Published: 1869

The novel tells the story of a number of aristocratic families and the entanglements of their personal lives with Napoleon's invasion of Russia. As events proceed, Tolstoy systematically denies his subjects any significant free choice: the onward roll of history determines happiness and tragedy alike. (Translated by Aylmer and Louise Shanks Maude.)

Published: 1884

The drifting journey of Huck and his friend Jim, a runaway slave, down the Mississippi River on their raft may be one of the most enduring images of escape and freedom in all of American literature. Although the society it satirized was already history at the time of publication, the book was quite controversial, and has remained so to this day.

Published: 1855

Dickens' classic love story, set in a time of chronic debt and financial collapse.

Author: Charles Darwin

Published: 1859

When on board H.M.S. 'Beagle,' as naturalist, I was much struck with certain facts in the distribution of the inhabitants of South America, and in the geological relations of the present to the past inhabitants of that continent. These facts seemed to me to throw some light on the origin of species--that mystery of mysteries, as it has been called by one of our greatest philosophers. On my return home, it occurred to me, in 1837, that something might perhaps be made out on this question by patiently accumulating and reflecting on all sorts of facts which could possibly have any bearing on it. After five years' work I allowed myself to speculate on the subject, and drew up some short notes; these I enlarged in 1844 into a sketch of the conclusions, which then seemed to me probable: from that period to the present day I have steadily pursued the same object. I hope that I may be excused for entering on these personal details, as I give them to show that I have not been hasty in coming to a decision.

Author: Plato

Published: 1871

In Plato's writings there is both unity, and also growth and development; but that we must not intrude upon him either a system or a technical language. Translated by Benjamin Jowett.

Author: Plato

Lysimachus, the son of Aristides the Just, and Melesias, the son of the elder Thucydides, two aged men who live together, are desirous of educating their sons in the best manner. Their own education, as often happens with the sons of great men, has been neglected; and they are resolved that their children shall have more care taken of them, than they received themselves at the hands of their fathers. Translated by Benjamin Jowett.

The Protagoras, like several of the Dialogues of Plato, is put into the mouth of Socrates, who describes a conversation which had taken place between himself and the great Sophist at the house of Callias. Translated by B. Jowett.

The Euthydemus, though apt to be regarded by us only as an elaborate jest, has also a very serious purpose. It may fairly claim to be the oldest treatise on logic; for that science originates in the misunderstandings which necessarily accompany the first efforts of speculation. Translated by B. Jowett.

The Ion is the shortest, or nearly the shortest, of all the writings which bear the name of Plato, and is not authenticated by any early external testimony. The grace and beauty of this little work supply the only, and perhaps a sufficient, proof of its genuineness. The plan is simple; the dramatic interest consists entirely in the contrast between the irony of Socrates and the transparent vanity and childlike enthusiasm of the rhapsode Ion. Translated by Benjamin Jowett.

Translated by B. Jowett.

Author: Virgil

Published: 19BC

Author: Dante Alighieri

Published: 1321

Translated by H.F. Cary.

Published: 1513

Translated by W.K. Marriott.

Author: François Rabelais

Published: 1653

Translated by Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromarty and Peter Antony Motteux. The text of the first Two Books of Rabelais has been reprinted from the first edition (1653) of Urquhart's translation. Footnotes initialled 'M.' are drawn from the Maitland Club edition (1838); other footnotes are by the translator. Urquhart's translation of Book III. appeared posthumously in 1693, with a new edition of Books I. and II., under Motteux's editorship. Motteux's rendering of Books IV. and V. followed in 1708. Occasionally (as the footnotes indicate) passages omitted by Motteux have been restored from the 1738 copy edited by Ozell.

Published: 1590

Published: 1590

Published: 1590

Published: 1592

Published: 1593

Published: 1594

Published: 1594

Published: 1599

A classic tragedy, beloved by romantics around the world.

Published: 1600

Published: 1596

Classified as a comedy in Shakespeare's First Folio, while it shares certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps more remembered for its dramatic scenes, and is best known for the character Shylock and the 'pound of flesh'. The play's antisemitic aspects has gained more attention in recent years.

Published: 1597

Published: 1598

Published: 1599

Portraying the conspiracy against the Roman dictator, Julius Caesar, his assassination, and its aftermath, this drama is just one of several of Shakespeare's plays to be based on historical events.

