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45 books
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4 voters
Classical Books
Showing 1-50 of 9,603
The Odyssey (Paperback)
by (shelved 427 times as classical)
avg rating 3.83 — 1,190,249 ratings — published -700
The Iliad (Hardcover)
by (shelved 334 times as classical)
avg rating 3.93 — 508,739 ratings — published -800
Pride and Prejudice (Hardcover)
by (shelved 273 times as classical)
avg rating 4.29 — 4,791,471 ratings — published 1813
The Aeneid (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 244 times as classical)
avg rating 3.87 — 143,243 ratings — published -19
Metamorphoses (Paperback)
by (shelved 195 times as classical)
avg rating 4.10 — 78,205 ratings — published 8
The Great Gatsby (Paperback)
by (shelved 195 times as classical)
avg rating 3.93 — 5,904,467 ratings — published 1925
To Kill a Mockingbird (Paperback)
by (shelved 187 times as classical)
avg rating 4.26 — 6,872,371 ratings — published 1960
Jane Eyre (Paperback)
by (shelved 182 times as classical)
avg rating 4.16 — 2,319,399 ratings — published 1847
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Paperback)
by (shelved 165 times as classical)
avg rating 4.13 — 1,872,759 ratings — published 1890
Wuthering Heights (Paperback)
by (shelved 158 times as classical)
avg rating 3.90 — 2,042,446 ratings — published 1847
1984 (Paperback)
by (shelved 157 times as classical)
avg rating 4.20 — 5,445,733 ratings — published 1949
Romeo and Juliet (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 149 times as classical)
avg rating 3.74 — 2,819,153 ratings — published 1590
Animal Farm (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 141 times as classical)
avg rating 4.02 — 4,538,370 ratings — published 1945
The Republic (Paperback)
by (shelved 141 times as classical)
avg rating 3.97 — 225,707 ratings — published -400
Oedipus Rex (The Theban Plays, #1)
by (shelved 131 times as classical)
avg rating 3.73 — 237,092 ratings — published -429
Little Women (Little Women, #1)
by (shelved 125 times as classical)
avg rating 4.17 — 2,455,968 ratings — published 1868
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text (Paperback)
by (shelved 123 times as classical)
avg rating 3.91 — 1,881,800 ratings — published 1818
Sense and Sensibility (Paperback)
by (shelved 122 times as classical)
avg rating 4.09 — 1,294,293 ratings — published 1811
Antigone (The Theban Plays, #3)
by (shelved 121 times as classical)
avg rating 3.68 — 176,383 ratings — published -441
Crime and Punishment (Paperback)
by (shelved 121 times as classical)
avg rating 4.29 — 1,077,030 ratings — published 1866
The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides (Paperback)
by (shelved 114 times as classical)
avg rating 4.02 — 46,735 ratings — published -458
Meditations (Hardcover)
by (shelved 114 times as classical)
avg rating 4.28 — 347,188 ratings — published 180
The Catcher in the Rye (Paperback)
by (shelved 112 times as classical)
avg rating 3.80 — 3,887,742 ratings — published 1951
Dracula (Paperback)
by (shelved 112 times as classical)
avg rating 4.02 — 1,473,510 ratings — published 1897
The Count of Monte Cristo (Paperback)
by (shelved 108 times as classical)
avg rating 4.32 — 1,021,497 ratings — published 1844
The Histories (Paperback)
by (shelved 105 times as classical)
avg rating 4.01 — 55,575 ratings — published -430
Hamlet (Paperback)
by (shelved 102 times as classical)
avg rating 4.03 — 1,048,994 ratings — published 1601
Emma (Paperback)
by (shelved 99 times as classical)
avg rating 4.05 — 981,335 ratings — published 1815
Lord of the Flies (Paperback)
by (shelved 96 times as classical)
avg rating 3.70 — 3,194,952 ratings — published 1954
The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone (Paperback)
by (shelved 95 times as classical)
avg rating 4.00 — 70,727 ratings — published -450
Anna Karenina (Paperback)
by (shelved 95 times as classical)
avg rating 4.10 — 929,902 ratings — published 1878
Medea (Paperback)
by (shelved 95 times as classical)
avg rating 3.95 — 87,171 ratings — published -431
Of Mice and Men (Paperback)
by (shelved 95 times as classical)
avg rating 3.90 — 2,830,266 ratings — published 1937
Lysistrata (Paperback)
by (shelved 94 times as classical)
