Great Books of the Western World

Greetings Franklin Library lovers,

I've been interested in the FL Great Books of the Western World ever since finding the two-volume Dore-illustrated Gargantua & Pantagruel in a used book shop. I was hoping to compile information on the illustrators and translators used for this series. Books from this series seem to command a premium over the same title when also available in the 100 Greatest Books, etc. So before trying to collect the whole set, I'd like to know how they differ.

Thanks in advance.

I posted a message in another thread about a year ago regarding my collection of GBWW. I've copied it below with a few updates. Unfortunately, I know of no comprehensive listing such as you would like to see. Any choice of editions is necessarily subjective.

"I am coming late to this forum but am pleased that someone besides myself recognizes the quality of the Great Books of the Western World set published by Franklin from 1979-1985. The Franklin set of 96 volumes improves on Britannica's 54-volume set of the same works in numerous ways. In some cases, newer translations were used and often the books were beautifully illustrated. But in my opinion Franklin's greatest service was to divide many of Britannica's volumes into 2 or 3 volumes, making them much more readable.

Britannica was notorious for the small print in most if its books, so by dividing War and Peace into 3 volumes, for example, it is actually possible to read it for more than 10 minutes at a time without my vision blurring.

There is one caveat, though. I don't know how many subscribers Franklin had originally, but the number must have dwindled substantially during the 6 years of publication. The last two years (1984-5) were marked by volumes that were just as poorly designed as Britannica's, presumably because Franklin no longer found them to be profitable. The most egregious example involved Britannica's volume of Kant and its separate volume of Hegel that Franklin bound as a single, all but unreadable, volume.

I recently embarked on a quest to obtain the nicest set based on the Great Books that I could find, taking into account binding, printing, illustrations, and translations. Although there are now some newer, better editions available for some of the works, including several from Folio Society and a few Eastons, my collection consists primarily of these Franklin editions. I replaced the Kant/Hegel volume, though, with 8 separate volumes of the 8 works present in Franklin's edition."

If I really wanted the finest complete set it would be Franklin GBWW especially if you intend to use the syntopican. Full sets do come available on eBay now and then at reasonable cost. But if you are going to pick and choose start with the Oxford library selections from the GBWW. I have concentrated on getting only the classics of the classics: all novels, Greek literature and philosophy, Milton, Gibbon, etc. I probably have 25 total works. I am methodically reading them, but not always enjoying them!

>3 HugoDumas:
I've never known anyone who actually "enjoyed" Milton, but someday I'll have a go at it. Perhaps Folio's recent edition will be the way to tackle it, because it comes with a companion volume that will explain to me what I just enjoyed.

There are 2 complete sets out there on eBay now. One for $8,000 near mint. Reading Cervantes now and not enjoying it!

>4 jroger1:
Well meet me! I'm currently reading Paradise Lost and actually do enjoy it. Great story, beautifully written, and the recent Folio 2-volume fine edition includes a separate volume of commentary which is quite helpful at illuminating the more obscure references and language (to a modern reader).

>6 UK_History_Fan: on my reading list in Franklin leather with no great expectations.

WAR AND PEACE

Can't help but share books which give me the most joy. For 20 years I had hoped to find Franklin's 3 volume War and Peace from the 25th anniversary GBWW. You can see one out there on eBay now for $750 (from our favorite notorious re-seller), which is way too high. Well I found two within the last year priced at $150. I bought one and told my friend to get the other. And a couple of months ago someone sold a mint set for $60 with one bid! So when you see the photos below, you will understand why I rave about this set and you too will search weekly on eBay Franklin books for a set (if you love this book). One of the deepest gilt-cut books I own...you can feel the Romanoff seal with winter gloves on! It is simply stunning and has the superior Maude translation. The art is not great, but better than nothing. Could I still be convinced to buy an EP DLE of War and Peace?..absolutely: keep the cherry red color and cover design exactly as is, make it into 5 volumes, and the size and QUALITY of the 1888 Routledge sets (Les Miserables, Count of Monte Cristo and Toilers of the Sea), and commission 24 full page color art pieces for each volume (similar to the quality of the art in Slaughterhouse Five and War of the Worlds DLE)! Yes I would buy that set. Here are the pictures.

http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/skochkin/library/War%20and%20Peace?sort=9&...

