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*

Andrew Taylor, Books That Changed the World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History [2008]

86 entries: 83 monographical, 3 otherwise

Unranked—arranged chronologically

One of the simplest lists, except that one of these 50 is Shakespeare's First Folio.

  1. Homer

  2. Iliad_33
    ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B.C; Cowan and Guinness ("Trinity") specifiy Richard Lattimore's English translation; Mallison ("Smart") notes Derek Jacobi's modern aural version—Greek
    *Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Classics* *France* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Zulli* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Norway* *Great* *O'Hear* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Smart* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *World* *Deposit* *Newman* *Graphic* *Educated*

  3. Herodotus

  4. Historiē_25
    History
    Fifth Century B.C—Greek

    *Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Durant* *Invitation* *Classics* *Hundred* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Bloom* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Harvard* *World* *Educated*

  5. Confucius (Kǒng Zǐ) (Kǒng Fūzǐ) (K'ung Fu-tzu)

  6. Analects_12
    Lún Yǔ
    written and compiled by the author's pupils; ca. Fifth Century B C-Second Century—Chinese

    *Lubbock* *Eliot* *Downs* *Ward* *Oriental* *Good* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *Taylor* *World* *Graphic*

  7. Plato

  8. Politeia_24
    The Republic
    early Fourth Century B.C—Greek

    *Classics* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Zulli* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Learning* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Reynolds* *World* *Deposit* *Educated*

    --
  9. The Bible_17

  10. Downs also lists John Wycliffe's 1382 English translation of the Vulgate; Bloom, Dirda, and the Globe and Mail specify the King James Version, translated 1604-11 to English from the Hebrew and Aramaic (Old Testament) and the Greek (New Testament), revised 1769 by Benjamin Blayney—Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek
    *Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Hundred* *France* *Downs* *Read* *Ward* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Dirda* *Guardian* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *World*

  11. Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)

  12. Carmina_11
    Odes
    originally published in four volumes: first-third, 23 B.C; fourth, 13 B.C—Latin

    *Baldwin* *Powys* *Classics* *Downs* *Read* *Ward* *Bloom* *Taylor* *Trinity* *Newman* *Educated*

  13. Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus)

  14. Geographike Hyphegesis_2
    Geography
    Second Century—Greek

    *Downs* *Taylor*

  15. Vatsayana

  16. Kama Sutra_2
    ca. Fourth-Third centuries B C—Sanskrit
    *Ward* *Taylor*

    --
  17. Quran_11

  18. Koran
    Seventh Century—Arabic

    *Downs* *Ward* *Oriental* *Good* *Bloom* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *World*

  19. Avicenna

  20. Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb_2
    The Canon of Medicine
    1025—Arabic

    *Downs* *Taylor*

  21. Geoffrey Chaucer

  22. Canterbury Tales_30
    1478; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Nevill Coghill's modern English version—English
    *Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Hundred* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Zulli* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Norway* *Great* *O'Hear* *Zane* *Smart* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Reynolds* *World* *Newman* *Graphic* *Educated*

  23. Niccolò Machiavelli

  24. Il Principe_29
    The Prince
    1532—Italian

    *Eliot* *Durant* *Invitation* *Classics* *Hundred* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Zulli* *Read* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *World* *Deposit* *Educated*

  25. Gerardus Mercator

  26. Atlas Sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura_1
    Atlas, or, Cosmographic Meditations on the Creation of the World and the Form of Creation
    originally published in three volumes: 1585, 1589, and 1595—Latin

    *Taylor*

  27. Miguel de Cervantes
    El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha_37
    Don Quixote
    originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Edith Grossman's English translation—Spanish

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

    William Shakespeare
    • Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies_3

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

    *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World*

  29. The Two Gentlemen of Verona_7

  30. ca. 1590-94—English
    *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  31. Romeo and Juliet_13

  32. ca. 1591-97—English
    *Durant* *Classics* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Zane* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  33. The First Part of Henry VI_6

  34. ca. 1592—English
    *Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  35. The Second Part of Henry VI_6

  36. ca. 1592—English
    *Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  37. The Third Part of Henry VI_6

  38. ca. 1592—English
    *Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  39. The Taming of the Shrew_9

  40. ca. 1592-94—English
    *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  41. Richard III_11

  42. ca. 1592-7—English
    *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Great* *Taylor* *World* *Newman* *Educated*

  43. Titus Andronicus_5

  44. 1594—English
    *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  45. The Comedy of Errors_8

  46. 1594—English
    *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  47. A Midsummer Night's Dream_14

  48. ca. 1595-1600—English
    *Durant* *Hundred* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman* *Graphic* *Educated*

