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Anthologies
 
Eliot, Charles W., ed. 1909–17. The Harvard Classics and Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction.
The most popular anthology of the twentieth century comprises 70 volumes.
 
Matthews, Brander, ed. 1907. The Short-Story.
Twenty-three classic short stories trace the development of the genre from the Middle Ages to the beginning of the twentieth century.
 
Rhys, Ernest, ed. 1921. The Haunters and the Haunted.
Fifty-seven ghost stories from literary works, folklore and myth.
 
Volumes
 
Aeschylus.
1909–14. The House of Atreus: Agamemnon, The Libation-Bearers & The Furies.
The Oresteian trilogy represents the height of Greek drama. The sins of the parent rest on the head of the child, who seeks vengeance and expiation.

1909–14. Prometheus Bound.
The emergence of the individual against his angry God.
 
Æsop. 1909–14. Fables.
These 82 allegories remain part of everyday speech and provide eternal tales of caution.
 
Andersen, Hans Christian. 1909–14. Tales.
Written for children in the local Danish idiom, these 20 tales have become part of world folklore.
 
Anderson, Sherwood. 1919. Winesburg, Ohio.
Short stories of the alternately complex, lonely, joyful and strange lives of the inhabitants of a small American town.
 
Aristophanes. 1909–14. The Frogs.
Dionysus descends into the underworld, where he judges a contest between Euripides and Æschylus.
 
Austen, Jane. 1917. Pride and Prejudice.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. III, Part 2.
 
Balzac, Honoré de. 1917. Old Goriot.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XIII, Part 1.
 
Björnson, Björnstjerne. 1917. A Happy Boy.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XX, Part 2.
 
Buchan, John. 1915. The Thirty-nine Steps.
The basis for the 1935 Hitchcock film, this engaging mystery novel is filled with intrigue and suspense.
 
Bunyan, John. 1909–17. The Pilgrim’s Progress.
The most well-known allegory ever written is simultaneously filled with vivid and full human portraits of its characters.
 
Calderón de la Barca, Pedro. 1909–17. Life Is a Dream.
Metaphysical tale of the blurring between reality and dreams.
 
Cather, Willa. 1922. One of Ours.
Pulitzer Prize–winning novel of a midwestern American’s journey to the front of World War I.
 
Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de. 1909–17. Don Quixote, Part 1.
Published nearly 400 years ago in Spanish, this parody of the chivalrous life remains amazingly familiar in translation today.
 
Chesterton, G.K. 1908. The Man Who Was Thursday.
Set in a fantastic London, this zany mystery story is filled with often-surreal twists that turn more traditional thrillers on their ear.
 
Christie, Agatha. 1920. The Mysterious Affair at Styles.
Agatha Christie begins the illustrious career of detective-extraordinaire Hercule Poirot in her 1920 mystery classic.
 
Colum, Padraic.
Classic retellings of ancient myth for younger readers by a preeminent poet and illustrator.
1918. The Adventures of Odysseus and the Tale of Troy.
1922. The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived before Achilles.
 
Corneille, Pierre. 1909–17. Polyeucte.
Corneille’s great religious tragedy.
 
Daudet, Alphonse. 1917. Five Short Stories.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XIII, Part 4.
 
Dickens, Charles. 1917. David Copperfield.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vols. VII & VIII.
 
Dostoevsky, Fyodor. 1917. Crime and Punishment.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XVIII.
 
Eliot, George. 1917. The Mill on the Floss.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. IX.
 
Euripides.
1909–14. The Bacchæ.
Dionysus punishes Thebes, and its ruler Pentheus, for denying his godhood.

1909–14. Hippolytus.
Aphrodite causes Phaedra to fall in love with her stepson, Hippolytus, with tragic consequences.
 
Fielding, Henry. 1917. The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vols. I & II.
 
Fitzgerald, F. Scott. 1920. This Side of Paradise.
Describing life at Princeton among the glittering, bored and disillusioned—the post–World War I “lost generation.”
 
Fontane, Theodor. 1917. Trials and Tribulations.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XV, Part 4.
 
Goethe, J. W. von. 1909–14. Faust. Part I.
Goethe’s retelling of the classic Faust legend and the crowning achievement of his literary output.

1909–14. Egmont.
Count Egmont leads an ultimately tragic rebellion against Spanish rule in The Netherlands.

1909–14. Hermann and Dorothea.
This “novelette in verse” tells the story of a young girl who finds love after fleeing the chaos of the French Revolution.

1917. The Sorrows of Werther.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XV, Part 1.

1917. Wilhelm Meister’s Apprenticeship.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XIV.
 
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm. 1909–14. Household Tales.
These 42 selections preserved the folklore of the German people and formed an inspiration to generations of storytellers.
 
Hale, Edward Everett. 1917. The Man without a Country.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. X, Part 6.
 
Harte, Francis Bret. 1917. Three Stories.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. X, Part 4.
 
Hawthorne, Nathaniel.
1850. The Scarlet Letter.
Hawthorne’s classic tragedy of love and morals in Puritan New England.

1917. The Scarlet Letter & Rappaccini’s Daughter.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. X, Part 1.
 
Homer. 1909–14. The Odyssey.
The myriad adventures of the first epic hero from a distant war to the land of his faithful family.
 
Hugo, Victor Marie. 1917. Notre Dame de Paris.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XII.
 
Irving, Washington. 1917. Rip Van Winkle & The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. X, Part 2.
 
James, Henry. 1917. The Portrait of a Lady.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XI.
 
Jewett, Sarah Orne. 1910. The Country of the Pointed Firs.
Capturing the beauties of everyday small-town life, the modern reader is transported to a time past—where life was much simpler but in many ways just as complex.
 
