Great Books Of The Western World Reading Plan
Ten Year Reading Plan
Here below is a list of the entire set of readings from Britannica's ten-year reading plan. Please note that Adler's 10-year suggested list of readings in Britannica's Great Books is different in edition one compared with edition two. In the list below, the sequentially numbered items WITHOUT asterisks are common to both the first edition's suggested 10-year reading schedule and the second edition's schedule. Items listed below with a single asterisk indicates readings only included in the first edition's suggested ten year reading schedule. Items listed below with double asterisk indicate readings only included in the second edition's schedule.
Please refer to the list HERE as the definitive list for our group's current readings.
Great Conversation Reading Group; Ten Year Reading Plan
The Great Conversation Reading Plan (on which this list is based) is a website and Google Group dedicated to following this reading plan to experience that 'great conversation' themselves.
FIRST YEAR
1. PLATO: Apology, Crito
2. ARISTOPHANES: Clouds, Lysistrata
3. PLATO: Republic [Book I-II]
4. ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book I]
5. ARISTOTLE: Politics [Book I]
6. PLUTARCH: The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans [Lycurgus, Numa Pompilius, Lycurgus and Numa Compared, Alexander, Caesar]
7. NEW TESTAMENT: [The Gospel According to Saint Matthew, The Acts of the Apostles]
8. ST. AUGUSTINE: Confessions [Book I-VIII]
9. MACHIAVELLI: The Prince
10. RABELAIS: Gargantua and Pantagruel [Book I-II]
11. MONTAIGNE: Essays [Of Custom, and That We Should Not Easily Change a Law Received; Of Pedantry; Of the Education of Children; That It Is Folly to Measure Truth and Error by Our Own Capacity; Of Cannibals; That the Relish of Good and Evil Depends in a Great Measure upon the Opinion We Have of Them; Upon Some Verses of Virgil]
12. SHAKESPEARE: Hamlet
13. LOCKE: Concerning Civil Government [Second Essay]
14. ROUSSEAU: The Social Contract [Book I-II]
15. GIBBON: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [Ch. 15-16]
16. The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States, The Federalist [Numbers 1-10, 15, 31, 47, 51, 68-71]
17. SMITH: The Wealth of Nations [Introduction—Book I, Ch. 9]
18. MARX—ENGELS: Manifesto of the Communist Party
19** TOCQUEVILLE – Democracy in America [Vol 1, part II ch 6-8]
20** IBSEN – The Master Builder
21** SCHRODINGER – What is Life?
SECOND YEAR
1. HOMER: The Iliad
2. AESCHYLUS: Agamemnon, Choephoroe, Eumenides
3. SOPHOCLES: Oedipus the King, Antigone
4. HERODOTUS: The History [Book I-II]
5. PLATO: Meno
6. ARISTOTLE: Poetics
7. ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book II; Book III, Ch. 5-12; Book VI, Ch. 8-13]
8. NICOMACHUS: Introduction to Arithmetic
9. LUCRETIUS: On the Nature of Things [Book I-IV]
10. MARCUS AURELIUS: Meditations
11. HOBBES: Leviathan [Part I]
12. MILTON: Areopagitica
13. PASCAL: Pensées [Numbers 72, 82-83, 100, 128, 131, 139, 142-143, 171, 194-195, 219, 229, 233-234, 242, 273, 277, 282, 289, 298, 303, 320, 323, 325, 330-331, 374, 385, 392, 395-397, 409, 412-413, 416, 418, 425, 430, 434-435, 463, 491, 525-531, 538, 543, 547, 553, 556, 564, 571, 586, 598, 607-610, 613, 619-620, 631, 640, 644, 673, 675, 684, 692-693, 737, 760, 768, 792-793]
14. PASCAL: Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle
15. SWIFT: Gulliver's Travels
16. ROUSSEAU: A Discourse on the Origin of Inequality
17. KANT: Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
18. MILL: On Liberty
19** VOLTAIRE – Candide
20** NIETZSCHE – Beyond Good and Evil
21** WHITEHEAD – Science and the Modern World [Ch I – VI]
THIRD YEAR
1. AESCHYLUS: Prometheus Bound
2. HERODOTUS: The History [Book VII-IX]
3. THUCYDIDES: The History of the Peloponnesian War [Book I-II, V]
4. PLATO: Statesman
5. ARISTOTLE: On Interpretation [Ch. 1-10]
6. ARISTOTLE: Politics [Book III-V]
7. EUCLID: Elements [Book I]
8. TACITUS: The Annals
9. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I-II, QQ 90-97]
10. CHAUCER: Troilus and Cressida
11. SHAKESPEARE: Macbeth
12. MILTON: Paradise Lost
13. LOCKE: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding [Book III, Ch. 1-3, 9-11]
14. KANT: Science of Right
