The Harvard Classics

This reading plan is designed to accompany the Harvard Classics. Readers are encouraged to read each volume first and then return to the site for the weekly dialogue and reflection.

This project follows the Harvard Classics as a long conversation across history. Each week, Alex, Peter, Gwen, and Eric read one volume and return to the table to test its claims, arguments, and moral vision.

The goal is not speed. It is continuity. Over time, the volumes begin to speak to one another. Franklin answers Marcus Aurelius. Dante sharpens Milton. Shakespeare complicates everyone.

Journey Progress

Volume 1

Franklin, Woolman, Penn

Published
Volume 2

Week 2 - Plato Week 3 - Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius

Published
Volume 3

Week 4 - Bacon, Milton, Browne

Published
Volume 4

Week 5 - John Milton

Published
Volume 5

Week 6 - R. W. Emerson

Published
Volume 6

Week 7 - Robert Burns

Published
Volume 7

St. Augustine and Thomas à Kempis

Published
Volume 8

Week 9 - Greek Tragedy Week 10 - Euripides and Aristophanes

Published
Volume 9

Cicero and Pliny

Coming soon
Volume 10

The Wealth of Nations

Coming soon
Volume 11

The Origin of Species

Coming soon
Volume 12

Plutarch's Lives

Coming soon
Volume 13

Æneid

Coming soon
Volume 14

Don Quixote, Part 1

Coming soon
Volume 15

Bunyan and Walton

Coming soon
Volume 16

1001 Nights

Coming soon
Volume 17

Folklore and Fable

Coming soon
Volume 18

Modern English Drama

Coming soon
Volume 19

Goethe and Marlowe

Coming soon
Volume 20

The Divine Comedy

Coming soon
Volume 21

I Promessi Sposi

Coming soon
Volume 22

The Odyssey

Coming soon
Volume 23

Two Years Before the Mast

Coming soon
Volume 24

Edmund Burke

Coming soon
Volume 25

J. S. Mill and Thomas Carlyle

Coming soon
Volume 26

Continental Drama

Coming soon
Volume 27

English Essays

Coming soon
Volume 28

Essays and English Traits

Coming soon
Volume 29

The Voyage of the Beagle

Coming soon
Volume 30

Scientific Papers

Coming soon
Volume 31

The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini

Coming soon
Volume 32

Literary and Philosophical Essays

Coming soon
Volume 33

Voyages and Travels

Coming soon
Volume 34

French and English Philosophers

Coming soon
Volume 35

Chronicle and Romance

Coming soon
Volume 36

Machiavelli, Roper, More, Luther

Coming soon
Volume 37

Locke, Berkeley, Hume

Coming soon
Volume 38

Harvey, Jenner, Lister, Pasteur

Coming soon
Volume 39

Prologues

Coming soon
Volume 40

English Poetry 1

Coming soon
Volume 41

English Poetry 2

Coming soon
Volume 42

English Poetry 3

Coming soon
Volume 43

American Historical Documents

Coming soon
Volume 44

Sacred Writings 1

Coming soon
Volume 45

Sacred Writings 2

Coming soon
Volume 46

Elizabethan Drama 1

Coming soon
Volume 47

Elizabethan Drama 2

Coming soon
Volume 48

Blaise Pascal

Coming soon
Volume 49

Saga

Coming soon
Volume 50

Reader's Guide

Coming soon
Volume 51

Lectures

Coming soon