Harvard Classics

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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.

Video Harvard Classics

Contents

Vol. 1-10

• Vol. 1: FRANKLIN, WOOLMAN, PENN
  • His Autobiography, by Benjamin Franklin
  • The Journal of John Woolman, by John Woolman (1774 and subsequent editions)
  • Fruits of Solitude, by William Penn
• Vol. 2. PLATO, EPICTETUS, MARCUS AURELIUS
  • The Apology, Phaedo, and Crito, by Plato
  • The Golden Sayings, by Epictetus
  • The Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
• Vol. 3. BACON, MILTON'S PROSE, THOS. BROWNE
  • Essays, Civil and Moral, and New Atlantis, by Francis Bacon
  • Areopagitica and Tractate of Education, by John Milton
  • Religio Medici, by Sir Thomas Browne
• Vol. 4. COMPLETE POEMS IN ENGLISH, MILTON
  • Complete poems written in English, by John Milton
• Vol. 5. ESSAYS AND ENGLISH TRAITS, EMERSON
  • Essays and English Traits, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
• Vol. 6. POEMS AND SONGS, BURNS
  • Poems and songs, by Robert Burns
• Vol. 7. CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, IMITATION OF CHRIST
  • The Confessions, by Saint Augustine
  • The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas á Kempis
• Vol. 8. NINE GREEK DRAMAS
  • Agamemnon,[26] The Libation Bearers, The Furies, and Prometheus Bound, by Aeschylus
  • Oedipus the King and Antigone, by Sophocles
  • Hippolytus and The Bacchae, by Euripides
  • The Frogs, by Aristophanes
• Vol. 9. LETTERS AND TREATISES OF CICERO AND PLINY
  • On Friendship, On Old Age, and Letters, by Cicero
  • Letters, by Pliny the Younger
• Vol. 10. WEALTH OF NATIONS, ADAM SMITH
  • The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith

Vol. 11-20

• Vol. 11. ORIGIN OF SPECIES, DARWIN
  • The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin
• Vol. 12. PLUTARCH'S LIVES
  • Lives, by Plutarch
• Vol. 13. AENEID, VIRGIL
  • Aeneid, by Virgil
• Vol. 14. DON QUIXOTE, PART 1, CERVANTES
  • Don Quixote, part 1, by Cervantes
• Vol. 15. PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, DONNE & HERBERT, BUNYAN, WALTON
  • The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan
  • The Lives of Donne and Herbert, by Izaak Walton
• Vol. 16. THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS
  • Stories from the Thousand and One Nights
• Vol. 17. FOLKLORE AND FABLE, AESOP, GRIMM, ANDERSON
  • Fables, by Aesop
  • Children's and Household Tales, by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
  • Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen
• Vol. 18. MODERN ENGLISH DRAMA
  • All for Love, by John Dryden
  • The School for Scandal, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
  • She Stoops to Conquer, by Oliver Goldsmith
  • The Cenci, by Percy Bysshe Shelley
  • A Blot in the 'Scutcheon, by Robert Browning
  • Manfred, by Lord Byron
• Vol. 19. FAUST, EGMONT, ETC. DOCTOR FAUSTUS, GOETHE, MARLOWE
  • Faust, part 1, Egmont, and Hermann and Dorothea, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
  • Dr. Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe
• Vol. 20. THE DIVINE COMEDY, DANTE
  • The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri

Vol. 21-30

• Vol. 21. I PROMESSI SPOSI, MANZONI
  • I Promessi Sposi, by Alessandro Manzoni
• Vol. 22. THE ODYSSEY, HOMER
  • The Odyssey, by Homer
• Vol. 23. TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, DANA
  • Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
• Vol. 24. ON THE SUBLIME, FRENCH REVOLUTION, ETC., BURKE
  • On Taste, On the Sublime and Beautiful, Reflections on the French Revolution, and A Letter to a Noble Lord, by Edmund Burke
• Vol. 25. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ETC., ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES, J.S. MILL, T. CARLYLE
  • Autobiography and On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill
  • Characteristics, Inaugural Address at Edinburgh, and Sir Walter Scott, by Thomas Carlyle
• Vol. 26. CONTINENTAL DRAMA
  • Life is a Dream, by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
  • Polyeucte, by Pierre Corneille
  • Phèdre, by Jean Racine
  • Tartuffe, by Molière
  • Minna von Barnhelm, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
  • William Tell, by Friedrich von Schiller
• Vol. 27. ENGLISH ESSAYS: SIDNEY TO MACAULAY
• Vol. 28. ESSAYS: ENGLISH AND AMERICAN
• Vol. 29. VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE, DARWIN
  • The Voyage of the Beagle, by Charles Darwin
• Vol. 30. FARADAY, HELMHOLTZ, KELVIN, NEWCOMB, ETC
  • The Forces of Matter and The Chemical History of a Candle, by Michael Faraday
  • On the Conservation of Force and Ice and Glaciers, by Hermann von Helmholtz
  • The Wave Theory of Light and The Tides, by Lord Kelvin
  • The Extent of the Universe, by Simon Newcomb
  • Geographical Evolution, by Sir Archibald Geikie

Vol. 31-40

• Vol. 31. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BENVENUTO CELLINI
  • The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
• Vol. 32. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS
  • Essays, by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
  • Montaigne and What is a Classic?, by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
  • The Poetry of the Celtic Races, by Ernest Renan
  • The Education of the Human Race, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
  • Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of Man, by Friedrich von Schiller
  • Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, by Immanuel Kant
  • Byron and Goethe, by Giuseppe Mazzini
• Vol. 33. VOYAGES AND TRAVELS
  • An account of Egypt from The Histories, by Herodotus
  • Germany, by Tacitus
  • Sir Francis Drake Revived, by Philip Nichols
  • Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World, by Francis Pretty
  • Drake's Great Armada, by Captain Walter Bigges
  • Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland, by Edward Haies
  • The Discovery of Guiana, by Sir Walter Raleigh
• Vol. 34. FRENCH AND ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS, DESCARTES, VOLTAIRE, ROUSSEAU, HOBBES
  • Discourse on Method, by René Descartes
  • Letters on the English, by Voltaire
  • On the Inequality among Mankind and Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar, by Jean Jacques Rousseau
  • Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes
• Vol. 35. CHRONICLE AND ROMANCE, FROISSART, MALORY, HOLINSHEAD
  • Chronicles, by Jean Froissart
  • The Holy Grail, by Sir Thomas Malory
  • A Description of Elizabethan England, by William Harrison
• Vol. 36. MACHIAVELLI, MORE, LUTHER
  • The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli
  • The Life of Sir Thomas More, by William Roper
  • Utopia, by Sir Thomas More
  • The Ninety-Five Theses, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, and On the Freedom of a Christian, by Martin Luther
• Vol. 37. LOCKE, BERKELEY, HUME
  • Some Thoughts Concerning Education, by John Locke
  • Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous in Opposition to Sceptics and Atheists, by George Berkeley
  • An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, by David Hume
• Vol. 38. HARVEY, JENNER, LISTER, PASTEUR
  • The Oath of Hippocrates
  • Journeys in Diverse Places, by Ambroise Paré
  • On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, by William Harvey
  • The Three Original Publications on Vaccination Against Smallpox, by Edward Jenner
  • The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever, by Oliver Wendell Holmes
  • On the Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery, by Joseph Lister
  • Scientific papers, by Louis Pasteur
  • Scientific papers, by Charles Lyell
• Vol. 39. PREFACES AND PROLOGUES
• Vol. 40. ENGLISH POETRY 1: CHAUCER TO GRAY