Thanks for the photos of the 3 book set. The hunt is on.

>9 sdawson: if you are unsuccessful, the new 2 volume FS edition is stunning at $199, though not leather; but it has some nice commissioned art, and critics are raving over the new translation.

>9 sdawson:

Thank you Skochkin!

Looks like 2 War and Peace GBWW sets by Franklin went for $600 and $300 in the last couple of weeks.

>12 HugoDumas:
Thanks for the price update. I'll keep it in mind.

>12 HugoDumas: >13 sdawson:
I wish I could remember what I paid for mine a couple of years ago, but I think it was around $300. I wouldn't have paid much more than that, and it might have been less. Watch abe.com and Amazon as well as eBay. Sometimes they are advertised in more than one place, but sometimes not.

>14 jroger1: I was lucky at $150 and so was my friend at same price. Sometimes they slip under the collector radar.

>15 HugoDumas:
Aha! Found it! I paid $295 in April 2014. I purchased it through Amazon from a vendor named Books From California, which at that time had a large supply of GBWW books.

You and your friend got good deals.

>16 jroger1:
I've had bad luck with Books From California. They are a giant book warehouse apparently that does not package well or represent their book condition very accurately in my experience. I have been avoiding them for a while now. Caveat Emptor.

>17 UK_History_Fan:
Perhaps I was lucky in the series I was collecting. I bought perhaps 20 books from them in the GBWW series, all of them near perfect.

>17 UK_History_Fan: please tell me what GBWW in Franklin to look for. For instance is it worth the additional expense to get a 2 volume Moby Dick? Does the Brothers Karamazov beat the SUPERB oversized EP version? Or what about Cervantes...can it beat the oversized annotated EP version? would not mind Freud, Aristotle and Plato. Did get Homer, Virgil, Spinoza/Descartes, Tolstoy and Rebalais. Do not think I can beat my glorious EP Gibbon set, a copy of the LEC edition.

>19 HugoDumas:
You probably won't want Brothers Karamazov. The Moby Dick is very nice, but I haven't seen the one you are comparing it to. The Franklin Cervantes is not annotated. I also like Tom Jones and Tristram Shandy.

I picked up a wonderful 2-volume Wealth of Nations published by Gryphon in their Classics of Liberty series. They are quarter-bound in leather, have ribbon markers, and have beautiful endpapers.

Gryphon also has a very nice 2-volume Principles of Psychology in their Classics of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences series. They look and feel like leather to me but could be bonded - I'm not sure. They have ribbon markers and nicely printed endpapers.

>20 jroger1: ah Gryphon....deserves its own forum. I have the essays of Montaigne. And bought a lot of legal works for my lawyer brother. As a psychologist I need to take a look at their psychology series. I know they have a superb legal and medical leather library.

>19 HugoDumas:
I am not sure I can answer you satisfactorily because we seem to be purchasing in the GBWW series for different reasons. I actually am trying to complete the entire set, even if I don't end up reading all the titles, and at the known risk of creating additional duplicates for my library. So I have not really made the comparisons between various versions to determine if the GBWW is better, I just keep purchasing them hoping to complete the series. I am almost positive the Moby Dick is illustrated by Rockwell Kent, and if so, it is well worth owning (plus it usually isn't very expensive as Moby Dick is a readily available book in other editions). I own the Gibbon set in Franklin, Folio and LEC editions, all of them quite different, and none of them unworthy of keeping. If I had to choose a favorite, it would obviously be the LEC, despite the crumbling spines (ironic given their design of crumbling roman columns!). But again, I didn't buy the GBWW edition because it was better, but rather out of completeness. I can advise you to look elsewhere than the GBWW if you want a nice complete edition of Shakespeare. In fact, I would look elsewhere than any Franklin Library editions. The 100 Greatest 4-volume set are selections only and not complete, the 7-volume GBWW lack color uniformity (being shipped separately in different years) and illustrations. I find them rather dull and unimpressive, but nonetheless I am keeping the set.