  49. The Merchant of Venice_11

  50. ca. 1596-98—English
    *Durant* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  51. The Merry Wives of Windsor_6

  52. ca. 1597-1602—English
    *Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  53. The First Part of Henry IV_13

  54. 1597—English
    *Durant* *Classics* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  55. Richard II_9

  56. 1597—English
    *Classics* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  57. Love's Labour Lost_6

  58. 1598—English
    *Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  59. King John_5

  60. ca. 1598—English
    *Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World*

  61. Much Ado About Nothing_10

  62. ca. 1598-99—English
    *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *Reynolds* *World* *Newman*

  63. Julius Caesar_9

  64. 1599—English
    *Durant* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  65. Henry V_9

  66. 1599—English
    *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *O'Hear* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  67. The Second Part of Henry IV_12

  68. 1600—English
    *Durant* *Classics* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  69. Twelfth Night; or, What You Will_10

  70. 1602—English
    *Classics* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  71. Hamlet_27

  72. 1602—English
    *Eliot* *Durant* *Invitation* *Classics* *Hundred* *Downs* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Norway* *Great* *Guardian* *O'Hear* *Zane* *Taylor* *Harvard* *World* *Newman* *Graphic* *Educated*

  73. Troilus and Cressida_7

  74. ca. 1602-09—English
    *Ward* *Adler* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  75. As You Like It_12

  76. 1603—English
    *Durant* *Hundred* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  77. Measure for Measure_10

  78. 1604—English
    *Classics* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  79. Othello_14

  80. ca. 1604—English
    *Durant* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Norway* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  81. Coriolanus_8

  82. written ca. 1605-08—English
    *Classics* *Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Utne* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  83. King Lear_21

  84. 1606—English
    *Eliot* *Durant* *Classics* *Hundred* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Norway* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *World* *Newman* *Graphic*

  85. All's Well That Ends Well_8

  86. ca. 1606-08—English
    *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  87. Macbeth_16

  88. ca. 1607—English
    *Eliot* *Durant* *Classics* *Hundred* *Rexroth* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Zane* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  89. Timon of Athens_7

  90. written ca. 1607—English
    *Durant* *Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  91. The Tempest_20

  92. 1611—English
    *Eliot* *Durant* *Classics* *Rexroth* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Great* *O'Hear* *Zane* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  93. The Winter's Tale_10

  94. ca. 1611—English
    *Classics* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  95. Henry VIII_6

  96. ca. 1613—English
    *Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  97. Antony and Cleopatra_13

  98. ca. 1606-08—English
    *Invitation* *Classics* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Zane* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  99. Cymbeline_6

  100. written ca. 1609—English
    *Van Doren* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  101. William Harvey

  102. Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus_6
    On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals
    1628—Latin

    *Eliot* *Downs* *Read* *Adler* *Great* *Taylor*

  103. Galileo

  104. Dialogo Sopra i due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo_8
    Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
    1632—Italian

    *Downs* *Learning* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *Taylor* *GlobeMail* *Educated*

  105. Isaac Newton

  106. Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica_9
    The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
    1687; revised 1713 and 1726—Latin

    *Adler* *Downs* *Read* *Van Doren* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Reynolds*

  107. Samuel Johnson

  108. A Dictionary of the English Language_6
    1755—English
    *Downs* *Read* *Ward* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *Newman*

  109. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

  110. Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers_7
    The Sorrows of Young Werther
    1774; revised 1787—German

    *Eliot* *Zulli* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Trinity* *Taylor* *Newman*

  111. Adam Smith

  112. An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations_15
    1776; revised through third edition, 1784—English
    *Eliot* *Durant* *Classics* *Downs* *Read* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Foundation* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor*

  113. Thomas Paine
    Common Sense; Addresed to the Inhabitants of America_4
    1776—English
    *Downs* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *Educated*

    • William Wordsworth; Samuel Taylor Coleridge

  114. Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems_7
    1798; expanded 1800 and 1802—English
    *Classics* *Read* *Van Doren* *Trinity* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*

  115. Jane Austen

  116. Pride and Prejudice_30
    originally anonymously published 1813—English
    *Eliot* *Powys* *Hundred* *Zulli* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Good* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Norway* *Great* *Guardian* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Harvard* *Reynolds* *World* *Deposit* *Newman* *Graphic* *Educated*

  117. Charles Dickens

  118. A Christmas Carol_7
    1843—English
    *Ward* *Van Doren* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Guardian* *Taylor* *Newman*

  119. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

  120. Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei_13
    The Communist Manifesto
    1848—German

    *Classics* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Read* *Van Doren* *Adler* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Great* *Taylor* *Reynolds* *Educated*

