# Top fifty books of Western Culture according to World Magazine



## HLGStrider (Jul 18, 2003)

World Magazine (a Christian publication) recently put out a top Fifty Books of Western Culture. 

Lord of the Rings was on there, of course, but I don't know which number it was. It only listed the top five in order of best to least. The rest were divided into catagories of era.
I thought I'd list them as well as put down which ones I have read just for the heck of it. They included a commentary paragraph with each, but I don't want to type all that.

Top five:
1. Bible, Multiple inspired authors (read it)
2. Paradise Lost, John Milton
3. King Lear, William Shakespeare
4. Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
5. The Temple, George Herbert


*Ancient Books* :
The Illiad, Homer (I started to read this but I forget why I didn't finish)

Gorgias, Plato

Antigone, Sophocles

The Aeneid, Virgil

Sayings of the Fathers, Translated by Joseph H. Hertz

Confessions, Augustine of Hippo

The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri

The Canterbury Tales, Geoffry Chaucer (I've read most of it but not all)

Le Morte D'Arthur, Thomas Mallory

Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas

*Renaissance & Reformation:* 

Dr. Faustus, Christopher Marlowe

The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser

Don Quixote, Miguel De Cervantes (I've read this, but I think my version might have been shortened.)

Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin

Book of Martyrs, John Foxe (Read it)

Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, John Donne

Pensees, Blaise Pascal

The Two Treatises of Government, John Locke

*18th Century:* 

Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift

Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe (I've never finished it, but I have started it. )

Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne

The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith

The Federalist Papers, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay

Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke

*19th Century:* 

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austin

Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Democracy in America, Alexis De Tocqueville

Economic Harmonies, Frederic Bastiat

David Copperfield, Charles Dickens (READ IT!)

Moby **** (curse the editting software. . .), Herman Melville

Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman

Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain

Grime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky

Master and Man, Leo Tolstoy

*20th Century:* 

Ash Wednesday, T.S. Eliot

The Bear, William Faulkner

The Violent Bear it Away, Flannery O'Connor

The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien (READ IT READ IT READ IT)

The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene

The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis (read it)

Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi

Witness, Whittaker Chambers

The Cypresses Believe in God, Jose Gironella

The Civil War, Shelby Foote

The Second Coming, Walker Percy.








GOSH! How much I haven't read. ..

Anyway, I know all of you would have some to add or take off this list or change the order or something like that, but I thought it would be fun to see how many of these you have read or something like that. . .


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## Arvedui (Jul 18, 2003)

Is there a link to this? 

Some exelent titles there.


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## Beleg (Jul 18, 2003)

I have read six of them.  
I would like to add George Eliot's, _Mill on the Floss_ and Hardy's _Tess of D'ubervilles [sp?_ into them too.


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## HLGStrider (Jul 18, 2003)

Well, I didn't get this offline, Ard. I typed it up all by myself looking at the magazine, but I'll see if I can find something about it on their website. . .I've never looked at their website before.

They also had the start of a list of great books of Eastern Culture, but they said that was for an entire different issue and only listed what they considered the top five or so on that. . .I hadn't read any of those.

Also, be warned, my links never work.

The website is Worldmag.com, if you want to try to find it on your own. They are a Christian-Conservative publication. 

I can't seem to get on the site. . .blah!


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## Lhunithiliel (Jul 19, 2003)

Well, yes ! This is a nice list of very strong titles... 
I have read a few of them and I see there are some others I'd like to read...
But I can't understand why for example "Paradise Lost" shall be included and say "The Foundation" (A.Azimov) is not! Yes, the ganres are different but ... And what about A.Douglas's "Hitchhiker"? What a marvellous way to make you think on the essence of life, the Universe and all... I can't see why the authors of the list considered LOTR and the Narnia worth included and the two books I quoted - not .

Then how come that "Sense and Sinsibility" is there and Vanity Fair" or "Wothering (sp? ) Heights" is not!  

I say, although the list includes some of the best books ever written, it still bares the "curse" of the "pattern"

But LG, thanx for the info!


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## TaranisCain (Jul 19, 2003)

Thanks for the list, I thought it was pretty interesting to see which books I have and have not read.


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## TheFool (Jul 19, 2003)

This is sort-of relevant to your no.1, quite amusing - forget the bit about Iraq though.

hmm.. let me see, I've read LOTR and maybe a bit of Robinson Crusoe, a few bits of the 'Bible' and THATS IT!! Yup, 16 years without a tv, and I read none of 'em . However I think I should get bonus points for reading the entire Foundation series (the last 3 or 4 = pure masochism).


