. 1824English
- Miguel de Cervantes
El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
Don Quixote
originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615Spanish
- Bram Stoker
Dracula
1897English
"Dramatic Monologues and Lyrics"
Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
- Cáo Xuěqín (Mengruan) (Ts'ao Hsueh-ch'in)
Hóng Lóu Mèng
The Dream of the Red Chamber; The Story of the Stone
1791Chinese
- Rainer Maria Rilke
Duineser Elegien
The Duino Elegies
1923German
- John Steinbeck
East of Eden
1952English
- Henry Adams
The Education of Henry Adams
1918English
- Euripides
Ēlektra
Electra
written ca. 413 B CGreek
- Jane Austen
Emma
originally anonymously published 1815English
- Henrik Ibsen
En Folkefiende
An Enemy of the People
1882Norwegian
- David Hume
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
1748English
--
- Sha Naqba Imuru
The Epic of Gilgamesh; He Who Saw the Deep
Eighteenth-Tenth centuries B CSumerian; Akkadian
- Michel de Montaigne
Les Essais
Essays
originally published in three volumes: 1580, 1588, and 1595French
- John Locke
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
1689English
- Alexander Pope
Essay on Man
1734English
Essays
Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
Essays
Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
- Edith Wharton
Ethan Frome
1911English
- Baruch Spinoza
Ethica, Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata
Ethics
1677Latin
- Alexander Pushkin
Evgénij Onegin
Eugene Onegin
published in part serially 1825-32; in its entirety, 1833; revised 1837Russian
- Honoré de Balzac
Eugénie Grandet
1833French
'The Eve of St. Agnes'
originally published in Lamia, Isabella, The Eve of St. Agnes, and Other Poems, 1820EnglishB C
--
- The Somonyng of Everyman
late Fifteenth CenturyEnglish
- William Faulkner
A Fable
1954English
- Edmund Spenser
The Faerie Queene
originally published in two volumes, 1590 and 1596English
'The Fall of the House of Usher'
originally published Sep. 1839 in Burton's Gentleman's Magazine; revised for inclusion in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1840English
- Ernest Hemingway
A Farewell to Arms
1929English
- August Strindberg
Fadren
written 1887Swedish
- Ivan Turgenev
Otcy i Deti
Fathers and Children; Fathers and Sons
originally published Feb. 1862 in Rússkij VéstnikRussian
- 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
- Charles Baudelaire
Les Fleurs du Mal
The Flowers of Evil
1857French
- Ernest Hemingway
For Whom the Bell Tolls
1940English
- T S Eliot
Four Quartets
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, 1942English
- Mary Shelley
Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus
originally anonymously published 1818English
- 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
- Émile Zola
Germinal
originally published serially Apr. 1884-Jan. 1885 in Gil BlasFrench
- Henry James
The Golden Bowl
1904English
- Pearl Buck
The Good Earth
1931English
- John Steinbeck
The Grapes of Wrath
1939English
- Charles Dickens
Great Expectations
originally published serially Dec. 1860-Aug. 1861 in All the Year RoundEnglish
- F Scott Fitzgerald
The Great Gatsby
1925English
- 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
- William Shakespeare
Hamlet
1602English
- Joseph Conrad
Heart of Darkness
originally published serially Feb.-Apr. 1899 in Blackwood'sEnglish
- Henrik Ibsen
Hedda Gabler
1890Norwegian
William Shakespeare
- The First Part of Henry IV
1597English
- The Second Part of Henry IV
1600English
- Henry V
1599English
--
- "Hercules and His Twelve Labors"
unspecified selection
- Herodotus
Historiē
History
Fifth Century B CGreek
- 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
- Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War
early Fifth Century B CGreek
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
The House of Seven Gables
1851English
- Victor Hugo
Notre-Dame de Paris
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
1831French
- Knut Hamsun
Sult
Hunger
published in part, 1888, in Ny Jord; in its entirety, 1890Norwegian
- Homer
Iliad
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B CGreek
- Oscar Wilde
The Importance of Being Earnest
1895English
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson
In Memoriam A H H
1849English
- Sigmund Freud
