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The Harvard Classics Challenge

Discussion in 'Self Improvement' started by Lily White, Dec 24, 2017.

  1. Lily White

    Lily White Fapstronaut

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    "The Harvard Universal Classics, originally known as Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf, is a 51-volume anthology of classic works from world literature, compiled and edited by Harvard University president Charles W. Eliot and first published in 1909.

    Eliot had stated in speeches that the elements of a liberal education could be obtained by spending 15 minutes a day reading from a collection of books that could fit on a five-foot shelf. (Originally he had said a three-foot shelf.) The publisher P. F. Collier and Son saw an opportunity and challenged Eliot to make good on this statement by selecting an appropriate collection of works, and the
    Harvard Classics was the result." (from wikipedia)

    A few weeks ago I started the Harvard Classics by reading the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. I plan to read each and every book on the list (including the one on smallpox! ˆˆ)
    I'm not from the US so I don't know how well-known this anthology is but I wanted to post about it for anyone out there who wants to fill his/her time by reading really valuable books which might change your life. The best thing is that you can read all of the books
    online for free!
    Here is the list of all the books (Warning, it's long!):


    • Vol. 1: FRANKLIN, WOOLMAN, PENN
      • His Autobiography, by Benjamin Franklin
      • The Journal of John Woolman, by John Woolman (1774 and subsequent editions)
      • Fruits of Solitude, by William Penn
    • Vol. 2. PLATO, EPICTETUS, MARCUS AURELIUS
      • The Apology, Phaedo, and Crito, by Plato
      • The Golden Sayings, by Epictetus
      • The Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius
    • Vol. 3. BACON, MILTON'S PROSE, THOS. BROWNE
      • Essays, Civil and Moral, and New Atlantis, by Francis Bacon
      • Areopagitica and Tractate of Education, by John Milton
      • Religio Medici, by Sir Thomas Browne
    • Vol. 4. COMPLETE POEMS IN ENGLISH, MILTON
      • Complete poems written in English, by John Milton
    • Vol. 5. ESSAYS AND ENGLISH TRAITS, EMERSON
      • Essays and English Traits, by Ralph Waldo Emerson
    • Vol. 6. POEMS AND SONGS, BURNS
      • Poems and songs, by Robert Burns
    • Vol. 7. CONFESSIONS OF ST. AUGUSTINE, IMITATION OF CHRIST
      • The Confessions, by Saint Augustine
      • The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas á Kempis
    • Vol. 8. NINE GREEK DRAMAS
      • Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Furies, and Prometheus Bound, by Aeschylus
      • Oedipus the King and Antigone, by Sophocles
      • Hippolytus and The Bacchae, by Euripides
      • The Frogs, by Aristophanes
    • Vol. 9. LETTERS AND TREATISES OF CICERO AND PLINY
      • On Friendship, On Old Age, and letters, by Cicero
      • Letters, by Pliny the Younger
    • Vol. 10. WEALTH OF NATIONS, ADAM SMITH
      • The Wealth of Nations, by Adam Smith
    • Vol. 11. ORIGIN OF SPECIES, DARWIN
      • The Origin of Species, by Charles Darwin
    • Vol. 12. PLUTARCH'S LIVES
      • Lives, by Plutarch
    • Vol. 13. AENEID, VIRGIL
      • Aeneid, by Virgil
    • Vol. 14. DON QUIXOTE, PART 1, CERVANTES
      • Don Quixote, part 1, by Cervantes
    • Vol. 15. PILGRIM'S PROGRESS, DONNE & HERBERT, BUNYAN, WALTON
      • The Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan
      • The Lives of Donne and Herbert, by Izaak Walton
    • Vol. 16. THE THOUSAND AND ONE NIGHTS
      • Stories from the Thousand and One Nights
    • Vol. 17. FOLKLORE AND FABLE, AESOP, GRIMM, ANDERSON
      • Fables, by Aesop
      • Children's and Household Tales, by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm
      • Tales, by Hans Christian Andersen
    • Vol. 18. MODERN ENGLISH DRAMA
      • All for Love, by John Dryden
      • The School for Scandal, by Richard Brinsley Sheridan
      • She Stoops to Conquer, by Oliver Goldsmith
      • The Cenci, by Percy Bysshe Shelley
      • A Blot in the 'Scutcheon, by Robert Browning
      • Manfred, by Lord Byron
    • Vol. 19. FAUST, EGMONT, ETC. DOCTOR FAUSTUS, GOETHE, MARLOWE
      • Faust, part 1, Egmont, and Hermann and Dorothea, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
      • Dr. Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe
    • Vol. 20. THE DIVINE COMEDY, DANTE
      • The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri
    • Vol. 21. I PROMESSI SPOSI, MANZONI
      • I Promessi Sposi, by Alessandro Manzoni
    • Vol. 22. THE ODYSSEY, HOMER
      • The Odyssey, by Homer
    • Vol. 23. TWO YEARS BEFORE THE MAST, DANA
      • Two Years Before the Mast, by Richard Henry Dana, Jr.
    • Vol. 24. ON THE SUBLIME, FRENCH REVOLUTION, ETC., BURKE
      • On Taste, On the Sublime and Beautiful, Reflections on the French Revolution, and A Letter to a Noble Lord, by Edmund Burke
    • Vol. 25. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ETC., ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES, J.S. MILL, T. CARLYLE
      • Autobiography and On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill
      • Characteristics, Inaugural Address at Edinburgh, and Sir Walter Scott, by Thomas Carlyle