Sorry I couldn't be more directly helpful to your actual question, but hopefully I have explained why I collect that series.

P.S. One book that immediately jumps to mind as worth adding to your collection is the Milton Prose and Poetry. While Paradise Lost can be found in many other editions, some of the essays and poetry are more difficult to find in a nice leather-bound edition and the nearly 2 dozen or so color illustrations by William Blake at the front of the volume makes this one a must have. Fortunately, it often trades for less than $35.

>22 UK_History_Fan: Got the 2 volume GBWW Rabelais with Dore illustrations in mint condition. Looking forward to reading this. Quite a beautiful set. Not sure my mind is verbally wired for Milton. But will get around to reading him in the near future. Finding Dante surprisingly accessible if I look the characters in hell up on the Internet (since my copy is not annotated).

>22 UK_History_Fan:

What illustrations did Franklin use for Gibbon?

My most recent acquisition in this series is St. Augustine's City of God and On Christian Doctrine. City of God is crammed into 492 pages of double-column text, with 22 woodcuts for illustration. As far as I know, the only alternative is Folio's 2-volume edition with medieval illuminations, and you don't get OCD.

>24 Archangel-Michael:
From the title page:

"Illustrated with the complete Vedute di Roma of Giovanni Battista Piranesi. With the Piranesi etchings of memorials and public works."

All are black and white. You can find several examples in the Piranesi article in Wikipedia.

Well, this may be a barometer.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Franklin-Library-25th-Annv-GREAT-BOOKS-OF-WESTERN-WORLD-...

>26 sdawson: remarkable value. War and Peace alone is going for $500-875 on eBay.

>27 HugoDumas:

Yes, a fantastic value for someone. There may be more than 85 books, as I clearly see all 3 volumes of Gargantua and Pantagruel (another high value set) while only 2 are listed in the description. Sold for $20 per book. Would be a great start to someone's library.

-Shawn

>28 sdawson: hope you are wrong on Rebelais. Since I have never seen a 3 volume set, and own the 2 volume set.

>28 sdawson: if you take a closer look there are two copies of volume ii

>28 sdawson: here is the definitive list. 2 volumes.
http://www.eastonfranklinbooks.com/franklin-library-series/fl-great-western

>29 HugoDumas:, thank you for the correction HugoDumas. Silly me, I should have looked closer.

>32 sdawson: Actually silly me....for even worrying about such small stuff given the condition of the world!

Added to my small set of Franklin Library books, what I believe is my first GBWW edition. The 1979, two volume set of Gargantua and Pantagruel. Looks to have never been read (or even opened). There are some age spots on the gilding, but not very noticeable unless one tilts the book correctly. A steal from eBay at $31.20 with shipping.

>34 sdawson:

Gustave Dore was one of the reasons I wanted this edition. That, plus I prefer 2 volumes rather than 1 large volume. This had been on my eBay watch list for about a year before I found one I could afford.

>34 sdawson:
Congratulations on your purchase. The GBWW set was published while Franklin's quality was still high. It is strongest on the literary volumes (e.g., Moby Dick, War and Peace) and weakest on the scientific volumes. Many of the philosophical and historical volumes are strong, too.

>35 EclecticIndulgence:
>37 jroger1:

I am looking for a multi-volume edition of War and Peace, and while I would love to have the GBWW edition, I have slim hopes of finding one I can afford. I'm limiting my collection to Easton Press, Franklin Library, LEC, Folio Society, and Heritage Press.

I don't know that I like the design of the 1997 FS edition -- I need to see some interior illustrations (price is right though)
I do like the current FS edition, but am not sold on it just yet (price is high)
I don't want 1 volume editions.
I don't think I like the 2 volume HP edition.
My ideal would be the 3 volume GBWW edition, but cannot afford it, unless it somehow slips through somehow for much cheaper than I see it going for.

