Harvard Classics: Complete 51-Volume Anthology : The Greatest Works of World Literature

The Harvard Classics: Complete 51-Volume Anthology stands as a monumental compendium of human thought and creativity, spanning centuries of literature, philosophy, history, and science. Within its pages, readers are invited on an unparalleled journey through the literary landscapes crafted by titans such as Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, William Shakespeare, Dante Alighieri, and Plato, among others. This anthology breaks the barriers of traditional literary collections by intertwining a vast array of styles and perspectives, from the dramatic dialogues of antiquity to the introspective essays of the Enlightenment. Its comprehensive selection not only highlights seminal works that have shaped Western culture but also encapsulates the diversity and evolution of human contemplation and expression over time. The backgrounds of the authors and editors involved in this anthology reveal a tapestry of intellectual and cultural movements that have molded our current understanding of the world. Ranging from the foundational texts of Western philosophy by Plato and Descartes to groundbreaking scientific treatises by Charles Darwin, the collection serves as a cross-sectional study of the pivotal moments in intellectual history. These voices, though from disparate eras and disciplines, converge within the anthology to provide a multifaceted exploration of humanity's enduring queries and achievements, underlining the progression from empirical observation to abstract thought. The Harvard Classics: Complete 51-Volume Anthology is recommended for readers seeking to immerse themselves in the breadth of human knowledge and artistic achievement. It offers not just an educational journey through the cultural and intellectual milestones of Western civilization but also an invitation to engage with the questions and themes that have incessantly captivated human curiosity. This anthology acts as a bridge across time, allowing contemporary readers to engage in a dialogue with the great minds of the past, thereby fostering a deeper understanding of the forces that have shaped human history and thought. For scholars, students, and lifelong learners alike, this collection is an invaluable resource for exploring the richness of our shared heritage.

