The Great Books

The Great Books of the Western World (or 'Great Books), is a book series first published by Encyclopaedia Britannica in 1952 and contained 54 volumes. The second edition (pictured) was then published in 1990, adding some works and removing some others, totalling 60 volumes. The volumes are colour coded into four subject, covering 1) Imaginative Literature, 2) Philosophy and Theology 3) History and the Social Sciences, and 4) Maths and the Natural Sciences. The scope and depth of these works are incredible, and will grow the mindset of any reader.

Contained within this body of texts are many of the greatest works ever published. If you are starting out on your journey into understanding the classical world of education you missed out on in school, or just want to brush up on your understanding of classical thought, these books are for you. Getting the set is pricey and difficult, but worth it. However, below is a list of all of the works contained within the Great Books series, and so you can find and read them separately as you wish. These books will change your way of thinking, and your life. These are the books the elite minds of the world have been taught and know, so discover them for yourself today!

First Edition:

• Volume 1

• Robert Maynard Hutchin

• The Great Conversation

• Volume 2

• Syntopicon I

• Angel, Animal, Aristocracy, Art, Astronomy, Beauty, Being, Cause, Chance, Change, Citizen, Constitution, Courage, Custom and Convention, Definition, Democracy, Desire, Dialectic, Duty, Education, Element, Emotion, Eternity, Evolution, Experience, Family, Fate, Form, God, Good and Evil, Government, Habit, Happiness, History, Honor, Hypothesis, Idea, Immortality, Induction, Infinity, Judgment, Justice, Knowledge, Labor, Language, Law, Liberty, Life and Death, Logic, and Love

• Volume 3

• Syntopicon II

• Man, Mathematics, Matter, Mechanics, Medicine, Memory and Imagination, Metaphysics, Mind, Monarchy, Nature, Necessity and Contingency, Oligarchy, One and Many, Opinion, Opposition, Philosophy, Physics, Pleasure and Pain, Poetry, Principle, Progress, Prophecy, Prudence, Punishment, Quality, Quantity, Reasoning, Relation, Religion, Revolution, Rhetoric, Same and Other, Science, Sense, Sign and Symbol, Sin, Slavery, Soul, Space, State, Temperance, Theology, Time, Truth, Tyranny, Universal and Particular, Virtue and Vice, War and Peace, Wealth, Will, Wisdom, and World

• Volume 4

• Homer

• The Iliad

• The Odyssey

• Volume 5

• Aeschylus

• The Suppliant Maidens

• The Persians

• Seven Against Thebes

• Prometheus Bound

• The Oresteia

• Agamemnon

• Choephoroe

• The Eumenides

• Sophocles

• The Oedipus Cycle

• Oedipus the King

• Oedipus at Colonus

• Antigone

• Ajax

• Electra

• The Trachiniae

• Philoctetes

• Euripides

• 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

• The Acharnians

• The Knights

• The Clouds

• The Wasps

• Peace

• The Birds

• The Frogs

• Lysistrata

• Thesmophoriazusae

• Ecclesiazousae

• Plutus

• Volume 6

• Herodotus

• The History

• Thucydides

• History of the Peloponnesian War

• Volume 7

• Plato

• 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

• Volume 8

• Aristotle

• Categories

• On Interpretation

• Prior Analytics

• Posterior Analytics

• Topics

• Sophistical Refutations

• Physics

• On the Heavens

• On Generation and Corruption

• Meteorology

• Metaphysics

• On the Soul

• Minor biological works

• On Sense and the Sensible

• On Memory and Reminisence

• 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

• 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

• Volume 10

• Hippocrates

• Works

• The Hippocratic Oath

• On Ancient Medicine

• On Airs, Water, 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

• The Ulcer

• On Fistulae

• On Hemorrhoids

• On the Sacred Disease

• Galen

• On the Natural Faculties

• Volume 11

• 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

• The Quadrature of the Parabola

• On Floating Bodies

• Book of Lemmas

• The Method Treating of Mechanical Problems

• Apollonius of Perga

• On Conic Sections

• Nicomachus of Gerasa

• Introduction to Arithmetic

• Volume 12

• Lucretius

• On the Nature of Things

• Epictetus

• The Discourses

• Marcus Aurelius

• The Meditations

• Volume 13

• Virgil

• Eclogues

• Georgics

• Aeneid

• Volume 14

• Plutarch

• The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans

• Volume 15

• P. Cornelius Tacitus

• The Annals

• The Histories

• Volume 16

• Ptolemy

• Almagest

• Nicolaus Copernicus

• On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres

• Johannes Kepler

• Epitome of Copernican Astronomy (Books IV–V)

• The Harmonies of the World (Book V)

• Volume 17

• Plotinus

• The Six Enneads

• Volume 18

• Augustine of Hippo

• The Confessions

• The City of God

• On Christian Doctrine

• Volume 19

• Thomas Aquinas

• Summa Theologica (First part complete, selections from second part)

• Volume 20

• Thomas Aquinas

• Summa Theologica (Selections from second and third parts and supplement)

• Volume 21

• Dante Alighieri

• Divine Comedy

• Volume 22

• Geoffrey Chaucer

• Troilus and Criseyde

• The Canterbury Tales

• Volume 23

• Niccolò Machiavelli

• The Prince

• Thomas Hobbes

• Leviathan

• Volume 24

• François Rabelais

• Gargantua and Pantagruel, up to book 4.