-Shawn

>38 sdawson: The LEC edition illustrated by Barnett Freedman is six volumes and quite nice. I don't really like the EP single volume edition (small form factor and way too thick); although I am rather partial to the Eichenberg illustrations. I just picked up the new FS two volume set to replace my trade edition with the P & V translation. This edition is a great set and currently on sale in the FS Winter Sale. The Maude translation is very good but I prefer the P & V.

>38 sdawson: unfortunately the word got out on War and Peace GBWW edition. I got it for $150 and another for my friend same price. Saw one go for $60 with one bid. And now it just went for $495 and is selling for $875 and $625 on eBay. Same problem with Oxford Anna Karenina. I got it for $68 because it was mislabeled and it just sold for $495 with others listed for $595. That's all I can say is be patient and hope to catch one under the collector's label. If it is any consolation the GBWW while the most beautiful is the weakest of all existing editions on art, which is nearly non-rxustent.

I would pay for a 5 volume EP DLE of War and Peace like Dumas Count of Monte Cristo with 500 illustrations!

Saw this today. 3 days left.

2 of the 3 books are Gargantua and Pantagruel. The other is Plato I. Would be about $37 for the three with shipping.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-Limited-Edition-Franklin-Library-Great-Books-Of-The-We...

>42 sdawson: Fabulous deal even with vol 1 of Plato. I paid a lot more for Rabelais. I would love. 3 vol. Freud at that price even with difference in leather color (stupid Franklin issued volumes in different years, thus they all have that non-matching flaw)

>43 HugoDumas:

Yep, hope someone here picks it up. We already have our copies. If the seller had mentioned 'Dore' illustrations in the auction, it may have picked up more notice. 2 days left and no bids yet.

Are there two sets of GBWW
1. the great books of western world and
2. 25 anniversary limited edition of the great books of western world."
If yes what is the difference between two.

>45 karu79:
The original cloth bound set of GBWW was published by Encyclopedia Britannica in 1952. The Franklin edition was published on a subscription basis in the late 1970s. The content of the two sets is identical except that the Franklin edition uses newer translations of some of the works, and they added illustrations to some of the books. The Franklin edition is leather bound and was expanded to 100 volumes instead of 54 mostly by using larger fonts and thicker paper. (Some of the Britannica volumes can be hard to read.)

Then in 1990 Britannica published a second edition of the set by adding works by additional authors.

Thank you jroger1

I tried chasing this down about 10 years ago. Back then, I owned a non-Franklin copy of the anniversary edition for a short while, and I still own a copy of the Harvard Classics. There are likely a couple of errors, since I didn't have and wasn't inclined to trudge through every single book's table of contents, but this should be fairly accurate. Copy-paste the following text into a CSV file for clarity, noting that the numbers are a volume indexes and dashes indicate missing items between the sets:

