The Great Books
of the Western World, First Edition
Detailed Contents and
Ten-Year Reading Plan
Selections
included in the ten-year reading plan show the year or years in which they are
scheduled. Selections are included from
all volumes and all authors excepting Volumes 1, 2, 3, and 41. The Bible is not part of the GBWW but some
books are part of the reading plan; these are listed at the end of this
document.
Volume 1
The Great Conversation: The Substance of a Liberal
Education
Volume 2
The Great Ideas, a Syntopicon of Great Books of the
Western World [I. Angel to Love]
Volume 3
The Great Ideas, a Syntopicon of Great Books of the
Western World [II. Man to World; Bibliography of Additional Readings; Inventory
of Terms]
Volume 4
Homer
- The Iliad: Year 2
- The Odyssey: Year 6
Volume 5
Aeschylus (c. 525-456 B.C.E.)
- The Suppliant Maidens
- The Persians
- The Seven Against Thebes
- Prometheus Bound: Year 3
- Agamemnon: Year 2
- Choephoroe: Year 2
- Eumenides: Year 2
Sophocles (c. 495-406 B.C.E.)
- Oedipus the King: Year 2
- Oedipus at Colonus
- Antigone: Year 2
- Ajax: Year 10
- Electra: Year 10
- Trachiniae
- Philoctetes
Euripides (c. 480-406 B.C.E.)
- Rhesus
- Medea: Year 4
- Hippolytus: Year 4
- Alcestis
- Heracleidae
- The Supplicants
- The Trojan Women: Year 4
- Ion
- Helen
- Andromache
- Electra
- The Bacchantes: Year 4
- Hecuba
- Heracles Mad
- The Phoenician Maidens
- Orestes
- Iphigenia Among the Tauri
- Iphigenia at Aulis
- The Cyclops
Aristophanes (c. 445-380 B.C.E.)
- The Acharnians
- The Knights
- The Clouds: Year 1
- The Wasps
- The Peace
- The Birds
- The Frogs
- The Lysistrata: Year 1
- The Thesmophoriazusae: Year 8
- The Ecclesiazusae: Year 8
- The Plutus: Year 8
Volume 6
Herodotus (c. 484-425 B.C.E.)
- The History: Bk. I-II Year 2; Bk. VII-IX Year 3
Thucydides (c. 460-400 B.C.E.)
- The History of the
Peloponnesian War: Bk. I-II, V Year 3; Bk. VII-VIII Year 9
Volume 7
Plato (c. 428-348 B.C.E.)
- Charmides
- Lysis
- Laches
- Protagoras
- Euthydemus
- Cratylus
- Phaedrus
- Ion
- Symposium: Year 7
- Meno: Year 2
- Euthyphro
- Apology: Year 1
- Crito: Year 1
- Phaedo: Year 5
- Gorgias: Year 8
- The Republic: Bk. I-II Year 1; Bk. VI-VII Year 4
- Timaeus: Year 10
- Critias
- Parmenides
- Theaetetus: Year 4
- Sophist: Year 9
- Statesman: Year 3
- Philebus: Year 7
- Laws: Book X Year 6
- The Seventh Letter
Volume 8
Aristotle (c. 384-322 B.C.E.)
- Categories: Year 5
- On Interpretation: 1-10 Year 3
- Prior Analytics
- Posterior Analytics
- Topics
- On Sophistical Refutations
- Physics: Selections Year 4
- On the Heavens
- On Generation and Corruption
- Meteorology
- Metaphysics: Selections Years 4, 6
- On the Soul: Selections Year 5
- On Sense and the Sensible
- On Memory and Reminiscence
- On Sleep and Sleeplessness
- On Dreams
- On Prophesying by Dreams
- On Longevity and Shortness of Life
- On Youth and Old Age, On Life and Death, on Breathing
Volume 9
Aristotle (c. 384-322 B.C.E.)