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318 books
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher and is known as one of the foremost thinkers of Enlightenment. He is widely recognized for his contributions to metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and aesthetics.
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Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin’s (1809-1882) love of natural history led him to the Beagle. Twenty years after his voyage, his landmark work On the Origin of Species sparked immediate controversy and has continued to do so for 150 years. David Quammen is an acclaimed natural history writer and the author of The Song of the Dodo and The Reluctant Mr. Darwin, in addition to nearly a dozen other books.
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Robert Louis Stevenson
Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson was born on 13 November 1850, changing his second name to ‘Louis’ at the age of eighteen. He has always been loved and admired by countless readers and critics for ‘the excitement, the fierce joy, the delight in strangeness, the pleasure in deep and dark adventures’ found in his classic stories and, without doubt, he created some of the most horribly unforgettable characters in literature and, above all, Mr. Edward Hyde.
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2082 books
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright the world has seen. He produced an amount of work; 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 5 poems. He died on 23rd April 1616, aged 52, and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.
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81 books
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) was one of the major English Romantic poets and is regarded by critics as one of the finest lyric poets in the English language.
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232 books
Henry David Thoreau
American essayist, poet, and practical philosopher, best-known for his autobiographical story of life in the woods, WALDEN (1854). Thoreau became one of the leading personalities in New England Transcendentalism. He wrote tirelessly but earned from his books and journalism little. Thoreau's CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE (1849) influenced Gandhi in his passive resistance campaigns, Martin Luther King, Jr., and at one time the politics of the British Labour Party. Henry David Thoreau was born in Concord, Massachusetts, which was center of his life, although he spent several years in his childhood in the neighboring towns and later elsewhere. He died of tuberculosis, and he is buried in his family's plot near the graves of his friends Hawthorne, Alcott, Emerson, and Channing on Author's Ridge in Concord's Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.
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179 books
David Hume
David Hume is a widely recognized Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, historian, and essayist. His most known works are A Treatise of Human Nature, concerning the Principles of Morals, and Enquiries concerning Human Understanding.
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111 books
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Samuel Taylor Coleridge was an English poet, literary critic and philosopher who, with his friend William Wordsworth, was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets.
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416 books
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was born of English descent in Dublin, Ireland in 1667. He went to school at Trinity College in Ireland, before moving to England at the age of 22. After a short stint in the Anglican Church, he began his career as a writer, satirizing religious, political, and educational institutions. He wrote in defense of the Irish people, especially in his A Modest Proposal, which made him a champion of his people. His most famous work is Gulliver’s Travels which was published anonymously in 1726.
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209 books
Jacob Grimm
With his brother Wilhelm, Jacob Grimm collected and published Germanic and European folk and fairy tales during the early to mid 19th century. Some of the world’s most classic and beloved stories have been published by them, including “Rumplestiltskin,” “Snow White,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Rapunzel,” “Cinderella,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and many more.
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207 books
Wilhelm Grimm
With his brother Jacob, Wilhelm Grimm collected and published Germanic and European folk and fairy tales during the early to mid 19th century. Some of the world’s most classic and beloved stories have been published by them, including “Rumplestiltskin,” “Snow White,” “Sleeping Beauty,” “Rapunzel,” “Cinderella,” “Hansel and Gretel,” and many more.
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753 books
Daniel Defoe
Daniel Defoe was born at the beginning of a period of history known as the English Restoration, so-named because it was when King Charles II restored the monarchy to England following the English Civil War and the brief dictatorship of Oliver Cromwell. Defoe’s contemporaries included Isaac Newton and Samuel Pepys.
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154 books
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Ralph Waldo Emerson was the leading proponent of the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-nineteenth century. He was ordained as a Unitarian minister at Harvard Divinity School but served for only three years before developing his own spiritual philosophy based on individualism and intuition. His essay Nature is arguably his best-known work and was both groundbreaking and highly controversial when it was first published. Emerson also wrote poetry and lectured widely across the US.
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214 books
Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin was a founding father of the United States of America. He was a printer, publisher, author, inventor, scientist, and diplomat. Franklin is known for signing and drafting the Declaration of Independence, representing America during the American Revolution, and making significant contributions to science.
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30 books
Thomas Dekker
Thomas Dekker is a Dutch former professional cyclist whose talent on the bike quickly took him to the top of the sport. He raced for The Netherlands in the 2004 Summer Olympic Games in Athens, won two Dutch National Time Trial Championships, and captured victories in the 2006 Tirreno-Adriatico and the 2007 Tour of Romandie. He rode for the Dutch Rabobank superteam and then Silence-Lotto before a retroactively tested sample returned positive for EPO. In 2009, Dekker was suspended for two years for the drug violation, and it was later confirmed during Operaction Puerto that Dekker was among the clients of Spanish doctor Eufemiano Fuentes. After his suspension, Dekker joined the American Garmin Development Team and rode for Garmin-Barracuda from 2012-2014. Dekker claims to have ridden clean for Jonathan Vaughters and he became a popular rider in the American peloton. He retired after an attempt on the World Hour Record in 2015.
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261 books
John Milton
John Milton is a famous English poet and intellectual known for his epic, Paradise Lost.
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83 books
Thomas Hobbes
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) was one of the founding fathers of modern philosophy. An Englishman, Hobbes was heavily influenced by his country's civil war and wrote his preeminent work, Leviathan, about the relationship between the individual and the government during that period. Hobbes was a scholar, phauthoilosopher, and the author of several works on political and religious philosophy.
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253 books
Marcus Aurelius
Marcus Aurelius ruled the Roman Empire from 161 to 180 AD. Born to an upper-class Roman family in 121, Aurelius was adopted by his uncle, the emperor Antoninus Pius, in 138. Aurelius studied Greek and Latin literature, philosophy, and law, and was especially influenced by the Stoic thinker Epictetus. After Pius’s death, Aurelius succeeded the throne alongside his adoptive brother, Lucius Verus. His reign was marked by plague, numerous military conflicts, and the deaths of friends and family—including Lucius Verus in 169. Despite these struggles, the Empire flourished under Marcus’s rule as the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an era from 27 to 180 of relative peace and prosperity for the Roman Empire. Aurelius wrote his Meditations as spiritual exercises never intended for publication, and died at fifty-eight while on campaign against the Germanic tribes.
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1080 books
Hans Christian Andersen
One of the most prolific and beloved writers of all time, Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen is best known for his fairy tales. Born in Odense, Denmark, in 1805, Andersen published his first story at 17. In all, he wrote more than 150 stories before his death in 1875.
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53 books
Thomas Malory
Thomas Malory was an English writer and the author of Le Morte d'Arthur.
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39 books
George Gordon Byron
George Gordon Byron (1788–1824), commonly known as Lord Byron, was an English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement.
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234 books
Miguel de Cervantes
Miguel de Cervantes (September 29, 1547 – April 22, 1616) was a Spanish novelist, poet, and playwright. His novel, Don Quixote, was considered the first modern European novel and is a classic of Western literature.
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Jean Jacques Rousseau
Jean Jacques Rousseau was a writer, composer, and philosopher that is widely recognized for his contributions to political philosophy. His most known writings are Discourse on Inequality and The Social Contract.
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Niccolo Machiavelli
Niccolo Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy at a time when the country was in political upheaval. Italy was divided between four dominant city-states, and each of these was continually at the mercy of the stronger foreign governments of Europe. Since 1434 the wealthy Medici family ruled Florence. A reform movement, begun in 1494, temporarily interrupted their rule in which the young Machiavelli became an important diplomat. When the Medici family regained power in 1512 with the help of Spanish troops, Machiavelli was tortured and removed from public life. For the next 10 years he devoted himself to writing history, political philosophy, and even plays. He ultimately gained favor with the Medici family and was called back to public duty for the last two years of his life.
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Harvard Classics: Complete 51-Volume Anthology : The Greatest Works of World Literature

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Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Immanuel Kant

Charles Darwin

Robert Louis Stevenson

William Shakespeare

Percy Bysshe Shelley

Henry David Thoreau

David Hume

Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Jonathan Swift

Jacob Grimm

Wilhelm Grimm

Daniel Defoe

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Benjamin Franklin

Thomas Dekker

John Milton

Thomas Hobbes

Marcus Aurelius

Hans Christian Andersen

Thomas Malory

George Gordon Byron

Miguel de Cervantes

Jean Jacques Rousseau

Niccolo Machiavelli