Die Traumdeutung
The Interpretation of Dreams
1899German
- Walter Scott
Ivanhoe
originally anonymously published 1819English
- Charlotte Brontë
Jane Eyre: An Autobiography
originally published under the pseudonym, Currer Bell, 1847English
--
- "Jason and the Golden Fleece"
unspecified selection
- Thomas Hardy
Jude the Obscure
originally published serially Dec. 1894-Nov. 1895 in Harper's New Monthly MagazineEnglish
- William Shakespeare
Julius Caesar
1599English
- Karl Marx
Das Kapital, Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie
originally published in three volumes: 1867, 1885, and 1894German
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Kidnapped
originally published serially May-Jul. 1886 in Young FolksEnglish
- Rudyard Kipling
Kim
originally published serially Dec. 1900-Oct. 1901 in McClure's and Jan. 1901-Oct. 1901 in Cassell'sEnglishB C
- William Shakespeare
King Lear
1606English
- James Fenimore Cooper
The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757
1826English
--
- La Vida de Lazarillo de Tormes y de sus Fortunas y Adversidades
1554Spanish
- Walt Whitman
Leaves of Grass
1855; expanded and revised through ninth edition, 1892English
'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow'
part of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., published serially Jun. 1819-Jul. 1820, expanded 1848
- Thomas Hobbes
Leviathan or, The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil
1651English
- Pedro Calderón de la Barca
La Vida es Sueño
Life Is a Dream
1635Spanish
- James Boswell
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
1791English
- Mark Twain
Life on the Mississippi
1883English
'Ligeia'
originally published in the American Museum, 18 Sep. 1838; revised for inclusion in Tales of the Grotesque and Arabesque, 1840; Phantasy Pieces, 1842; and Tales by Edgar Allan Poe, 1845, the New York World, Feb. 1845; and the Broadway Journal, Sep. 1845English
"Lyric Poetry"
early Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
"Lyric Poetry"
Seventeenth CenturyEnglish
- Aristophanes
Lysistrate
Lysistrata
411 B CGreek
- William Shakespeare
Macbeth
ca. 1607English
- Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary
originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de ParisFrench
- Thomas Mann
Der Zauberberg
The Magic Mountain
1924German
- Vyasa
Mahabharata
includes Bhagavad Gita; ca. Ninth Century B C-Fourth CenturySanskrit
- Sinclair Lewis
Main Street: The Story of Carol Kennicott
1920English
- William Shakespeare
Measure for Measure
1604English
- Euripides
Mēdeia
Medea
431 B CGreek
- Marcus Aurelius
Ta Eis Heauton
Meditations
written 161-80Greek
- William Shakespeare
The Merchant of Venice
ca. 1596-98English
- Ovid
Metamorphoseon
Metamorphoses
8Latin
- George Eliot
Middlemarch: A Study of Provincial Life
originally published serially Dec. 1871-Dec. 1872English
- William Shakespeare
A Midsummer Night's Dream
ca. 1595-1600English
- Molière
Le Misanthrope ou l'Atrabilaire Amoureux
The Misanthrope
1666French
- Victor Hugo
Les Misérables
1862French
- August Strindberg
Fröken Julie
Miss Julie
written 1888Swedish
- Virginia Woolf
Mrs. Dalloway
published in part, Jul. 1923, as 'Mrs. Dalloway in Bond Street', in the Dial; in its entirety, 1925English B C
- Herman Melville
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale
1851English
- Thomas Malory
Le Morte d'Arthur
1485; revised through sixth edition, 1634English
- Eugene O'Neill
Mourning Becomes Electra
1931English
- William Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing
ca. 1598-99English
- Willa Cather
My Ántonia
1918English
- Jean-Paul Sartre
La Nausée
Nausea
1938French
- Francis Bacon
Nova Atlantis
1624English
--
- Nibelungenlied
ca. Twelfth-Thirteenth centuriesGerman
- Charles Dickens
The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby
originally published serially Mar. 1838-Sep. 1839 under the pseudonym, BozEnglish
- George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four
1949English
- Joseph Conrad
Nostromo
originally published serially 1904 in T P's WeeklyEnglish
'Hymn to Aphrodite'
lone complete poem among the fragments of the author's work; late Seventh-early Sixth centuries B CGreek
- Homer
Odýsseia
The Odyssey
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B CGreek
Sophocles
- Oidipous epi Kolōnō
