Period Studies

Toward a Modern Library Curriculum

You can get a pretty good education (albeit with a Western dead white guy bias) reading the Modern Library. This index sorts the Modern Library titles into period studies for those who prefer to follow a reading plan based on traditional Classical Education (prep school/liberal arts college) models. I've left out most of the philosophers, mainly because I can't figure out where they belong. If you know, please contact me.

Just for fun, I've also included a listing of 19th & 20th century Russian literature (very popular during the Cold War).

if this section/idea proves popular, I can include links to authoritative study materials and websites. Just let me know.

This index includes regular [R], illustrated [I], giant [G], and numbered paperback [P] editions. When no bracketed letter appears, the title is available only in a regular edition. Titles may appear under multiple genres, but seldom do. Items listed in "Correlary Pieces" sections were written about the period but by authors who wrote in later times.

Click a linked title to see its dust jacket. Unlinked titles have no image in the database. Click to return to the top of this index. Please send entry candidates, comments, requests for additional periods, & corrections to the editor.



Ancient Western World (Classics)
Medieval World (c. 500-1485)
Renaissance (c. 1485-1660)
Restoration (c. 1660-1702)
Eighteenth Century (1700-1799)
English Romantics (c. 1770-1880)
Victorians (c. 1819-1901)
19th & 20th Century Russian Literature


Ancient Western World (Classics)

Complete Greek Tragedies Vol I & II Aeschylus
Golden Ass Apuleius
Introduction to Aristotle Aristotle
Politics Aristotle
Rhetoric and Poetics Aristotle
Gallic War and Other Writings Caesar
Basic Works Cicero
Complete Greek Tragedies Vol V, VI, & VII Euripides
Persian Wars Herodotus
Iliad Homer
Odyssey Homer

Complete Works

Homer [G]

Complete Works of Horace Horace
Hellenistic Philosophy Misc
Greek Poets Misc
Latin Poets Misc
Roman Comedies Misc
Stoic and Epicurean Philosophers Misc
Satyricon Petronius
Philosophy of Plato Plato
Works of Plato Plato
Republic Plato [R] [P]
Complete Greek Tragedies Vol III & IV Sophocles
Lives of the Twelve Caesars Suetonius
Complete Works of Tacitus Tacitus
Complete Writings Thucydides
Virgil's Works Virgil
Corollary Pieces
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire Gibbon [G]
I, Claudius Graves
Marius the Epicurean Pater


Medieval World (c. 1066-1485)

Introduction to St. Thomas Aquinas Aquinas
Confessions Augustine
Decameron Boccaccio
Consolation of Philosophy Boethius, etc.
Canterbury Tales Chaucer
Troilus and Cressida Chaucer [R] [P]
Divine Comedy Dante [R] [P] [I]
Froissart's Chronicles Froissart

Medieval Epics

Misc [G]

Medieval Romances Misc
Medieval Philosophy Misc


Renaissance (c. 1485-1660)

Selected Writings Bacon
Autobiography Cellini

Don Quixote

Cervantes [R] [I] [G]

Notebooks Da Vinci

Complete Poetry and Selected Prose

Donne [G]

Praise of Folly Erasmus
The Prince and The Discourses Machiavelli
Complete Poems and Selected Letters Michelangelo
Renaissance Philosophy Misc
Complete Poetry and Selected Prose Milton
Gargantua and Pantagruel Rabelais

Complete Works

Rabelais [G]

Comedies Vol I & II Shakespeare
Histories and Poems (One Volume) Shakespeare
Histories and Poems Vol I & II Shakespeare
Tragedies Vol 1 & II Shakespeare
Comedies (One Volume) Shakespeare [R] [I]
Tragedies (One Volume) Shakespeare [R] [I]

Selected Poetry

Spenser [G]

Corollary Pieces
The Renaissance Pater

Renaissance in Italy (I & II)

Symonds [G]

The Medici Young [R] [G]



Restoration (c. 1660-1702)

Samuel Pepys' Diary Pepys
Selected Works Pope

Twelve Famous Plays of the Restoration
     and Eighteenth Century

Misc [G]

Restoration Plays Misc
Compleat Angler Walton


Eighteenth Century (1700-1799)

Life of Samuel Johnson Boswell [R] [G]
Moll Flanders Defoe
Robinson Crusoe/Plague Year Defoe
Joseph Andrews Fielding
Tom Jones Fielding [R] [G] [I] [P]

Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Gibbon [G]

Vicar of Wakefield Goldsmith
Philosophy of Hume Hume
Dictionary: A Modern Selection Johnson
Johnson Reader Johnson
Eighteenth Century Plays Misc
Great Voices of the Reformation Misc [G]

Twelve Famous Plays of the Restoration
       and Eighteenth Century

Misc [G]

Clarissa Richardson S

Wealth of Nations

Smith [G]

Humphry Clinker Smollett
Tristram Shandy Sterne

Tristam Shandy and A Sentimental Journey

Sterne [G]