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## HLGStrider (Jul 19, 2003)

Didn't find it "Amusing" persay, but to each his own sense of humor. I've heard about that quite a few times. 

Well, at least I'm not the furthest behind in all that I haven't read. . .


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## TheFool (Jul 19, 2003)

It's quite remarkable too  . Hey there's a new film on the same subject called 'The Passion' just been made, I think it's in the original languages (with no subtitles either) - made by Mel Gibson. Interesting..

Just discovered there's a copy of The Canterbury Tales in the house. Plus I just got a book about the true story that Moby D!ck was based on (sailors adrift, fear cannibalism of nearby islands ---> row 4500 miles to safety, eat each other along the way). Have to read M.D. afterwards.

TF


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## Rhiannon (Jul 19, 2003)

Let's see...

The Bible - read it.

Paradise Lost, John Milton - read parts of it.

Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan - read two different childrens version of it; never attempted the real thing.

The Illiad, Homer - read a childrens version of that, too- _very_ pretty illustrations

Antigone, Sophocles - read, _love_ it (also love Jean Anouilh's _Antigone_)

The Aeneid, Virgil - I've got it and I'm going to read it. Eventually.

The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri - read parts of The Inferno.

The Canterbury Tales, Geoffry Chaucer - read parts.

Le Morte D'Arthur, Thomas Mallory - read it, didn't like it. Well, not the whole first half. The second half I was kind of indifferent to.

The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser - read parts of it. 

Don Quixote, Miguel De Cervantes - read parts of it. Seen the musical. Seen the Pinky and the Brain episode. My brother's read it. 

Book of Martyrs, John Foxe - read parts of it.

Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe - Um...I'm almost sure that I read it. Or at least most of it. It's all kind of fuzzy. 

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austin - read most of it, only we were moving, and then I lost the book. I'll be getting back to it soon. But I want to know, why S&S instead of _Pride and Prejudice_?

David Copperfield, Charles Dickens - Couldn't get past the first five pages. I _hate_ Dickens!

Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain - read parts of it.

Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky - saw long, detailed TV special on it. Love that History channel.

Master and Man, Leo Tolstoy - I read one half of _Anna Karenina_, and never got interested. But I figured that 400 pages was giving it a good solid chance to get good.

The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien - read it twice myself, had it read _to_ me five or six times.

The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis - read it at least once myself, had it read to me at least twice.

So out of fifty, I've read (all the way through, on my own, not abridged or shortened or in any way child-ified) *SIX*. Not too bad a record for the first seventeen years. 

So...by my calculation, going at this rate, I'll have read the 50 Best Books of Western Civilization by the time I'm....141. 

Only I won't _ever_ read _David Copperfield_. Don't even try it.

(Lhunithiliel- personally I think _Wuthering Heights_ isn't on the least because it's _awful_...but that's just me).


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## Eriol (Jul 19, 2003)

Let me do it by category:

Ancient Books :
The Illiad, Homer

Gorgias, Plato (READ)

Antigone, Sophocles (READ)

The Aeneid, Virgil

Sayings of the Fathers, Translated by Joseph H. Hertz (perhaps I have read some sayings by some Fathers  ).

Confessions, Augustine of Hippo (READ)

The Divine Comedy, Dante Alighieri (READ)

The Canterbury Tales, Geoffry Chaucer 

Le Morte D'Arthur, Thomas Mallory

Summa Theologica, Thomas Aquinas (reading)

All of the books I have read are great; though I would not have chosen Gorgias from Plato's works. _The Apology of Socrates_and _Phaedon_ are much more moving; _The Symposium_ and _Phaedro_ also get honorable mention. (I read a lot of Plato in the University).

I would also put in the list _The History of the Peloponnesian War_, by Thucydides. I'm not too keen on Antigone, also -- perhaps because of the translation. Hard to read a play that was made to be staged with a choir and actors in another language...

