Join us on a literary world trip!
Add this book to bookshelf
Grey
Write a new comment Default profile 50px
Grey
Subscribe to read the full book or read the first pages for free!
All characters reduced
The Complete Harvard Classics ALL 71 Volumes - The Five Foot Shelf & The Shelf of Fiction - cover

The Complete Harvard Classics ALL 71 Volumes - The Five Foot Shelf & The Shelf of Fiction

Plato Plato, Marcus Aurelius, Francis Bacon, Robert Burns, William Penn, Benjamin Franklin, Epictetus Epictetus, Thomas Brown, Charles W. Eliot, John Woolman, John Milton, HB Classics

Publisher: HB Classics

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

Summary

( newly updated TOC )

The Harvard Universal Classics, originally known as Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf, is a 51-volume anthology of classic works from world literature, compiled and edited by Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot and first published in 1909.

Eliot had stated in speeches that the elements of a liberal education could be obtained by spending 15 minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf. (Originally he had said a three-foot shelf.) The publisher P. F. Collier and Son saw an opportunity and challenged Eliot to make good on this statement by selecting an appropriate collection of works, and the Harvard Classics was the result.

Eliot worked for one year with William A. Neilson, a professor of English; Eliot determined the works to be included and Neilson selected the specific editions and wrote introductory notes. Each volume had 400–450 pages, and the included texts are "so far as possible, entire works or complete segments of the world's written legacies." The collection was widely advertised by Collier and Son, in Collier's and elsewhere, with great success.

Eight years later Eliot added a further 20 volumes as a sub-collection titled 'The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction', offering some of the greatest novels and short stories of world literature. The exhaustive anthology of the 'The Harvard Classics' comprises every major literary figure, philosopher, religion, folklore and historical subject up to the twentieth century.

The Harvard Classics:
. 1: Franklin, Woolman & Penn
2: Plato, Epictetus & Marcus Aurelius
3: Bacon, Milton, Browne
4: John Milton
5: R. W. Emerson
6: Robert Burns
7: St Augustine & Thomas á Kempis
8: Nine Greek Dramas
9: Cicero and Pliny
10: The Wealth of Nations
11: The Origin of Species
12: Plutarchs
13: Æneid
14: Don Quixote
15: Bunyan & Walton
16: 1001 Nights
17: Folklore & Fable
18: Modern English Drama
19: Goethe & Marlowe
20: The Divine Comedy
21: I Promessi Sposi
22: The Odyssey
23: Two Years Before the Mast
24: Edmund Burke
25: J. S. Mill & T. Carlyle
26: Continental Drama
27 & 28: English & American Essays
29: The Voyage of the Beagle
30: Scientific Papers
31: The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
32: Literary and Philosophical Essays
33: Voyages & Travels
34: French & English Philosophers
35: Chronicle and Romance
36: Machiavelli, Roper, More, Luther
37: Locke, Berkeley, Hume
38: Harvey, Jenner, Lister, Pasteur
39: Prologues
40–42: English Poetry
43: American Historical Documents
44 & 45: Sacred Writings
46 & 47: Elizabethan Drama
48: Blaise Pascal
49: Saga
50: Reader's Guide
51: Lectures
The Shelf of Fiction:
1 & 2: The History of Tom Jones
3: A Sentimental Journey & Pride and Prejudice
4: Guy Mannering
5 & 6: Vanity Fair
7 & 8: David Copperfield
9: The Mill on the Floss
10: Irving, Poe, Harte, Twain, Hale
11: The Portrait of a Lady
12: Notre Dame de Paris
13: Balzac, Sand, de Musset, Daudet, de Maupassant
14 & 15: Goethe, Keller, Storm, Fontane
16–19: Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev
20: Valera, Bjørnson, Kielland
Available since: 01/08/2023.
Print length: 40300 pages.

Other books that might interest you

  • The One About The Sheep And Other Stories - cover

    The One About The Sheep And...

    Catherine Evans

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    The sheep that's a good listener. The woman and the ice cream salesman. The young man who falls in love with a washing machine. That age old tale.
    
    Funny, macabre, heart-breaking, eerie, disturbing, provocative...the 21 stories in this collection of originals are all winners of the Chipping Norton Literary Festival Short Story Competition Winners from its inception in 2016 to 2022. The stories are hugely varied in style and genre, and will appeal to any lover of fiction and the much-loved short story form. They have impressed the likes of Tessa Hadley, Nicholas Royle, Rachel Sieffert, Sarah Franklin, Martyn Waites, Isobel Dixon and Yasmin Kane.
    Show book
  • History for Kids: The Lives of the Mount Rushmore Presidents - cover

    History for Kids: The Lives of...

    Editors Charles River

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    In Charles River Editors’ History for Kids series, your children can learn about history’s most important people and events in an easy, entertaining, and educational way.  
    	Every American is taught a pristine narrative of the life and legacy of George Washington and can easily recite the highlights of the “Father of Our Country”. The remarkable Virginian led an under-resourced rag-tag army to ultimate victory in the American Revolution before becoming the nation’s first president, setting it on its path toward superpower status. He may not have actually chopped down a cherry tree or tossed a silver dollar across the Potomac, but his contemporaries considered his character above reproach.  
    Thomas Jefferson was instrumental in all of the Revolution's debates, authoring the Declaration of Independence, laying out the ideological groundwork of the notion of states’ rights, leading one of the first political parties, and overseeing the expansion of the United States during his presidency. But for all of his accomplishments, Jefferson’s reputation and legacy are still inextricably intertwined with the divisive issues of his own day. As the slaveholder who wrote that all men are created equal, and his relationship with one of his slaves, Sally Hemings, Jefferson’s life and career are still sometimes fiercely debated today.   
    Abraham Lincoln is one of the most famous Americans in history and one of the country’s most revered presidents. Schoolchildren can recite the life story of Lincoln, the “Westerner” who educated himself and became a self made man, rising from lawyer to leader of the new Republican Party before becoming the 16th President of the United States. Lincoln successfully navigated the Union through the Civil War but didn’t live to witness his crowning achievement, becoming the first president assassinated when he was shot at Ford’s Theater by John Wilkes Booth on April 14, 1865. 
    Show book
  • Lobster Boy - The Bizarre Life and Brutal Death of Grady Stiles Jr - cover

