The Great Books are classics of literature, philosophy, history and science that are believed to contain the basic ideas of Western civilization. Originally published in 54 volumes, The Great Books of the Western World covers categories including fiction, history, poetry, science, math, philosophy, drama, politics, religion, economics, and ethics.
The first volume is titled The Great Conversation.
The second volume "The Great Ideas: A Syntopicon" outlines a way of emphasizing the unity of the set and, by extension, of Western thought in general. Full text of both The Great Conversation and Volumes 1 and 2 of the Synopticon may be found on this guide.
Full Text of all of the "Great Books" may be found at Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/
Simply find the author or title of the text you would like to read from the list below and search in the Project Gutenberg link above.
The Great Books of the Western World are meant to support The Great Conversation. It is one of the more notable attempts at compiling an authoritative canon in the English speaking world.
This unique guide enables you to
investigate a particular idea, such as
courage or democracy, and compare
the perspectives of different authors.
Herodotus
The History
Thucydides
The History of the Peloponnesian War
Categories
On Interpretation
Prior Analytics
Posterior Analytics
Topics
On Sophistical Refutations
Physics
On the Heavens
On Generation and Corruption
Meteorology
On Sense and the Reminiscence
On Sleep and Sleeplessness
On Dreams
On Prophesying
On Longevity and Shortness of Life
On Youth and Old Age, On Life and Death, On Breathing
Hippocrates
The Oath
On Ancient Medicine
On Airs, Waters, and Places
The Book of Prognostics
On Regimen in Acute Diseases
Of the Epidemics
On Injuries of the Head
On the Surgery
On Fractures
On the Articulations
Instruments of Reduction
Aphorisms
The Law
On Ulcers
On Fistulae
On Hemorrhoids
On the Sacred Disease
Galen
On the Natural Faculties
Virgil
The Eclogues
The Georgics
The Aeneid
Ptolemy
The Almagest
Copernicus
On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres
Kepler
Epitome of Copernican Astronomy: IV – V
The Harmonies of the World: V
Aquinas II
Treatise on Habits
Treatise on Law
Treatise on Grace
Treatise on Faith, Hope and Charity
Treatise on Active and Contemplative
Treatise on the States of Life
Treatise on the Incarnation
Treatise on the Sacraments
Treatise on the Resurrection
Treatise on the Last Things
VOLUME 19
Dante
The Divine Comedy
Chaucer
Troilus and Criseyde
The Canterbury Tales
Shakespeare I
The First Part of King Henry the Sixth
The Second Part of King Henry the Sixth
The Third Part of King Henry the Sixth
The Tragedy of King Richard the Third
The Comedy of Errors
Titus Andronicus
The Taming on the Shrew
The Two Gentlemen of Verona
Love’s Labour’s Lost
Romeo and Juliet
The Tragedy of King Richard the Second
A Midsummer-Night’s Dream
The Life and Death of King John
The Merchant of Venice
The First Part of King Henry the Fourth
The Second Part of King Henry the Fourth
Much Ado About Nothing
The Life of King Henry the Fifth
Shakespeare I (1564 – 1616)
Julius Caesar
As You Like It
Cervantes
The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha
Moliere
The School for Wives
The Critique of the School for Wives
Tartuff
Don Juan
The Miser
The Would-Be Gentleman
The Would-Be Invalid
Racine
Berenice
Phaedra
Newton
Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
Optics
Huygens
Treatise on Light
Adam Smith
An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Gibbon I
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. I
Gibbon II
The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Vol. II
Kant
The Critique of Pure Reason
The Critique of Practical Reason
The Critique of Judgment
Alexis De Tocqueville
Democracy in America
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Faust
Honore De Balzac
Cousin Bette
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
The Brother Karamazov
Henrik Ibsen
A Doll’s House
The Wild Duck
Hedda Gabler
The Master Builder
William James
The Principles of Psychology
Henri Poincare
Science and Hypothesis
Max Planck
Scientific Autobiography
Alfred North Whitehead
Introduction to Mathematics
Albert Einstein
Relativity: The Special and the General Theory
Sir Arthur Eddington
The Expanding Universe
Niels Bohr
Atomic Theory: The Descriptions of Nature
Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics
G.H. Hardy
A Mathematician’s Apology
Werner Heisenberg
Physics and Philosophy
Erwin Schrodinger
What Is Life?