• Volume 25

• Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

• Essays

• Volume 26

• William Shakespeare

• 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

• Volume 27

• William Shakespeare

• 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

• Volume 28

• William Gilbert

• On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies

• Galileo Galilei

• Dialogues Concerning the Two New Sciences

• William Harvey

• On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals

• On the Circulation of Blood

• On the Generation of Animals

• Volume 29

• Miguel de Cervantes

• The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha

• Volume 30

• Francis Bacon

• The Advancement of Learning

• Novum Organum

• New Atlantis

• Volume 31

• René Descartes

• 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

• Ethics

• Volume 32

• John Milton

• English Minor Poems

• On the Morning of Christ's Nativity

• A Paraphrase on Psalm 114

• Psalm 136

• The Passion

• On Time

• Upon the Circumcision

• At a Solemn Musick

• An Epitaph on the Marchioness of Winchester

• Song on May Morning

• On Shakespeare

• On the University Carrier

• Another on the same

• L'Allegro

• Il Penseroso

• Arcades

• Lycida

• Comus

• On the Death of a Fair Infant

• At a Vacation Exercise

• The Fifth Ode of Horace

• Sonnets (I, and VII—XIX)

• On the New Forcers of Conscience

• On the Lord General Fairfax at the Siege of Colchester

• To the Lord General Cromwell

• To Sir Henry Vane the Younger

• To Mister Cyriack the Skinner upon his Blindness

• Psalms (I—VIII & LXXX—LXXXVIII)

• Paradise Lost

• Samson Agonistes

• Areopagitica

• Volume 33

• Blaise Pascal

• The Provincial Letters

• Pensées

• Scientific and mathematical essays

• Volume 34

• Sir Isaac Newton

• Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

• Optics

• Christiaan Huygens

• Treatise on Light

• Volume 35

• John Locke

• A Letter Concerning Toleration

• Concerning Civil Government, Second Essay

• An Essay Concerning Human Understanding

• George Berkeley

• The Principles of Human Knowledge

• David Hume

• An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding

• Volume 36

• Jonathan Swift

• Gulliver's Travels

• Laurence Sterne

• The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

• Volume 37

• Henry Fielding

• The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling

• Volume 38

• Charles de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu

• The Spirit of the Laws

• Jean Jacques Rousseau

• A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality

• A Discourse on Political Economy

• The Social Contract

• Volume 39

• Adam Smith

• An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations

• Volume 40

• Edward Gibbon

• The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Part 1)

• Volume 41

• Edward Gibbon

• The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Part 2)

• Volume 42

• Immanuel Kant

• 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

• Volume 43

• 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

• On Liberty

• Considerations on Representative Government

• Utilitarianism

• Volume 44

• James Boswell

• The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.

• Volume 45

• Antoine Laurent Lavoisier

• Elements of Chemistry

• Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier

• Analytical Theory of Heat

• Michael Faraday

• Experimental Researches in Electricity

• Volume 46

• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

• The Philosophy of Right

• The Philosophy of History

• Volume 47

• Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

• Faust

• Volume 48

• Herman Melville

• Moby Dick

• Volume 49

• Charles Darwin

• The Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection

• The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

• Volume 50

• Karl Marx

• Capital

• Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

• Manifesto of the Communist Party

• Volume 51

• Leo Tolstoy

• War and Peace

• Volume 52

• Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky

• The Brothers Karamazov

• Volume 53

• William James

• The Principles of Psychology

• Volume 54

• Sigmund Freud

• 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

Second Edition Alterations

• Volume 20

• John Calvin

• Selections from Institutes of the Christian Religion

• Volume 23

• Erasmus

• The Praise of Folly

• Volume 31

• Molière

• 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

• Volume 34

• Voltaire

• Candide

• Denis Diderot

• Rameau's Nephew

• Volume 43

• Søren Kierkegaard

• Fear and Trembling

• Friedrich Nietzsche

• Beyond Good and Evil

• Volume 44

• Alexis de Tocqueville

• Democracy in America

• Volume 45

• Honoré de Balzac

• Cousin Bette

• Volume 46

• Jane Austen

• Emma

• George Eliot

• Middlemarch

• Volume 47

• Charles Dickens

• Little Dorrit

• Volume 48

• Mark Twain

• Huckleberry Finn

• Volume 52

• Henrik Ibsen

• A Doll's House

• The Wild Duck

• Hedda Gabler

• The Master Builder

20th-century Additions:

• Volume 55

• 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

• Volume 56

• 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

• Volume 57

• 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

• Volume 58

• 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)

• Volume 59

• 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

• Volume 60

• 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

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