Перечень двадцати томов классических книг, рекомендованных к прочтению президентом Гарварда Чарльзом У. Элиотом, уже появлялся в сообществе.
Но, кроме этого списка, мистер Элиот создал еще подборку побольше: он считал, что основы гуманитарного образования (вообще-то на английском это звучит как liberal education, но совсем точного перевода сейчас найти не могу) можно получить, тратя 15 минут в день на чтение книг, которые вполне помещаются на трехфутовой полке – что-то около метра литературы. Позже, правда, он пересмотрел свое смелое заявление и говорил уже о пяти футах, но смысл остался тот же. Эти тексты и вошли в 51 том Гарвардской классики (The Harvard Classics) – или, как их еще называют, в Пятифутовую полку доктора Элиота (Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf).
У меня этот список вызывает почти байроновскую печаль, что-то сродни мировой скорби. К тому же, с начала ХХ века было написано слишком много хороших книг; да и о 15-ти минутах мистер Элиот, кажется, лукавил – основы гуманитарного образования ведь нужны здесь и сейчас, а не в семьдесят лет. Единственное хорошо: есть куда стремиться.

Vol. 1: FRANKLIN, WOOLMAN, PENN
• His Autobiography, by Benjamin Franklin
• Journal , by John Woolman
• Fruits of Solitude, by William Penn

Vol. 2. PLATO, EPICTETUS, MARCUS AURELIUS
• The Apology, Phædo 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 & The New Atlantis, by Francis Bacon
• Areopagitica & 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, IMITATIONS OF CHRIST
• The Confessions of St. Augustine
• The Imitation of Christ, by Thomas á Kempis

Vol. 8. NINE GREEK DRAMAS
• Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Furies & Prometheus Bound, by Aeschylus
• Oedipus the King & Antigone, by Sophocles
• Hippolytus, The Bacchæ, by Euripides
• The Frogs, by Aristophanes

Vol. 9. LETTERS AND TREATISES OF CICERO AND PLINY
• On Friendship, On Old Age & Letters, by Cicero
• Letters, by Pliny the Younger

Vol. 10. WEALTH OF NATIONS, ADAM SMITH
• 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
• Æneid, 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 Æsop
• 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 I, Egmont & Hermann and Dorothea, by J.W. von Goethe
• Dr. Faustus, by Christopher Marlowe

Vol. 20. THE DIVINE COMEDY, DANTE
• The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alighieri

Vol. 21. I PROMESSI SPOSI
• I Promessi Sposi, by Alessandro Manzoni

Vol. 22. THE ODYSSEY, HOMER
• The Odyssey of 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 & A Letter to a Noble Lord, by Edmund Burke

Vol. 25. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, ETC., ESSAYS AND ADDRESSES, J.S. MILL, T. CARLYLE
• Autobiography & On Liberty, by John Stuart Mill
• Characteristics, Inaugural Address at Edinburgh & 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
• Wilhelm 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
• Scientific Papers: Physics, Chemistry, Astronomy, Geology

Vol. 31. AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BENVENUTO CELLINI
• The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini

Vol. 32. LITERARY AND PHILOSOPHICAL ESSAYS
• Montaigne, Sainte-beuve, Renan, etc.

Vol. 33. VOYAGES AND TRAVELS
• Voyages and Travels: Ancient and Modern

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 & 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, Address to the Christian Nobility & Concerning Christian Liberty, by Martin Luther

Vol. 37. LOCKE, BERKELY, 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. FAMOUS PREFACES
• 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
• American Historical Documents: 1000-1904

Vol. 44. SACRED WRITINGS 1
• Confucian: The Sayings of Confucius
• Hebrew: Job, Psalms & Ecclesiastes
• Christian I: Luke & Acts

Vol. 45. SACRED WRITINGS 2
• Christian II: Corinthians I & II & 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 & 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 & 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 60 lectures introducing and summarizing the covered fields: history, poetry, natural science, philosophy, biography, prose fiction, criticism and the essay, education, political science, drama, voyages and travel, and religion.

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