    Lobster Boy - The Bizarre Life...

    Fred Rosen

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    The shocking exposé of a carny's murder arranged by his wife—and the daughter who threatened the author to keep the truth from getting out. 
     
     
     
    In his account of the sensational life and murder of Grady Stiles Jr., also known as the legendary carnival "freak" Lobster Boy, author Fred Rosen explains how Stiles's death was engineered by his wife, Mary Teresa, the carny known as the Electrified Girl. Rosen describes how Mary Teresa arranged for her husband's murder after years of physical and emotional abuse. The narrative is full of appearances from the couple's colorful acquaintances, including the World's Only Living Half Girl, Midget Man, and the Human Blockhead. 
     
     
      
    During Mary Teresa's dramatic trial, Rosen becomes a character in his own book. When both he and the prosecution are threatened by Mary Teresa's daughter, who Rosen believes was a coconspirator although she was never indicted, the writer risks his life in pursuit of the truth and the evidence that leads to Mary Teresa's conviction.
    Show book
  • KNOW ABOUT "Kailash Satyarthi" - Who Saving More Than Millions of Children's Life - cover

    KNOW ABOUT "Kailash Satyarthi" -...

    Saurabh Singh Chauhan

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    This is small part of the introduction of the book: Kailash Satyarthi is a name synonymous with the fight against child labor. A Nobel Peace Prize laureate, Satyarthi has dedicated his life to rescuing children from exploitation and advocating for their right to education. His unwavering commitment to this cause has made him an inspiration to millions around the world. 
    Satyarthi's journey began in the small town of Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, India, where he witnessed first-hand the plight of children forced into hazardous labor. Deeply moved by their suffering, he resolved to make a difference in their lives. In 1980, at the age of 26, Satyarthi quit his job as an electrical engineer to dedicate himself full-time to the cause of child liberation. He founded Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA), which translates to "Save Childhood Movement" in English. BBA quickly became a grassroots movement, organizing raids on child labor hotspots and rescuing children from exploitation. 
    Satyarthi's work was not without its challenges. He faced opposition from powerful vested interests who profited from child labor. He was threatened, harassed, and even imprisoned. But Satyarthi never wavered in his resolve. He continued to fight for the children, using his voice and his actions to raise awareness and demand change.
    Show book
  • Fit The Crime The Identity Lie - cover

    Fit The Crime The Identity Lie

    Corinne Arrowood

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    It was his responsibility to fight for those who could not fight, punish those who needed punishing, and righting the world of all the wrongs—to Captain Vicarelli, that was his mission even out of the Corps. Once separated from the Marines, he took his mission to his home, New Orleans, rife with murder, rape, and crime. The Corps had trained him and trained him well. He was a skillful killing machine of unusual propensity. 
    There was nothing average about the man; he stood six-five and was a wall of powerful, rippling muscle. Honorably discharged, with unwritten speculation of PTSD from the psych community, the Marine pursued the life of a civilian. It wasn’t his fault that there was crime around every corner, but he took his mission to heart, protecting, punishing, and eliminating the threats. 
    Trinity was his one weakness. His entire essence craved her tight little body full of sexy energy. Her caramel-colored skin, waist-length black hair, and cat-like ebony eyes lit an unquenchable fire in his body and soul. If fate were a friend, she would be his woman one day. Night after night, he sat at the end of Louie’s Tap mahogany bar, sipping on his two-finger pour of Glenlivet and watching as she swayed to the background music while mixing libations for the clientele.
    Show book
  • What Makes You Come Alive - A Spiritual Walk with Howard Thurman - cover

    What Makes You Come Alive - A...

    Lerita Coleman Brown

    • 0
    • 0
    • 0
    Known as the godfather of the civil rights movement, Howard Thurman served as a spiritual adviser to Martin Luther King Jr. and other leaders and activists in the 1960s. Thurman championed silence, contemplation, common unity, and nonviolence as powerful dimensions of social change. But Dr. Lerita Coleman Brown didn't learn about him during her years of spiritual-direction training. Only when a friend heard of her longing to encounter the work of Black contemplatives did she finally learn about Thurman, his mystical spirituality, and his liberating ethic. 
     
     
     
    In What Makes You Come Alive, Brown beckons listeners into their own apprenticeship with Thurman. Brown walks with us through Thurman's inimitable life and commitments as he summons us into centering down, encountering the natural world, paying attention to sacred synchronicity, unleashing inner authority, and recognizing the genius of the religion of Jesus. We learn from Thurman's resilience in the psychologically terrorizing climate of the Jim Crow South, his encounters with Quakers and with Mahatma Gandhi, and his sense of being guided by the Spirit. Each chapter illuminates an aspect of Thurman's work and includes reflection questions and spiritual practices.
    Show book