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The books you're supposed to have read.
The originals. The author's own words, just neatly squashed down to read in an hour or so (more...)

  READ THE GREAT UNREADABLES...



Moby-DickUlyssesDecline and Fall of the Roman EmpireThe Remembrance of Times PastCrime and Punishment Don Quixote

  THE BOOKS of RELIGION



The Epic of Gilgamesh The Egyptian Book of The Dead The Hindu Bhagavad-GitaThe Jewish TorahThe Dhammapada of the BuddhaThe Gospels of Jesus ChristThe Quran and The Confessions of Saint AugustineThe Divine Comedy

  THE ESSENTIAL HUNDRED BOOKS


There's a set of books you're just supposed to know about if you live in 'the West' and fancy calling yourself 'educated' Read the lot in a tenth of the time...

Start here 2100BC The Epic of Gilgamesh ● 1300BC The Book of The Dead ● 1000BC The Bhagavad-Gita ● 650BC The Torah ● 600BC The Odyssey Homer ● 500BC The Fables Aesop ● 450BC The Analects Confucius ● 450BC The Histories Herodotus of Halicarnassos ● 411BC Lysistrata Aristophanes of Athens ● 355BC The Republic Plato of Athens ● 320BC The Ethics Aristotle of Stagira ● 300BC Sovran Maxims Epicurus of Samos ● 48BC Commentaries on the Gallic Wars Julius Caesar ● 70 The Gospels of Jesus Christ Matthew, Mark, Luke, John ● 120 Elements of Geometry Euclid of Alexandria ● 140 On Old Age Marcus Tullius Cicero ● 180 Meditations Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ● 200 Béowulf ● 390 The Confessions Saint Augustine of Hippo ● 632 The Quran The Companions of the Prophet ● 1120 The Rubáiyát Omar Khayyám ● 1215 The Magna Carta King John et al ● 1298 The Travels of Marco Polo Rustichello of Pisa ● 1320 The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri ● 1350 The Decameron Giovanni Boccaccio ● 1388 The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer ● 1460 Le Morte D'Arthur Sir Thomas Mallory ● 1490 Notebooks Leonardo Da Vinci ● 1515 Utopia Sir Thomas More ● 1532 The Prince Niccolò Machiavelli ● 1543 The Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs Nicolaus Copernicus ● 1595 The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet William Shakespeare ● 1599 Hamlet William Shakespeare ● 1604 Don Quixote Miguel De Cervantes ● 1605 The Advancement of Learning Sir Francis Bacon ● 1628 The Motion of the Heart and Blood William Harvey ● 1641 Meditations on First Philosophy René Descartes ● 1647 A Voyage to the Moon Cyrano de Bergerac ● 1660 Diary Samuel Pepys ● 1664 Micrographia Robert Hooke ● 1667 Paradise Lost John Milton ● 1678 The Pilgrims Progress John Bunyan ● 1687 Principles of Natural Philosophy Isaac Newton ● 1704 The Arabian Nights Antoine Galland ● 1710 Principles of Human Knowledge George Berkeley ● 1719 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe ● 1726 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift ● 1749 History of Tom Jones Henry Fielding ● 1751 Of Miracles David Hume ● 1757 Tristram Shandy Laurence Sterne ● 1762 On The Social Contract Jean-Jacques Rousseau ● 1776 The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith ● 1784 Voyages of Discovery Capt. James Cook, et al ● 1785 Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals Immanuel Kant ● 1786 Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect Robert Burns ● 1787 Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon ● 1788 The Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell ● 1789 Principles of Morals and Legislation Jeremy Bentham ● 1791 The Rights of Man Thomas Paine ● 1792 A Vindication of the Rights of Woman Mary Wollstonecraft ● 1794 Songs of Innocence and Experience William Blake ● 1795 Philosophy in The Boudoir Le Marquis de Sade ● 1797 Pride and Prejudice Jane Austen ● 1798 The Rime of the Ancient Mariner Samuel Taylor Coleridge ● 1804 I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud William Wordsworth ● 1808 A New System of Chemical Philosophy John Dalton ● 1818 Frankenstein Mary Shelley ● 1819 Ivanhoe Sir Walter Scott ● 1821 Confessions of an English Opium-Eater Thomas de Quincey ● 1832 On War Carl Von Clausewitz ● 1835 Father Goriot Honoré de Balzac ● 1835 Fairy Tales Hans Christian Andersen ● 1838 The Adventures of Oliver Twist Charles Dickens ● 1843 A Christmas Carol Charles Dickens ● 1846 The Communist Manifesto Karl Marx ● 1847 Jane Eyre Charlotte Brontë ● 1847 Wuthering Heights Emily Brontë ● 1851 Moby-Dick Herman Melville ● 1852 Uncle Tom's Cabin Harriet Beecher Stowe ● 1854 Walden Henry D. Thoreau ● 1857 Tom Brown's Schooldays Thomas Hughes ● 1859 On Liberty John Stuart Mill ● 1859 On The Origin of Species Charles Darwin ● 1862 Les Misérables Victor Hugo ● 1865 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Lewis Carroll ● 1866 Crime and Punishment Fyodor Dostoyevsky ● 1873 Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Jules Verne ● 1877 Anna Karenina Count Leo Tolstoy ● 1886 Beyond Good and Evil Friedrich Nietzsche ● 1886 Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde Robert Louis Stevenson ● 1887 A Study in Scarlet Arthur Conan Doyle ● 1891 Tess of the d'Urbervilles Thomas Hardy ● 1892 My Confession Count Leo Tolstoy ● 1895 If - Rudyard Kipling ● 1897 The Ballad of Reading Gaol Oscar Wilde ● 1899 Heart of Darkness Joseph Conrad ● 1908 The Wind in the Willows Kenneth Grahame ● 1910 Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud ● 1913 Antarctic Journals Robert Falcon Scott ● 1914 Le Répertoire de La Cuisine Louis Saulnier ● 1915 Metamorphosis Franz Kafka ● 1916 Albert Einstein's Relativity Albert Einstein ● 1918 Dulce et Decorum Est Wilfred Owen ● 1920 Ulysses James Joyce ● 1925 The Great Gatsby F Scott Fitzgerald ● 1928 Lady Chatterley's Lover DH Lawrence ● 1931 The Remembrance of Times Past Marcel Proust