  121. Herman Melville

  122. Moby-Dick; or, The Whale_26
    1851—English
    *Classics* *Hundred* *Zulli* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Norway* *Guardian* *Zane* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Harvard* *Newman* *Graphic* *Deposit* *Educated*

  123. Harriet Beecher Stowe

  124. Uncle Tom's Cabin_6
    1852—English
    *Downs* *Rexroth* *Recommended* *Smart* *Taylor* *Educated*

  125. Gustave Flaubert

  126. 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*

  127. Charles Darwin

  128. On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life_23
    1859—English
    *Lubbock* *Eliot* *Classics* *Hundred* *Downs* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Learning* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Reynolds* *Deposit* *Graphic* *Educated*

  129. John Stuart Mill

  130. On Liberty_16
    1859—English
    *Eliot* *Classics* *Downs* *Read* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Great* *Taylor* *World*

  131. 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*

    • The New Haven District Telephone Company

  132. The Telephone Directory_1
    1878—English
    *Taylor*

    --
  133. Kitab alf Laylah Wa-Laylah_17

  134. The Thousand and One Nights; The Arabian Nights
    Ninth-Fifteenth centuries; Taylor specifies Richard Burton's version—Arabic

    *Lubock* *Baldwin* *Eliot* *France* *Downs* *Ward* *Oriental* *Magill* *Good* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Norway* *Great* *Zane* *Taylor*

  135. Arthur Conan Doyle

  136. A Study in Scarlet_6
    originally published 1887 in Beeton's Christmas Annual—English
    *Hundred* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Kanigel* *Taylor* *Telegraph*

  137. Sigmund Freud

  138. Die Traumdeutung_15
    The Interpretation of Dreams
    1899—German

    *Classics* *Downs* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Learning* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Graphic*

    --
  139. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion_1

  140. published in part serially 1903 in Znamya; in its entirety, 1905, as part of Sergei Nilus's Velikoe v" Malom" i Antihrist" (The Great Within the Miniscule and Antichrist)—Russian
    *Taylor*

  141. Wilfred Owen

  142. Poems_3
    1920; four poems previously published; 'Memoir' by Edmund Blunden added for 1931 edition; revised 1933; retitled The Collected Poems of Wilfred Owen, 1963, with a new introduction and notes by C Day Lewis plus four drafts of 'Anthem for Doomed Youth' and an unfinished poem, 'Wild With All Regrets'—English
    *Ward* *Bloom* *Taylor*

  143. Albert Einstein

  144. Über die Spezielle und die Allgemeine Relativitätstheorie, Gemeinverständlich_5
    Relativity, the Special and the General Theory: A Popular Exposition
    1917; revised through fourteenth edition, 1922—German

    *Downs* *Adler* *Great* *Taylor* *Educated*

  145. James Joyce

  146. Ulysses_20
    published in part serially Mar. 1918-Dec. 1920 in the Little Review; in its entirety, 1922—English
    *Classics* *France* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Norway* *Great* *Guardian* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Smart* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Newman* *Graphic*

  147. D H Lawrence

  148. Lady Chatterley's Lover_4
    abridged version, 1928; complete work, 1960—English
    *Recommended* *Taylor* *Newman* *Graphic*

  149. John Maynard Keynes

  150. The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money_3
    1936—English
    *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor*

  151. Primo Levi

  152. Se Questo è un Uomo_2
    Survival in Auschwitz
    1947—Italian

    *Taylor* *Telegraph*

  153. George Orwell

  154. Nineteen Eighty-Four_17
    1949—English
    *Van Doren* *Magill* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Norway* *Great* *Guardian* *Zane* *Smart* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Graphic* *Educated*

  155. Simone de Beauvoir

  156. Le Deuxième Sexe_7
    The Second Sex
    published in part serially in Les Temps Modernes; in its entirety in two volumes, 1949—French

    *Good* *Bloom* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Utne* *Great* *Taylor*

  157. J D Salinger

  158. Catcher in the Rye_8
    1951—English
    *Van Doren* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Guardian* *Zane* *Taylor* *Graphic*

  159. Chinua Achebe

  160. Things Fall Apart_9
    1958—English
    *Ward* *Bloom* *Fadiman* *Utne* *Norway* *Great* *Zane* *Smart* *Taylor*

  161. Rachel Carson

  162. Silent Spring_8
    originally published Jun. 1962 in the New Yorker—English
    *Downs* *Fadiman* *Utne* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Deposit* *Educated*

  163. Máo Zédōng

  164. Máo Zhuxí Yulù_2
    Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-tung
    1966—Chinese

    *SeymourSmith* *Taylor*

  165. J K Rowling

  166. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone_4
    1997—English
    *Guardian* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Harvard*