- History of Animals
- On the Parts of Animals:
Selections Year 10
- On the Motion of Animals
- On the Gait of Animals
- On the Generation of Animals:
Selections Year 10
- Nicomachean Ethics: Selections
Years 1, 2, 7, 8
- Politics: Selections Years 1, 3, 9
- The Athenian Constitution
- Rhetoric: Selections Year 8
- On Poetics: Year 2
Volume 10
Hippocrates (c. 400 B.C.E.)
- The Oath: Year 5
- On Ancient Medicine: Year 5
- On Airs, Waters, and Places: Year 5
- The Book of Prognostics: Year 5
- On Regimen in Acute Diseases
- Of the Epidemics: Year 5
- On Injuries of the Head
- On the Surgery
- On Fractures
- On the Articulations
- Instruments of Reduction
- Aphorisms
- The Law on Ulcers: Year 5
- On Fistulae
- On Hemorrhoids
- On the Sacred Disease: Year 5
Galen (c. 130-200 C.E.)
- On the Natural Faculties: Year 5
Volume 11
Euclid (c. 300 B.C.E.)
- The Thirteen Books of Euclid's
Elements: Book I Year 3
Archimedes (c. 287-212 B.C.E.)
- On the Sphere and Cylinder
- Measurement of a Circle: Year 7
- On Conoids and Spheroids
- On Spirals
- On the Equilibrium of Planes:
Selections Year 7
- The Sand-Reckoner: Year 7
- Quadrature of the Parabola
- On Floating Bodies: Year 7
- Book of Lemmas
- The Method Treating of Mechanical Problems
Apollonius of Perga (c. 262-200 B.C.E.)
- On Conic Sections: Selections Year 9
Nicomachus of Gerasa (c. 100 C.E.)
- Introduction to Arithmetic: Year 2
Volume 12
Lucretius (c. 98-55 B.C.E.)
- On the Nature of Things: Bk.
I-IV Year 2; Bk.
V-VI Year 10
Epictetus (c. 60-138 C.E.)
Marcus Aurelius (121-180 C.E.)
Volume 13
Virgil (70-19 B.C.E.)
- The Eclogues: Year 10
- The Georgics: Year 10
- The Aeneid: Year 5
Volume 14
Plutarch (c. 46-120 C.E.)
- The Lives of the Noble Grecians
and Romans: Lycurgus, Numa, Alexander, Caesar Year 1
Volume 15
P. Cornelius Tacitus (c. 55-117 C.E.)
- The Annals: Year 3
- The Histories: Year 6
Volume 16
Ptolemy (c. 100-178 C.E.)
- The Almagest: Selections Year 5
Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543)
- On the Revolutions of Heavenly
Bodies: Selections Year 5
Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
- Epitome of Copernican
Astronomy [Book IV-V]: Selections Year 5
- The Harmonies of the World [Book V]
Volume 17
Plotinus (205-270 C.E.)
- The Six Enneads: #1 Year 7; #5 Year 6; #6 Year 5
Volume 18
Augustine (354-430 C.E.)
- The Confessions: Bk. I-VIII Year 1; Bk. IX-XIII Year 4
- The City of God: Bk. XV-XVIII Year 6; Bk. V, XIX Year 9
- On Christian Doctrine: Year 8
Volume 19
Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274): Selections both vol. Years 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10
Volume 20
Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274)
Volume 21
Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
- The Divine Comedy: Hell Year 5; Purgatory Year 6; Paradise Year 7
Volume 22
Geoffrey Chaucer (c. 1340-1400)
- Troilus and Cressida: Year 3
- The Canterbury Tales:
Selections Year 10
Volume 23
Nicolo Machiavelli (1469-1527)
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
- Leviathan: Bk. I Year 2; Bk. II Year 8
Volume 24
François Rabelais (c. 1495-1553)
- Gargantua and
Pantagruel: Bk. I-II Year 1; Bk.