  THE PHILOSOPHERS


Aristotle - PoliticsAugustine - ConfessionsAyer - Language, Truth and LogicBacon - Advancement of LearningBentham - Morals and LegislationBerkeley - Principles of Human KnowledgeBoethius - Consolations of PhilosophyBurke - Revolution in FranceCicero - Friendship and Old AgeClausewitz - On WarComte - Positive PhilosophyConfucius - The AnalectsCopernicus - The RevolutionsDarwin - The Origin of SpeciesDescartes - Discourse on MethodDescartes - MeditationsEinstein's RelativityEmerson - NatureEpicurus - Sovran MaximsErasmus - Praise of FollyEuclid - ElementsFreud - PsychoanalysisGalileo - Two World SystemsHegel - Philosophy of HistoryHegel - Philosophy of ReligionHitler - Mein KampfHobbes - LeviathanHume - Human UnderstandingJames - Varieties of Religious ExperienceKant - Critiques of ReasonKant - Metaphysics of MoralsKierkegaard - Either OrLeibniz - MonadologyLocke - Human UnderstandingMachiavelli - The PrinceMarcus Aurelius - MeditationsMarx - The Communist ManifestoMarx and Engels - German IdeologyMill - On LibertyMill - System of LogicMore - UtopiaNewton - PrincipiaNietzsche - Beyond Good and EvilPaine - Rights of ManPascal - ThoughtsPlato - The ApologyPlato - The RepublicPlato - The SymposiumPopper - Scientific DiscoveryRand - SelfishnessRousseau - ConfessionsRousseau - Social ContractSade - Philosophy in the BoudoirSartre - Existentialism is a HumanismSchopenhauer - World as Will and IdeaSmith - Wealth of NationsSpinoza - EthicsThe Ancient GreeksThe Bhagavad-GitaThe Gospels of Jesus ChristTocqueville - AmericaTuring - Computing MachineryWittgenstein - TractatusWollstonecraft - Rights of Woman

  POETRY


All the English Poetry you're supposed to know...

  THE CLASSICS


CHARLES DICKENS
A Christmas CarolA Tale of Two CitiesBarnaby RudgeBleak HouseDavid CopperfieldDombey and SonGreat ExpectationsHard TimesLittle DorritMartin ChuzzlewitNicholas NicklebyOliver TwistOur Mutual FriendThe Old Curiosity ShopThe Pickwick Papers

ALEXANDRE DUMAS
Marguerite de ValoisThree MusketeersThe Count of Monte CristoThe Corsican BrothersTwenty Years AfterThe Black Tulip

JANE AUSTEN
PersuasionPride and PrejudiceSense and SensibilityNorthanger AbbeyMansfield ParkEmma

CHARLES DARWIN
The Voyage of the BeagleThe Origin of Species

THE BRONTËS
Jane EyreWuthering HeightsShirleyVillette

GEORGE ELIOT
Adam BedeFelix Holt, the RadicalRomolaSilas MarnerThe Mill on the Floss

GEORGE BORROW
LavengroThe Bible in SpainThe Romany RyeWild Wales

30-MINUTE PLAYS
Dr FaustusHamletLysistrataRomeo and Juliet

DANEL DEFOE
Journal of the Plague YearRobinson CrusoeCaptain Singleton

Mrs. GASKELL
CranfordMary Barton

St. AUGUSTINE
The ConfessionsCity of God

KARL MARX
Das CapitalThe Communist ManifestoThe German Ideology

Sir WALTER SCOTT
IvanhoeGuy ManneringThe AntiquaryOld MortalityRob RoyThe Heart of MidlothianKenilworthPeveril of the PeakQuentin DurwardThe Talisman

BENJAMIN DISRAELI
ConingsbySybilTancred

THE ANCIENT ROMANS
HoraceMartial's OdesCaesar's CommentariesCicero on Old AgePliny the Younger

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE
The Scarlet LetterOur Old HomeThe House of the Seven Gables

HG WELLS
The Time MachineWar of the Worlds

VICTOR HUGO
Deeds and WordsLes MiserablesThe Hunchback of Notre DameThe Man Who LaughsThe Toilers of the Sea

CHARLES KINGSLEY
Hereward the WakeWater-BabiesWestward Ho!

