Update (April 2019): Currently, I am still reading the Great Books as part of the Online Great Books program. I hope to post periodic updates as I go along.
I started my reading program in January 2016 (see: A 5-Year Plan for Reading the Great Books). This page is meant to track my progress as I go along. Visit this page to see a directory of all the posts I made on the program in chronological order.
Great Books of the Western World: Full List
Red: not included in the reading program because it is a scientific book.
Blue (or linked): has been read as part of the program. Linked to blog post of review.
Green: has been read before by me outside of the program. (I will get back to reading these some day, but for now I am focusing on works I have never read at all.)
The basis for the list is the Wikipedia article on the GBWW, edited to follow this official list of the second edition (1990) of the books. Note that I do not own the original GBWW themselves – I am reading either free e-book versions found on the Web as listed here or buying more modern translations on Amazon, so the actual volume division is only a thematic guide for me.
Volume 3
- Homer
- The Iliad
- The Odyssey
Volume 4
- Aeschylus
- Sophocles
- The Oedipus Cycle
- Ajax
- Electra
- The Trachiniae
- Philoctetes
- Euripides
- Aristophanes
Volume 5
- Herodotus
- The History
- Thucydides
- History of the Peloponnesian War
Volume 6
- 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
- The Dialogues
Volume 7
- 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
Volume 8
- 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 9
- Hippocrates
- Works
- Galen
- On the Natural Faculties
Volume 10
- 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 11
- Lucretius
- On the Nature of Things
- Epictetus
- The Discourses
- Marcus Aurelius
- The Meditations
- Plotinus
- The Six Enneads
Volume 12
- Virgil
- Eclogues
- Georgics
- Aeneid
Volume 13
- Plutarch
- The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans
Volume 14
- P. Cornelius Tacitus
- The Annals
- The Histories
Volume 15
- Ptolemy
- Almagest, part 1
- 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 16
- Augustine of Hippo
- The Confessions
- The City of God: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3
- On Christian Doctrine
Volumes 17-18
- Thomas Aquinas
- Summa Theologica
Volume 19
- Dante Alighieri
- The Divine Comedy
- Geoffrey Chaucer
- Troilus and Criseyde
- The Canterbury Tales
Volume 20
- John Calvin
- Institutes of the Christian Religion
Volume 21
- Niccolò Machiavelli
- The Prince
- Thomas Hobbes
- Leviathan
Volume 22
- François Rabelais
- Gargantua and Pantagruel
Volume 23
- Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
- Essays
- Erasmus
- The Praise of Folly
Volume 24
- 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 25
- 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 26
- 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 27
- Miguel de Cervantes
- The History of Don Quixote de la Mancha
Volume 28
- Sir Francis Bacon
- The Advancement of Learning
- Novum Organum
- New Atlantis
- 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 29
- John Milton
- English Minor Poems
- Paradise Lost
- Samson Agonistes
- Areopagitica
Volume 30
- Blaise Pascal
- The Provincial Letters
- Pensées
- Scientific and mathematical essays
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 32
- Sir Isaac Newton
- Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
- Optics
- Christian Huygens
- Treatise on Light
Volume 33
- 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 34
- Jonathan Swift
- Gulliver’s Travels
- Laurence Sterne
- The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman
- Voltaire
- Candide
- Denis Diderot
- Rameau’s Nephew
Volume 35
- 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 36
- Adam Smith
- An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations
Volumes 37-38
- Edward Gibbon
- The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
- Part 1: Golden Age and First Signs of Decline
- Part 2: Constantine and His Sons
- Part 3: The Rise of Christianity
- Part 4: Theodosius and the Last Roman General
- Part 5: Attila and the End of the Western Empire
- Part 6: The Rise of the Franks, and Assessing the Decline of the West
- Part 7: Theodoric and the Rise of Justinian
- Part 8: Justinian’s Reign and Belisarius’ Western Expeditions
- Part 9: Justinian’s Wars in the East and Consolidation of the West
- Part 10: Justinian’s Successors and Heraclius’ Victory
- Part 11: The Byzantine Empire for the Next 600 Years
- Part 12: The Other Nations
- Part 13: The Crusades and the Division of the Byzantine Empire
- Part 14: The Last Centuries of the Roman Empire
- Part 15: The Fall of Constantinople and the End of the Roman Empire
- The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Volume 39
- 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 40
- 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 41
- James Boswell
- The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D.
Volume 42
- Antoine Laurent Lavoisier
- Elements of Chemistry
- Jean Baptiste Joseph Fourier
- Analytical Theory of Heat
- Michael Faraday
- Experimental Researches in Electricity
Volume 43
- Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
- The Philosophy of Right
- The Philosophy of History
- Søren Kierkegaard
- Fear and Trembling
- Friedrich Nietzsche
- Beyond Good and Evil
Volume 44
- Alexis de Tocqueville
- Democracy in America
Volume 45
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- Faust
- Honoré de Balzac
- Cousin Bette
Volume 46
- Jane Austen
- Emma
- George Eliot
- Middlemarch
Volume 47
- Charles Dickens
- Little Dorrit
Volume 48
- Herman Melville
- Moby Dick; or, The Whale
- Mark Twain
- Huckleberry Finn
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
- Count Leo Tolstoy
- War and Peace
Volume 52
- Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky
- The Brothers Karamazov
- Henrik Ibsen
- A Doll’s House
- The Wild Duck
- Hedda Gabler
- The Master Builder
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
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
- Max Weber
- Essays in Sociology
- Johan Huizinga
- The Autumn of the Middle Ages
- Claude Lévi-Strauss
- Structural Anthropology
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