    • Vol. 26. CONTINENTAL DRAMA
      • Life is a Dream, by Pedro Calderón de la Barca
      • Polyeucte, by Pierre Corneille
      • Phèdre, by Jean Racine
      • Tartuffe, by Molière
      • Minna von Barnhelm, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
      • William Tell, by Friedrich von Schiller
    • Vol. 27. ENGLISH ESSAYS: SIDNEY TO MACAULAY
    • Vol. 28. ESSAYS: ENGLISH AND AMERICAN
    • Vol. 29. VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE, DARWIN
      • The Voyage of the Beagle, by Charles Darwin
    • Vol. 30. FARADAY, HELMHOLTZ, KELVIN, NEWCOMB, ETC
      • The Forces of Matter and The Chemical History of a Candle, by Michael Faraday
      • On the Conservation of Force and Ice and Glaciers, by Hermann von Helmholtz
      • The Wave Theory of Light and The Tides, by Lord Kelvin
      • The Extent of the Universe, by Simon Newcomb
      • Geographical Evolution, by Sir Archibald Geikie
    • Vol. 31. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BENVENUTO CELLINI
      • The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
    • Vol. 32. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS
      • Essays, by Michel Eyquem de Montaigne
      • Montaigne and What is a Classic?, by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve
      • The Poetry of the Celtic Races, by Ernest Renan
      • The Education of the Human Race, by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing
      • Letters upon the Aesthetic Education of Man, by Friedrich von Schiller
      • Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals, by Immanuel Kant
      • Byron and Goethe, by Giuseppe Mazzini
    • Vol. 33. VOYAGES AND TRAVELS
      • An account of Egypt from The Histories, by Herodotus
      • Germany, by Tacitus
      • Sir Francis Drake Revived, by Philip Nichols
      • Sir Francis Drake's Famous Voyage Round the World, by Francis Pretty
      • Drake's Great Armada, by Captain Walter Bigges
      • Sir Humphrey Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland, by Edward Haies
      • The Discovery of Guiana, by Sir Walter Raleigh
    • Vol. 34. FRENCH AND ENGLISH PHILOSOPHERS, DESCARTES, VOLTAIRE, ROUSSEAU, HOBBES
      • Discourse on Method, by René Descartes
      • Letters on the English, by Voltaire
      • On the Inequality among Mankind and Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar, by Jean Jacques Rousseau
      • Of Man, Being the First Part of Leviathan, by Thomas Hobbes
    • Vol. 35. CHRONICLE AND ROMANCE, FROISSART, MALORY, HOLINSHEAD
      • Chronicles, by Jean Froissart
      • The Holy Grail, by Sir Thomas Malory
      • A Description of Elizabethan England, by William Harrison
    • Vol. 36. MACHIAVELLI, MORE, LUTHER
      • The Prince, by Niccolò Machiavelli
      • The Life of Sir Thomas More, by William Roper
      • Utopia, by Sir Thomas More
      • The Ninety-Five Theses, To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, and On the Freedom of a Christian, by Martin Luther
    • Vol. 37. LOCKE, BERKELEY, HUME
      • Some Thoughts Concerning Education, by John Locke
      • Three Dialogues Between Hylas and Philonous in Opposition to Sceptics and Atheists, by George Berkeley
      • An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, by David Hume
    • Vol. 38. HARVEY, JENNER, LISTER, PASTEUR
      • The Oath of Hippocrates
      • Journeys in Diverse Places, by Ambroise Paré
      • On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals, by William Harvey
      • The Three Original Publications on Vaccination Against Smallpox, by Edward Jenner
      • The Contagiousness of Puerperal Fever, by Oliver Wendell Holmes
      • On the Antiseptic Principle of the Practice of Surgery, by Joseph Lister
      • Scientific papers, by Louis Pasteur
      • Scientific papers, by Charles Lyell
    • Vol. 39. PREFACES AND PROLOGUES
    • 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
      • Confucian: The sayings of Confucius
      • Hebrew: Job, Psalms, and Ecclesiastes
      • Christian I: Luke and Acts
    • Vol. 45. SACRED WRITINGS 2
      • Christian II: Corinthians I and II and hymns
      • Buddhist: Writings
      • Hindu: The Bhagavad-Gita
      • Mohammedan: Chapters from the Koran
    • Vol. 46. ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 1
      • Edward the Second, by Christopher Marlowe
      • Hamlet, King Lear, Macbeth, and The Tempest, by William Shakespeare
    • Vol. 47. ELIZABETHAN DRAMA 2
      • The Shoemaker's Holiday, by Thomas Dekker
      • The Alchemist, by Ben Jonson
      • Philaster, by Beaumont and Fletcher
      • The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster
      • A New Way to Pay Old Debts, by Philip Massinger
    • Vol. 48. THOUGHTS AND MINOR WORKS, PASCAL
      • Thoughts, letters, and minor works, by Blaise Pascal
    • Vol. 49. EPIC AND SAGA
      • Beowulf
      • The Song of Roland
      • The Destruction of Dá Derga's Hostel
      • The Story of the Volsungs and Niblungs
    • Vol. 50. INTRODUCTION, READER'S GUIDE, INDEXES
    • Vol. 51. LECTURES
      • The last volume contains sixty lectures introducing and summarizing the covered fields: history, poetry, natural science, philosophy, biography, prose fiction, criticism and the essay, education, political science, drama, travelogues, and religion.
     