Renaissance & Reformation: 

Dr. Faustus, Christopher Marlowe

The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser

Don Quixote, Miguel De Cervantes (READ)

Institutes of the Christian Religion, John Calvin

Book of Martyrs, John Foxe 

Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, John Donne

Pensees, Blaise Pascal (READ)

The Two Treatises of Government, John Locke

18th Century: 

Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift (READ)

Robinson Crusoe, Daniel Defoe 

Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne

The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith (READ)

The Federalist Papers, James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, John Jay (READ)

Reflections on the Revolution in France, Edmund Burke

19th Century: 

Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austin

Lyrical Ballads, William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Democracy in America, Alexis De Tocqueville

Economic Harmonies, Frederic Bastiat

David Copperfield, Charles Dickens (READ)

Moby **** (curse the editting software. . .), Herman Melville

Leaves of Grass, Walt Whitman

Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain

Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky (READ)

Master and Man, Leo Tolstoy

20th Century: 

Ash Wednesday, T.S. Eliot

The Bear, William Faulkner

The Violent Bear it Away, Flannery O'Connor

The Lord of the Rings, JRR Tolkien (READ) (duh)

The Power and the Glory, Graham Greene

The Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis (READ)

Survival in Auschwitz, Primo Levi

Witness, Whittaker Chambers

The Cypresses Believe in God, Jose Gironella

The Civil War, Shelby Foote

The Second Coming, Walker Percy.





Yes, I could have read more . Since I have not read Paradise Lost in its entirety I don't know if Lhun is right or not in her comparison, but even though I like Asimov I would put none of his books in that list. Perhaps I am a snob ; but there is something about these books (at least those I've read) that Asimov never touched. Even within fiction, "Crime and Punishment" and "David Copperfield" are as distant from Asimov as Tolkien is from Peter Jackson .

I don't know if it is the curse of the "pattern"  -- but I enjoyed all of the books I have read to an amazing extent. My only complaint, of course, is that there are other great books that are mostly unknown to the English-speaking world. But that can't be easily solved.


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## FoolOfATook (Jul 20, 2003)

Leaving off Erasmus was a sin, in my opinion. Voltaire should have made it. I don't know how Greene made the list and Joyce didn't. Donne was an infinitely better poet than Herbert (although Herbert is great). Petrarch should be on there. The fact that Plato's _Republic_ isn't on the list baffles me. I can't stand Wordsworth and Coleridge- their spot would have been better served by Blake, Keats or Alexander Pope. For the T.S. Eliot selection I think _The Wasteland_ would have been far better. How Faulkner made it while _The Great Gatsby_ didn't is beyond me. C.S. Lewis has no place on this list- at least as long as Orwell isn't on the list. I'm curious as to where _Beowulf_ might be. _The Autobiography of Malcom X_ and Anne Franks' diaries are pointedly absent, as is Aristotle's _Poetics_, Machiavelli's _The Prince_, Castiglione's _Book Of The Courtier_ and the Pearl Poet's _Sir Gawain and the Green Knight_. _The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn_ should probably have been on the list instead of _The Innocents Abroad_. I'm curious as to where Hawthorne's _The Scarlet Letter_ might be. Steinbeck, Ibsen, Moliere, Rosseau, Hobbes, Chekhov, D.H. Lawrence, Poe, Yeats, Gogol, Pushkin, Hardy and Wilde seem to be missing. A massive amount of Classical literature is absent. The works of Gallelio, Coppernicus, Freud, Marx and Darwin all influenced Western Culture in staggering ways and are absent. (True, they aren't strictly literature, but neither is Locke or Adam Smith)

And, while this may be heresy in these parts, there's no way that LOTR is one of the fifty key works of Western literature. Not even close.

(See what happens when an arrogant lit major gets ahold of a list like this- nothing good comes of it. )


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## HLGStrider (Jul 21, 2003)

> Plus I just got a book about the true story that Moby D!ck was based on (sailors adrift, fear cannibalism of nearby islands ---> row 4500 miles to safety, eat each other along the way



I think my grandpa read that.

Well, I didn't post it because I figured it would open this into a huge philosophical debate, but a lot of the books you listed probably weren't listed due to their worldviews and themes as much as their writing. Almost all the books had part of their paragraph about them being about their spiritual or philosophical themes.


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## Dr. Ransom (Jul 22, 2003)

Are you refering to _Men Against the Sea_, which was part of the story of the _Mutany on the Bounty_? (also a book, the movie sucked as usual) I can't think of any other possiblity, but either way I don't see any relation to _Moby ****_. (curses on the editing software again...)


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## HLGStrider (Jul 23, 2003)

No, he doesn't.

I think the book was named for the ship. It was about a whaler that crashed and men rowed for it in a life boat. . .I can't remember the title however.


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