15. MILL: Representative Government [Ch. 1-6]
16. LAVOISIER: Elements of Chemistry [Part I]
17. DOSTOEVSKY: The Brothers Karamazov [Part I-II]
18. FREUD: The Origin and Development of Psychoanalysis
19** TWAIN – Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
20** LEVI-STRAUSS – Structural Anthropology [Selections]
21** POINCARÉ – Science and Hypothesis [Part I - II]
FOURTH YEAR
1. EURIPIDES: Medea, Hippolytus, Trojan Women, The Bacchantes
2. PLATO: Republic [Book VI-VII]
3. PLATO: Theaetetus
4. ARISTOTLE: Physics [Book IV, Ch. 1-5, 10-14]
5. ARISTOTLE: Metaphysics [Book I, Ch. 1-2; Book IV; Book VI, Ch. 1; Book XI, Ch. 1-4]
6. ST. AUGUSTINE: Confessions [Book IX-XIII]
7. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 16-17, 84-88]
8. MONTAIGNE: Apology for Raymond de Sebonde
9. GALILEO: Two New Sciences [Third Day, through Scholium of Theorem II]
10. BACON: Novum Organum [Preface, Book I]
11. DESCARTES: Discourse on the Method
12. NEWTON: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy [Prefaces, Definitions, Axioms, General Scholium]
13. LOCKE: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding [Book II]
14. HUME: An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
15. KANT: Critique of Pure Reason [Prefaces, Introduction, Transcendental Aesthetic]
16. MELVILLE: Moby Dick
17. DOSTOEVSKY: The Brothers Karamazov [Part III-IV]
18. JAMES: Principles of Psychology [Ch. XV, XX]
19** CALVIN – Institutes of the Christian Religion [Book III]
20** FRAZER – The Golden Bough [Selections]
21** HEISENBERG – Physics and Philosophy [ch 1 - 6]
FIFTH YEAR
1. PLATO: Phaedo
2. ARISTOTLE: Categories
3. ARISTOTLE: On the Soul [Book II, Ch. 1-3; Book III]
4. HIPPOCRATES: The Oath; On Ancient Medicine; On Airs, Waters, and Places; The Book of Prognostics; Of the Epidemics; The Law; On the Sacred Disease
5. GALEN: On the Natural Faculties
6. VIRGIL: The Aeneid
7. PTOLEMY: The Almagest [Book I, Ch. 1-8]
8. COPERNICUS: Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres [Introduction—Book I, Ch. 11]
9. KEPLER: Epitome of Copernican Astronomy [Book IV, Part II, Ch. 1-2]
10. PLOTINUS: Sixth Ennead
11. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 75-76, 78-79]
12. DANTE: The Divine Comedy [Hell]
13. HARVEY: The Motion of the Heart and Blood
14. CERVANTES: Don Quixote [Part I]
15. SPINOZA: Ethics [Part II]
16. BERKELEY: The Principles of Human Knowledge
17. KANT: Critique of Pure Reason [Transcendental Analytic]
18. DARWIN: The Origin of Species [Introduction—Ch. 6, Ch. 15]
19. TOLSTOY: War and Peace [Book I-VIII]
20. JAMES: Principles of Psychology [Ch. XXVIII]
21** DEWEY – Experience and Education
22** WADDINGTON – The Nature of Life
23** ORWELL – Animal Farm
SIXTH YEAR
1. OLD TESTAMENT [Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy]
2. HOMER: The Odyssey
3. PLATO: Laws [Book X]
4. ARISTOTLE: Metaphysics [Book XII]
5. TACITUS: The Histories
6. PLOTINUS: Fifth Ennead
7. ST. AUGUSTINE: The City of God [Book XV-XVIII]
8. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 1-13]
9. DANTE: The Divine Comedy [Purgatory]
10. SHAKESPEARE: Comedy of Errors, The Taming of the Shrew, As You Like It, Twelfth Night
11. SPINOZA: Ethics [Part I]
12. MILTON: Samson Agonistes
13. PASCAL: The Provincial Letters
14. LOCKE: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding [Book IV]
15. GIBBON: The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire [Ch. 1-5, General Observations on the Fall of the Roman Empire in the West]
16. KANT: Critique of Pure Reason [Transcendental Dialectic]
17. HEGEL: Philosophy of History [Introduction]
18. TOLSTOY: War and Peace [Book IX-XV, Epilogues]
19** KIERKEGAARD – Fear and Trembling
20** HUIZINGA – The Waning of the Middle Ages [I - X]
21** SHAW – Saint Joan
SEVENTH YEAR
1. OLD TESTAMENT [Job, Isaiah, Amos]
2. PLATO: Symposium
3. PLATO: Philebus
4. ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book VIII-X]
5. ARCHIMEDES: Measurement of a Circle, The Equilibrium of Planes [Book I], The Sand-Reckoner, On Floating Bodies [Book I]
6. EPICTETUS: Discourses
7. PLOTINUS: First Ennead
8. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I-II, QQ 1-5]
9. DANTE: The Divine Comedy [Paradise]
10. RABELAIS: Gargantual and Pantagruel [Book III-IV]
11. SHAKESPEARE: Julius Caesar, Antony and Cleopatra, Coriolanus
