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Enoch Pratt Free Library, The St. John's College List of Great Books [1943]

184 entries: 166 monographical, 18 otherwise

Unranked—arranged roughly chronologically within thematic sections

"Edited and annotated by the staff of the Enoch Pratt Free Library for the General Reader," this rare book was published not long after St. John's College switched to its famous Great Books curriculum (1937). As explained in the book's introduction, "In these past five years, the College's program has been under continuous revision; in 1942-43, there are 110 entries on the list. To save space, and eliminate the most difficult and least readable of the works, only one hundred have been included here." As we see with many of the lists collected at Greater Books, the number of entries in a list generally results in a higher number of actual literary works, and that is certainly the case here, with the inclusion, for example, of entries like the anthology Six Plays, which includes works by Corneille and Racine or the omnibus Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud. Another anthology leads to one of the two minor editorial decisions that were required to make this list. W. J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr.'s The Complete Greek Drama is included. The listmakers note that Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes "are represented by all their surviving works" in that collection. But the Oates-O'Neill book also includes three of Menander's plays. I have included them despite the authors not mentioning this lesser-known playwright because the complete anthology of plays is listed, not the individual authors. (Note here that, for whatever reason, a generic "plays" entry for Aristophanes is also included in the book.) The other arises when the authors include Marx's Das Kapital, and make note of what is sometimes considered to be a fourth volume, as edited by Karl Kautsky. However, this work, generally titled in English Theories of Surplus Value, though intended originally by Engels to be a volume of Capital, has usually not been published as such; and Kautsky's version has been rejected by many scholars. Since the listmakers only make note of the Kautsky volume because of its status as a potential fourth volume of Capital, I see fit not to include it.

The entries are placed into thematic sections as such: from Homer to Archimedes, "The Quest for the Idea"; from Lucretius to Plotinus, "The Reign of Order"; from St. Augustine to Dante, "The Christian World View"; from Chaucer to Cervantes, "Imagination in Ferment"; from Grotius to Newton, "The Liberation of Science"; from Locke to Goethe, "Evolving Patterns of Society"; from Dalton to Marx, "Industrialization and the Rise of Nationalism"; from the second Dostoevsky entry to the end, "The Emergence of the Modern Mind."

    Homer
  1. Iliad

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

  2. Odýsseia

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

    --
  3. The Bible
    —Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek

    --
    • The Complete Greek Drama

    4. 1938; edited by W. J. Oates and Eugene O'Neill, Jr.; in addition to the extant works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, three plays by Menander are included—Greek

    Aeschylus
  4. Promētheus Desmōtēs

    5. Prometheus Bound
    Fifth Century B C; disputed authorship—Greek

  5. Persai

    6. The Persians
    472 B C—Greek

  6. Hiketides

    7. The Suppliants; The Suppliant Women
    ca. 470 B C—Greek

  7. Hepta epi Thēbas

    8. Seven Against Thebes
    467 B C—Greek

  8. Oresteia

    9. The House of Atreus
    458 B C—Greek

    Sophocles
  9. Antigone

    10. ca. 441 B C—Greek

  10. Oidipous Tyrannos

    11. Oedipus Rex; Oedipus the King
    ca. 429 B C; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald's English translation—Greek

