John Lubbock, The Choice of Books (1896)

This is one of the 743 lists we use to generate our main The Greatest Books list.

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The Choice of Books (Book), 147 Books

The List that started it all. This is one of the very first "Greatest Books of All Time" lists and caused quite a stir back in it's day. Here's a good article about it: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/features/sir-john-lubbock-the-book-list-literature-reading-godfather-mustread-listicle-a8320811.html

John Lubbock, 1st Baron Avebury, 4th Baronet, PC, DL, FRS, FRAI (30 April 1834 – 28 May 1913), known as Sir John Lubbock, 4th Baronet from 1865 until 1900, was an English banker, Liberal politician, philanthropist, scientist and polymath. Lubbock worked in his family company as a banker but made significant contributions in archaeology, ethnography, and several branches of biology. He coined the terms "Paleolithic" and "Neolithic" to denote the Old and New Stone Ages, respectively. He helped establish archaeology as a scientific discipline, and was influential in debates concerning evolutionary theory.

This list was originally published in 1896 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.

View: List Grid Table
Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
19 The Bible Unknown -1400 Jewish Hebrew, aramaic, greek
312 Meditations Marcus Aurelius 161 Roman Greek
2916 Discourses Of Epictetus Epictetus -108 Greek Greek
11493 Enchiridion Of Epictetus Epictetus 135 Greek Greek
621 Analects Confucius -479 Chinese Classical chinese
13871 The Buddha And His Religion J. Barthelemy Saint-Hilaire 1860 French French
14617 The Apostolic Fathers William Wake, Edward Burton 1888 British English
11541 The Imitation Of Christ Thomas à Kempis 1418 German Latin
133 Confessions Augustine 397 Roman Latin
505 The Quran Unknown 610 Arabic Arabic
2138 Tractatus Theologico Politicus Baruch de Spinoza 1670 Dutch Latin
11520 The Course in Positive Philosophy Auguste Comte 1830 French French
316 Pensées Blaise Pascal 1670 French French
13327 The Analogy Of Religion Joseph Butler 1736 British English
5382 Holy Dying Jeremy Taylor 1651 British English
549 Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan 1678 British English
13327 The Christian Year John Keble 1827 British English
1155 Apology Plato -389 Greek Ancient greek
7010 Crito Plato -389 Greek Ancient greek
1645 Phaedo Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
220 The Republic Plato -379 Greek Ancient greek
11499 Memorabilia Xenophon -371 Greek Ancient greek
1190 The Politics Aristotle -350 Greek Ancient greek
11500 On The Crown Demosthenes -330 Greek Ancient greek
8631 Treatises On Friendship And Old Age Marcus Tullius Cicero -44 Latin Latin
2469 On Obligations Marcus Tullius Cicero -44 Roman Latin
332 Parallel Lives Plutarch 100 Greek Greek
10603 A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge George Berkeley 1710 Irish English
541 Discourse on Method Rene Descartes 1637 French French
1325 An Essay Concerning Human Understanding John Locke 1689 British English
37 The Iliad Homer -750 Greek Ancient greek
24 The Odyssey Homer -740 Greek Ancient greek
1047 Works and Days Hesiod -700 Greek Ancient greek
3250 The Theogony Hesiod -700 Greek Ancient greek
70 The Aeneid Virgil -19 Roman Latin
1541 Eclogues Virgil -37 Latin Latin
2254 Georgics Virgil 29 Latin Latin
14267 India Under British Rule From The Foundation Of The East India Company James Talboys Wheeler 1874 British English
420 Ramayana Valmiki -200 Indian Sanskrit
322 Mahabharata Vyasa -400 Indian Sanskrit
1089 Shahnameh Ferdowsi 1010 Iranian Persian
698 The Nibelungenlied Unknown 1200 German Middle high german
547 Le Morte d'Arthur Thomas Malory 1485 British Middle english
2138 The Book of Songs China -600 Chinese Classical chinese
1868 The Recognition of Sakuntala Kālidāsa -400 Indian Sanskrit
1255 Prometheus Bound Aeschylus -455 Greek Ancient greek
284 Oresteia Aeschylus -458 Greek Ancient greek
124 Antigone Sophocles -441 Greek Ancient greek
105 Oedipus the King Sophocles -429 Greek Ancient greek
383 Oedipus at Colonus Sophocles -401 Greek Ancient greek
305 Medea Euripides -431 Greek Ancient greek
3603 The Knights Aristophanes -424 Greek Ancient greek
931 The Clouds Aristophanes -423 Greek Ancient greek
3630 Odes John Keats 1820 British English