Oedipus at Colonus
401 B CGreek
- Oidipous Tyrannos
Oedipus Rex; Oedipus the King
ca. 429 B CGreek
- Ernest Hemingway
The Old Man and the Sea
1952English
- Arnold Bennett
The Old Wives' Tale
1908English
- John Stuart Mill
On Liberty
1859English
- Titus Lucretius Carus
De Rerum Natura
On the Nature of Things
First Century B CLatin
- Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life
1859English
Speeches
First Century B CLatin
- Aeschylus
Oresteia
The House of Atreus
458 B CGreek
- Ludovico Ariosto
Orlando Furioso
published in part, 1516; revised 1521; published in its entirety, 1532Italian
--
unspecified selectionB C
- William Shakespeare
Othello
ca. 1604English
'Šinel''
'The Overcoat'
1842Russian
- John Milton
Paradise Lost
1667; revised 1674English
- Wolfram Von Eschenbach
Parzival
ca. early Thirteenth CenturyGerman
- E M Forster
A Passage to India
1924English
- Anatole France
L'Île des Pingouins
1908French
- Blaise Pascal
Pensées
Thoughts
1669French
- Honoré de Balzac
Le Père Goriot
Father Goriot
originally published serially Dec. 1834-Feb. 1835 in Revue de ParisFrench
- Jean Racine
Phèdre
1677French
- Charles Dickens
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club
The Pickwick Papers
originally published serially Apr. 1836-Nov. 1837 under the pseudonym, BozEnglish
- John Bunyan
The Pilgrim's Progress From This World to That Which Is to Come
1678English
- James Fenimore Cooper
The Pioneers, or The Sources of the Susquehanna; A Descriptive Tale
1823English
- Albert Camus
La Peste
The Plague
1947French
--
- El Cantar de Mio Cid
written ca. 1195-1207early Iberian Romance language
- Aristotle
Peri Poiêtikês
De Poetica; Poetics
Fourth Century B CGreek
Poems
Seventeenth CenturyJapanese
Poems
late Eighteenth-early Nineteenth centuriesEnglish
Poems
Nineteenth CenturyEnglish
Poems
early Seventeenth CenturyEnglish
Poems
Twentieth CenturyEnglish
Poems
late Nineteenth-early Twentieth centuriesEnglish
- 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
- James Joyce
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
originally published serially Feb. 1914-Sep. 1915, in the EgoistEnglish
- Fyodor Dostoevsky
Besy
Demons; The Devils; The Possessed
1872Russian
- William James
Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking
1907English
- William Wordsworth
The Prelude or, Growth of the Poet's Mind: An Autobiographical Poem
1850; earlier versions written 1799 and 1805English
- Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice
originally anonymously published 1813English
- Niccolò Machiavelli
Il Principe
The Prince
1532Italian
- Aeschylus
Promētheus Desmōtēs
Prometheus Bound
disputed authorship; Fifth Century B CGreek
- Percy Bysshe Shelley
Prometheus Unbound
1820English
- Valmiki
Ramayana
ca. Fifth-Second centuries B CSanskrit
- Alexander Pope
The Rape of the Lock
originally anonymously published 1712 in Linot's Miscellany; expanded 1714 and 1717English
- Stendhal
Le Rouge et le Noir, Chronique du XIXe Siècle
The Red and the Black
1830French
- Stephen Crane
The Red Badge of Courage
published in part serially Dec. 1894 in the Philadelphia Press; in its entirety, 1895English
- Marcel Proust
À la Recherche du Temps Perdu
In Search of Lost Time; In Remembrance of Things Past
originally published in seven volumes, two of which originally published as two books each, 1913-27French
- Plato
Politeia
The Republic
early Fourth Century B CGreek
- Thomas Hardy
The Return of the Native
originally published serially Jan.-Dec. 1878 in Belgravia, the Magazine of Fashion and AmusementEnglish
--
unspecified selection
William Shakespeare
- Richard II
1597English
- Richard III
ca. 1592-7English
'The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere'
originally published in Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems, 1798; revised for inclusion in Sibylline Leaves, 1817English
'Rip Van Winkle'
part of The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., published serially Jun. 1819-Jul. 1820, expanded 1848
--
- "Robin Hood's Adventures"
unspecified selectionB C
- Daniel Defoe
The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner
originally anonymously published 1719English
- William Shakespeare
Romeo and Juliet
ca. 1591-97English
- Nathaniel Hawthorne
The Scarlet Letter
1850English
- George Santayana