Author,Title,Great Books 1st Edition,Great Books 2nd Edition,Harvard Classics
Mortimer Adler,Great Conversation,1,0,-
Mortimer Adler,The Syntopicon: An Index to the Great Ideas (Volume I),2,1,-
Mortimer Adler,The Syntopicon: An Index to the Great Ideas (Volume II),3,2,-
Homer,The Illiad,4,3,-
Homer,The Odyssey,4,3,22
Aeschylus,Plays,5,4,8
Sophocles,Plays,5,4,8
Euripides,Plays,5,4,8
Aristophanes,Plays,5,4,8
Herodotus,The History of the Persian Wars,6,5,33
Thucydides,The History of the Peloponnesian War,6,5,-
Plato,Dialogues,7,6,-
Plato,The Seventh Letter,7,6,-
Aristotle,Works (I),8,7,-
Aristotle,Works (II),9,8,-
Hippocrates,Works,10,9,38
Galen,On the Natural Faculties,10,9,-
Euclid,Elements of Geometry,11,10,-
Archimedes,Works,11,10,-
Nicomachus,Introduction to Arithmetic,11,10,-
Apollonius,On Conic Sections,11,-,-
Lucretius,The Way Things Are,12,11,-
Epictetus,Discourses,12,11,-
Marcus Aurelius,Meditations,12,11,2
Plotinus,The Six Enneads,17,11,-
Virgil,Eclogues,13,12,-
Virgil,Georgics,13,12,-
Virgil,The Aeneid,13,12,13
Plutarch,The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans,14,13,12
Tacitus,The Annals,15,14,-
Tacitus,The Histories,15,14,-
Ptolemy,The Almagest,16,15,-
Nicolaus Copernicus,On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres,16,15,-
Johannes Kepler,Epitome of Copernican Astronomy (Books IV-V),16,15,-
Johannes Kepler,The Harmonies of the World (Book V),16,15,-
Saint Augustine,The Confessions,18,16,7
Saint Augustine,The City of God,18,16,-
Saint Augustine,On Christian Doctrine,18,16,-
Thomas Aquinas,Summa Theologica (I),19,17,-
Thomas Aquinas,Summa Theologica (II),20,18,-
Dante,The Divine Comedy,21,19,20
Geoffrey Chaucer,Troilus and Criseyde,22,19,-
Geoffrey Chaucer,The Canterbury Tales,22,19,-
John Calvin,Institutes of the Christian Religion,-,20,-
Nicolo Machiavelli,The Prince,23,21,36
Thomas Hobbes,Leviathan,23,21,34
François Rabelais,Gargantua and Pantagruel,24,22,-
Desiderius Erasmus,Praise of Folly,-,23,-
Michel de Montaigne,Essays,25,23,-
William Shakespeare,Plays (I),26,24,46
William Shakespeare,Plays (II),27,25,-
William Shakespeare,Sonnets,27,25,-
William Gilbert,On the Loadstone and Magnetic Bodies,28,26,-
Galileo,Dialogues Concerning the Two New Sciences,28,26,-
William Harvey,On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals,28,26,37
William Harvey,On the Circulation of the Blood,28,26,-
William Harvey,On the Generation of Animals,28,26,-
Miguel de Cervantes,Don Quixote,29,27,14
Francis Bacon,Advancement of Learning,30,28,-
Francis Bacon,Novum Organum,30,28,-
Francis Bacon,New Atlantis,30,28,3
René Descartes,Rules for the Direction of the Mind,31,28,-
René Descartes,Discourse on the Method,31,28,34
René Descartes,Meditations on First Philosophy,31,28,-
René Descartes,Objections Against the Meditations and Replies,31,28,-
René Descartes,The Geometry,31,28,-
Benedict de Spinoza,Ethics,31,28,-
John Milton,English Minor Poems,32,29,4
John Milton,Paradise Lost,32,29,-
John Milton,Samson Agonistes,32,29,-
John Milton,Areopagitica,32,29,3
Blaise Pascal,The Provincial Letters,33,30,-
Blaise Pascal,Pensées,33,30,-
Blaise Pascal,Scientific Treatises,33,30,-
Molière,The School for Wives,-,31,-
Molière,The Critique of the School for Wives,-,31,-
Molière,Tartuffe,-,31,26
Molière,Don Juan,-,31,-
Molière,The Miser,-,31,-
Molière,The Would-Be Gentleman,-,31,-
Molière,The Would-Be Invalid,-,31,-
Jean Racine,Berenice,-,31,-
Jean Racine,Phaedra,-,31,26
Isaac Newton,Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy,34,32,-
Isaac Newton,Optics,34,32,-
Christiaan Huygens,Treatise on Light,34,32,-
John Locke,A Letter Concerning Toleration,35,33,-
John Locke,Second Essay on Civil Government,35,33,-
John Locke,An Essay Concerning Human Understanding,35,33,-
George Berkeley,The Principles of Human Knowledge,35,33,-
