James Baldwin, The Book Lover: A Guide to the Best Reading (1910)

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The Book Lover: A Guide To The Best Reading is a literary guidebook written by James Baldwin and first published in 1885. The book is a comprehensive guide to the best books and authors of the time, providing readers with an extensive list of recommended reading. Baldwin covers a wide range of genres, including poetry, fiction, drama, and essays, and offers insightful commentary on each work.

This list was originally published in 1910 and was added to this site about 2 years ago.

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Rank Book Authors Year Country Language Actions
1926 The Spectator Joseph Addison 1711 British English
285 Oresteia Aeschylus -458 Greek Ancient greek
1256 Prometheus Bound Aeschylus -455 Greek Ancient greek
613 The Persians Aeschylus -471 Greek Ancient greek
1351 The Suppliants Aeschylus -463 Greek Ancient greek
1350 Seven Against Thebes Aeschylus -467 Greek Ancient greek
562 Aesop's Fables Aesop -560 Greek Ancient greek
46 One Thousand and One Nights Unknown 800 Multiple Arabic
972 The Orlando Furioso Lodovico Ariosto 1516 Italian Italian
876 Lysistrata Aristophanes -411 Greek Ancient greek
1383 The Birds Aristophanes -414 Greek Ancient greek
932 The Clouds Aristophanes -423 Greek Ancient greek
4158 The Assemblywomen Aristophanes -391 Greek Ancient greek
4227 The Frogs Aristophanes -405 Greek Ancient greek
3609 The Knights Aristophanes -424 Greek Ancient greek
4231 The Wasps Aristophanes -422 Greek Ancient greek
1449 Corpus Aristotelicum Aristotle -322 Greek Greek
1162 Essays Francis Bacon 1597 British English
19 The Bible Unknown -1400 Jewish Hebrew, aramaic, greek
1198 Lorna Doone R. D. Blackmore 1869 British English
300 The Life of Samuel Johnson James Boswell 1791 British English
3638 Religio Medici Sir Thomas Browne 1643 British English
551 Pilgrim's Progress John Bunyan 1678 British English
13219 Selections From The Speeches And Writings Of Edmund Burke Edmund Burke 1892 British English
2174 Poems Of Robert Burns Robert Burns 1786 Scottish Scots
2799 The Anatomy of Melancholy Robert Burton 1621 British English
13362 On Heroes, Hero Worship, & The Heroic In History Thomas Carlyle 1841 British English
5393 Selected Prose Thomas Carlyle 1800 British English
8 Don Quixote Miguel de Cervantes 1605 Spanish Spanish
110 The Canterbury Tales Geoffrey Chaucer 1400 British Middle english
8644 Catiline Orations Marcus Tullius Cicero -63 Roman Latin
8648 Treatises On Friendship And Old Age Marcus Tullius Cicero -44 Latin Latin
2475 On Obligations Marcus Tullius Cicero -44 Roman Latin
6180 The Complete Poems of Samuel Taylor Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1828 British English
30 The Divine Comedy Dante Alighieri 1308 Italian Italian
69 Robinson Crusoe Daniel Defoe 1719 British English
13245 A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories Isaac Bashevis Singer 1973 Polish English
11529 Selected Speeches Demosthenes, Robin Waterfield -322 Greek Greek
47 David Copperfield Charles Dickens 1849 British English
995 Dombey and Son Charles Dickens 1846 British English
1146 Nicholas Nickleby Charles Dickens 1839 British English
8253 The Old Curiosity Shop Charles Dickens 1841 British English
188 A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens 1859 British English
277 The Pickwick Papers Charles Dickens 1836 British English
3638 The Works Of John Dryden John Dryden 1808 British English
485 Adam Bede George Eliot 1859 British English
414 The Mill on the Floss George Eliot 1860 British English
2330 Romola George Eliot 1863 British English
28 Middlemarch George Eliot 1871 British English
468 Daniel Deronda George Eliot 1876 British English
3238 The Essential Writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson Ralph Waldo Emerson 2000 American English
2922 Discourses Of Epictetus Epictetus -108 Greek Greek
307 Medea Euripides -431 Greek Ancient greek
943 The Bacchae Euripides -405 Greek Ancient greek
