Andrew Taylor, Books That Changed the World: The 50 Most Influential Books in Human History [2008]
86 entries: 83 monographical, 3 otherwise
Unrankedarranged chronologically
One of the simplest lists, except that one of these 50 is Shakespeare's First Folio.
- Homer
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 versionGreek
*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*
- Herodotus
Historiē_25
History
Fifth Century B.CGreek
*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*
- Confucius (Kǒng Zǐ) (Kǒng Fūzǐ) (K'ung Fu-tzu)
Analects_12
Lún Yǔ
written and compiled by the author's pupils; ca. Fifth Century B C-Second CenturyChinese
*Lubbock* *Eliot* *Downs* *Ward* *Oriental* *Good* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *Taylor* *World* *Graphic*
- Plato
Politeia_24
The Republic
early Fourth Century B.CGreek
*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*
--
- The Bible_17
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 BlayneyHebrew; Aramaic; Greek
*Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Hundred* *France* *Downs* *Read* *Ward* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Dirda* *Guardian* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *World*
- Horace (Quintus Horatius Flaccus)
Carmina_11
Odes
originally published in four volumes: first-third, 23 B.C; fourth, 13 B.CLatin
*Baldwin* *Powys* *Classics* *Downs* *Read* *Ward* *Bloom* *Taylor* *Trinity* *Newman* *Educated*
- Ptolemy (Claudius Ptolemaeus)
Geographike Hyphegesis_2
Geography
Second CenturyGreek
*Downs* *Taylor*
- Vatsayana
Kama Sutra_2
ca. Fourth-Third centuries B CSanskrit
*Ward* *Taylor*
--
- Quran_11
Koran
Seventh CenturyArabic
*Downs* *Ward* *Oriental* *Good* *Bloom* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *World*
- Avicenna
Al-Qanun fi al-Tibb_2
The Canon of Medicine
1025Arabic
*Downs* *Taylor*
- Geoffrey Chaucer
Canterbury Tales_30
1478; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Nevill Coghill's modern English versionEnglish
*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*
- Niccolò Machiavelli
Il Principe_29
The Prince
1532Italian
*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*
- Gerardus Mercator
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 1595Latin
*Taylor*
- 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 translationSpanish
*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
The First Folio
1623; includes 36 of the author's playsEnglish
*SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World*
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona_7
ca. 1590-94English
*Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Romeo and Juliet_13
ca. 1591-97English
*Durant* *Classics* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Zane* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- The First Part of Henry VI_6
ca. 1592English
*Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- The Second Part of Henry VI_6
ca. 1592English
*Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- The Third Part of Henry VI_6
ca. 1592English
*Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- The Taming of the Shrew_9
ca. 1592-94English
*Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Richard III_11
ca. 1592-7English
*Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Great* *Taylor* *World* *Newman* *Educated*
- Titus Andronicus_5
1594English
*Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- The Comedy of Errors_8
1594English
*Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- A Midsummer Night's Dream_14
ca. 1595-1600English
*Durant* *Hundred* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman* *Graphic* *Educated*
- The Merchant of Venice_11
ca. 1596-98English
*Durant* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- The Merry Wives of Windsor_6
ca. 1597-1602English
*Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- The First Part of Henry IV_13
1597English
*Durant* *Classics* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Richard II_9
1597English
*Classics* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Love's Labour Lost_6
1598English
*Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- King John_5
ca. 1598English
*Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World*
- Much Ado About Nothing_10
ca. 1598-99English
*Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *Reynolds* *World* *Newman*
- Julius Caesar_9
1599English
*Durant* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Henry V_9
1599English
*Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *O'Hear* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- The Second Part of Henry IV_12
1600English
*Durant* *Classics* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Twelfth Night; or, What You Will_10
1602English
*Classics* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Hamlet_27
1602English
*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*
- Troilus and Cressida_7
ca. 1602-09English
*Ward* *Adler* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- As You Like It_12
1603English
*Durant* *Hundred* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Measure for Measure_10
1604English
*Classics* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Othello_14
ca. 1604English
*Durant* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Norway* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Coriolanus_8
written ca. 1605-08English
*Classics* *Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Utne* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- King Lear_21
1606English
*Eliot* *Durant* *Classics* *Hundred* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Norway* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *World* *Newman* *Graphic*
- All's Well That Ends Well_8
ca. 1606-08English
*Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Macbeth_16
ca. 1607English
*Eliot* *Durant* *Classics* *Hundred* *Rexroth* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Zane* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Timon of Athens_7
written ca. 1607English
*Durant* *Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- The Tempest_20
1611English
*Eliot* *Durant* *Classics* *Rexroth* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Great* *O'Hear* *Zane* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- The Winter's Tale_10
ca. 1611English
*Classics* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Henry VIII_6
ca. 1613English
*Ward* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Antony and Cleopatra_13
ca. 1606-08English
*Invitation* *Classics* *Ward* *Magill* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Zane* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Cymbeline_6