David Hume,An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding,35,33,37
Jonathan Swift,Gulliver’s Travels,36,34,-
Voltaire,Candide,-,34,-
Denis Diderot,Rameau’s Nephew,-,34,-
Sterne,Tristam Shandy,36,-,-
Fielding,Tom Jones,36,-,-
Montesquieu,The Spirit of Laws,38,35,-
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality,38,35,34
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,A Discourse on Political Economy,38,35,-
Jean-Jacques Rousseau,The Social Contract,38,35,-
Adam Smith,The Wealth of Nations,39,36,10
Edward Gibbon,The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (I),40,37,-
Edward Gibbon,The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (II),41,38,-
Immanuel Kant,The Critique of Pure Reason,42,39,-
Immanuel Kant,Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals,42,39,32
Immanuel Kant,The Critique of Practical Reason,42,39,-
Immanuel Kant,Preface and Introduction to the Metaphysical Elements of Ethics,42,39,-
Immanuel Kant,General Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals,42,39,-
Immanuel Kant,The Science of Right,42,39,-
Immanuel Kant,The Critique of Judgment,42,39,-
American State Papers,Declaration of Independence,43,40,43
American State Papers,Articles of Confederation,43,40,43
American State Papers,Constitution of the United States of America,43,40,43
"Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay",The Federalist Papers,43,40,43
John Stuart Mill,On Liberty,43,40,25
John Stuart Mill,Representative Government,43,40,-
John Stuart Mill,Utilitarianism,43,40,-
James Boswell,The Life of Samuel Johnson,44,41,-
Antoine Lavoisier,Elements of Chemistry,45,42,-
Michael Faraday,Experimental Researches in Electricity,45,42,-
Fourier,Analytical Theory of Heat,45,-,-
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,The Philosophy of Right,46,43,-
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel,The Philosophy of History,46,43,-
Soren Kierkegaard,Fear and Trembling,-,43,-
Friedrich Nietzsche,Beyond Good and Evil,-,43,-
Alexis de Tocqueville,Democracy in America,-,44,-
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe,Faust,47,45,-
Honoré de Balzac,Cousin Bette,-,45,-
Jane Austen,Emma,-,46,-
George Eliot,Middlemarch,-,46,-
Charles Dickens,Little Dorrit,-,47,-
Herman Melville,Moby Dick,48,48,-
Mark Twain,Huckleberry Finn,-,48,-
Charles Darwin,The Origin of Species,49,49,11
Charles Darwin,The Descent of Man,49,49,-
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels,Manifesto of the Communist Party,50,50,-
Karl Marx,Capital (Vol. 1),50,50,-
Leo Tolstoy,War and Peace,51,51,-
Fyodor Dostoevsky,The Brothers Karamazov,52,52,-
Henrik Ibsen,A Doll’s House,-,52,-
Henrik Ibsen,"The Wild Duck, Hedda Gabler",-,52,-
Henrik Ibsen,The Master Builder,-,52,-
William James,The Principles of Psychology,53,53,-
Sigmund Freud,Selected Papers on Hysteria,54,54,-
Sigmund Freud,The Interpretation of Dreams,54,54,-
Sigmund Freud,A General Introduction to Psychoanalysis,54,54,-
Sigmund Freud,Civilization and Its Discontents,54,54,-
Sigmund Freud,New Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis,54,54,-
William James,Pragmatism,-,55,-
Henri Bergson,An Introduction to Metaphysics,-,55,-
John Dewey,Experience and Education,-,55,-
Alfred North Whitehead,Science and the Modern World,-,55,-
Bertrand Russell,The Problems of Philosophy,-,55,-
Martin Heidegger,What Is Metaphysics?,-,55,-
Ludwig Wittgenstein,Philosophical Investigations,-,55,-
Karl Barth,The Word of God and the Word of Man,-,55,-
Henri Poincaré, Science and Hypothesis,-,56,-
Max Planck, Scientific Autobiography and Other Papers,-,56,-
Alfred North Whitehead, An Introduction to Mathematics,-,56,-
Albert Einstein, Relativity: The Special and the General Theory,-,56,-
Arthur Eddington, The Expanding Universe,-,56,-
Niels Bohr, Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature (selections),-,56,-