  11. Oidipous epi Kolōnō

    12. Oedipus at Colonus
    401 B C—Greek

  12. Aias

    13. Ajax
    ca. 450-430 B C—Greek

  13. Philoktētēs

    14. Philocetes
    409 B C—Greek

  14. Trachiniai

    15. The Trachiniae; The Women of Trachis
    ca. 450-420 B C—Greek

  15. Ēlektra

    16. Electra
    ca. 410-400 B C—Greek

    Euripides
  16. Alkēstis

    17. Alcestis
    438 B C—Greek

  17. Mēdeia

    18. Medea
    431 B C—Greek

  18. Hērakleidai

    19. Heracleidae; Herakles' Children
    ca. 430 B C—Greek

  19. Hippolytos

    20. 428 B C—Greek

  20. Andromache

    21. ca. 428-25 B C—Greek

  21. Hēkabē

    22. Hecuba
    written ca. 424 B C—Greek

  22. Hiketides

    23. The Suppliants
    423 B C—Greek

  23. Hēraklēs Mainomenos

    24. Herakles
    ca. 416 B C—Greek

  24. Trōiades

    25. The Trojan Woman
    415 B C—Greek

  25. Ēlektra

    26. Electra
    written ca. 413 B C—Greek

  26. Iphigeneia en Taurois

    27. Iphigeneia in Tauris
    written ca. 414-12 B C—Greek

  27. Iōn

    28. written ca. 414-12 B C—Greek

  28. Helenē

    29. 412 B C—Greek

  29. Phoinissai

    30. Phoenician Women
    written c. 408 B C—Greek

  30. Orestēs

    31. 408 B C—Greek

  31. Bakchai

    32. The Bacchae
    405 B C—Greek

  32. Iphigeneia en Aulidi

    33. Iphigeneia in Aulis
    405 B C—Greek

  33. Kyklōps

    34. Cyclops
    late Fifth Century B C—Greek

  34. Rhēsos

    35. Rhesus
    late Fifth Century B C—Greek

    Aristophanes
  35. Akharneîs

    36. The Acharnians
    425 B C—Greek

  36. Hippeîs

    37. The Knights
    424 B C—Greek

  37. Nephelai

    38. The Clouds
    423 B C; revised 417 B C; only revised version remains—Greek

  38. Sphēkes

    39. The Wasps
    422 B C—Greek

  39. Eirēnē

    40. Peace
    421 B C—Greek

  40. Ornithes

    41. The Birds
    414 B C—Greek

  41. Lysistrate

    42. 411 B C—Greek

  42. Thesmophoriazousai

    43. 411 B C—Greek

  43. Ploutos

    44. Wealth
    408 B C; revised 388 B C; only revised version is extant—Greek

  44. Bátrachoi

    45. The Frogs
    405 B C—Greek

  45. Ekklesiazousai

    46. The Assemblywomen; A Parliament of Women
    391 B C—Greek

    Menander
  46. Perikeiromene

    47. ca. 314-13 B C—Greek

  47. Samia

    48. The Girl From Samos
    ca. 315-09 B C—Greek

  48. Epitrepontes

    49. Fourth Century B C—Greek

  49. Herodotus

    50. Historiē
    History
    Fifth Century B C—Greek

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

    • Aristophanes

    Plays
    late Fifth Century B C—Greek

    • Hippocrates

    Hippocratic Corpus [excerpted]
    unspecified selection; late Fifth-early Fourth centuries B C—Greek

    • Plato

    51. Dialogues
    early Fourth Century B C—Greek

  51. Crito

    52. early Fourth Century B C—Greek

  52. Phaedo

    53. early Fourth Century B C—Greek

  53. Symposium
    early Fourth Century B C—Greek

    • Aristotle

    54. Selected works
    Fourth Century B C—Greek

  54. Ethika Nikomacheia

    55. Nicomachean Ethics
    Fourth Century B C—Greek

  55. Politik

    56. Politics
    Fourth Century B C—Greek

  56. Peri Poiêtikês

    57. De Poetica; Poetics
    Fourth Century B C—Greek

  57. Metaphysics

    58. Fourth Century B C—Greek

  58. Organon

    59. Fourth Century B C—Greek

  59. Euclid
    Elements
    written ca. 300 B C—Greek

    • Archimedes

    60. Selected works
    Third Century B C—Greek

  60. On the Sphere and Cylinder

    61. circa 225 B C—Greek

  61. On Floating Bodies

    62. Third Century B C—Greek

  62. The Method of Mechanical Theorems

    63. Third Century B C—Greek

  63. Titus Lucretius Carus

    64. De Rerum Natura
    On the Nature of Things
    First Century B C—Latin

  64. Cicero

    65. De Officiis
    On Duties
    written 44 B C—Latin

  65. Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)

    66. Aeneid
    First Century B C—Latin

  66. Lucian

    67. Verae Historiae
    True History
    Second Century—Greek

  67. Plutarch

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

  68. Cornelius Tacitus

    69. Historiae
    written ca. 100-10—Latin

  69. Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus)

    70. Almagest
    Second Century—Greek

  70. Galen

    71. De Naturalibus Facultatibus
    On the Natural Faculties
    First Century—Latin

  71. Plotinus

    72. Enneads
    Third Century—Greek

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

    • Flavius Anicius Justinianus (Justinian I)

    73. The Institutes
    one of four parts of Corpus Juris Civilis; 529-34—Latin

    --
  73. Njáls Saga

    74. Burnt Njal
    ca. Thirteenth Century—Norse

    --
  74. La Chanson de Roland

    75. ca. Eleventh Century—French

  75. Thomas Aquinas

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

  76. Bonaventure

    77. De Reductione Artium ad Theologiam
    Concerning the Reduction of the Arts to Theology
    Thirteenth Century—Latin

  77. Dante

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

  78. Geoffrey Chaucer
    Canterbury Tales
    1478; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Nevill Coghill's modern English version—English