    Last edited: Dec 24, 2017
  2. SoulEvolution

    SoulEvolution Fapstronaut

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    Logged in with the sole purpose of saying these words, "I love you"
    You have just helped change my life.
     
    Moe_sherif and Lily White like this.
  3. Lily White

    Lily White Fapstronaut

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    Thank you!! Glad I could be of help to you! :)
     
    Moe_sherif likes this.
  4. Tésco

    Tésco New Fapstronaut

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    Let's try this.
     
    Lily White likes this.
  5. Deth

    Deth Fapstronaut

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    Hooooly crap. Generally more of a science fiction guy myself, but I'll give it a try.
     
    Lily White likes this.
  6. Ongoingsupport

    Ongoingsupport Fapstronaut

    I'm sure I'd be into some of the books on the list, but realistically how long would it take at 15 minutes a day? How many pages does one person cover in that amount of time and what does the time investment work out to mathematically? (and how old am I now..)

    I do like the idea of classics though, many of which are free. 54,000 free books at Project Gutenberg and just going to the site now I see this message that it'll grow again in 2019..
     
  7. Lily White

    Lily White Fapstronaut

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    There is a reader guide on the website for people who want to invest only 15 min a day. Basically you will only read parts of the books then. I try to read more than 15 min a day. ;)
     
    Asgardian36 likes this.
  8. Deth

    Deth Fapstronaut

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    I did the math, mind you it's very approximate, but:
    I'm guessing most of those books are about 500 pages in length.
    There should be about 400 words per page, meaning each of those books has about 200,000 words.
    The average person reads at 200 words per minute, meaning each of those books takes 1,000 minutes, or 16 hours and 40 minutes, to read.
    I also counted about 152 works of literature (again, very rough math), meaning there are about 30,400,000 words in that collection, and it would take about 152,000 minutes, or 2533 hours and 20 minutes, or 42 days and 13 hours, to read.
    At 15 minutes per day, reading this collection would take you about 27 years and 278 days (or 10133.3333 days).