12. GALILEO: Two New Sciences [First Day]
13. SPINOZA: Ethics [Part IV-V]
14. NEWTON: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy [Book III, Rules], Optics [Book I, Part I; Book III, Queries]
15. HUYGENS: Treatise on Light
16. KANT: Critique of Practical Reason
17. KANT: Critique of Judgment [Critique of Aesthetic Judgment]
18. MILL: Utilitarianism
19** WEBER – Essays in Sociology [Part III]
20** PROUST – Swann in Love
21** BRECHT – Mother Courage and Her Children
EIGHTH YEAR
1. ARISTOPHANES: Thesmophoriazusae, Ecclesiazusae, Plutus
2. PLATO: Gorgias
3. ARISTOTLE: Ethics [Book V]
4. ARISTOTLE: Rhetoric [Book I, Ch. 1—Book II, Ch. 1; Book II, Ch. 20—Book III, Ch. 1; Book III, Ch. 13-19]
5. ST. AUGUSTINE: On Christian Doctrine
6. HOBBES: Leviathan [Part II]
7. SHAKESPEARE: Othello, King Lear
8. BACON: Advancement of Learning [Book I, Ch. 1—Book II, Ch. 11]
9. DESCARTES: Meditations on the First Philosophy
10. SPINOZA: Ethics [Part III]
11. LOCKE: A Letter Concerning Toleration
12. ROUSSEAU: A Discourse on Political Economy
13. ADAM SMITH: The Wealth of Nations [Book II]
14. BOSWELL: The Life of Samuel Johnson
15. MARX: Capital [Prefaces, Part I-II]
16. GOETHE: Faust [Part I]
17. JAMES: Principles of Psychology [Ch. VIII-X]
18 * STERNE: Tristam Shandy *
19** BARTH – The Word of God and the Word of Man [I - IV]
20** BERGSON – An Introduction to Metaphysics
21** HARDY – A Mathematicians Apology
22** KAFKA – The Metamorphosis
NINTH YEAR
1. PLATO: The Sophist
2. THUCYDIDES: The History of the Peloponnesian War [Book VII-VIII]
3. ARISTOTLE: Politics [Book VII-VIII]
4. NEW TESTAMENT [The Gospel According to St. John, The Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans, The First Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Corinthians]
5. ST. AUGUSTINE: The City of God [Book V, XIX]
6. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part II-II, QQ 1-7]
7. GILBERT: On the Loadstone
8. DESCARTES: Rules for the Direction of the Mind
9. DESCARTES: Geometry
10. PASCAL: The Great Experiment Concerning the Equilibrium of Fluids, On Geometrical Demonstration
11. MONTESQUIEU: The Spirit of Laws [Book I-V, VIII, XI-XII]
12. FARADAY: Experimental Researches in Electricity [Series I-II], A Speculation Touching Electric Conduction and the Nature of Matter
13. HEGEL: Philosophy of Right [Part III
14. MARX: Capital [Part III-IV]
15. FREUD: Civilization and Its Discontents
16 * APOLLONIUS: On Conic Sections [Book I, Prop. 1-15; Book III, Prop. 42-55]
17 * FIELDING: Tom Jones
18 * FOURIER: Analytical Theory of Heat [Preliminary Discourse, Ch. 1-2]
19** MOLIÈRE – Tartuffe
20** AUSTEN – Emma
21** PLANCK – Scientific Autobiography
22** VEBLEN – The Theory of the Leisure Class
23** JOYCE – A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
24** HEMINGWAY – The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber
TENTH YEAR
1. SOPHOCLES: Ajax, Electra
2. PLATO: Timaeus
3. ARISTOTLE: On the Parts of Animals [Book I, Ch. 1—Book II, Ch. 1], On the Generation of Animals [Book I, Ch. 1, 17-18, 20-23]
4. LUCRETIUS: On the Nature of Things [Book V-VI]
5. VIRGIL: The Eclogues, The Georgics
6. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 65-74]
7. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS: Summa Theologica [Part I, QQ 90-102]
8. CHAUCER: Canterbury Tales [Prologue, Knight's Tale, Miller's Prologue and Tale, Reeve's Prologue and Tale, Wife of Bath's Prologue and Tale, Friar's Prologue and Tale, Summoner's Prologue and Tale, Pardoner's Prologue and Tale]
9. SHAKESPEARE: The Tragedy of King Richard II, The First Part of King Henry IV, The Second Part of King Henry IV, The Life of King Henry V
10. HARVEY: On the Generation of Animals [Introduction—Exercise 62]
11. CERVANTES: Don Quixote [Part II]
12. KANT: Critique of Judgement [Critique of Teleological Judgement]
13. GOETHE: Faust [Part II]
14. DARWIN: The Descent of Man [Part I; Part III, Ch. 21]
15. MARX: Capital [Part VII-VIII]
16. JAMES: Principles of Psychology [Ch. I, V-VII]
17. FREUD: A General Introduction to Psycho-analysis
18 * BOSWELL: The Life of Samuel Johnson
19** ERASMUS – In Praise of Folly
20** HUIZINGA – The Waning of the Middle Ages [XI – XXIII]
21** EDDINGTON – The Expanding Universe
22** T.S. ELIOT – The Waste Land