The Editor's Introduction (50)

by Charles William Eliot (Editor)

Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926), Harvard University's longest-serving president. Also known as "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf," it represented Eliot's belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf. Volume L features Eliot's introduction, a reader's guide, and the complete indexes for the entire collection: an index to the first lines of every piece of verse, a general index, and a chronological index.

Genres: Nonfiction

484 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1910

About the author

Charles William Eliot was an American academic who was selected as Harvard's president in 1869. He transformed the provincial college into the preeminent American research university. Eliot served the longest term as president in the university's history.

Reviews

[C Heaton Hansen]

My goal is to read all 50 of these classics during 2010/2011. The readers guide is very informative. It suggests different approaches to reading the series; by subject, time period, sequential, etc. I think I will go with sequential and not make it too complicated.

[Nullifidian]

It feels a little odd rating a book most of which I haven't read, but in my defense the majority of this book is just an index (though I'm sure it's a very good index, hence the rating). Aside from the general, topical index, there's also an index of first lines for the poems and hymns contained in several of the volumes of the series (three sequential volumes of poetry in English, one devoted to Robert Burns, one to John Milton, and then a volume that contains, in part, the lyrics of Christian hymns). In fact, I thought it was entirely an index at first and decided to skip it, but it also has introductions from Dr. Charles W. Eliot about the genesis of the Harvard Classics project, which was interesting reading, and a "Reader's Guide to the Harvard Classics" that I also read, in addition to the "Chronological Index" (i.e. timeline) of authors and works.

The "Readers Guide" has several overlapping points and several others where it misses much of the series, so it reinforced my decision to simply read in series order rather than attempt a chronological or a thematic ordering. It appears to me that there's enough variation in the series order to keep me interested throughout. However, the fact that the Stratford Festival put up a production of King Lear for a short time on Youtube while our local public radio station was broadcasting a radio play of Hamlet the same weekend in two parts (and in whole the weekend following, which is the broadcast I listened to) did make me read Volume 46 out of order. It contains Edward II by Marlowe and then the Shakespeare plays Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and The Tempest. Being committed to reading two plays in the volume, I decided to read them all. But that's what makes this series great. It's something you're free to dip in and out of depending on your interest and you don't need to feel committed to any specific order of works.