Most of us struggle to choose which book to read next.
The aim of trying to read just 1 percent of these books in a lifetime is gloomily unattainable.
After all, time is ticking.Becoming ruthlessly selectiveis both necessary and burdensome.
Thankfully, Charles W. Eliot worked tirelessly to rescue us from this dilemma.
This multi-volume collection which in print occupies 5-feet on a bookshelf soon became a classic in its own right.
This is a collection which the websiteBartlebydescribes as “the most comprehensive and well-researched anthology of all time”.
Whether it teaches us something about the human condition.
Whether it will help us to understand our place in the world.
Every one of the selections in the 22,000 pages ofThe Harvard Classicshas been selected because it fits this ideal.
And the best part?
Gutenberg[No Longer Available]: this page offers a full list of alternative editions of the works.
This means that they are not necessarily the same editions that Eliot was working from.
The works arenotavailable for download on this site, but access to the content is extremely easy.
Unfortunately,The Shelf of Fictionis not included.
Also included are links to relevant Wikipedia articles so you’re able to discover more about each work.
Perhaps somespeed reading tipsmay come in handy.
For starters, no female authors make an appearance.
This obviously pragmatic angle to the volumes can hardly come as a surprise, however.
As mentioned earlier, Eliot is offering the works to createhis ideaof a “cultivated man”.
This ishiscollection, and a promotion of abstract thought isn’t at the forefront.
If you want that, your 5-foot-bookshelf will soon begin to expand.
Luckily, Eliot never intended this to be a complete overview of scientific developments.
At the beginning of this article, I spoke about the importance of being able to choose whatnotto read.
Eliot has done this for us.
That’s precisely the point.
There will always be more.
There will always be one person telling us to read one book over another.
There will always be great books we never get around to reading.
By taking advantage of Eliot’s work, you will no doubt become a more “cultivated” person.
