Columbia Reading List, 1937-1938

Frequently Asked Questions

Who wrote this list?

See the heading above and the credit below to find out who wrote this list. If you don't like the selections in this list or the arrangement, take it up with the author(s).

Why isn't my favorite author listed here?

This list may not include your favorite author, but he or she may be on other Great Books lists. Check the author index to see.

See the Great Books FAQ for more about the Great Books and these lists of them.

Fall Semester

Homer. Iliad.
Herodotus. The Persian Wars.
Thucydides. The History of the Peloponnesian War.
Aeschylus. Oresteia.
Sophocles. Oedipus the King; Antigone.
Euripides. Electra; Iphigenia in Taurus.
Aristophanes. The Frogs; Plutus.
Plato. Ion; Apology; Republic.
Aristotle. The Poetics; The Ethics.
Lucretius. On the Nature of Things.
Aurelius. Meditations.
Virgil. Aeneid.
Augustine. Confessions.

Spring Semester

Dante. Inferno.
Machiavelli. The Prince.
Rabelais. Gargantua and Pantagruel.
Montaigne. Essays.
Shakespeare. Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2.
Cervantes. Don Quixote.
Milton. Paradise Lost.
Spinoza. Ethics.
Moliere. Tartuffe; The Misanthrope; The Physician in Spite of Himself.
Swift. Gulliver's Travels.
Fielding. Tom Jones.
Rousseau. Confessions.
Voltaire. Candide.
Goethe. Faust, Part 1.

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