    François Villon
    • Poems

    79. Fifteenth Century—French

  79. Le Grand Testament Villon et le Petit. Son Codicille. Le Jargon et Ses Ballades
    1489—French

    • Leonardo da Vinci

    80. Notebooks
    late Fifteenth-early Sixteenth centuries—Italian

  80. Pico della Mirandola

    81. De Hominis Dignitate
    Oration on the Dignity of Man
    written 1486, published 1496—Latin

  81. Desiderius Erasmus

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

  82. Niccolò Machiavelli

    83. Il Principe
    The Prince
    1532—Italian

  83. François Rabelais

    84. 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

  84. John Calvin

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

  85. Nicolas Copernicus

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

  86. Michel de Montaigne

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

  87. Francis Bacon
    Novum Organum Scientiarium
    1620—English

    • William Shakespeare

    88. Complete works
    late Sixteenth-early Seventeenth centuries—English

  88. Miguel de Cervantes

    89. El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha
    Don Quixote
    originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Edith Grossman's English translation—Spanish

  89. Hugo Grotius

    90. De Jure Belli ac Pacis
    On the Law of War and Peace
    1625—Latin

  90. William Harvey
    Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus
    On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals
    1628—Latin

    --
    • Six Plays

    91. 1931; edited by Paul Landis; includes two plays by Pierre Corneille, four plays by Jean Racine, written Seventeenth Century—French
    *StJohns*

    Pierre Corneille
  91. Le Cid

    92. 1637—French

  92. Cinna ou la Clémence d'Auguste

    93. 1639—French

    Jean Racine
  93. Andromaque

    94. 1667—French

  94. Britannicus

    95. 1669—French

  95. Phèdre

    96. 1677—French

  96. Athalie

    97. Athalia
    1691—French

  97. René Descartes

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

  98. Galileo

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

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

    Molière
    • Plays_

    100. Seventeenth Century—French

  100. Les Précieuses Ridicules

    101. 1659—French

  101. Tartuffe, ou l'Imposteur

    102. 1664—French

  102. Le Malade Imaginaire

    103. The Imaginary Invalid
    1673—French

  103. Robert Boyle

    104. The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts and Paradoxes
    1661—English

  104. Baruch Spinoza

    105. Ethica, Ordine Geometrico Demonstrata
    Ethics
    1677—Latin

  105. John Milton

    106. Paradise Lost
    1667; revised 1674—English

  106. Blaise Pascal

    107. Pensées
    Thoughts
    1669—French

  107. Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz

    108. Discours de Métaphysique
    1686—French

  108. Isaac Newton

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

  109. John Locke

    110. An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
    1689—English

  110. George Berkeley (Bishop Berkeley)

    111. An Essay Towards a New Theory of Vision
    1709—English

  111. Jonathan Swift

    112. 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 1735—English

  112. David Hume

    113. 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

  113. Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu

    114. De l'Esprit des Lois
    The Spirit of Laws
    originally anonymously published 1748—French

  114. Henry Fielding

    115. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
    1749—English

  115. David Hume

    116. The History of England
    originally published in six volumes: fifth, 1754; sixth, 1756; third-fourth, 1759; first-second, 1761—English

  116. Voltaire

    117. Candide, ou L'Optimisme
    1759—French

  117. Jean-Jacques Rousseau

    118. Du Contrat Social ou Principes du Droit Politique
    The Social Contract
    1762—French

  118. Adam Smith

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

  119. Edward Gibbon

    120. 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

  120. Immanuel Kant

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

  121. James Madison
    Constitution for the United States of America
    1787—Emglish

    • Alexander Hamilton; John Jay; James Madison

    122. The Federalist Papers
    originally published 1787-1788 in the Independent Journal, the New-York Packet, and the Daily Advertiser—English