Scepticism and Animal Faith
1923English
- Oliver Goldsmith
She Stoops to Conquer
1773English
- Sǿren Kierkegaard
Sygdommen til Dǿden
The Sickness Unto Death
originally published under the pseudonym, Anti-Climacus, 1849Danish
- George Eliot
Silas Marner: The Weaver of Raveloe
1861English
--
- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
probably the same author as Pearl (the "Gawain poet" or "Pearl poet"); late Fourteenth CenturyEnglish
--
- La Chanson de Roland
ca. Eleventh CenturyFrench
- Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sonnets From the Portuguese
1850English
- D H Lawrence
Sons and Lovers
1913English
- William Faulkner
The Sound and the Fury
1929English
- Edgar Lee Masters
Spoon River Anthology
1915English
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
1886English
- Thomas Aquinas
Summa Theologiae
Summa Theologica
written 1265-74Latin
- Murasaki Shikibu
Genji Monogatari
The Tale of Genji
ca. early Eleventh CenturyJapanese
- William Shakespeare
The Taming of the Shrew
ca. 1592-94English
- Molière
Tartuffe, ou l'Imposteur
1664French
- William Shakespeare
The Tempest
1611English
- Thomas Hardy
Tess of the d'Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented
published in part serially Jul.-Dec. 1891 in the GraphicEnglish
- Anton Chekhov
Tri Sestry
Three Sisters
1901Russian
- Lewis Carroll
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There
1871English
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Also Sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen
Thus Spake Zarathustra
originally published in four volumes, 1883-5German
- Lucius Annaeus Seneca
Thyestes
First CenturyLatin
- H G Wells
The Time Machine
1895English
- Virginia Woolf
To the Lighthouse
1927 English
- Henry Fielding
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
1749English
- Robert Louis Stevenson
Treasure Island
originally entitled Treasure Island or, The Mutiny of the Hispaniola, published serially 1891-2 in Young Folks under the pseudonym, Captain George NorthEnglish
- Franz Kafka
Der Prozess
The Trial
1925German
- Gottfried Von Strassberg
Tristan
early Thirteenth CenturyGerman
- Laurence Sterne
The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
originally published in nine volumes, 1759-67English
- Euripides
Trōiades
The Trojan Woman
415 B CGreek
- Henry James
The Turn of the Screw
originally published in The Two Magics, with a second novella, Covering End, 1898English
- William Shakespeare
Twelfth Night; or, What You Will
1602English
- Jules Verne
Vingt Mille Lieues Sous les Mers: Tour du Monde Sous-Marin
Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea
1870French
Carl Jung
- Die Beziehungen Zwischen dem Ich und dem Unbewußten
The Relations Between the Ego and the Unconscious
1928; English translation included in Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, 1953German
- Über die Psychologie des Unbewußten
On the Psychology of the Unconscious
1943; English translation included in Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, 1953German
- William Shakespeare
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
ca. 1590-94English
- James Joyce
Ulysses
published in part serially Mar. 1918-Dec. 1920 in the Little Review; in its entirety, 1922English
- Thomas More
Libellus Uere Aureus, nec Minus Salutaris Quam Festivus, de Optimo rei Publicae Statu Deque Nova Insula Utopia
Utopia
1516Latin
- William Makepeace Thackeray
Vanity Fair: A Novel Without a Hero
originally published serially Jan. 1847-Jul. 1848English
- Ben Jonson
Volpone
1606English
- Samuel Beckett
En Attendant Godot
Waiting for Godot
1953French
- Henry David Thoreau
Walden; or, Life in the Woods
1854English
- Leo Tolstoy
Voyna i Mir"
War and Peace
originally entitled 1805, published in part, 1865 and 1867; retitled and published in its entirety, 1869Russian
'The Waste Land'
originally published Oct. 1922 in the CriterionEnglish
- Virginia Woolf
The Waves
1931English
- Adam Smith
An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
1776; revised through third edition, 1784English
- William Shakespeare
The Winter's Tale
ca. 1611English
- Hesiod
Erga kai Hēmerai
Works and Days
ca. Eighth-Seventh centuries B CGreek
- Emily Brontë
Wuthering Heights
originally published 1847 under the pseudonym, Ellis Bell; revised 1850English