The Great Books of the Western World

This page provides a list of the Great Books of the Western World, as created by Robert Hutchins and Mortimer Adler. The intent of this list is to provide a go

• Homer (ca.800BCE)
  • The Iliad
  • The Odyssey
• Aeschylus (525 BC – 456 BC)
  • The Suppliant Maidens
  • The Persians
  • Seven Against Thebes
  • Prometheus Bound
  • The Oresteia
    • Agamemnon
    • Choephoroe
    • The Eumenides
• Sophocles (c. 496-c. 405 BC)
  • The Oedipus Cycle
    • Oedipus the King
    • Oedipus at Colonus
    • Antigone
  • Ajax
  • Electra
  • The Trachiniae
  • Philoctetes
• Euripides (480 or 484-406 BC)
  • Rhesus
  • Medea
  • Hippolytus
  • Alcestis
  • Heracleidae
  • The Suppliants
  • The Trojan Women
  • Ion
  • Helen
  • Andromache
  • Electra
  • Bacchantes
  • Hecuba
  • Heracles Mad
  • The Phoenician Women
  • Orestes
  • Iphigenia in Tauris
  • Iphigenia in Aulis
  • Cyclops
• Aristophanes (ca. 446 BC – 385 BC)
  • The Acharnians
  • The Knights
  • The Clouds
  • The Wasps
  • Peace
  • The Birds
  • The Frogs
  • Lysistrata
  • Thesmophoriazusae
  • Ecclesiazousae
  • Plutus
• Herodotus (485–420BCE)
  • The History 
• Thucydides (ca.460 BCE)
  • History of the Peloponnesian War 
• Plato (c.427–c.347 BCE)
  • The Dialogues
    • 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 
• Aristotle (384–322 BCE)
  • Categories
  • On Interpretation
  • Prior Analytics
  • Posterior Analytics
  • Topics
  • Sophistical Refutations
  • Physics
  • On the Heavens
  • On Generation and Corruption
  • Meteorology
  • Metaphysics
  • On the Soul
  • On Dreams
  • On Longevity and Shortness of Life
  • On Memory and Reminiscence
  • On Prophesying by Dreams
  • On Sense and the Sensible
  • On Sleep and Sleeplessness
  • On the Heavens
  • On Youth and Old Age, On Life and Death, On Breathing
  • History of Animals
  • 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
  • Poetics

• Hippocrates (460–377 BCE)
  • Works
• Galen (129AD – 210AD)
  • On the Natural Faculties
• Euclid (ca.300 BCE)
  • The Thirteen Books of Euclid’s Elements
• Archimedes (c. 287–212 BCE)
  • On the Sphere and Cylinder
  • Measurement of a Circle
  • On Conoids and Spheroids
  • On Spirals
  • On the Equilibrium of Planes
  • The Sand Reckoner
  • The Quadrature of the Parabola
  • On Floating Bodies
  • Book of Lemmas
  • The Method Treating of Mechanical Problems
• Apollonius of Perga (262 BC–ca. 190 BC)
  • On Conic Sections
• Nicomachus of Gerasa (c. 60 – c. 120 AD)
  • Introduction to Arithmetic
• Lucretius (98?–55 BCE)
  • On the Nature of Things 
• Epictetus (ca. 55 – 135 AD)
  • The Discourses 
• Marcus Aurelius (121 – 180 AD)
  • The Meditations 
• Virgil (70–19 BCE)
  • Eclogues
  • Georgics
  • Aeneid
• Plutarch (46 – 120AD)
  • The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans 
• P. Cornelius Tacitus (ca.56 – ca.120 AD)
  • The Annals
  • The Histories
• Ptolemy (c.100 ce — c. 170 ce)
  • Almagest 
• Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 – 1543 AD)
  • On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres 
• Johannes Kepler (1571 – 1630 AD)
  • Epitome of Copernican Astronomy (Books IV–V)
  • The Harmonies of the World (Book V)
• Plotinus (205 – 270 AD)
  • The Six Enneads
• Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430 AD)
  • The Confessions
  • The City of God
  • On Christian Doctrine
• Thomas Aquinas (1225 – 1274 AD)
  • Summa Theologica
• John Calvin
  • Institutes of the Christian Religion (Selections)
• Dante Alighieri (1265 – 1321 AD)
  • Divine Comedy
• Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1343 – 1400 AD)
  • Troilus and Criseyde
  • The Canterbury Tales
• Niccolò Machiavelli 1469 – 1527 AD)
  • The Prince
• Thomas Hobbes (1588 – 1679 AD)
  • Leviathan
• Erasmus (1466 – 1536 AD)
  • The Praise of Folly
• François Rabelais (1494? – 1553? AD)
  • Gargantua and Pantagruel
• Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533 – 1592 AD)
  • Essays
• William Shakespeare (1564 – 1616 AD)
