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Martin Seymour-Smith, The 100 Most Influential Books Ever Written: The History of Thought From Ancient Times to Today [1998]

136 entries: 127 monographical, 9 otherwise

Unranked—arranged chronologically

Seymour-Smith's book offers one of the best list of "great books," and perhaps the most provocative. Moreover, the book makes for an excellent read in and of itself. Clifton Fadiman's, also a list-as-book, is a fine read, but Seymour-Smith challenges received wisdom, addresses complex philosophical and scientific issues in depth, and takes the task he sets out—defining the "most influential" of books—very seriously. As with Kanigel's inclusion of Mein Kampf (which Seymour-Smith argues is actually not especially influential), books most humans would not want to read are included. As Seymour-Smith notes in his Introduction, "what is evil has on the whole, though by no means always or unequivocally—a balance is somehow achieved—been more influential than what is, shall we say, better."

Only a few works of fiction are included. Seymour-Smith's explanation of this, again, rests on the question of influence, but he falters in focusing on Gone with the Wind as an example of fiction's deficiency in this regard and in not considering serious countering arguments (we know at least that Harold Bloom, with his notion of Shakespeare's "invention of the human," would disagree). Seymour-Smith argues, "If some women thought they modeled themselves on Scarlet O'Hara [...] then, since Scarlet O'Hara was herself based [...] on a stereotype rather than on a real character, those women would have modeled themselves on another version of that stereotype." First, the term, "real character," is awkward: is he suggesting all non-fiction makes characters out of persons, yet whom remain real? More important, what of fictional characters not based on stereotypes (that is, why did he choose Gone with the Wind as his example)? Also, does he regard poetry, largely ignored here, in a similar way?

The few works of fiction he does include, Seymour-Smith acknowledges, "changed or colored the way in which people, even whole nations—as well as individuals—think of themselves." Ultimately, though, he sees philosophical and religious texts as primary: "Writers of imaginative literature are themselves, in any case, inevitably, initially influenced by a certain sort of predecessor." A supposition fair enough, but again his brief exposition does not satisfy. Such predecessors (Plato, Kant, etc.) "made it their first purpose not to express their personal vision but to determine what kind of a world it is that we live in." But that is precisely what poets and novelists do. If anything, in this day of a glut of non-fiction titles from university presses (even in the liberal arts)—not to mention the post-structuralist, Deconstructionist perspective on philosophical texts, countering their non-personal, objective nature—Seymour-Smith's position is in the minority. Still, the short essays accompanying each entry I have read so far serve as excellent overviews of their many pertinent subjects, and one only has to review the list below to see the breadth of Seymour-Smith's knowledge.

Unlike Van Doren's, Fadiman's, Dirda's, and Newman's list-as-book projects, in his explication of each choice Seymour-Smith does not recommend other works; when others are mentioned, they are meant to explain the author's overall work or context. In a few instances, Seymour-Smith does suggest that other works are superior. For example, the Evgeny Zamyatin novel We "is far above even Nineteen Eighty-Four at an imaginative level," but he is not satisfied with its translations to English. He acknowledges that Thoreau's Walden might be as important as 'Civil Disobedience' "in the long run"; Jan Amos Komensky's The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart [1631], compared to Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, is a "priceless masterpiece"; and Anna Karenina "is perhaps a greater novel than War and Peace." He too speaks very highly of Sartre's Nausea and Cervantes' Exemplary Novels. However, given the book's purpose, the inclusion of these other works is not appropriate. Van Doren's, Fadiman's, Dirda's, and Newman's lists, first of all, do not give a precise number of listed works like Seymour-Smith does; and, compared to other listmakers who give a precise number, Seymour-Smith mostly lists actual books, not vague selections of texts or excerpts. Second, the works that I have included in the Greater Books lists, but which are not listed in Van Doren's, Fadiman's, Dirda's, or Newman's chapter or section headings, are often recommended as highly as the listed works. Seymour-Smith, on the other hand, includes, for example, Gurdjieff's Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson instead of P. D. Ouspensky's In Search of the Miraculous, and Spinoza's Ethics instead of his correspondence, precisely because of his focus on the question of influence; We is not picked for the same reason, as Orwell's novel has obviously been more influential. This stricter interpretation has the unfortunate effect of, for now, excluding Komensky's work from the Greater Books master list, as no other listmaker includes him.