III-IV Year 7
Volume 25
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592)
- Essays: Selections Year 1; One essay Year 4
Volume 26
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
- Henry VI Part One
- Henry VI Part Two
- Henry VI Part Three
- Richard III
- Comedy of Errors: Year 6
- Titus Andronicus
- The Taming of the Shrew:
Year 6
- The Two Gentlemen of Verona
- Love's Labor's Lost
- Romeo and Juliet
- Richard II: Year 10
- A Midsummer Night's Dream
- The Life and Death of King John
- The Merchant of Venice
- Henry IV Part One: Year 10
- Henry IV Part Two: Year 10
- Much Ado About Nothing
- Henry V: Year 10
- Julius Caesar: Year 7
- As You Like It: Year 6
Volume 27
William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
- Twelfth Night; Or, What
You Will: Year 6
- Hamlet: Year 1
- The Merry Wives of Windsor
- Troilus and Cressida: Year 7
- All's Well That Ends Well
- Measure For Measure
- Othello: Year 8
- King Lear: Year 8
- Macbeth: Year 3
- Antony and Cleopatra: Year 7
- Coriolanus
- Timon of Athens
- Pericles, Prince of Tyre
- Cymbeline
- The Winter's Tale
- The Tempest
- Henry VIII
- Sonnets
Volume 28
William Gilbert (1540-1603)
- On the Loadstone and
Magnetic Bodies: Year 9
Galileo Galilei (1564-1642)
- Dialogues Concerning the
Two New Sciences: Selections Years 4, 7
William Harvey (1578-1657)
- On the Motion of the
Heart and Blood in Animals: Year 5
- On the Circulation of the Blood
- On the Generation of
Animals: Selections Year 10
Volume 29
Miguel de Cervantes (1547-1616)
- The History of Don
Quixote de la Mancha: Part I Year 5; Part II Year 10
Volume 30
Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
- Advancement of Learning:
Selections Year 8
- Novum Organum: Part I Year 4
- New Atlantis
Volume 31
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
- Rules for the Direction
of the Mind: Year 9
- Discourse on the Method:
Year 4
- Meditations on First
Philosophy: Year 8
- Objections Against the Meditations and Replies
- The Geometry: Year 9
Benedict Spinoza (1632-1677)
- Ethics: Bk. I Year 6; Bk. II Year 5; Bk. III Year 8; Bk. IV-V Year 7
Volume 32
John Milton (1608-1674)
- English Minor Poems
- Paradise Lost: Year 3
- Samson Agonistes: Year 6
- Areopagitica: Year 2
Volume 33
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
- The Provincial Letters: Year 6
- Pensées: Selections Year 2
- Preface to the Treatise on the Vacuum
- New Experiments Concerning the Vacuum
- Account of the Great
Experiment Concerning the Equilibrium of Fluids: Year 9
- Treatises on the Equilibrium of Liquids and on the Weight of the
Mass of the Air
- On Geometrical
Demonstration: Year 9
- Treatise on the
Arithmetical Triangle: Year 2
- Correspondence With Fermat on the Theory of Probabilities
Volume 34
Sir Isaac Newton (1642-1727)
- Mathematical Principles of
Natural Philosophy: Selections Years 4, 7
- Optics
Christiaan Huygens (1629-1695)
- Treatise on Light: Year 7
Volume 35
John Locke (1632-1704)
- A Letter Concerning
Toleration: Year 8
- Concerning Civil
Government, Second Essay: Year 1
- An Essay Concerning
Human Understanding: Selections Years 3, 4, 6
George Berkeley (1685-1753)
- The Principles of Human
Knowledge: Year 5
David Hume (1711-1776)
- An Enquiry Concerning
Human Understanding: Year 4
Volume 36
Jonathan Swift (1667-1745)
- Gulliver's Travels: Year 2
Laurence Sterne (1713-1768)
- The Life and Opinions of
Tristram Shandy, Gent. : Year 8
Volume 37
Henry Fielding (1707-1754)
- The History of Tom Jones,
a Foundling: Year 9
Volume 38
Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu
(1689-1755)
- The Spirit of Laws:
Selections Year 9
Jean Jaques Rousseau (172-1778)
- A Discourse on the
Origin of Inequality: Year 2
- A Discourse on Political
Economy: Year 8
- The Social Contract: Bk.