Keller, Gottfried. 1917. The Banner of the Upright Seven.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XV, Part 2.
 
Kielland, Alexander L.. 1917. Skipper Worse.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XX, Part 3.
 
Lamb, Charles and Mary. 1878. Tales from Shakespeare.
The Lambs interweave the words of Shakespeare with their own to bring twenty of his most famous plays to the young reader.
 
Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim. 1909–17. Minna von Barnhelm.
Lessing’s great national drama.
 
Lewis, Sinclair. 1922. Babbitt.
The novel behind the name, Babbitt is the classic commentary on middle-class American society.
 
Malory, Sir Thomas. 1909–14. The Holy Grail.
A selection from Mallory’s famed Morte d’Arthur.
 
Manzoni, Alessandro. 1909–14. I Promessi Sposi.
The faith of two lovers overcomes all obstacles to their union.
 
Marlowe, Christopher. 1909–14. The Tragical History of Dr. Faustus.
Marlowe was the first to turn the Faustian myth into a morality play; it remains an apogee of Elizabethan drama.
 
Maupassant, Guy de. 1917. Walter Schnaffs’ Adventure and Two Friends.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XIII, Part 5.
 
Melville, Herman. 1853. Bartleby, the Scrivener.
In this classic short story, Melville presents us with a perplexing legal scrivener, Bartleby, and his disturbing effect on those around him.
 
Molière. 1909–17. Tartuffe.
Molière’s satire of the religious hypocrite.
 
Musset, Alfred de. 1917. The Story of a White Blackbird.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XIII, Part 3.
 
O’Neill, Eugene.
1920. Beyond the Horizon.
Explores the results of two men’s love for the same woman and the compromises each will make to have her.

1922. Three Plays.
Comprises “The Hairy Ape,” “The First Man” and Pulitzer Prize–winning “Anna Christie.”
 
Poe, Edgar Allan. 1917. Three Stories.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. X, Part 3.
 
Quiller-Couch, Arthur. 1910. The Sleeping Beauty and other Fairy Tales.
Quiller-Couch’s retelling of four classic fairy tales from the Cabinet des Fées.
 
Racine, Jean. 1909–17. Phædra.
Racine’s retelling of Euripides’s Hippolytus.
 
Sand, George. 1917. The Devil’s Pool.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XIII, Part 2.
 
Schiller, Friedrich von. 1909–17. Wilhelm Tell.
A powerful tale of resistance to Austrian domination.
 
Scott, Sir Walter. 1917. Guy Mannering, or the Astrologer.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. IV.
 
Shaw, Bernard.
1903. Man and Superman.
This play—in which an idealistic, cerebral man succumbs to marriage—contains the almost equally famous dream sequence “Don Juan in Hell.”

1916. Pygmalion.
Based on the classical myth, this drama plays on the complex business of human relationships in a social world.
 
Shakespeare, William. 1914. The Oxford Shakespeare.
The 37 plays, 154 sonnets and miscellaneous verse that constitute the unrivaled literary cornerstone of Western civilization.
 
Sophocles.
1909–14. Antigone.
Creon forbids the burial of those who rebelled against his rule; but, Antigone, soon to marry his son, disobeys this edict to bury her brother.

1909–14. Oedipus the King.
Unknowlingly, Oedipus kills his father and marries his mother.
 
Stein, Gertrude. 1909. Three Lives.
This first of Stein’s works established her position as a master of the English language and expositor of the twentieth-century woman.
 
Sterne, Laurence. 1917. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. III, Part 1.
 
Stevenson, Robert Louis.
1886. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde.
The nightmare-inspired “bogey tale.”

1889. The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter’s Tale.
A Romance set in Stevenson’s native Scotland.
 
Stories from the Thousand and One Nights. 1909–14.
42 selections that have become among the best-known of folk tales for younger readers.
 
Storm, Theodor. 1917. The Rider on the White Horse.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XV, Part 3.
 
Synge, J.M. 1911. The Playboy of the Western World.
The controversial play that ignited the “Playboy Riots.”
 
Tarkington, Booth. 1918. The Magnificent Ambersons.
The rise and fall of three generations of a successful and socially connected family in the face of a changing America.
 
Thackeray, William Makepeace. 1917. Vanity Fair, A Novel without a Hero.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vols. V & VI.
 
Tolstoy, Leo. 1917. Anna Karenin.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vols. XVI & XVII.

1917. Ivan the Fool.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XVII, Part 2.
 
Turgenev, Ivan. 1917. A House of Gentlefolk.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XIX, Part 1.

1917. Fathers and Children.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XIX, Part 2.
 
Twain, Mark. 1917. Jim Smily and His Jumping Frog.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. X, Part 5.
 
Valera, Juan. 1917. Pepita Jimenez.
From the Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction, Vol. XX, Part 1.
 
Wells, H.G.
1897. The Invisible Man.
Wells’s thrilling masterpiece of the mad scientist.

1896. The Island of Doctor Moreau.
The scientist playing god seems more relevant than ever in the age of cloning.

1898. The Time Machine.
The classic time-traveling yarn: what seems too good to be true invariably is.

1898. The War of the Worlds.
The original invasion from Mars, made all-too-real by Orson Welles in his 1938 radio adaptation.
 
Wharton, Edith. 1920. The Age of Innocence.
Set in the sumptuous Golden Age of New York society, dated social norms prove a still powerful force against personal desire.
 
Woolf, Virginia. 1921. Monday or Tuesday.
Eight early short stories are highly representative of Woolf’s stream-of-consciousness style.



 
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