  1. Yì Jīng

  2. I Ching; Zhouyi; The Classic of Changes; The Book of Changes
    Eleventh-Third centuries B C—Chinese


    --
  3. The Bible

  4. —Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek

    Homer
  5. Iliad

  6. ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B C—Greek

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


    --
    • Upanishads

  8. Seventh-Fourth centuries B C—Sanskrit

  9. Lăozĭ (Lao-tzu) (Laocius)

  10. Dàodéjīng
    Tao te Ching
    ca. Sixth Century B C—Chinese


    --
  11. Avesta

  12. Avestan

  13. Confucius (Kŏng Zǐ) (Kŏng Fūzǐ) (K'ung Fu-tzu)

  14. Analects
    Lún Yǔ
    written and compiled by the author's pupils; ca. Fifth Century B C-Second Century—Chinese


  15. Thucydides

  16. History of the Peloponnesian War
    early Fifth Century B C—Greek

  17. Hippocrates
    Hippocratic Corpus
    late Fifth-early Fourth centuries B C—Greek

    • Aristotle

  18. Selected works
    Fourth Century B C—Greek

  19. Herodotus

  20. Historiē
    History
    Fifth Century B C—Greek


  21. Plato

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


  23. Euclid

  24. Elements
    written ca. 300 B C—Greek

    --
  25. Dhammapada

  26. part of the Khuddaka Nikaya, fifth of five nikayas in the Sutta Pitaka; written ca. Third Century B C—Pali

  27. Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)

  28. Aeneid
    First Century B C—Latin

  29. Titus Lucretius Carus
    De Rerum Natura
    On the Nature of Things
    First Century B C—Latin


    • Philo of Alexandria

  30. "Allegorical Expositions of the Holy Laws"
    First Century—Greek

  31. Plutarch

  32. Bìoi Paràllēloi
    Parallel Lives; Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
    First Century—Greek


  33. Cornelius Tacitus

  34. Annales
    written First Century—Latin

    --
  35. The Gospel of Truth

  36. probably originally written in Greek; earliest extant copy is Coptic Egyptian translation; Second Century—Egyptian

  37. Marcus Aurelius

  38. Ta Eis Heauton
    Meditations
    written 161-80—Greek


  39. Sextus Empiricus

  40. Pyrrhōneioi Hypotypōseis
    Outline of Pyrrhonism
    late First Century-early Second Century—Greek


  41. Plotinus

  42. Enneads
    Third Century—Greek

  43. Augustine of Hippo

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


    --
  45. Quran

  46. Koran
    Seventh Century—Arabic


  47. Maimonides (Moshe ben Maimon)
    Dalalatul al-Hairin
    Moreh Nevukhim; The Guide for the Perplexed
    written Twelfth Century—Arabic; Hebrew version, 1204


    --
    • Kabbalah

  48. Quabala; Cabala
    Aramaic; Hebrew


  49. Thomas Aquinas

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


  51. Dante

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


  53. Desiderius Erasmus

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


  55. Niccolò Machiavelli

  56. Il Principe
    The Prince
    1532—Italian



  57. Martin Luther

  58. De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesiae, Praeludium
    Von der Babylonischen Gefangenschaft der Kirche; On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church
    1520; German version published the same year—Latin


  59. François Rabelais

  60. 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, 1564—French

  61. John Calvin

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


  63. Nicolas Copernicus

  64. De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium
    On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
    1543—Latin


  65. Michel de Montaigne

  66. Les Essais
    Essays
    originally published in three volumes: 1580, 1588, and 1595—French


  67. Miguel de Cervantes

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


  69. Johannes Kepler

  70. Harmonices Mundi
    The Harmony of the World
    1619—Latin


  71. Francis Bacon
    Novum Organum Scientiarium
    1620—English

    William Shakespeare
    • Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies

  72. The First Folio
    1623; includes 36 of the author's plays—English


  73. The Two Gentlemen of Verona

  74. ca. 1590-94—English

  75. Romeo and Juliet

  76. ca. 1591-97—English

  77. The First Part of Henry VI

  78. ca. 1592—English

  79. The Second Part of Henry VI

  80. ca. 1592—English

  81. The Third Part of Henry VI

  82. ca. 1592—English

  83. The Taming of the Shrew

  84. ca. 1592-94—English

  85. Richard III

  86. ca. 1592-7—English

  87. Titus Andronicus

  88. 1594—English

  89. The Comedy of Errors

  90. 1594—English

  91. A Midsummer Night's Dream

  92. ca. 1595-1600—English

  93. The Merchant of Venice

  94. ca. 1596-98—English

  95. The Merry Wives of Windsor

  96. ca. 1597-1602—English

  97. The First Part of Henry IV

  98. 1597—English

  99. Richard II

  100. 1597—English

  101. Love's Labour Lost

  102. 1598—English

  103. King John

  104. ca. 1598—English

  105. Much Ado About Nothing

  106. ca. 1598-99—English

  107. Julius Caesar

  108. 1599—English

  109. Henry V

  110. 1599—English

  111. The Second Part of Henry IV

  112. 1600—English

  113. Twelfth Night; or, What You Will

  114. 1602—English

  115. Hamlet

  116. 1602—English

  117. Troilus and Cressida

  118. ca. 1602-09—English

  119. As You Like It

  120. 1603—English

  121. Measure for Measure

  122. 1604—English

  123. Othello

  124. ca. 1604—English

  125. Coriolanus

  126. written ca. 1605-08—English

  127. King Lear

  128. 1606—English

  129. All's Well That Ends Well

  130. ca. 1606-08—English

  131. Macbeth

  132. ca. 1607—English

  133. Antony and Cleopatra

  134. ca. 1606-08—English

  135. Timon of Athens

  136. written ca. 1607—English

  137. The Tempest

  138. 1611—English

  139. The Winter's Tale

  140. ca. 1611—English

  141. Henry VIII

  142. ca. 1613—English

  143. Cymbeline

  144. written ca. 1609—English

  145. Galileo

  146. Dialogo Sopra i due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo
    Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
    1632—Italian


  147. René Descartes

  148. Discours de la Méthode Pour Bien Conduire sa Raison, et Chercher la Vérité dans les Sciences
    Discourse on the Method
    1637—French


  149. Thomas Hobbes
    Leviathan or, The Matter, Forme and Power of a Common Wealth Ecclesiasticall and Civil
    1651—English

    • Gottfried Wilhelm Leibnitz

  150. Selected works
    late Seventeenth-early Eighteenth centuries—French

  151. Blaise Pascal

  152. Pensées
    Thoughts
    1669—French


  153. Baruch Spinoza

  154. Ethica, Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata
    Ethics
    1677—Latin


  155. John Bunyan

  156. The Pilgrim's Progress From This World to That Which Is to Come
    1678—English

  157. Isaac Newton

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


  159. John Locke

  160. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
    1689—English

  161. George Berkeley (Bishop Berkeley)

  162. A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge
    1710; revised 1734—English

  163. Giambattista Vico

  164. Principi di Scienza Nuova d'Intorno Alla Comune Natura Delle Nazioni
    The New Science
    1725; revised 1730 and 1744—Italian


  165. David Hume
    A Treatise of Human Nature: Being an Attempt to Introduce the Experimental Method of Reasoning into Moral Subjects
    originally published in three volumes: first-second, 1739; third, 1740—English

    • Denis Diderot et al.

  166. Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences, des Arts et des Métiers
    published in 28 volumes, 1751-72—French

  167. Samuel Johnson

  168. A Dictionary of the English Language
    1755—English

  169. Voltaire

  170. Candide, ou L'Optimisme
    1759—French

  171. Thomas Paine

  172. Common Sense; Addresed to the Inhabitants of America
    1776—English

  173. Adam Smith

  174. An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
    1776; revised through third edition, 1784—English

  175. Edward Gibbon

  176. The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
    originally published in six volumes: first, 1776; second-third, 1781; fourth-sixth, 1788—English

  177. Immanuel Kant

  178. Kritik der Reinen Vernunft
    Critique of Pure Reason
    1781; revised 1787—German


  179. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

  180. Les Confessions
    1782—French

  181. Edmund Burke

  182. Reflections on the Revolution in France
    1790—English

  183. Mary Wollstonecraft

  184. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
    1792—English

  185. William Godwin

  186. An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, and Its Influence on General Virtue and Happiness
    1793—English