Vol. 41-51

• Vol. 41. ENGLISH POETRY 2: COLLINS TO FITZGERALD
• Vol. 42. ENGLISH POETRY 3: TENNYSON TO WHITMAN
• Vol. 43. AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
• Vol. 44. SACRED WRITINGS 1
  • Confucian: The sayings of Confucius
  • Hebrew: Job, Psalms, and Ecclesiastes
  • Christian I: Luke and Acts
• Vol. 45. SACRED WRITINGS 2
  • Christian II: Corinthians I and II and hymns
  • Buddhist: Writings
  • Hindu: The Bhagavad-Gita
  • Mohammedan: Chapters from the Koran
• Vol. 46. ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 1
  • Edward the Second, by Christopher Marlowe
  • Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and The Tempest, by William Shakespeare
• Vol. 47. ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 2
  • The Shoemaker's Holiday, by Thomas Dekker
  • The Alchemist, by Ben Jonson
  • Philaster, by Beaumont and Fletcher
  • The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster
  • A New Way to Pay Old Debts, by Philip Massinger
• Vol. 48. THOUGHTS AND MINOR WORKS, PASCAL
  • Thoughts, letters, and minor works, by Blaise Pascal
• Vol. 49. EPIC AND SAGA
  • Beowulf
  • The Song of Roland
  • The Destruction of Dá Derga's Hostel
  • The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs
• Vol. 50. INTRODUCTION, READER'S GUIDE, INDEXES
• Vol. 51. LECTURES
  • The last volume contains sixty lectures introducing and summarizing the covered fields:
    • History: Professors Robert Matteson Johnston, William Scott Ferguson, Murray Anthony Potter, and Fredrick Jackson Turner
    • Poetry: Professors Carlton Noyes, Charles Burton Gulick, Charles Hall Grandgent, and Dr. Ernest Bernbaum
    • Natural Science: Professors Lawrence Joseph Henderson and William Morris Davis
    • Philosophy: Professors Ralph Barton Perry, Charles Pomeroy Parker, and Chester Noyes Greenough
    • Biography: Professors William Roscoe Thayer, William Scott Ferguson, Chandler Rathfon Post, Chester Noyes Greenough, and Oliver Mitchell Wentworth
    • Prose Fiction: Professors William Allan Neilson, Fred Norris Robinson, Gustavus Howard Maynadier, and Jeremiah D. M. Ford
    • Criticism and the Essay: Professors Bliss Perry, William Allan Neilson, William Guild Howard, and Dr. Ernest Bernbaum
    • Education: Professors Henry Wyman Holmes, Dr. Ernest Bernbaum, Frank Wilson Cheney Hersey, A. O. Norton
    • Political Science: Professors Thomas Nixon Carver, O. M. W. Sprague, Charles J. Bullock, William Bennett Munro, and Roscoe Pound
    • Drama: Professors George Pierce Baker, Charles Burton Gulick, William Allan Neilson, Kuno Francke, and Dr. Ernest Bernbaum
    • Voyages and Travel (Travelogues): Professors Roland Burrage Dixon, George H. Chase, William Bennett Monro, and George Howard Parker
    • Religion: Professors Ralph Barton Perry, Charles Rockwell Lanman, Dwight Sheffield, Clifford Herschel Moore, and Charles Henry Conrad Wright

Maps Harvard Classics

The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction

The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction was selected by Charles W. Eliot, LLD (1834-1926), with notes and introductions by William Allan Neilson. It also features an index to Criticisms and Interpretations.