2200 Trojan Women Euripides -415 Greek Ancient greek
2518 Hippolytus Euripides -428 Greek Ancient greek
3106 Alcestis Euripides -438 Greek Ancient greek
4216 Andromache Euripides -425 Greek Ancient greek
4220 Ion Euripides -413 Greek Ancient greek
4221 Iphigenia At Aulis Euripides -405 Greek Ancient greek
4219 Heracles Euripides -416 Greek Ancient greek
4218 Hecuba Euripides -424 Greek Ancient greek
4225 Orestes Euripides -408 Greek Ancient greek
134 Tom Jones Henry Fielding 1749 British English
3149 Chronicles Jean Froissart 1370 French Middle french
830 The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Edward Gibbon 1776 British English
96 Faust Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1808 German German
352 The Vicar of Wakefield Oliver Goldsmith 1766 British English
74 The Scarlet Letter Nathaniel Hawthorne 1850 American English
1939 The Marble Faun Nathaniel Hawthorne 1860 American English
2074 The Blithedale Romance Nathaniel Hawthorne 1852 American English
601 The House of the Seven Gables Nathaniel Hawthorne 1851 American English
624 The Histories of Herodotus Herodotus -450 Greek Ancient greek
13362 The Autocrat Of The Breakfast Table Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. 1858 American English
37 The Iliad Homer -750 Greek Ancient greek
24 The Odyssey Homer -740 Greek Ancient greek
3636 Odes John Keats 1820 British English
4217 Epistles Horace 20 Latin Latin
4226 Satires Horace 35 Latin Latin
40 Les Misérables Victor Hugo 1862 French French
715 The Sketch Book Of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent. Washington Irving 1819 American English
1053 The Kalevala Elias Lönnrot 1835 Finnish Finnish
974 The Poems of John Keats John Keats 1817 British English
2165 Essays Charles Lamb 1823 British English
11547 The Poems Of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 1845 American English
14377 The Complete Poetical Works Of James Russell Lowell James Russell Lowell 1890 American English
14435 The Function Of The Poet, And Other Essays James Russell Lowell 1893 American English
9859 Critical And Historical Essays Thomas Babington Macaulay 1843 British English
323 Mahabharata Vyasa -400 Indian Sanskrit
548 Le Morte d'Arthur Thomas Malory 1485 British Middle english
313 Meditations Marcus Aurelius 161 Roman Greek
5393 Complete Plays And Poems Christopher Marlowe 1587 British English
127 Paradise Lost John Milton 1667 British English
1296 The Works of Moliere Molière 1666 French French
75 Essays Michel de Montaigne 1580 French French
699 The Nibelungenlied Unknown 1200 German Middle high german
736 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Edward FitzGerald 1859 British English
388 The Complete Works of Plato Plato -387 Greek Ancient greek
334 Parallel Lives Plutarch 100 Greek Greek
98 The Complete Tales and Poems of Edgar Allan Poe Edgar Allan Poe 1902 American English
5393 Poems Of Alexander Pope Alexander Pope 1711 British English
422 Ramayana Valmiki -200 Indian Sanskrit
13362 Gulistan Saadi 1258 Gulistan Persian
297 Ivanhoe Sir Walter Scott 1819 British English
2903 Waverley Sir Walter Scott 1814 British English
6299 Guy Mannering Sir Walter Scott 1815 Scottish English
7216 The Antiquary Sir Walter Scott 1816 Scottish English
9859 The Black Dwarf Sir Walter Scott 1816 Scottish English
3266 Old Mortality Sir Walter Scott 1816 Scottish English
1779 Rob Roy Sir Walter Scott 1817 British English
1362 The Heart Of Midlothian Sir Walter Scott 1818 Scottish English
4623 The Bride Of Lammermoor Sir Walter Scott 1819 Scottish English
7117 A Legend Of Montrose Sir Walter Scott 1819 Scottish English
9859 The Monastery Sir Walter Scott 1820 Scottish English
8655 The Abbot Sir Walter Scott 1820 Scottish English
6183 Kenilworth Sir Walter Scott 1821 British English
9859 The Pirate Sir Walter Scott 1822 Scottish English
7117 The Fortunes Of Nigel Sir Walter Scott 1822 Scottish English
9859 Peveril Of The Peak Sir Walter Scott 1823 British English
7031 Quentin Durward Sir Walter Scott 1823 Scottish English