  • 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 Richard the Third
  • The Comedy of Errors
  • Titus Andronicus
  • The Taming of 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
  • Julius Caesar
  • As You Like It
  • Twelfth Night; or, What You Will
  • The Tragedy of 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
  • Coriolanus
  • 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
• William Gilbert (1540 – 1603 AD)
  • On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies
• Galileo Galilei (1564 – 1642 AD)
  • Dialogues Concerning the Two New Sciences
• William Harvey (1578 – 1657 AD)
  • On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals
  • On the Circulation of Blood
  • On the Generation of Animals
• Miguel de Cervantes (1547 – 1616 AD)
  • The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha
• Sir Francis Bacon (1561 – 1626 AD)
  • The Advancement of Learning
  • Novum Organum
  • New Atlantis
• René Descartes (1596 – 1650 AD)
  • Rules for the Direction of the Mind
  • Discourse on the Method
  • Meditations on First Philosophy
  • Objections Against the Meditations and Replies
  • The Geometry
• Benedict de Spinoza (1632 – 1677 AD)
  • Ethics
• Molière (1622 – 1673 AD)
  • The School for Wives
  • The Critique of the School for Wives
  • Tartuffe
  • Don Juan
  • The Miser
  • The Would-Be Gentleman
  • The Imaginary Invalid
• Jean Racine
  • Bérénice
  • Phèdre
• John Milton (1608 – 1674 AD)
  • English Minor Poems
  • Paradise Lost
  • Samson Agonistes
  • Areopagitica
• Blaise Pascal (1623 – 1662 AD)
  • The Provincial Letters
  • Pensées
  • Scientific and mathematical essays
• Sir Isaac Newton (1642 – 1727 AD)
  • Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
  • Optics
• Christian Huygens (1629 – 1693 AD)
  • Treatise on Light
• Voltaire (1694 – 1778 AD)
  • Candide
• Denis Diderot
  • Rameau’s Nephew
• John Locke (1632 – 1704 AD)
  • A Letter Concerning Toleration
  • Concerning Civil Government, Second Essay
  • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
• George Berkeley (1685 – 1753 AD)
  • The Principles of Human Knowledge
• David Hume (1711 – 1776 AD)
  • An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
• Jonathan Swift (1667 – 1745 AD)
  • Gulliver’s Travels
• Laurence Sterne (1713 – 1768 AD)
  • The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
• Henry Fielding (1707 – 1754 AD)
  • The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
• Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689 – 1755 AD)
  • The Spirit of the Laws
• Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712 – 1778 AD)
  • A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
  • A Discourse on Political Economy
  • The Social Contract
• Adam Smith (1723 – 1790 AD)
  • An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
• Edward Gibbon (1737 – 1794 AD)
  • The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
• Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804 AD)
  • Critique of Pure Reason
  • Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
  • Critique of Practical Reason
  • Excerpts from The Metaphysics of Morals
    • Preface and Introduction to the Metaphysical Elements of Ethics with a note on Conscience
    • General Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals
    • The Science of Right
  • The Critique of Judgement
• American State Papers
  • 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 (1806 – 1873 AD)
  • On Liberty
  • Considerations on Representative Government
  • Utilitarianism
• Søren Kierkegaard
  • Fear and Trembling
• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844 – 1900 AD)
  • Beyond Good and Evil
• James Boswell (1740 – 1795 AD)
  • The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
• Alexis de Tocqueville (1805 – 1859 AD)
  • Democracy in America
• Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743 – 1794 AD)
  • Elements of Chemistry
• Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier
  • Analytical Theory of Heat
• Michael Faraday (1797 – 1867 AD)