I-II Year 1
Volume 39
Adam Smith (1723-1790)
- An Inquiry Into the Nature and
Causes of the Wealth of Nations: Selections Years 1, 8
Volume 40
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
- The Decline and Fall of
the Roman Empire (Chapters 1-40): Ch. 15-16 Year 1; Ch. 1-5 Year 6
Volume 41
Edward Gibbon (1737-1794)
- The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, cont'd (Chapters 41-71)
Volume 42
Immanuel Kant (1724-1804)
- The Critique of Pure
Reason: Selections Years 4, 5, 6
- Fundamental Principles of
the Metaphysic of Morals: Year 2
- The Critique of
Practical Reason: Year 7
- 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: Year 3
- The Critique of
Judgement: “Aesthetic” Year 7;
“Teleological” Year 10
Volume 43
American State Papers
- The Declaration of
Independence: Year 1
- Articles of Confederation
- The Constitution of the
United States of America: Year 1
Alexander Hamilton (1757-1804), James Madison
(1751-1836), John Jay (1745-1829)
- The Federalist:
Selections Year 1
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873)
- On Liberty: Year 2
- Representative
Government: No. 1-3 Year 3
- Utilitarianism: Year 7
Volume 44
James Boswell (1740-1795)
- The Life of Samuel
Johnson, LL.D.: Selections Years 8, 10
Volume 45
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier (1743-1794)
- Elements of Chemistry:
Part I Year 3
Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier (1768-1830
- Analytical Theory of Heat
[Preliminary Disclosure, Ch. 1-2] : Year 9
Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
- Experimental Researches
in Electricity: Selections Year 9
Volume 46
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)
- The Philosophy of Right:
Ch. III Year 9
- The Philosophy of
History: Introduction Year 6
Volume 47
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
- Faust: Part I Year 8; Part II Year 10
Volume 48
Herman Melville (1819-1882)
- Moby Dick; or, the
Whale: Year 4
Volume 49
Charles Darwin (1809-1882)
- The Origin of Species By
Means of Natural Selection: Selections Year 5
- The Descent of Man and
Selection in Relation to Sex: Selections Year 10
Volume 50
Karl Marx (1818-1883)
- Capital: Selections Years 8, 9, 10
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895)
- Manifesto of the
Communist Party: Year 1
Volume 51
Count Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910)
- War and Peace: Bk.
I-VIII Year 5; Bk.
IX-XV, Epilogues Year 6
Volume 52
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky (1821-1881)
- The Brothers Karamazov: Parts
I-II Year 3;
Parts III-IV Year 4
Volume 53
William James (1842-1910)
- The Principles of
Psychology: Ch. I, V-VII Year 10; Ch. VIII-X Year 8; Ch. XV,
XX Year 4; Ch.
XXVIII Year 5
Volume 54
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
- The Origin and
Development of Psycho-Analysis: Year 3
- 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 Interpretation of Dreams
- On Narcissism
- Instincts and Their Vicissitudes
- Repression
- The Unconscious
- A General Introduction
to Psycho-Analysis: Year 10
- 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: Year 9
- New Introductory Lectures on Psycho-Analysis
Old
Testament: Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy
Year 6; Job, Isiah, Amos Year 7
New
Testament: Matthew, Acts Year 1; John, Romans, I Corinthians Year 9
This list was copied from http://www.crispyneurons.com/writing/great/,
with corrections and additions.
Alan Nicoll's Great Books of the
Western World home page.
Alan
Nicoll's Home page.
Alan
Nicoll's email address is: Alan_Nicoll@Yahoo.com.
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