• Vol. 1. HENRY FIELDING 1
  • The History of Tom Jones, part 1, by Henry Fielding
• Vol. 2. HENRY FIELDING 2
  • The History of Tom Jones, part 2, by Henry Fielding
• Vol. 3. LAURENCE STERN, JANE AUSTEN
  • A Sentimental Journey, by Laurence Sterne
  • Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
• Vol. 4. SIR WALTER SCOTT
  • Guy Mannering, by Sir Walter Scott
• Vol. 5. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY 1
  • Vanity Fair, part 1, by William Makepeace Thackeray
• Vol. 6. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY 2
  • Vanity Fair, part 2, by William Makepeace Thackeray
• Vol. 7. CHARLES DICKENS 1
  • David Copperfield, part 1, by Charles Dickens
• Vol. 8. CHARLES DICKENS 2
  • David Copperfield, part 2, by Charles Dickens
• Vol. 9. GEORGE ELIOT
  • The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot
• Vol. 10. HAWTHORNE, IRVING, POE, BRET HARTE, MARK TWAIN, HALE
  • The Scarlet Letter and "Rappaccini's Daughter", by Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • "Rip Van Winkle" and "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow", by Washington Irving
  • "Eleonora", "The Fall of the House of Usher", and "The Purloined Letter", by Edgar Allan Poe
  • "The Luck of Roaring Camp", "The Outcasts of Poker Flat", and "The Idyl of Red Gulch", by Francis Bret Harte
  • "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog", by Samuel L. Clemens
  • "The Man Without a Country", by Edward Everett Hale
• Vol. 11. HENRY JAMES, JR.
  • The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James
• Vol. 12. VICTOR HUGO
  • Notre Dame de Paris, by Victor Marie Hugo
• Vol. 13. BALZAC, SAND, DE MUSSET, DAUDET, DE MAUPASSANT
  • Old Goriot, by Honoré Balzac
  • The Devil's Pool, by George Sand
  • The Story of a White Blackbird, by Alfred de Musset
  • "The Siege of Berlin", "The Last Class--The Story of a Little Alsatian", "The Child Spy", "The Game of Billiards", and "The Bad Zouave", by Alphonse Daudet
  • "Walter Schnaffs' Adventure" and "Two Friends", by Guy de Maupassant
• Vol. 14. JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE
  • Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
• Vol. 15. GOETHE, KELLER, STORM, FONTANE
  • The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
  • The Banner of the Upright Seven, by Gottfried Keller
  • The Rider on the White Horse, by Theodor Storm
  • Trials and Tribulations, by Theodor Fontane
• Vol. 16. LEO NIKOLAEVITCH TOLSTOY 1
  • Anna Karenina, part 1, by Leo Tolstoy
• Vol. 17. LEO NIKOLAEVITCH TOLSTOY 2
  • Anna Karenina, part 2, and Ivan the Fool, by Leo Tolstoy
• Vol. 18. FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
  • Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
• Vol. 19. IVAN TURGENEV
  • A House of Gentlefolk and Fathers and Children, by Ivan Turgenev
• Vol. 20. VALERA, BJØRNSON, KIELLAND
  • Pepita Jimenez, by Juan Valera
  • A Happy Boy, by Bjørnstjerne Bjørnson
  • Skipper Worse, by Alexander L. Kielland

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Enduring success

As Adam Kirsch, writing for Harvard magazine in 2001, notes, "It is surprisingly easy, even today, to find a complete set of the Harvard Classics in good condition. At least one is usually for sale on eBay, the Internet auction site, for $300 or so, a bargain at $6 a book. The supply, from attics or private libraries around the country, seems endless -- a tribute to the success of the publisher, P.F. Collier, who sold some 350,000 sets within 20 years of the series' initial publication".

The Five-Foot Shelf, with its introductions, notes, guides to reading, and exhaustive indexes, may claim to constitute a reading course unparalleled in comprehensiveness and authority.

The main function of the collection should be to develop and foster in many thousands of people a taste for serious reading of the highest quality, outside of The Harvard Classics as well as within them.

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Similar compendia

• The concept of education through systematic reading of seminal works themselves (rather than textbooks), was carried on by John Erskine at Columbia University, and, in the 1930s, Mortimer Adler and Robert Hutchins at the University of Chicago, carried this idea further with the concepts of education through study of the "great books" and "great ideas" of Western civilization. This led to the publication in 1952 of Great Books of the Western World, which is still in print and actively marketed. In 1937, under Stringfellow Barr, St. John's College introduced a curriculum based on the direct study of "great books". These sets are popular today with those interested in homeschooling.
• Gateway to the Great Books was designed as an introduction to the Great Books of the Western World, published by the same organization and editors in 1952.
• Palgrave's The Golden Treasury is a popular anthology of English poetry, originally selected for publication by Francis Turner Palgrave in 1861.
• The Oxford Book of English Verse is an anthology of English poetry that had a very substantial influence on popular taste and perception of poetry for at least a generation.
• The Loeb Classical Library is a series of books, today published by Harvard University Press, which presents important works of ancient Greek and Latin literature in a way designed to make the text accessible to the broadest possible audience.
• The Book of Life offers a contemporary self-education in transcribing pragmatic lessons from some of the greatest philosophical and literary minds, stretching as far back as Ancient Greece.
• The Sacred Books of the East is a monumental 50-volume set of English translations of Asian religious writings published by the Oxford University Press between 1879 and 1910. It incorporates the essential sacred texts of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and Islam.
• The Delphian Society created the 10 Volume Delphian Course of Reading--with the Harvard Classics editor Dr. Eliot in mind--for young and developing minds.

