Below are works of great importance in the history of civilization, at least in the mind of this humble critic. Where possible, I will include links; often, the works are translated, and I make no apologies for the translations I choose, which are mostly arbitrary and based on availability rather than any philological judgments. I will include only the briefest of comments.
The Vedas: The Vedas are the oldest Hindu texts, and all further Indian thought is at least to some degree based on them.
The Upanishads: The Upanishads are part of the Vedas, included separately here only because the site that contains the Veda translations apparently considers them separate. The Upanishads are more directly philosophical than the Vedas, and were originally intended as supplemental study for the best students of the Brahmans.
The Mahabharata: The greatest work of Indian literature (literally), it contains the Bhagavad Gita, which is considered the most profound song in history, and is an exposition of some Hindu philosophy.
The Ramayana: Second only to the Mahabharata in terms of literary contributions to Hindu thought. Being much shorter than the Mahabharata, I suspect the Ramayana will constitute lighter reading.
The Tao Te Ching: The Tao Te Ching is the oldest extant Chinese philosophy, composed by Lao-Tzu.
The Analects: This body of work contains many of the ideas of Confucius; as near as I can tell, they were composed in much the same way that the disciples of Jesus put together the New Testament. If I had to pick the Analects or the Tao Te Ching, I’d probably pick the Analects, because their influence seems to have been more dominant for much of Chinese history.
Poems of Li Po: These are a few poems by Li Po, the greatest of Chinese poets. It was difficult to find a trustworthy set of Li Po translations; I chose this source in the end because they seemed to distrust Ezra Pound, one of the original Li Po translators who took many liberties.
The Tale of Genji: I have chosen the Seidensticker translation of Japan’s greatest novel, in part because it was the easiest to find. A discussion of the merits of the various translations occurs on Wikipedia.
The Pillow Book: Written by Sei Shonagon, this is one of the finest examples of the Japanese essay. I’ve been unable to find anything more than the briefest excerpts of this online.
My Ten-Foot Hut: This essay will perhaps form a counterpoint to “The Pillow Book” above, having been written by an impoverished Japanese monk, rather than a lady of Japan’s court.
The Iliad: I recommend the Fitzgerald translation.
The Odyssey: I recommend the Fitzgerald translation.
Anabasis: The incredible story of Xenophon and his Greek army trapped deep in the Persian empire.
The History of the Peloponnesian War: I’ve linked to the MIT Classics Archive’s Crawley translation simply because the archive is a robust website. This is the major work of Thucydides, and the only one of which I am aware.
The Complete Extant Works of Aeschylus: Again, I’ve chosen the MIT Classics Archive’s translations.
The Complete Extant Works of Sophocles: MIT Classics Archive’s translations.
The Major Works of Euripides: MIT Classics Archive… the major works, in chronological order, from Durant, are Alcestis, Medea, Hippolytus, Andromache, Hecuba, Electra, The Trojan Women, Iphigenia in Tauris, Orestes, Iphigenia in Aulis, and The Bacchae.
The Complete Extant Works of Aristophanes: MIT Classics Archive… Durant recommends The Birds as the masterpiece.
The Major Works of Plato: MIT Classics Archive… the major works, chosen from an arbitrary educational discussion of Plato, and conforming roughly to my own impressions from a lifetime of philosophical study, are Apology, Phaedo, Crito, Meno, Symposium, Republic, Gorgias, Phaedrus, Philebus, Theaetetus, Protagoras, Sophist, and Timaeus.
Selected Works of Aristotle: MIT Classics Archive contains some, others are linked. While Aristotle’s contributions to science and logic were epochal, these fields have advanced sufficiently that time spent studying them is best spent elsewhere. I’ve selected his undisputed works on ethics and aesthetics: Nicomachean Ethics, Eudemian Ethics, Politics, Rhetoric, and Poetics. Missing chapters in the Eudemian Ethics occur in Nicomachean Ethics.
The Complete Works of Catullus: This website contains some reasonable translations.
Selected Works of Cicero: It was difficult to find guidance to select the major works of Cicero. I have omitted his philosophical work, but chosen to include the letters to Atticus and the speeches against Catiline, for Sulla, and upon Cicero’s return to Rome, as all receiving some amount of acclaim or possessing historical relevance.
Commentaries on the Gallic War: The translation I’ve selected is at least forgivable. “Commentaries on the Gallic War” is Caesar’s most famous work.
The Aeneid: I recommend the Fitzgerald.
The Georgics: I recommend the Fitzgerald.
Horace: Satires and Odes are probably the most important.
The Complete Works of Livy.
Ovid: Metamorphoses, Sorrows, Heroines.
Tacitus: Annals and Histories.
Juvenal: “The Satires”.
Pliny the Younger: Letters.
The “Meditations” of Marcus Aurelius.
Plutarch: Parallel Lives.
Arrian: “The Discourses” of Epictetus.
Augustine: Confessions and City of God.
The Koran
The Panchatantra
One Thousand and One Nights
Shahnama
The Song of Roland
Sic et Non, by Pierre Abelard.
Historia Mearum Calamitatum and the subsequent letters of Heloise and Abelard.