CHARLES ROBERT MATURIN
Melmoth the Wanderer

EDWARD BULWER LYTTON
Eugene AramThe Last Days of PompeiiThe Last of the Barons

GEORGE SAND
ConsueloMauprat

SAMUEL RICHARDSON
Clarissa HarlowePamelaSir Charles Grandison

RABELAIS
Gargantua and Pantagruel

EMILE ZOLA
L'Assommoir

HORACE WALPOLE
The Castle of Otranto

ANTHONY TROLLOPE
Barchester TowersThe Warden

WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY
The NewcomesThe VirginiansVanity Fair

THOMAS HARDY
Tess of the d'UrbervillesThe Return of the Native

MICHEL De MONTAIGNE
The Essays

JOHN CALVIN
The Institution of the Christian Religion

MARK TWAIN
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

ADOLPH HITLER
Mein Kampf

ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
Jekyll and Mr HydeTreasure Island

OSCAR WILDE
LysistrataThe Ballad of Reading GaolThe Picture of Dorian Gray

JOHN STEINBECK
The Grapes of Wrath

BRAM STOKER
Dracula

OLIVER GOLDSMITH
The Vicar of Wakefield

Sir RICHARD BURTON
Travels to Mecca

BERNARD MANDEVILLE
The Fable of the Bees

ROBERT BURTON ("Democritus Junior")
The Anatomy of Melancholy

FA HAYECK
The Road to Serfdom

JOHANN WOLFGANG von GOETHE
The Sorrows of Young Werther
Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship

  AND...


The Ragged Trousered PhilanthropistsDiary of a NobodyDr. FaustusThree Men in a BoatThe Dhammapada of the BuddhaLondon Labour and the London PoorLorna DooneOroonoko, the Royal SlaveThe Compleat AnglerPlutarch's LivesLeaves of GrassThe Travels of Sir John MandevilleAbelard and HeloiseSun Tzu's Art of WarParkinson's LawThe MabinogionThe Fable of the BeesThe Shahname of FerdowsiPiers Plowman

MORE FROM The Hundred Books...

Surprise A Christmas Carol A Study in Scarlet A Voyage to the Moon Aesop's Fables Alice in Wonderland An English Opium-Eater Anna Karenina Antarctic Journals Arabian Nights Aristotle's Ethics Barnaby_Rudge Beowulf Beyond Good and Evil Bleak House Book of the Dead Caesar's Commentaries Crime and Punishment Dalton's Chemical Philosophy David Copperfield Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Descartes' Meditations Dombey and Son Don Quixote Dulce et Decorum Est Einstein's Relativity Elements of Geometry Fairy Tales Father Goriot Frankenstein Gilgamesh Great Expectations Gulliver's Travels Hamlet Hard Times Heart of Darkness History of Tom Jones I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud If - Ivanhoe Jane Eyre Jekyll and Mr Hyde Kant Lady Chatterley's Lover Le Morte D'Arthur Le Repertoire de La Cuisine Les Miserables Little Dorrit Lysistrata Martin Chuzzlewit Meditations Metamorphosis Micrographia Moby-Dick My Confession Newton's Natural Philosophy Nicholas Nickleby Notebooks Of Miracles On Liberty On Old Age On The Social Contract On War Our Mutual Friend Paradise Lost Pepys' Diary Philosophy in The Boudoir Piers Plowman Pilgrims Progress Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect Pride and Prejudice Principles of Human Knowledge Principles of Morals and Legislation Psychoanalysis Revolutions of the Celestial Orbs Robinson Crusoe Romeo and Juliet Songs of Innocence and Experience Sorrows of Werther Sovran Maxims Tale of Two Cities Tess of the d'Urbervilles The Advancement of Learning The Adventures of Oliver Twist The Analects The Ballad of Reading Gaol The Bhagavad-Gita The Canterbury Tales The Communist Manifesto The Confessions The Decameron The Divine Comedy The Gospels of Jesus Christ The Great Gatsby The Histories The Life of Samuel Johnson The Magna Carta The Motion of the Heart and Blood The Odyssey The Old Curiosity Shop The Origin of Species The Pickwick Papers The Prince The Quran The Remembrance of Times Past The Republic The Rights of Man The Rights of Woman The Rime of the Ancient Mariner The RubaiyƔt Of Omar Khayyam The Torah The Travels of Marco Polo The Wealth of Nations The Wind in the Willows Three Men in a Boat Tom Brown's Schooldays Tristram Shandy Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea Ulysses Uncle Tom's Cabin Utopia Voyages of Discovery Walden Wilhelm Meister Wuthering Heights
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