  • Experimental Researches in Electricity
• Honoré de Balzac (1799 – 1850 AD)
  • Cousin Bette
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831 AD)
  • The Philosophy of Right
  • The Philosophy of History
• Jane Austen (1775 – 1817 AD)
  • Emma
• George Eliot (1819 – 1880 AD)
  • Middlemarch
• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832 AD)
  • Faust
• Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870 AD)
  • Little Dorrit
• Herman Melville (1819 – 1891 AD)
  • Moby Dick; or, The Whale
• Mark Twain (1835 – 1910 AD)
  • Huckleberry Finn
• Charles Darwin (1809 – 1882 AD)
  • The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection
  • The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
• Karl Marx (1818 – 1883 AD)
  • Capital
• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels
  • Manifesto of the Communist Party
• Count Leo Tolstoy (1828 – 1910 AD)
  • War and Peace
• Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky (1821 – 1881 AD)
  • The Brothers Karamazov
• Henrik Ibsen (1828 – 1906 AD)
  • A Doll’s House
  • The Wild Duck
  • Hedda Gabler
  • The Master Builder
• William James (1842 – 1910 AD)
  • The Principles of Psychology
• Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939 AD)
  • The Origin and Development of Psycho-Analysis
  • Selected Papers on Hysteria
  • The Sexual Enlightenment of Children
  • The Future Prospects of Psycho-Analytic Therapy
  • Observations on “Wild” Psycho-Analysis
  • The Interpretation 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, Symptoms, and Anxiety
  • Thoughts for the Times on War and Death
  • Civilization and Its Discontents
  • New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis
• William James
  • Pragmatism
• Henri Bergson
  • “An Introduction to Metaphysics“
• John Dewey
  • Experience and Education
• Alfred North Whitehead
  • Science and the Modern World
• Bertrand Russell
  • The Problems of Philosophy
• Martin Heidegger
  • What Is Metaphysics?
• Ludwig Wittgenstein
  • Philosophical Investigations
• Karl Barth
  • The Word of God and the Word of Man
• Henri Poincaré
  • Science and Hypothesis
• Max Planck
  • Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers
• Alfred North Whitehead
  • An Introduction to Mathematics
• Albert Einstein
  • Relativity: The Special and the General Theory
• Arthur Eddington
  • The Expanding Universe
• Niels Bohr
  • Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (selections)
  • Discussion with Einstein on Epistemology
• G. H. Hardy
  • A Mathematician’s Apology
• Werner Heisenberg
  • Physics and Philosophy
• Erwin Schrödinger
  • What Is Life?
• Theodosius Dobzhansky
  • Genetics and the Origin of Species
• C. H. Waddington
  • The Nature of Life
• Thorstein Veblen
  • The Theory of the Leisure Class
• R. H. Tawney
  • The Acquisitive Society
• John Maynard Keynes
  • The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money
• Sir James George Frazer
  • The Golden Bough (selections)
• Max Weber
  • Essays in Sociology (selections)
• Johan Huizinga
  • The Autumn of the Middle Ages
• Claude Lévi-Strauss
  • Structural Anthropology (selections)
• Henry James
  • The Beast in the Jungle
• George Bernard Shaw
  • Saint Joan
• Joseph Conrad
  • Heart of Darkness
• Anton Chekhov
  • Uncle Vanya
• Luigi Pirandello
  • Six Characters in Search of an Author
• Marcel Proust
  • Remembrance of Things Past: “Swann in Love“
• Willa Cather
  • A Lost Lady
• Thomas Mann
  • Death in Venice
• James Joyce
  • A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
• Virginia Woolf
  • To the Lighthouse
• Franz Kafka
  • The Metamorphosis
• D. H. Lawrence
  • The Prussian Officer
• T. S. Eliot
  • The Waste Land
• Eugene O’Neill
  • Mourning Becomes Electra
• F. Scott Fitzgerald
  • The Great Gatsby
• William Faulkner
  • A Rose for Emily
• Bertolt Brecht
  • Mother Courage and Her Children
• Ernest Hemingway
  • The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
• George Orwell
  • Animal Farm
• Samuel Beckett
  • Waiting for Godot