The Lay of the Cid
The Song of the Nibelungs
The Story of Burnt Njal
Parzival
Roman de la Rose
Reynard the Fox
The Divine Comedy
Boccaccio’s Decameron
De Viris Illustribus (Petrarch)
Canzoniere (Petrarch)
Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier
The Prince, by Macchiavelli
Cellini’s Autobiography
Vasari’s Lives of Artists
The Canterbury Tales
William’s Vision of Piers Plowman
Amadis of Gaul: This version is an English translation of a Spanish version of the tale. The Spanish version appears to be edited from the oldest extant version of the tale, which Garci Ordóñez de Montalvo created. The Spanish version appears to have descended from a Portuguese original, which has not survived the ravages of time.
The Life of Gargantua and Pantagruel: Rabelais’ opus, this link refers to the translation by Thomas Urquhart, apparently with help by one Peter Anthony Motteux. Will Durant explicitly recommends Urquhart’s translation, calling its style similar to Rabelais’ own. The translation follows the writing by only a hundred years or so.
In Defense of Poesy: Philip Sydney also wrote what is perhaps an illustration of his defense, called The Countess of Pembroke’s Arcadia, which I have elected not to recommend, because it is not cited as being of any particular excellence, and because there the Recommended Reading is already longer than anyone will ever have time to read.
Selected Works of Edmund Spenser: Epithalamion, Four Hymns. Thankfully, we do not have to worry about translations of English, and can turn to our trusted Bartleby.com and Google Books (for no translation means small intellectual contribution from those pesky, copyrighting editors).
Selected Works of William Shakespeare: Again, for the sake of consistency (and in the hope that the world will follow us), we choose Bartleby.com. Richard II, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, The Merchant of Venice, Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, Henry V, The Merry Wives of Windsor, As You Like It, Julius Caesar, Hamlet, Othello, Macbeth, King Lear, Antony and Cleopatra, Timon of Athens, The Tempest. Is this too small a sample of one of the greatest of the literary greats?
Gerusalemme Liberata by Tasso.
Don Quijote.
The Essays of Montaigne. I have chosen the Charles Cotton translation; for an extensive discussion of the merits of the various translations, consult the Oxford Guide to Literature in English Translation.
Selected Works of Corneille: Le Cid, Horace, Polyeucte
Selected Works of Molière: L’École des femmes, Tartuffe, Dom Juan, Le Misanthrope, L’Avare, Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme.
Selected Works of Racine: Andromaque, Phèdre, Athalie.
L’Art poétique, by Boileau.
La Princesse de Clèves, by Madame de La Fayette.
The Maximes of La Rochefoucauld.
John Bunyan’s The Pilgrim’s Progress.
Selected Works of Milton: Paradise Lost, Paradise Found, Samson Agonistes.
Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe.
Addison’s Cato.
The diary of Samuel Pepys.
Selected Works of Jonathan Swift: A Modest Proposal, Gulliver’s Travels, and The Battle of the Books.
Selected Works of John Locke: First and second Letters Concerning Toleration, first and second Treatises on Government, and the Essay on Human Understanding.
Hobbes’s Leviathan.
Bayle’s Dictionary.
Spinoza’s Ethics.
Gil Blas.
The memoirs of Saint-Simon.
Chesterfield’s Letters to his Son.
Hume: A Treatise of Human Nature.
Selected Works of Alexander Pope: The Pastorals, An Essay on Criticism, The Rape of the Lock, Eloisa to Abelard, Essay on Man.
Selected Works of Thomas Gray: Ode on a Distant Prospect of Eton College,
John Gay’s Beggar’s Opera and Polly.
Richardson: Pamela and Clarissa.
Fielding: Joseph Andrews, Tom Jones, The Life of Mr. Jonathan Wild the Great.
Smollett: Roderick Random, Peregrine Pickle, Humphrey Clinker.
Montesquieu: Persian Letters, Considerations… on the Romans, The Spirit of the Laws.
Voltaire: English letters, Mérope, Letters of Voltaire and Frederick the Great, Candide.
Diderot: Selected works (incl. “The Nephew of Rameau”)
Rousseau: “Discourse on the Arts and Sciences”, “Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men”, Julie. Emilie. The Social Contract. Confessions.
Goethe: Götz von Berlichingen, The Sorrows of Young Werther, Faust Part I/II, Elective Affinities, autobiography.
Schiller: The Robbers, The Wallenstein series, Maria Stuart, Die Jungfrau von Orleans.
Burke: Vindication of Natural Society, Inquiry into the Origin of our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful, Reflections on the Revolution in France, Letter to a Member of the National Assembly.
The Letters of Junius.
Laurence Sterne: Tristram Shandy.
Gibbon: The Decline and Fall.
Goldsmith: The Vicar of Wakefield, The Deserted Village.
Boswell: Life of Johnson.
Mme. de Stael: Delphine, The Influence of Literature Upon Society, Reflections on Germany
Chateaubriand: Atala, Rene
Jane Austen: Mansfield Park
Coleridge: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Wordsworth: The Prelude, The Excursion
Mary Shelley: Frankenstein
Percy Shelley: Queen Mab
Byron: Childe Harold’s Pilgrammage, Manfred, Cain: A Mystery, Don Juan.
[...] Recommended Reading [...]
[...] Recommended Reading [...]
[...] Recommended Reading [...]