Niels Bohr, Discussion with Einstein on Epistemological Problems in Atomic Physics,-,56,-
G.H. Hardy, A Mathematician’s Apology,-,56,-
Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy,-,56,-
Erwin Schrödinger, What is Life?,-,56,-
Theodosius Dobzhansky, Genetics and the Origin of Species,-,56,-
C.H. Waddington, The Nature of Life,-,56,-
Thorstein Veblen, The Theory of the Leisure Class,-,57,-
R.H. Tawney, The Acquisitive Society,-,57,-
John Maynard Keynes, The General Theory of Employment,-,57,-
John Maynard Keynes, Interest and Money,-,57,-
James George Frazer, The Golden Bough (selections),-,58,-
Max Weber, Essays in Sociology (selections),-,58,-
Johan Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages,-,58,-
Claude Lévi-Strauss, Structural Anthropology (selections),-,58,-
Henry James, The Beast in the Jungle,-,59,-
George Bernard Shaw, Saint Joan,-,59,-
Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness,-,59,-
Anton Chekhov, Uncle Vanya,-,59,-
Luigi Pirandello, Six Characters in Search of an Author,-,59,-
Marcel Proust, Swann in Love (from Remembrance of Things Past),-,59,-
Willa Cather, A Lost Lady,-,59,-
Thomas Mann, Death in Venice,-,59,-
James Joyce, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man,-,59,-
Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse,-,60,-
Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis,-,60,-
D.H. Lawrence, The Prussian Officer,-,60,-
T.S. Eliot, The Waste Land,-,60,-
Eugene O’Neill, Mourning Becomes Electra,-,60,-
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby,-,60,-
William Faulkner, A Rose for Emily,-,60,-
Bertolt Brecht, Mother Courage and Her Children,-,60,-
Ernest Hemingway, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber,-,60,-
George Orwell, Animal Farm,-,60,-
Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot,-,60,-
Benjamin Franklin,The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin,-,-,1
John Woolman,Journal,-,-,1
William Penn,Fruits of Solitude,-,-,1
Epictetus,The Golden Sayings,-,-,2
Plato,"The Apology, Phaedo, Crito",-,-,2
Francis Bacon,"Essays, Civil and Moral, and New Atlantis",-,-,3
John Milton,"Areopagitica, Tractate of Education",-,-,3
Thomas Browne,Religio Medici,-,-,3
John Milton,Complete Poems,-,-,4
Ralph Waldo Emerson,Essays and English Traits,-,-,5
Robert Burns,Poems and Songs,-,-,6
Thomas a Kempis,The Imitation of Christ,-,-,7
Cicero,"On Friendship, On Old Age",-,-,9
Pliny the Younger,Letters,-,-,9
John Bunyan,The Pilgrim's Progress,-,-,15
Izaak Walton,The Lives of Donne and Herbert,-,-,15
Burton,Thousand and One Nights,-,-,16
Aesop,Fables,-,-,17
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm,Children's and Household Tales,-,-,17
Hans Christian Anderson,Tales,-,-,17
John Dryden,All for Love,-,-,18
Richard Brinsley Sheridan,The School for Scandal,-,-,18
Oliver Goldsmith,She Stoops to Conquer,-,-,18
Percy Bysshe Shelley,The Cenci,-,-,18
Robert Browning,A Blot in the Scutcheon,-,-,18
Lord Byron,Manfred,-,-,18
Goethe,Faust,-,-,19
Goethe,"Egmont, Hermann and Dorothea",-,-,19
Christopher Marlowe,Dr. Faustus,-,-,19
Alessandro Manzoni,I Promessi Sposi,-,-,21
"Richard Henry Dana, Jr.",Two Years Before The Mast,-,-,23
Edmund Burke,"On Taste, On the Sublime and Beautiful, Reflections on the French Revolution, and A Letter to a Noble Lord",-,-,24
John Stuart Mill,Autobiography,-,-,25
Thomas Carlyle,"Characteristics, Inaugural Address at Edinburgh, and Sir Walter Scott",-,-,25
Pedro Calderón de la Barca,Life is a Dream,-,-,26
Pierre Corneille,Polyeucte,-,-,26
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing,Minna von Barnhelm,-,-,26
Friedrich von Schiller,William Tell,-,-,26
Sidney to Macaulay,English Essays,-,-,27
English and American,Essays,-,-,28
Charles Darwin,The Voyage of the Beagle,-,-,29
