Harvard Classics
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Harvard Classics
Former President of Harvard University Charles W. Eliot wrote in his introduction to the Harvard Classics, "In my opinion, a five-foot shelf would hold books enough to give a liberal education to any one who would read them with devotion, even if he could spare but fifteen minutes a day for reading....
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Egmont (Act I, Scene I), by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Spain sent the Duke of Alva to subdue the Netherlands. In quelling disorder he killed the people's hero, Count Egmont. From this story Goethe made a f...

Introductory Note: Egmont by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Introductory note on Egmont by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (Volume 19, Harvard Classics)

On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, by William Harvey
Galileo, by holding his pulse while watching a swinging cathedral lamp, evolved a theory that made clocks possible. Harvey, by feeling his pulse, educ...

Introductory Note: William Harvey
Introductory note on William Harvey (Volume 38, Harvard Classics)

Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar, by Jean Jacques Rousseau
A "Back to Nature" movement in the seventeenth century was headed by Rousseau, who believed that civilization was degrading. To save money for his wor...

Introductory Note: Jean Jacques Rousseau
Introductory note on Jean Jacques Rousseau (Volume 34, Harvard Classics)

Introductory Note: Christopher Marlowe
Introductory note on Christopher Marlowe (Volume 19, Harvard Classics)

The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe
For the best blank verse in English, read "Dr. Faustus," the masterpiece of Marlowe, who gave Shakespeare lessons in playwriting. This genius knew the...

Preface to Leaves of Grass, by Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman is the most original and startling of modern poets. An irony of his life is that while he wrote for the contemporary masses, only a limit...

Introductory Note: Walt Whitman
Introductory note on Walt Whitman (the Ridpath Library of Universal Literature)

The Building of the Ship, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
At the close of the war, a torn and bleeding nation set about to rebuild its shattered frame. The result was a stronger nation rising from an almost d...

Introductory Note: Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Introductory note on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (Wikipedia)

The Thousand and One Nights (The Barber’s Fifth Brother)
A Bagdad merchant dreamed of the money he would make from the sale of a tray of glassware, and of marrying the king's daughter. But, daydreaming, he k...

Introductory Note: The Thousand and One Nights
Introductory note on The Thousand and One Nights (Volume 16, Harvard Classics)

Poems, by Thomas Moore
Any one of these poems, "The Harp That Once Through Tara's Halls," "The Last Rose of Summer," "The Light of Other Days," would alone have made Moore i...


The Education of The Human Race, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
To advance freedom of thought, Lessing published an essay of one hundred paragraphs outlining the history of religion. The wrath of orthodox churchmen...

Introductory Note: Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
Introductory note on Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (Volume 32, Harvard Classics)

The Tragedy of King Lear (Act I, Scene I), by William Shakespeare
Goneril and Regan falsely swore they loved their father, King Lear, more than life itself. Cordelia could find no words to express her sincere devotio...

Introductory Note: King Lear by William Shakespeare
Introductory note on King Lear by William Shakespeare (Volume 46, Harvard Classics)

Heroism, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Emerson startled the world by fearlessly declaring his beliefs. Such apparent paradoxes as we find in his inspirational essay, "Heroism," makes him th...

Introductory Note: Ralph Waldo Emerson
Introductory note on Ralph Waldo Emerson (Volume 5, Harvard Classics)

The Wealth of Nations (Book I, Ch. IV), by Adam Smith
Debts were not always paid in money. Not so long ago the butcher paid for his keg of beer with a slab of beef, and oxen were exchanged for land and wi...

Introductory Note: Adam Smith
Introductory note on Adam Smith (Volume 10, Harvard Classics)

Poems, by Thomas Hood
From the river her body was tenderly lifted --- the girl who could find no place in the vast city. Thomas Hood pleads for her --- eloquently and justl...


I Promessi Sposi (The Betrothed, Ch. I), by Alessandro Manzoni
Because of a fancy for a peasant girl, the tyrannical lord of an Italian village sent desperadoes to threaten the priest if he married the girl to her...

Introductory Note: Alessandro Manzoni
Introductory note on Alessandro Manzoni (Volume 21, Harvard Classics)

An Essay on Man (Epistle IV), by Alexander Pope
The sharp tongue of Alexander Pope made him celebrated, yet widely feared. In a representative product of his versatile pen, he gracefully combines hi...


Sonnets, by William Shakespeare
The most concentrated beauty of Shakespeare's unbounded creative genius is found in his sonnets. Written as personal messages to friends and not inten...

Introductory Note: Shakespeare’s Sonnets
Introductory note on Shakespeare's Sonnets (Wikipedia)

Introductory Note: Epictetus
Introductory note on Epictetus (Volume 2, Harvard Classics)

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, by Epictetus
When a man is invited to a banquet he must be satisfied with the dishes put before him. Epictetus reasoned that man should be content with what life o...

Little Ida’s Flowers, by Hans Christian Andersen
Flowers often tire of their stationary life and sometimes at night frolic away to a ball in a beautiful castle. Thus a fanciful story-teller accounts...

Introductory Note: Hans Christian Andersen
Introductory note on Hans Christian Andersen (Volume 17, Harvard Classics)

The Apology of Socrates, by Plato
Condemned for impiety, Socrates felt so justified in the virtue of his past action that instead of receiving a death sentence, he told the judges he s...

Introductory Note: Socrates and Plato
Introductory note on Socrates and Plato (Volume 2, Harvard Classics)

The Poetry of the Celtic Races (Ch. II), by Ernest Renan
Chessboards on which, of their own accord, black pieces played against white; chariots that swiftly turned hither and yon without a driver; pots in wh...

Introductory Note: Ernest Renan
Introductory note on Ernest Renan (Volume 32, Harvard Classics)