Theodosius Dobzhansky
Genetics and the Origin of Species
C.H. Waddington
The Nature of Life
Homer
The Iliad
The Odyssey
Charmides
Lysis
Laches
Protagoras
Euthydemus
Cratylus
Phaedrus
Ion
Symposium
Meno
Euthyphro
Apology
Crito
Phaedo
Gorgias
The Republic
Timaeus
Critias
Parmenides
Theaetetus
Sophist
Statesman
Philebus
Laws
The Seventh Letter
History of Animals
On the Parts of Animals
On the Motion of Animals
On the Gait of Animals
On the Generation of Animals
Nicomachean Ethics
Politics
The Athenian Constitution
Rhetoric
On Poetics
Euclid
The Thirteen Books of Euclid’s Elements
Archimedes
On the Sphere and Cylinder
Measurement of a Circle
On Conoids and Spheroids
On Spirals
On the Equilibrium of Planes
The Sand-Reckoner
Quadrature of the Parabola
On Floating Bodies
Book of Lemmas
The Method Treating of Mechanical Problems
Theseus
Romulus
Romulus and Theseus Compared
Lycurgus
Numas Pompilius
Lycurgus and Numa Compared
Solon
Poplicola
Poplicola and Solon Compared
Themistocles
Camillus
Pericles
Fabius
Fabius and Pericles Compared
Alcibiades
Coriolanus
Alcibiades and Coriolanus Compared
Timoleon
Aemilius Paulus
Aemilius Paulus and Timoleon Compared
Pelopidas
Marcellus
Marcellus and Pelopidas Compared
Aristides
Marcus Cato
Aristide and Marcus Cato Compared
Philopoeman
Flamininus
Flamininus and Philopoeman Compared
Pyrrhus
Caius Marius
Lysander
Sulla
Lysander and Sulla Compared
Cimon
Lucullus
Cimon and Lucullus Compared
Nicias
Crassus
Crassus and Nicias Compared
Sertorius
Eumenus
Eumenus and Sertorius Compared
Agesilaus
Pompey
Agesilaus and Pompey Compared
Plutarch (C. 46-C. 120)
Alexander
Caesar
Phocion
Cat the Younger
Agis
Cleomenes
Tiberius Gracchus
Caius Gracchus
Caius and Tiberius Gracchus and Agis and Cleomenes Compared
Demosthenes
Cicero
Cicero and Demosthenes Compared
Demetrius
Antony
Antony and Demetrius Compared
Dion
Marcus Brutus
Brutus and Dion Compared
Aratus
Artaxerxes
Galba
Otho
Shakespeare II
Twelfth Night; or, What You Will
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
The Merry Wives of Windsor
Troilus and Cressida
All’s Well that Ends Well
Measure for Measure
Othello, the Moor of Venice
King Lear
Macbeth
Antony and Cleopatra
Coroilanus
Timon of Athens
Pericles, Prince of Tyre
Cymbeline
The Winter’s Tale
The Tempest
The Famous History of the Life of King Henry the Eighth
Sonnets
Bacon
Advancement of Learning
Novum Organum
New Atlantis
Descartes
Rules for the Direction of the Mind
Discourse on the Method of Rightly Conducting the Reason
Meditations on First Philosophy
Objections Against the Meditations, and Replies
The Geometry
Spinoza
Ethics
Locke
A Letter Concerning Toleration Concerning Civil Government, Second
Essay
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
Berkeley
The Principles of Human Knowledge
Hume
An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
Swift
Gulliver’s Travels
Voltaire
Candide
Diderot
Rameau’s Nephew
American State Papers
The Declaration of Independence
Articles of Confederation
The Constitution of the United States of America
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay
The Federalist
John Stuart Mill
On Liberty
Representative Government
Utilitarianism
Austen, Jane
Emma
Eliot, George
Middlemarch
Charles Dickens
Little Dorrit
Herman Melville
Moby Dick
Mark Twain
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Sigmund Freud
The Origin and Development of Psycho-Analysis
Selected Papers on Hysteria (Chapters 1-10)
The Sexual Enlightenment of Children
The Future Prospects of Psycho-Analytic Therapy
Observations on “Wild” Psycho-Analysis
The Interpretations of Dreams
On Narcissism
Instincts and Their Vicissitudes
Repression
The Unconscious
A General Introduction to Psycho-Analysis
Beyond the Pleasure Principle
Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego
The Ego and the Id
Inhibitions, Symptons, and Anxiety
Thoughts for the Times on War and Death
Civilization and Its Discontents
New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis
Aeschylus
The Suppliant Maidens
The Persians
Seven Against Thebes
Prometheus Bound
Agamemnon
The Libation Bearers
The Eumenides
Sophocles
Oedipus the King
Oedipus at Colonus
Antigone
Ajax
Electra
The Women of Trachis
Philoctetes
Euripides
Rhesus
The Medea
Hippolytus
Alcestis
The Heracleidae
The Suppliant Women
The Trojan Women
Ion
Helen
Andromache
Electra
The Bacchae
Hecuba
Heracles
The Phoenician Women
Orestes
Iphigenia in Tauris
Iphigenia in Aulis
The Cyclops
Aristophanes
The Acharnians
The Knights
The Clouds
The Wasps
Peace
The Birds
The Frogs
Lysistrata
The Poet and the Women
The Assemblywomen
Wealth
Lucretius
The Way Things Are
Epictetus
The Discourses
Marcus Aurelius
The Meditations
Plotinus
The Six Enneads
Tacitus
The Annals
This Histories
Augustine
The Confessions
The City of God
On Christian Doctrine
Aquinas I
Treatise on God
Treatise on the Trinity
Treatise on the Creation
Treatise on the Angels
Treatise of the Work of the Six Days
Treatise on Man
Treatise on the Divine Government
Treatise on the Last End
Treatise on Human Acts
Calvin
Institutes of the Christian Religion
Machiavelli
The Prince
Leviathan, or, Matter, Form, and Power of a Commonwealth Ecclesiastical
and Civil
Rabelais
Gargantua and Pantagruel
Erasmus
Praise of Folly
Montaigne
The Essays
Gilbert
On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies
Galilei
Concerning the Two New Sciences
Harvey
On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals
On the Circulation of the Blood
On the Generation of Animals
Milton
English Minor Poems
Paradise Lost
Samson Agonistes
Areopagitica
Pascal
The Provincial Letters
Pensees
Scientific Treatises
Montesquieu
The Spirit of Laws
Rousseau
On the Origin of Inequality
On Political Economy
The Social Contract
James Boswell
The Life of Samuel Johnson, LLD
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
Elements in Chemistry
Michael Faraday
Experimental Researches in Electricity
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
The Philosophy of Right
The Philosophy of History
Soren Kierkegaard
Fear and Trembling
Friedrich Nietzsche
Beyond Good and Evil
Charles Darwin
The Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection
The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex
Karl Marx
Capital
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
Manifesto of the Communist Party
Count Leo Tolstoy
War and Peace