Candide Voltaire
Candide and Other Writings Voltaire

English Romantic Literature (c. 1770-1880)

Pride and Prejudice/Sense and Sensibility Austen

Complete Novels

Austen [G]

Selected Poetry and Prose Blake
Poems Blake

Poems & Plays

Browning [G]

Selected Poetry Browning
Don Juan Byron
Selected Poetry Byron
Selected Poetry and Prose Coleridge

Selected Writings

De Quincey [G]

Complete Poetry & Selected Prose Keats

Complete Poems of Keats & Shelley

Keats & Shelly [G]

Selected Poetry Tennyson

Poems and Plays

Tennyson [G]

Selected Poetry and Prose Shelley

Three Novels

Scott [G]

Selected Poetry Wordsworth


Victorians (c. 1819-1901)

Zuleika Dobson Beerbohm
Jane Eyre Bronte C. [R] [I]
Wuthering Heights Bronte E. [R] [I]
Selected Poetry Browning

Poems & Plays

Browning [G]

Erewhon OR Over The Range Butler
Erewhon and Erewhon Revisited Butler
Way of All Flesh Butler

French Revolution

Carlyle [G]

Alice in Wonderland etc Carroll

Complete Works of Lewis Carroll

Carroll [G]

Alice in Wonderland Carroll [I]

Moonstone/Woman in White

Collins [G]

Lord Jim Conrad
Nostromo Conrad
Victory Conrad
Three Great Tales Conrad [P]
Origin of the Species/Descent of Man Darwin [G]
David Copperfield Dickens
Our Mutual Friend Dickens
Tale of Two Cities Dickens
Pickwick Papers Dickens [R] [I]
Poems and Prose Dowson
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes Doyle
Peter Ibbetson Du Maurier G

Best Known Novels

Eliot [G]

HMS Pinafore and Other Plays Gilbert
Mikado and other Plays Gilbert

Complete Plays of Gilbert & Sullivan

Gilbert & Sullivan [G]

New Grub Street Gissing
Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft Gissing
Victorians [continued...]
Jude the Obscure Hardy
Mayor of Casterbridge Hardy
Return of the Native Hardy
Tess of the D'Urbervilles Hardy
Kim Kipling
Soldiers Three Kipling
Diana of the Crossways Meredith
Egoist Meredith
Ordeal of Richard Feverel Meredith
Philosophy of John Stuart Mill Mill
Apologia Pro Vita Sua Newman
The Renaissance Pater
Treasure Island Stevenson

Selected Writings

Stevenson [G]

Selected Poetry and Prose Swinburne
Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti Symonds

Renaissance in Italy (I & II)

Symonds [G]

Selected Poetry Tennyson

Poems and Plays

Tennyson [G]

Henry Esmond Thackeray
Vanity Fair Thackeray [R] [P]
Complete Poems of Francis Thompson Thompson
Complete Poetical Works of Francis Thompson Thompson
Barchester Towers & The Warden Trollope
Eustace Diamonds Trollope
An Ideal Husband/Woman of No Importance Wilde
De Profundis Wilde
Intentions Wilde
Picture of Dorian Gray Wilde
Picture of Dorian Gray/De Profundis Wilde
Plays Wilde
Salome and Other Plays Wilde


19th & 20th Century Russian Literature

19th Century

Best Short Stories of Dostoevsky Dostoevsky
Brothers Karamazov Dostoyevksy [R] [G] [I] [P]
Poor People Dostoyevsky
Possessed Dostoyevsky

Idiot

Dostoyevsky [G]

Crime and Punishment Dostoyevsky [R] [P] [I]
Dead Souls Gogol

Collected Tales and Plays

Gogol [G]

Poems, Prose and Plays

Pushkin [G]

Captain's Daughter and Other Great Stories Pushkin [P]
Death of Ivan Ilyitch Tolstoy
Redemption and other Plays Tolstoy
Selected Essays Tolstoy
Short Novels (Vol I) Tolstoy
Short Novels (Vol II) Tolstoy
Short Stories Tolstoy
Short Stories (Vol II) Tolstoy

War and Peace

Tolstoy [G]

Kreutzer Sonata Tolstoy [P]
Anna Karenina Tolstoy [R] [G]
Fathers and Sons Turgenev
Smoke Turgenev

20th Century

Seven That Were Hanged Andreyev
Seven That Were Hanged & Other Stories Andreyev [P]
Sanine Artzibashev
Best Plays Chekhov
Rothschild's Fiddle & Other Stories Chekhov
Short Stories Chekhov (Tchekov)
Creatures That Once Were Men Gorky
Yama Kuprin
Death of the Gods Merejkowski
Peter and Alexis Merejkowski
Romance of Leonardo Da Vinci Merejkowski

Doctor Zhivago

Pasternak [G]

19th & 20th Century Short Story Anth.

Anth. of Russian Lit. of the Soviet Period Misc [P]
Best Russian Short Stories Misc
Great Russian Stories Misc [P]