  122. Jeremy Bentham

    123. Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
    1789—English

  123. Thomas Robert Malthus

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

  124. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

    125. 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, 1832—German

  125. John Dalton

    126. A New System of Chemical Philosophy
    1808—English

  126. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

    127. Wissenschaft der Logik
    1816—German

  127. Samuel Taylor Coleridge

    128. Biographia Literaria; or Biographical Sketches of My Literary Life and Opinions
    1817—English

  128. Arnold Schopenhauer

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

  129. Carl von Clausewitz

    130. Vom Kriege
    On War
    1832—German

  130. Honoré de Balzac

    131. Le Père Goriot
    Father Goriot
    originally published serially Dec. 1834-Feb. 1835 in Revue de Paris—French

  131. Michael Faraday

    132. Experimental Researches in Electricity
    originally published in two volumes, 1839 and 1844—English

  132. John Stuart Mill

    133. A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
    1843—English

    Sǿren Kierkegaard
  133. Frygt og Baeven

    134. Fear and Trembling
    originally published under the pseudonym, Johannes de Silentio, 1843—Danish

  134. Philosophiske Smuler eller En Smule Philosophi

    135. Philosophical Fragments; A Fragment of Philosophy
    1844—Danish

  135. William Makepeace Thackeray

    136. Vanity Fair: A Novel without a Hero
    originally published serially Jan. 1847-Jul. 1848—English

  136. 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. 1850—English

    Henrik Ibsen
    • Plays

    137. late Nineteenth Century—Norwegian

  137. Peer Gynt

    138. 1867—Norwegian

  138. Et Dukkehjem

    139. A Doll's House
    1879—Norwegian

  139. Gengangere

    140. Ghosts
    1881—Norwegian

  140. En Folkefiende

    141. An Enemy of the People
    1882—Norwegian

  141. Vildanden

    142. The Wild Duck
    1885—Norwegian

  142. Fruen fra Havet

    143. The Lady From the Sea
    1888—Norwegian

  143. Bygmester Solness

    144. The Master Builder
    1892—Norwegian

  144. Gustave Flaubert

    145. Madame Bovary
    originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de Paris; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Frances Steegmuller's English translation—French

  145. Charles Darwin

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

  146. John Stuart Mill

    147. On Liberty
    1859—English

  147. Leo Tolstoy

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

  148. Claude Bernard

    149. Introduction à l'Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale
    1865—French

  149. Lewis Carroll

    150. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
    1865—English

  150. Fyodor Dostoevsky
    Prestuplénie i Nakazániye
    Crime and Punishment
    originally published serially Jan.-Dec. 1866 in Rússkij Véstnik; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky's English translation—Russian

    • Gregor Mendel

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

  151. Karl Marx

    152. Das Kapital, Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie
    originally published in three volumes: 1867, 1885, and 1894—German

  152. Fyodor Dostoevsky

    153. Besy
    Demons; The Devils; The Possessed
    1872—Russian

  153. Francis Galton
    Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development _1
    1883—English

    • James Prescott Joule

    154. Scientific Papers
    1884; two volumes—English

  154. William James
    The Principles of Psychology
    1890—English

    • Sigmund Freud

    155. The Basic Writings of Sigmund Freud
    1938; includes Psychopathology of Everyday Life; The Interpretation of Dreams; Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex; Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious; Totem and Taboo; The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement—English

  155. Die Traumdeutung

    156. The Interpretation of Dreams
    1899—German

  156. Zur Psychopathologie des Alltagslebens

    157. The Psychopathology of Everyday Life
    1904—German

  157. Drei Abhandlungen zur Sexualtheorie

    158. Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality; Three Contributions to the Theory of Sex
    1905; revised through sixth edition, 1925—German

  158. Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum Unbewußten_1

    159. Wit and Its Relation to the Unconscious
    1905—German
    *StJohns*

  159. Totem und Tabu: Einige Übereinstimmungen im Seelenleben der Wilden und der Neurotiker_1

    160. Totem and Taboo
    1913—German
    *StJohns*

  160. Zur Geschichte der Psychoanalytischen Bewegung_3

    161. The History of the Psychoanalytic Movement
    1914—German
    *StJohns* *Adler* *Fadiman*

  161. Henry James

    162. The Ambassadors
    originally published serially 1903 in the North American Review—English

  162. Bertrand Russell
    The Principles of Mathematics
    1903—English

    Henri Poincaré
    • The Foundations of Science

    163. 1913; includes Science and Hypothesis; The Value of Science; Science and Method—French
    *StJohns*

  163. La Science et l'Hypothèse

    164. 1902—French

  164. La Valeur de la Science

    165. 1905—French

  165. La Science et Méthode
    1908—French

    • Henry James

    166. The Art of the Novel
    1934; collection of prefaces originally written for the 1909 New York Edition of the author's fiction—English

  166. Albert Einstein

    167. Über die Spezielle und die Allgemeine Relativitätstheorie, Gemeinverständlich
    Relativity, the Special and the General Theory: A Popular Exposition
    1917; revised through fourteenth edition, 1922—German