  187. Thomas Robert Malthus

  188. An Essay on the Principle of Population
    originally anonymously published 1798; revised and published under the author's name, 1803—English

  189. George Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

  190. Die Phänomenologie des Geistes
    Phenomenology of Spirit
    1807—German


  191. Arnold Schopenhauer

  192. Die Welt als Wille und Vorstellung
    The World as Will and Idea
    published in two volumes, 1819 and 1844—German


  193. Auguste Comte

  194. Cours de Philosophie Positive
    published in six volumes, 1832, 1835, 1838-1842—French

  195. Carl von Clausewitz

  196. Vom Kriege
    On War
    1832—German


  197. Sǿren Kierkegaard

  198. Enten - Eller
    Either/ Or
    originally published under the pseudonym, Victor Eremita, 1843—Danish


  199. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
    Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei
    The Communist Manifesto
    1848—German


    • Henry David Thoreau

  200. 'Civil Disobedience'
    originally published 1849 in Aesthetic Papers—English

  201. Charles Darwin

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

  203. John Stuart Mill

  204. On Liberty
    1859—English

  205. Herbert Spencer
    First Principles
    1862—English

    • Gregor Mendel

  206. 'Versuche über Pflanzen-Hybriden'
    'Experiments on Plant Hybrids'
    originally published 1866 in Verhandlungen des Naturforschenden Vereins Brünn; edited 1865 lecture—German


  207. Leo Tolstoy

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


  209. James Clerk Maxwell

  210. A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism
    originally published in two volumes, 1873—English

  211. Friedrich Nietzsche

  212. Also Sprach Zarathustra: Ein Buch für Alle und Keinen
    Thus Spake Zarathustra
    originally published in four volumes, 1883-85—German


  213. Sigmund Freud

  214. Die Traumdeutung
    The Interpretation of Dreams
    1899—German


  215. William James

  216. Pragmatism: A New Name for Some Old Ways of Thinking
    1907—English

  217. Albert Einstein

  218. Die Grundlage der Allgemeinen Relativitätstheorie
    Foundations of the General Theory of Relativity
    1916—German


  219. Vilfredo Pareto

  220. Trattato di Sociologia Generale
    The Mind and Society
    1916—Italian


  221. Carl Jung

  222. Psychologische Typen
    Psychological Types
    1921—German


  223. Martin Buber

  224. Ich und Du
    I and Thou
    1923—German


  225. Franz Kafka

  226. Der Prozess
    The Trial
    1925—German


  227. Karl Popper

  228. Logik der Forschung
    The Logic of Scientific Discovery
    1934—German


  229. John Maynard Keynes

  230. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money
    1936—English

  231. Jean-Paul Sartre

  232. L'Être et le Néant: Essai d'Ontologie Phénoménologique
    Being and Nothingness
    1943—French


  233. Friedrich von Hayek

  234. The Road to Serfdom
    1944—English

  235. Simone Beauvoir

  236. Le Deuxième Sexe
    The Second Sex
    published in part serially in Les Temps Modernes; in its entirety in two volumes, 1949—French


  237. Norbert Wiener

  238. Cybernetics: Or Control and Communication in the Animal and Machine
    1948; revised 1961—English

  239. George Orwell

  240. Nineteen Eighty-Four
    1949—English

  241. George Ivanovitch Gurdjieff

  242. Rasskazy Vel'zevula Svoemu Vnuku
    Beelzebub's Tales to His Grandson
    1950—Russian


  243. Ludwig Wittgenstein

  244. Philosophische Untersuchungen
    Philosophical Investigations
    1953—German


  245. Noam Chomsky

  246. Syntactic Structures
    1957—English

  247. Thomas S Kuhn

  248. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions
    1962; expanded 1970—English

  249. Betty Friedan

  250. The Feminine Mystique
    1963—English

  251. Máo Zédōng

  252. Máo Zhuxí Yulù
    Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-tung
    1966—Chinese


  253. B F Skinner

  254. Beyond Freedom and Dignity
    1971—English