written ca. 1609English
*Van Doren* *Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- William Harvey
Exercitatio Anatomica de Motu Cordis et Sanguinis in Animalibus_6
On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals
1628Latin
*Eliot* *Downs* *Read* *Adler* *Great* *Taylor*
- Galileo
Dialogo Sopra i due Massimi Sistemi del Mondo_8
Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems
1632Italian
*Downs* *Learning* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *Taylor* *GlobeMail* *Educated*
- Isaac Newton
Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica_9
The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
1687; revised 1713 and 1726Latin
*Adler* *Downs* *Read* *Van Doren* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Reynolds*
- Samuel Johnson
A Dictionary of the English Language_6
1755English
*Downs* *Read* *Ward* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *Newman*
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Die Leiden des Jungen Werthers_7
The Sorrows of Young Werther
1774; revised 1787German
*Eliot* *Zulli* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Trinity* *Taylor* *Newman*
- Adam Smith
An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations_15
1776; revised through third edition, 1784English
*Eliot* *Durant* *Classics* *Downs* *Read* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Foundation* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor*
- Thomas Paine
Common Sense; Addresed to the Inhabitants of America_4
1776English
*Downs* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor* *Educated*
- William Wordsworth; Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Lyrical Ballads, With a Few Other Poems_7
1798; expanded 1800 and 1802English
*Classics* *Read* *Van Doren* *Trinity* *Taylor* *World* *Newman*
- Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice_30
originally anonymously published 1813English
*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*
- Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol_7
1843English
*Ward* *Van Doren* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Guardian* *Taylor* *Newman*
- Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei_13
The Communist Manifesto
1848German
*Classics* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Read* *Van Doren* *Adler* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Great* *Taylor* *Reynolds* *Educated*
- Herman Melville
Moby-Dick; or, The Whale_26
1851English
*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*
- Harriet Beecher Stowe
Uncle Tom's Cabin_6
1852English
*Downs* *Rexroth* *Recommended* *Smart* *Taylor* *Educated*
- Gustave Flaubert
Madame Bovary_29
originally published serially Oct. 1856-Dec. 1856 in La Revue de Paris; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Frances Steegmuller's English translationFrench
*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*
- Charles Darwin
On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life_23
1859English
*Lubbock* *Eliot* *Classics* *Hundred* *Downs* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Learning* *Fadiman* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Reynolds* *Deposit* *Graphic* *Educated*
- John Stuart Mill
On Liberty_16
1859English
*Eliot* *Classics* *Downs* *Read* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Great* *Taylor* *World*
- Leo Tolstoy
Voyna i Mir"_25
War and Peace
originally entitled 1805, published in part, 1865 and 1867; retitled and published in its entirety, 1869Russian
*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
The Telephone Directory_1
1878English
*Taylor*
--
- Kitab alf Laylah Wa-Laylah_17
The Thousand and One Nights; The Arabian Nights
Ninth-Fifteenth centuries; Taylor specifies Richard Burton's versionArabic
*Lubock* *Baldwin* *Eliot* *France* *Downs* *Ward* *Oriental* *Magill* *Good* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Norway* *Great* *Zane* *Taylor*
- Arthur Conan Doyle
A Study in Scarlet_6
originally published 1887 in Beeton's Christmas AnnualEnglish
*Hundred* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Kanigel* *Taylor* *Telegraph*
- Sigmund Freud
Die Traumdeutung_15
The Interpretation of Dreams
1899German
*Classics* *Downs* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Learning* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Graphic*
--
- The Protocols of the Elders of Zion_1
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*
- Wilfred Owen
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*
- Albert Einstein
Über die Spezielle und die Allgemeine Relativitätstheorie, Gemeinverständlich_5
Relativity, the Special and the General Theory: A Popular Exposition
1917; revised through fourteenth edition, 1922German
*Downs* *Adler* *Great* *Taylor* *Educated*
- James Joyce
Ulysses_20
published in part serially Mar. 1918-Dec. 1920 in the Little Review; in its entirety, 1922English
*Classics* *France* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Norway* *Great* *Guardian* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Smart* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Newman* *Graphic*
- D H Lawrence
Lady Chatterley's Lover_4
abridged version, 1928; complete work, 1960English
*Recommended* *Taylor* *Newman* *Graphic*
- John Maynard Keynes
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money_3
1936English
*Adler* *SeymourSmith* *Taylor*
- Primo Levi
Se Questo è un Uomo_2
Survival in Auschwitz
1947Italian
*Taylor* *Telegraph*
- George Orwell
Nineteen Eighty-Four_17
1949English
*Van Doren* *Magill* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Campbell* *Norway* *Great* *Guardian* *Zane* *Smart* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Graphic* *Educated*
- Simone de Beauvoir
Le Deuxième Sexe_7
The Second Sex
published in part serially in Les Temps Modernes; in its entirety in two volumes, 1949French
*Good* *Bloom* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Utne* *Great* *Taylor*
- J D Salinger
Catcher in the Rye_8
1951English
*Van Doren* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Guardian* *Zane* *Taylor* *Graphic*
- Chinua Achebe
Things Fall Apart_9
1958English
*Ward* *Bloom* *Fadiman* *Utne* *Norway* *Great* *Zane* *Smart* *Taylor*
- Rachel Carson
Silent Spring_8
originally published Jun. 1962 in the New YorkerEnglish
*Downs* *Fadiman* *Utne* *Great* *GlobeMail* *Taylor* *Deposit* *Educated*
- Máo Zédōng
Máo Zhuxí Yulù_2
Quotations From Chairman Mao Tse-tung
1966Chinese
*SeymourSmith* *Taylor*
- J K Rowling
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone_4
1997English
*Guardian* *Taylor* *Telegraph* *Harvard*