109 The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer 1400 British Middle english
129 First Folio William Shakespeare 1623 British English
342 The Sonnets William Shakespeare 1609 British English
126 Paradise Lost John Milton 1667 British English
5382 Lycidas, Comus, And The Minor Poems John Milton 1637 British English
29 The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri 1308 Italian Italian
1284 The Faerie Queene Edmund Spenser 1590 British English
3632 The Works Of John Dryden John Dryden 1808 British English
13327 The Poetical Works Of Sir Walter Scott Sir Walter Scott 1830 Scottish English
2151 The Poetical Works Of William Wordsworth William Wordsworth 1807 British English
13327 An Essay On Criticism Alexander Pope 1711 British English
9841 An Essay on Man Alexander Pope 1734 British English
8652 The Rape of the Lock Alexander Pope 1712 British English
2162 Poems Of Robert Burns Robert Burns 1786 Scottish Scots
1273 Selected Poems of Lord Byron Lord Byron 1800 British English
13704 The Poetical Works Of Johnson, Parnell, Gray And Smollett George Gilfillan 1855 Scottish English
623 The Histories of Herodotus Herodotus -450 Greek Ancient greek
782 Anabasis Xenophon -390 Greek Ancient greek
596 The History of the Peloponnesian War Thucydides -410 Greek Ancient greek
1586 Germania Cornelius Tacitus 98 Roman Latin
6089 The History of Rome Livy -27 Roman Latin
830 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon 1776 British English
11520 History Of England David Hume 1754 British English
13327 History Of Greece George Grote 1846 British English
11545 The French Revolution Thomas Carlyle 1837 British English
14267 A Short History Of The English People John Richard Green 1874 British English
13327 A Biographical History Of Philosophy George Henry Lewes 1845 American English
46 One Thousand and One Nights Unknown 800 Multiple Arabic
65 Gulliver's Travels Jonathan Swift 1726 British English
69 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 1719 British English
351 The Vicar of Wakefield Oliver Goldsmith 1766 British English
8 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
303 The Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell 1791 British English
1296 The Works of Moliere Molière 1666 French French
1349 William Tell Friedrich Schiller 1804 German German
13327 Critic Richard Brinsley Sheridan 1779 British English
4085 The School For Scandal Richard Brinsley Sheridan 1777 British English
3632 The Rivals Richard Brinsley Sheridan 1775 Irish English
13327 Past And Present Thomas Carlyle 1843 British English
8501 Novum Organum Francis Bacon 1620 British Latin
531 The Wealth of Nations Adam Smith 1776 Scottish English
11612 Principles Of Political Economy John Stuart Mill 1848 British English
11504 Journals (Cook) James Cook 1768 British English
13327 The Travels And Researches Of Alexander Von Humboldt William MacGillivray 1832 German English
1977 The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne Gilbert White 1789 British English
180 On the Origin of Species Charles Darwin 1859 British English
1788 The Voyage of the Beagle Charles Darwin 1839 British English
13327 A System Of Logic John Stuart Mill 1843 American English
1161 Essays Francis Bacon 1597 British English
74 Essays Michel de Montaigne 1580 French French
13327 Essays, Moral, Political, And Literary David Hume 1741 Scottish English
9841 Critical And Historical Essays Thomas Babington Macaulay 1843 British English
13327 Essays And Tales Joseph Addison 1711 British English
3232 The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 2000 American English
13186 Selections From The Speeches And Writings Of Edmund Burke Edmund Burke 1892 British English
13828 Self Help Samuel Smiles 1859 British English
3373 Zadig Voltaire 1747 French French
13327 Micromégas Voltaire 1752 French French
96 Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1808 German German
5586 Poetry And Truth From My Own Life Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 2004 German English
104 Vanity Fair William Makepeace Thackeray 1847 British English
7971 The History Of Pendennis William Makepeace Thackeray 1849 British English
275 The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens 1836 British English
47 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 1849 British English
2127 The Last Days Of Pompeii Edward Bulwer-Lytton 1834 British English
486 Adam Bede George Eliot 1859 British English