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John Mark Reynolds, ed., The Great Books Reader: Excerpts and Essays on the Most Influential Books in Western Civilization [2011]

29 entries: 28 monographical, one otherwise

Unranked—arranged chronologically

Reynolds takes a fresh approach to canon-forming/ reading-course literature in this book: offering excerpts of the works instead of extensive interpretation or summarizing. The selections reflect Reynolds' status as a religious scholar.

  1. Homer

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


  3. Plato

  4. Politeia
    The Republic
    early Fourth Century B C—Greek


  5. Aristotle

  6. Ethika Nikomacheia
    Nicomachean Ethics
    Fourth Century B C—Greek


  7. Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)

  8. Aeneid
    First Century B C—Latin

  9. Augustine of Hippo

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


  11. Boethius

  12. Consolatio Philosophiae
    The Consolation of Philosophy
    written ca. 524—Latin


  13. Thomas Aquinas

  14. Summa Theologiae
    Summa Theologica
    written 1265-74—Latin


  15. Dante

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


  17. Geoffrey Chaucer

  18. Canterbury Tales
    1478—English

  19. Desiderius Erasmus

  20. Stultitiae Laus
    In Praise of Folly
    1511; revised—Latin


  21. John Calvin

  22. Christianae Religionis Institutio
    Institutes of the Christian Religion
    1536; French translation, Institution de la Religion Chrestienne, 1541—Latin


  23. Edmund Spenser

  24. The Faerie Queene
    originally published in two volumes, 1590 and 1596—English

  25. Miguel de Cervantes

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


  27. William Shakespeare

  28. Much Ado About Nothing
    ca. 1598-99—English

  29. René Descartes

  30. Meditationes de Prima Philosophia, in Qua Dei Existentia et Animae Immortalitas Demonstratur
    Meditations on First Philosophy
    1641; French version, Meéeditations Metaphysiques, 1647—Latin


  31. John Milton

  32. Paradise Lost
    1667; revised 1674—English

  33. Blaise Pascal

  34. Pensées
    Thoughts
    1669—French


    John Locke
  35. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
    1689—English

    • Second Treatise [second part of Two Treatises of Government: In the Former, the False Principles, and Foundation of Sir Robert Filmer, and His Followers, Are Detected and Overthrown. The Latter Is an Essay Concerning the True Original, Extent, and End of Civil Government]

  36. complete work originally anonymously published 1689—English

  37. Isaac Newton

  38. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica
    The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
    1687; revised 1713 and 1726—Latin


  39. John Wesley

  40. Sermons
    141 sermons; Eighteenth Century—English

  41. Jane Austen

  42. Pride and Prejudice
    originally anonymously published 1813—English

  43. Alexis de Tocqueville

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


  45. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

  46. Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei
    The Communist Manifesto
    1848—German


  47. Charles Darwin

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

  49. Leo Tolstoy

  50. Anna Karenina
    published in part serially 1873-7 in Rússkij Véstnik; in its entirety, 1877—Russian

  51. Fyodor Dostoevsky

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


  53. Friedrich Nietzsche

  54. Zur Genealogue der Moral: Eine Streitschrift
    On the Genealogy of Morals
    1887—German


  55. G K Chesterton

  56. Orthodoxy
    1908—English