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26 books
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5 voters
Classical Books
Showing 1-50 of 9,652
The Odyssey (Paperback)
by (shelved 432 times as classical)
avg rating 3.83 — 1,201,828 ratings — published -800
The Iliad (Hardcover)
by (shelved 338 times as classical)
avg rating 3.93 — 513,263 ratings — published -800
Pride and Prejudice (Hardcover)
by (shelved 275 times as classical)
avg rating 4.30 — 4,842,238 ratings — published 1813
The Aeneid (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 248 times as classical)
avg rating 3.87 — 144,329 ratings — published -19
The Great Gatsby (Paperback)
by (shelved 201 times as classical)
avg rating 3.93 — 5,956,334 ratings — published 1925
Metamorphoses (Paperback)
by (shelved 196 times as classical)
avg rating 4.10 — 78,742 ratings — published 8
To Kill a Mockingbird (Paperback)
by (shelved 187 times as classical)
avg rating 4.26 — 6,927,588 ratings — published 1960
Jane Eyre (Paperback)
by (shelved 181 times as classical)
avg rating 4.16 — 2,338,891 ratings — published 1847
The Picture of Dorian Gray (Paperback)
by (shelved 167 times as classical)
avg rating 4.14 — 1,900,431 ratings — published 1890
1984 (Paperback)
by (shelved 159 times as classical)
avg rating 4.20 — 5,517,154 ratings — published 1948
Wuthering Heights (Paperback)
by (shelved 158 times as classical)
avg rating 3.90 — 2,135,488 ratings — published 1847
Romeo and Juliet (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 152 times as classical)
avg rating 3.74 — 2,834,540 ratings — published 1590
The Republic (Paperback)
by (shelved 144 times as classical)
avg rating 3.97 — 227,250 ratings — published -400
Animal Farm (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 141 times as classical)
avg rating 4.02 — 4,597,257 ratings — published 1945
Oedipus Rex (The Theban Plays, #1)
by (shelved 133 times as classical)
avg rating 3.73 — 238,616 ratings — published -429
Frankenstein: The 1818 Text (Paperback)
by (shelved 126 times as classical)
avg rating 3.91 — 1,912,786 ratings — published 1818
Crime and Punishment (Paperback)
by (shelved 125 times as classical)
avg rating 4.29 — 1,093,780 ratings — published 1866
Little Women (Little Women, #1)
by (shelved 124 times as classical)
avg rating 4.17 — 2,476,149 ratings — published 1868
Antigone (Theban Plays, #3)
by (shelved 123 times as classical)
avg rating 3.69 — 178,195 ratings — published -441
Sense and Sensibility (Paperback)
by (shelved 122 times as classical)
avg rating 4.09 — 1,303,429 ratings — published 1811
Meditations (Hardcover)
by (shelved 116 times as classical)
avg rating 4.28 — 354,637 ratings — published 180
The Catcher in the Rye (Paperback)
by (shelved 115 times as classical)
avg rating 3.80 — 3,913,734 ratings — published 1951
The Oresteia: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides (Paperback)
by (shelved 114 times as classical)
avg rating 4.02 — 47,178 ratings — published -458
Dracula (Paperback)
by (shelved 113 times as classical)
avg rating 4.02 — 1,488,142 ratings — published 1897
The Count of Monte Cristo (Paperback)
by (shelved 109 times as classical)
avg rating 4.33 — 1,032,297 ratings — published 1844
The Histories (Paperback)
by (shelved 103 times as classical)
avg rating 4.01 — 55,906 ratings — published -430
Hamlet (Paperback)
by (shelved 103 times as classical)
avg rating 4.03 — 1,058,705 ratings — published 1601
Lord of the Flies (Paperback)
by (shelved 99 times as classical)
avg rating 3.70 — 3,219,364 ratings — published 1954
Emma (Paperback)
by (shelved 98 times as classical)
avg rating 4.05 — 990,232 ratings — published 1815
Medea (Paperback)
by (shelved 97 times as classical)
avg rating 3.95 — 88,042 ratings — published -431
Of Mice and Men (Paperback)
by (shelved 97 times as classical)
avg rating 3.90 — 2,855,649 ratings — published 1937
The Oedipus Cycle: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone (Paperback)
by (shelved 96 times as classical)
avg rating 4.00 — 71,052 ratings — published -450
Anna Karenina (Paperback)
by (shelved 96 times as classical)
avg rating 4.10 — 937,928 ratings — published 1878
Macbeth (Paperback)
by (shelved 95 times as classical)
avg rating 3.89 — 1,026,955 ratings — published 1623
Fahrenheit 451 (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 94 times as classical)
avg rating 3.97 — 2,864,146 ratings — published 1953
Lysistrata (Paperback)
by (shelved 93 times as classical)
avg rating 3.86 — 53,765 ratings — published -423
The Epic of Gilgamesh (Paperback)
by (shelved 93 times as classical)
avg rating 3.75 — 119,913 ratings — published -2000
A Tale of Two Cities (Paperback)
by (shelved 93 times as classical)
avg rating 3.88 — 1,016,454 ratings — published 1859
History of the Peloponnesian War (Paperback)
by (shelved 90 times as classical)
avg rating 3.95 — 40,766 ratings — published -411
Les Misérables (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 84 times as classical)
avg rating 4.21 — 846,934 ratings — published 1862
The Metamorphosis (Mass Market Paperback)
by (shelved 82 times as classical)
avg rating 3.91 — 1,447,779 ratings — published 1915
The Symposium (Paperback)
by (shelved 81 times as classical)
avg rating 4.09 — 91,073 ratings — published -380
Inferno (Kindle Edition)
by (shelved 78 times as classical)
avg rating 4.03 — 207,400 ratings — published 1321
The Old Man and the Sea (Hardcover)
by (shelved 77 times as classical)
avg rating 3.81 — 1,323,200 ratings — published 1952
The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso (Hardcover)
by (shelved 77 times as classical)
avg rating 4.09 — 173,637 ratings — published 1320
Great Expectations (Paperback)
by (shelved 77 times as classical)
avg rating 3.80 — 877,928 ratings — published 1861
Brave New World (Paperback)
by (shelved 75 times as classical)
avg rating 3.98 — 2,090,512 ratings — published 1932
The Little Prince (Hardcover)
by (shelved 71 times as classical)
avg rating 4.33 — 2,501,411 ratings — published 1943
Persuasion (Paperback)
by (shelved 71 times as classical)
avg rating 4.15 — 782,985 ratings — published 1817
Beowulf (Paperback)
by (shelved 70 times as classical)
avg rating 3.50 — 349,359 ratings — published 1000
“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
“Loyalty is a treasure that no gigantic brimstone can abolish.”
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