How many people appeal to the founding fathers without having read them? How many Atheists drive around with Darwin bumper-stickers, but couldn’t point to a copy of Voyage of the Beagle on a shelf, even if it had neon lights? Which students of Platonism can quote Republic first-hand, who knows a thing about Milton’s prose and when will we admit how significant Dante still is for our culture?
Many years ago, the twenty-first president of Harvard, Dr. Charles W. Eliot, made a friendly wager. He claimed any of us could obtain a liberal-arts education by reading a slick fifteen-minutes a day from resources on five feet of bookshelf space. The result? The Harvard Classics.
I will read through the Harvard classics, obtain a “free” liberal arts education, summarize them to spare you the reading and then make fun of the old farts who wrote them. Questions before I start:
- Is this stupid? Absolutely.
- Is it impossible? Most likely.
- How will you find any time to read all the rest of Rothfuss, Martin, McCarthy, King, and every other author you’ve wanted to read? I probably won’t.
- Will we laugh or will it be fun to read and listen in? Good Lord, I hope so, otherwise somebody shoot. me. now (with an airsoft gun preferably. We try to keep it PG-12 here).
- What authors do you intend to read and/or make fun of? All of them. No seriously, all the authors from the classics. This includes, but is not limited to, Benjamin Franklin, Charles Darwin, Walt Whitman, Freud, Robert Burns, Homer, Shakespeare, Bunyan, Augustine and Plato.
- Will I get to see you ever again? No mom, I’ll probably disappear into an underground missile silo and call it “home” or “base” or “home base.” Then the Russians will come get me and torture me for my secret information… via tickling (PG-12! PG-12!)
- Will I be entertained at your expense? Yes. For you frequenters of YouTube, reality T.V., people watching at the local mall, and the Wire, you can point and laugh at me all you want. Feel free. You’re my intended audience.
- Can I read along with you? Of course, but it will probably kill you. I’ve lived a good life, but if your bucket list is still pretty full, you might want to reconsider. As I learned the hard way, yet again, you can find The Harvard Classics at your local library.
- Will you die, Lance? Like the current death of one of the Fantastic Four, we won’t know until the end…
Here’s the list:
NEW YORK: P.F. COLLIER & SON, 1909–1917
Vol. 1: FRANKLIN, WOOLMAN, PENNVol. 2. PLATO, EPICTETUS, MARCUS AURELIUSVol. 3. BACON, MILTON’S PROSE, THOS. BROWNE- Vol. 4. COMPLETE POEMS IN ENGLISH, MILTON
- Vol. 5. ESSAYS AND ENGLISH TRAITS, EMERSON
- Vol. 6. POEMS AND SONGS, BURNS
- Vol. 7. CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, IMITATIONS OF CHRIST
- Vol. 8. NINE GREEK DRAMAS
- Vol. 9. LETTERS AND TREATISES OF CICERO AND PLINY
- Vol. 10. WEALTH OF NATIONS, ADAM SMITH
- Vol. 11. ORIGIN OF SPECIES, DARWIN
- Vol. 12. PLUTARCH’S LIVES
- Vol. 13. AENEID, VIRGIL
- Vol. 14. DON QUIXOTE, Part 1, CERVANTES
- Vol. 15. PILGRIM’S PROGRESS, DONNE & HERBERT, BUNYAN, WALTON
- Vol. 16. THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS
- Vol. 17. FOLKLORE AND FABLE, AESOP, GRIMM, ANDERSON
- Vol. 18. MODERN ENGLISH DRAMA
- Vol. 19. FAUST, EGMONT, ETC. DOCTOR FAUSTUS, GOETHE, MARLOWE
- Vol. 20. THE DIVINE COMEDY, DANTE
- Vol. 21. I PROMESSI SPOSI
- Vol. 22. THE ODYSSEY, HOMER
- Vol. 23. TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, DANA
- Vol. 24. ON THE SUBLIME, FRENCH REVOLUTION, ETC., BURKE
- Vol. 25. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ETC., ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES, J.S. MILL, T. CARLYLE
- Vol. 26. CONTINENTAL DRAMA
- Vol. 27. ENGLISH ESSAYS: SIDNEY TO MACAULAY
- Vol. 28. ESSAYS: ENGLISH AND AMERICAN
- Vol. 29. VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE, DARWIN
- Vol. 30. FARADAY, HELMHOLTZ, KELVIN, NEWCOMB, ETC
- Vol. 31. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BENVENUTO CELLINI
- Vol. 32. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS
- Vol. 33. VOYAGES AND TRAVELS
- Vol. 34. FRENCH AND ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS, DESCARTES, VOLTAIRE, ROUSSEAU, HOBBES
- Vol. 35. CHRONICLE AND ROMANCE, FROISSART, MALORY, HOLINSHEAD
- Vol. 36. MACHIAVELLI, MORE, LUTHER
- Vol. 37. LOCKE, BERKELY, HUME
- Vol. 38. HARVEY, JENNER, LISTER, PASTEUR
- Vol. 39. FAMOUS PREFACES
- Vol. 40. ENGLISH POETRY 1 CHAUCER TO GRAY
- Vol. 41. ENGLISH POETRY 2: COLLINS TO FITZGERALD
- Vol. 42. ENGLISH POETRY 3: TENNYSON TO WHITMAN
- Vol. 43. AMERICAN HISTORICAL DOCUMENTS
- Vol. 44. SACRED WRITINGS 1
- Vol. 45. SACRED WRITINGS 2
- Vol. 46. ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 1
- Vol. 47. ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 2
- Vol. 48. THOUGHTS AND MINOR WORKS, PASCAL
- Vol. 49. EPIC AND SAGA
- Vol. 50 INTRODUCTION, READER’S GUIDE, INDEXES
- Vol 51. LECTURES
Thanks for your support, and feel free to contact me @ lanceschaubert at gmail dot com (email address modified for spam sake). Together, we’ll see if Dr. Eliot was right!
- Lancelot
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Are you still reading through the classics?
Absolutely. I’m on volume four right now.
It is indeed admirable what you want to accomplish. If I may give you a suggestion on your reading: Don’t just read ANY volume! You’ll greatly benefit from the Harvard Classics if you follow the reading guide found on Vol. 50. This simplifies matters considerably. All 51 Volumes are divided into seven fields of study: History, Philosophy and Religion, Education, Science, Politics, Voyages and Travels and Criticism of Literature and the Fine Arts. Good Luck.
Thanks for the comment, Francisco!
I’m aware of the divisions and of the reading guide in Volume 50. However, my current reading regiment encompasses over thirty volumes stretching over many genres, muses and fields of study. I like cross-training and am finding the volumes broken up quite nicely for like-minded thinkers. Volume One, for instance, came from Franklin, Woolman, Penn – three very different men, but all of them working around the same time in Pennsylvania – a state named after the latter. I found much overlap and enough of chronological assumptions that carried me through the rest. Plato, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius came from all stoic philosophers (Socrates standing in the midst of Plato, of course), however that volume showed start contrast between the father of their movement (Socrates) and the primary proselytizer of their movement (Aurelius).
In short, switching subjects every volume keeps me on my toes, but every volume hosts its own cohesion.
Fair?