Published: 1599

Published: 1599

Published: 1602

Published: 1602

The play, set in Denmark, recounts how Prince Hamlet exacts revenge on his uncle Claudius, who has murdered Hamlet's father, the King, and then taken the throne and married Gertrude, Hamlet's mother. The play vividly charts the course of real and feigned madness—from overwhelming grief to seething rage—and explores themes of treachery, revenge, incest, and moral corruption.--Wikipedia

Published: 1597

Published: 1603

Published: 1604

Published: 1604

Published: 1605

Published: 1606

An account of a regicide and its aftermath.

Published: 1606

Published: 1607

Published: 1607

Published: 1608

Published: 1609

Published: 1610

Published: 1611

Published: 1612

Readers may find Tree's Henry VIII and His Court a useful guide to the personages in this play.

Published: 1615

Translated by John Ormsby.
One of the earliest novels in a modern European language, one which many people consider the finest book in the Spanish language.

Author: René Descartes

Published: 1667

The protagonist of this Protestant epic is the fallen angel Satan. From a modern perspective it may appear that Milton presents Satan sympathetically, as an ambitious and prideful being who defies his tyrannical creator, omnipotent God, and wages war on Heaven, only to be defeated and cast down. Some critics regard the character of Satan as a Byronic hero.

Published: 1667

Author: Jonathan Swift

Published: 1726

Edited with Introduction and Notes by Thomas M. Balliet, 1900.

Author: Voltaire

Published: 1759

Widely considered to be one of the most significant works of the Western canon, Voltaire's novel tells the tale of its naive protagonist Candide, taught to believe in optimism. Candide undergoes a series of extraordinary hardships, parodying many adventure and romance cliches.

Published: 1776

An account of economics at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, as well as a rhetorical piece written for the generally educated individual of the 18th century - advocating a free market economy as more productive and more beneficial to society. --Wikipedia

Author: Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, James Madison

Published: 1886

Helen Zimmern translation.

Published: 1815

The main character, Emma Woodhouse, is described in the opening paragraph as ''rich, beautiful and clever,'' but is also rather spoiled. As a result of the recent marriage of her former governess, Emma prides herself on her ability to matchmake, and proceeds to take under her wing an illegitimate orphan, Harriet Smith, whom she hopes to marry off to the vicar, Mr Elton. So confident is she that she persuades Harriet to reject a proposal from a young farmer who is a much more suitable partner for the girl.

Author: George Eliot

Published: 1871

Making masterful use of a counterpointed plot, Eliot presents the stories of a number of denizens of a small English town on the eve of the Reform Bill of 1832. The main characters, Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, each long for exceptional lives but are powerfully constrained by their own unrealistic expectations as well as conservative society. The novel is notable for its deep psychological insight and sophisticated character portraits.

Author: Herman Melville

Published: 1851

The voyage of the whaling ship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab, who leads his crew on a hunt for the great whale Moby Dick, reveals a profound meditation on society, nature, and the human struggle for meaning, happiness, and salvation. Often considered the epitome of American Romanticism, the novel is now considered one of the greatest novels in the English language.

Published: 1888

One of the world's most influential political manuscripts. Commissioned by the Communist League and written by communist theorists Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, it laid out the League's purposes and program. It presents an analytical approach to the class struggle (historical and present) and the problems of capitalism, rather than a prediction of communism's potential future forms.--Wikipedia

Author: Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Published: 1881

Published: 1903

The parable of John Marcher and his peculiar destiny has spoken to many readers who have speculated on the worth and meaning of human life. Transcribed from the 1915 Martin Secker edition.

Published: 1899

The story tells of Charles Marlow, an Englishman who took a foreign assignment from a Belgian trading company as a ferry-boat captain in Africa. Although Conrad does not give the name of the river, at the time, Congo Free State, the location of the large and important Congo River was a private colony of Belgium's King Leopold II. Marlow is employed to transport ivory downriver. However, his more pressing assignment is to return Kurtz, another ivory trader, to civilization, in a cover-up. Kurtz has a reputation throughout the region. This symbolic story is a story within a story or frame narrative. It follows Marlow as he recounts from dusk through to late night, to a group of men aboard a ship anchored in the Thames Estuary his Congolese adventure. The passage of time and the darkening sky during the fictitious narrative-within-the-narrative parallel the atmosphere of the story. Wikipedia

Author: Marcel Proust

Published: 1922

Translated from the French by C. K. Scott Moncrieff.

Published: 1916

A depiction of the formative years in the life of Stephen Dedalus, a fictional alter ego of Joyce and a pointed allusion to the consummate craftsman of Greek mythology, Dædalus.

Published: 1912

Translated by David Wyllie.

Published: 1914