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See also

• Books in the United States
• Cassell's National Library
• Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library
• Everyman's Library
• Great Books
• Harvard Oriental Series
• The Englishman's Library
• The Feynman Lectures on Physics
• The School of Life

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References

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Further reading

• "Dr. Eliot". "An Ongoing Review and Discussion of the Harvard Classics". Dr. Eliot's Five Feet. 
• "From the History Files: A Love of Libraries - Harvard Classics". schoolofabraham.com. Archived from the original on February 6, 2012. 
• Mehegan, David (December 23, 2006). "The reading of life: A story about a grandfather, a box of old books, and the meaning of success". Boston Globe. Retrieved September 26, 2007. 
• "100 Must-Read Books: The Essential Man's Library". The Art of Manliness. 14 May 2008. Retrieved 24 February 2018. 
• Walters, Natalie; Smith, Jacquelyn (22 March 2016). "24 Books That Will Make You A More Well-Rounded Person". Business Insider. Retrieved 24 February 2018. 
• "110 best books: The perfect library". The Telegraph. 6 April 2008. Retrieved 24 February 2018. 
• "Harvard Book Store Top 100 Books". Harvard Book Store. 2018. Retrieved 24 February 2018. 
• "Great Books Lists: As seen in A Guide to Oriental Classics, Whole Earth magazine, Winter 2002". Robert Teeter's Home Page. Retrieved 24 February 2018. 
• "Other Lists of Great Books: Great (and Good) Books". Robert Teeter's Home Page. Retrieved 24 February 2018. 
• "The Greatest Books". The Greatest Books. Retrieved 24 February 2018. This list is generated from 114 "best of" book lists from a variety of great sources 
• Adler, Mortimer J.; Doren, Charles Van (1972) [1940]. "Appendix A. A Recommended Reading List". How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading (Revised ed.). New York: Simon & Schuster. pp. 350-362. Almost every work on the list is available in some other form, and many are available in several additions... 

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External links

• "The Complete Harvard Classics By Volume - Free PDF Downloads". 
• "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf". Metafilter. 
• Eliot, Charles W. (Editor). "The Harvard Classics and Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction. 1909-1917". Bartleby. CS1 maint: Extra text: authors list (link) (Online version.)
• "The Harvard Classics". Feedbooks. 
  • "The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction". Feedbooks. 
• "Harvard Classics Available at MobileRead". MobileRead.  (The Complete Harvard Classics, in 52 volumes plus Index. Free downloads in Sony BBeB/LRF, Mobipocket/PRC, and eBookwise/IMP formats.)
  • "The complete MobileRead edition of the Harvard Classics is now available!". MobileRead.  (Discussion thread about the page, "Harvard Classics Available at MobileRead.)
• "Harvard Classics (Bookshelf)". Project Gutenberg.  (The Harvard Classics and The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction)
• "The Harvard Classics / Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf". Internet Archive.  (All volumes.)
• Greater Books - a site documenting lists of "great books," classics, and canons, including Harvard Classics
• Wagner, David Paul (2005-2017). "Publishing History: Book Series". publishinghistory. C/o, ANBRC, PO Box 74, North Richmond NSW 2754, Australia. Retrieved 25 February 2018. Publishing History o Book Collecting o Research Materials CS1 maint: Date format (link)
• Edward N. Zalta, et al., eds. (2016). "Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy". Department of Philosophy, Stanford University. Stanford. Stanford, CA 94305: Metaphysics Research Lab: Center for the Study of Language and Information. Retrieved 24 February 2018. CS1 maint: Uses editors parameter (link)

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