Michael Faraday,The Forces of Matter and The Chemical History of a Candle,-,-,30
Hermann von Helmholtz,On the Conservation of Force and Ice and Glaciers,-,-,30
Lord Kelvin,The Wave Theory of Light and The Tides,-,-,30
Simon Newcomb,The Extent of the Universe,-,-,30
Sir Archibald Geikie,Geographical Evolution,-,-,30
Benvenuto Cellini,The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini,-,-,31
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne,Essays,-,-,32
Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve,Montaigne and What is a Classic?,-,-,32
Ernest Renan,The Poetry of the Celtic Races,-,-,32
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing,The Education of the Human Race,-,-,32
Friedrich von Schiller,Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of Man,-,-,32
Giuseppe Mazzini,Byron and Goethe,-,-,32
Tacitus,Germany,-,-,33
Philip Nichols,Sir Francis Drake Revived,-,-,33
Francis Pretty,Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World,-,-,33
Walter Bigges,Drake's Great Armada,-,-,33
Edward Haies,Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland,-,-,33
Sir Walter Raleigh,The Discovery of Guiana,-,-,33
Voltaire,Letters to the English,-,-,34
Jean Jacques Rousseau,Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar,-,-,34
Jean Froissart,Chronicles,-,-,35
Sir Thomas Malory,The Holy Grail,-,-,35
William Harrison,A Description of Elizabethan England,-,-,35
William Roper,The Life of Sir Thomas More,-,-,36
Sir Thomas More,Utopia,-,-,36
Martin Luther,"The Ninety-Five Theses, Address to the Christian Nobility, and Concerning Christian Liberty",-,-,36
John Locke,Some Thoughts Concerning Education,-,-,37
George Berkeley,Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous in Opposition to Sceptics and Atheists,-,-,37
Ambroise Paré,Journeys in Diverse Places,-,-,38
Edward Jenner,The Three Original Publications on Vaccination Against Smallpox,-,-,38
Oliver Wendell Holmes,The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever,-,-,38
Joseph Lister,On the Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery,-,-,38
Louis Pasteur,Scientific papers,-,-,38
Charles Lyell,Scientific papers,-,-,38
,Famous Prefaces,-,-,39
Chaucer to Gray,English Poetry 1,-,-,40
Clollins to Fitzgerald,English Poetry 2,-,-,41
Tennyson to Whitman,English Poetry 3,-,-,42
Confucius,The sayings of Confucius,-,-,44
Hebrew Writings,"Job, Psalms, Ecclesiastes",-,-,44
Christian Writings,Luke and Acts,-,-,44
Christian Writings,Corinthians I and II and hymns,-,-,45
Buddhist Writings,Writings,-,-,45
Hindu Writings,The Bhagavad-Gita,-,-,45
Mohammedan,Chapters from the Koran,-,-,45
Christopher Marlowe,Edward the Second,-,-,46
Thomas Dekker,The Shoemaker's Holiday,-,-,47
Ben Jonson,The Alchemist,-,-,47
Beaumont and Fletcher,Philaster,-,-,47
John Webster,The Duchess of Malfi,-,-,47
Philip Massinger,A New Way to Pay Old Debts,-,-,47
Blaise Pascal,"Thoughts, letters, and minor works",-,-,48
,Beowulf,-,-,49
,The Song of Roland,-,-,49
,The Destruction of Dá Derga's Hostel,-,-,49
Niblungs,The Story of the Volsungs,-,-,49
Charles Eliot,"Introduction, Reader's Guide, Indexes",-,-,50
Various,Lectures,-,-,51

I have the compete 54 volume from 1952 and they can in times be difficult to read especially now after my eye surgery. I’ve found that if you have an iPad it works quite well with downloading the freely available PDF copies that are available on Archive.org. I’ve imported it into Apple Books and read it that way.

I would also recommend the 10 volume The Great Ideas Programme as a supplement to help with the reading.

>49 ironjaw:

Hopefully, your eyesight keeps recovering and improving!

>50 treereader:

Thank you very much. Not what it was like before I’m afraid, reading for extended periods is almost over now and I’m very thankful for the Kindle as the text size can be increased.