    So yes, you could obtain the equivalent of a liberal education by reading for 15 minutes per day, albeit impractically. I know this number is easily attainable and I only did math around it because that was part of his original statement, but you can't expect to get anywhere fast by doing anything for 15 minutes a day. Now, 2 hours per day on the other hand (which I'm assuming is still dwarfed by how much time the average American spends watching idle entertainment per day), it would only take you 3.4 years, which is pretty reasonable for a liberal education.
     
  9. Ongoingsupport

    Ongoingsupport Fapstronaut

    Thanks. And of course it is just the books, what about stuff like MOOCs? Anyway my thought is as you go along you may also find that your interest is changed by what you read, it's a big commitment. The reading speed may change too, and of course that's going to vary depending on how the English language is used. For me reading modern works I tend to go backwards when the author quotes something insightful by someone that came before them, usually not going back that far though.
     
  10. Deth

    Deth Fapstronaut

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    Well yeah, it's definitely that kind of a challenge. Also, just throwing this in there, I feel like the type of people who are able to identify PMO as an addiction are fairly intelligent (at least, compared to the "average" American, and therefore probably have above-average reading speeds. I mean, I've spent years scanning text quickly so I'm definitely above average, and the only person I've talked to on here in depth is a professor, so the people on here could probably cut down reading time significantly. Just a thought.
     
  11. TruChange

    TruChange Fapstronaut

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    I love the idea of:

    - Gaining wisdom and intelligence from classic books
    - Dedicating yourself to reading old books to get away from the internet
    - Circumventing traditional education and creating your own degree

    My only 2 questions are:

    1. Will some of these be difficult to find from either the library or Amazon - out of print, etc.?
    2. Can you skip the book if you find it boring initially? I usually persevere and finish every book I start. But once I read "Catcher In The Rye" after hearing so much about it being a classic. I didn't enjoy it and I didn't see what the hype was about. I wished I'd put it down instead of finishing it.

    From the number of books on this list, there's a good chance I won't enjoy some of them.
     
  12. Ongoingsupport

    Ongoingsupport Fapstronaut

    It helps to be familiar with the field, although I've gotten pretty good at reading scientific stuff without getting hung up on not having the background - I just acknowledge there are those points of unknowns and figure that in, and usually there's still something to gain.

    Many many years ago I picked up a couple of books on speed reading and did a very superficial search on the subject, I seem to recall there are different tips on reading different types of material too.
     
  13. Thanks for including a link, that's an incredible list. I wish I knew about this years ago!
     
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  14. GlassHalfOpaque

    GlassHalfOpaque Fapstronaut

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    What a list! Most of my work leaves me pretty burnt out on reading, but I've been wanting to try and improve my culture a bit. I may have found the tools to do that here. Thanks for posting!
     
    Lily White likes this.
  15. Lily White

    Lily White Fapstronaut

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    @TruChange If you go to www.myharvardclassics.com and then click "free volumes" you can find all the volumes there in pdf format. They are old volumes though, from around 1909, and I'm sure many of the scientific books are outdated. If you are not interested in the history of science I guess you can easily skip it.
     
  16. cloudymood

    cloudymood Fapstronaut

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    Wow thats fucking amazing, just what i was looking for.
    Thank you a lot !
     
    Lily White likes this.
  17. ValarMaiar

    ValarMaiar Fapstronaut

    This is great! Currently working my way through the Divine Comedy, so I'm definitely down for this!
     
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  18. CBook

    CBook Fapstronaut

    1. I have not checked all of the books, but since almost all of these belong to what we call classics today, it shouldn't be difficult to obtain a printed version of them.
    2. Of course you can quit reading the book if you find it tedious and uninteresting. There are so many good books available that the few you don't enjoy probably have worthy alternatives. However, if you want to "circumvent traditional education", one should keep in mind that while being a traditional student you have to read books you don't enjoy personally. I dare say that all the books on this list have a reason for being there. If you find a famous book boring, my advice is to read about it first in order to learn about its importance, historical context, impact etc. Personally, by doing that I usually manage to create a willingness and enthusiasm for reading the book in question.
     
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  19. ValarMaiar

    ValarMaiar Fapstronaut

    Currently on Canto XI of Dante's Divine Comedy.
     
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  20. Lily White

    Lily White Fapstronaut

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    That's great, ValarMaiar!
    Who's starting from the beginning? :)
     

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