avg rating 3.87 — 53,369 ratings — published -423
Macbeth (Paperback)
by (shelved 94 times as classical)
avg rating 3.89 — 1,018,658 ratings — published 1623
A Tale of Two Cities (Paperback)
by (shelved 93 times as classical)
avg rating 3.88 — 1,011,592 ratings — published 1859
The Epic of Gilgamesh (Paperback)
by (shelved 92 times as classical)
avg rating 3.75 — 118,846 ratings — published -2000
Fahrenheit 451 (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 92 times as classical)
avg rating 3.97 — 2,829,319 ratings — published 1953
History of the Peloponnesian War (Paperback)
by (shelved 90 times as classical)
avg rating 3.94 — 40,559 ratings — published -411
Les Misérables (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 84 times as classical)
avg rating 4.21 — 842,958 ratings — published 1862
The Symposium (Paperback)
by (shelved 78 times as classical)
avg rating 4.09 — 89,811 ratings — published -380
The Metamorphosis (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 77 times as classical)
avg rating 3.90 — 1,420,896 ratings — published 1915
The Old Man and the Sea (Hardcover)
by (shelved 77 times as classical)
avg rating 3.81 — 1,309,843 ratings — published 1952
The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso (Hardcover)
by (shelved 77 times as classical)
avg rating 4.09 — 172,090 ratings — published 1320
Great Expectations (Paperback)
by (shelved 76 times as classical)
avg rating 3.80 — 872,975 ratings — published 1861
Inferno (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 74 times as classical)
avg rating 4.03 — 205,903 ratings — published 1321
Brave New World (Paperback)
by (shelved 72 times as classical)
avg rating 3.99 — 2,073,220 ratings — published 1932
Persuasion (Paperback)
by (shelved 71 times as classical)
avg rating 4.15 — 775,627 ratings — published 1817
Beowulf (Paperback)
by (shelved 69 times as classical)
avg rating 3.50 — 346,068 ratings — published 1000
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Adventures of Tom and Huck, #2)
by (shelved 69 times as classical)
avg rating 3.83 — 1,336,133 ratings — published 1885
“… and poured libations out to the everlasting gods who never die — to Athena first of all, the daughter of Zeus with flashing sea-grey eyes — and the ship went plunging all night long and through the dawn" (R. Fagles translation)”
― The Odyssey
― The Odyssey
“Epic art is founded on action, and the model of a society in which action could play out in greatest freedom was that of the heroic Greek period; so said Hegel, and he demonstrated it with The Iliad: even though Agamemnon was the prime king, other kings and princes chose freely to join him and, like Achilles, they were free to withdraw from the battle. Similarly the people joined with their princes of their own free will; there was no law that could force them; behavior was determined only by personal motives, the sense of honor, respect, humility before a more powerful figure, fascination with a hero's courage, and so on. The freedom to participate in the struggle and the freedom to desert it guaranteed every man his independence. In this way did action retain a personal quality and thus its poetic form.
Against this archaic world, the cradle of the epic, Hegel contrasts the society of his own period: organized into the state, equipped with a constitution, laws, a justice system, an omnipotent administration, ministries, a police force, and so on. The society imposes its moral principles on the individual, whose behavior is thus determined by far more anonymous wishes coming from the outside than by his own personality. And it is in such a world that the novel was born.”
― The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts
Against this archaic world, the cradle of the epic, Hegel contrasts the society of his own period: organized into the state, equipped with a constitution, laws, a justice system, an omnipotent administration, ministries, a police force, and so on. The society imposes its moral principles on the individual, whose behavior is thus determined by far more anonymous wishes coming from the outside than by his own personality. And it is in such a world that the novel was born.”
― The Curtain: An Essay in Seven Parts
