Greater Books

Kenneth Rexroth, Classics Revisited [1965-69]

146 entries: 116 monographical, 30 otherwise

Unranked—arranged topically

This book began as a series of essays, nearly all of which were originally published in the Saturday Review, 1965-69. They constitute one of the finer lists in this project. As with Dirda's or Kanigel's, the selection of texts is not the listmaker's choice of the greatest books; unlike those two projects, though, Rexroth for the most part addresses works commonly placed in literary canons and similar lists. The original Saturday Review pieces are not easy to come by: they do not seem to have been digitized so one must resort to library bound copies, beautiful large volumes that hopefully have not been moved to off-site storage of your nearest university library. The 85 essays ran from March 20th, 1965 to April 26th, 1969. Fifty-eight of the essays were republished in a book, also entitled Classics Revisited, in 1968 as the series was ongoing; it also featured new essays on Thucydides and Baudelaire. The other 27 essays were collected in The Elastic Retort, then in More Classics Revisited with the addition of Aquinas and H. G. Wells. Further studies (regarding Ssu-ma Ch'ien's Records of the Grand Historian of China, Heike Monogatari, Moll Flanders, Alexander Berkman, W. B. Yeats, Franz Kafka's The Trial, Herbert Read's The Green Child, and William Carlos Williams) were included only in More Classics, which was put together after Rexroth's death. While the four essays Rexroth added (Thucydides, Baudelaire, Aquinas, Wells) obviously warrant being part of the project, according to Ken Knabb (editor of the Kenneth Rexroth Archive at his web site, the Bureau of Public Secrets) the later additions were made by the editor of More Classics. I am only including the 89 essays Rexroth himself designated as part of the 'Classics Revisisted' series. Knabb has constructed a larger version of the list, incorporating the More Classics additions as well as works, authors, and topics noted in Rexroth's personal papers as potential topics for future 'Classics' essays. The numbering of works below follows the order in which the essays were published in the Saturday Review, not the subsequent books, followed by the two additions each from the books Classics Revisited and The Elastic Retort.

Sha Naqba Imuru_11

The Epic of Gilgamesh; He Who Saw the Deep
Eighteenth-Tenth centuries B.C—Sumerian; Akkadian

Homer

Iliad_33

ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B.C; Cowan and Guinness ("Trinity") specifiy Richard Lattimore's English translation; Mallison ("Smart") notes Derek Jacobi's modern aural version—Greek

Odýsseia_36

The Odyssey
ca. Ninth-Eighth centuries B.C; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Robert Fitzgerald's English translation—Greek

Beowulf_14

ca. Eighth-Eleventh centuries; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Seamus Heaney's modern English version—English

Njáls Saga_5

ca. Thirteenth Century—Norse

Miguel de Cervantes

El Ingenioso Hidalgo Don Quijote de la Mancha

Don Quixote
originally published in two volumes, 1605 and 1615; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Edith Grossman's English translation—Spanish

Livy (Titus Livius)

Ab Urbe Condita Libri

History of Rome
First Century B C—Latin

Petronius

Satyricon

late First Century—Latin

Plutarch

Bìoi Paràllēloi

Parallel Lives; Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans
First Century—Greek

Cornelius Tacitus

De Origine et Situ Germanorum_5

Germania
written ca. 98—Latin

De Vita et Moribus Iulii Agricolae_3

Agricola
written ca. 98—Latin

Dialogus de Oratoribus_3

written ca. 102—Latin

Historiae_8

written ca. 100-10—Latin

Annales_11

written First Century—Latin

Thomas Malory

Le Morte d'Arthur

1485; revised through sixth edition, 1634—English

Aeschylus

Oresteia

The House of Atreus
458 B C—Greek

François Rabelais

La Vie de Gargantua et de Pantagruel

originally published in five volumes: Les Horribles et Épouvantables Faits et Prouesses du Très Renommé Pantagruel Roi des Dipsodes, Fils du Grand Géant Gargantua, 1532; La Vie Très Horrifique du Grand Gargantua, Père de Pantagruel, 1534; Le Tiers Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1546; Le Quart Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1552; Le Cinquiesme et Dernier Livre des Faicts et Dicts Héroïques du Bon Pantagruel, 1564; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Thomas Urquhart and Peter Motteux's English translation—French

Plato

Euthyphro_6

early Fourth Century B C—Greek

Apologia Socratis_16

The Apology
early Fourth Century B C—Greek

Crito_13

early Fourth Century B C—Greek

Phaedo_14
early Fourth Century B C—Greek
*Lubbock* *Durant* *Eliot* *Classics* *Rexroth* *Downs* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Adler* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Campbell* *O'Hear*
- Euripides

Plays

late Fifth Century B C—Greek

Niccolò Machiavelli

Il Principe_29

The Prince
1532—Italian

Discorsi Sopra la Prima Deca di Tito Livio_4

1531—Italian

Sophocles

Antigone_22

ca. 441 B C—Greek

Oidipous epi Kolōnō_20

Oedipus at Colonus
401 B C—Greek

Oidipous Tyrannos_25
Oedipus Rex; Oedipus the King
ca. 429 B C; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Dudley Fitts and Robert Fitzgerald's English translation—Greek
*Lubbock* *Eliot* *Durant* *Classics* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Norway* *Great* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Smart* *World* *Newman* *Educated*
- Sappho

Poems

late Seventh-early Sixth centuries B C—Greek

Murasaki Shikibu

Genji Monogatari

The Tale of Genji
ca. early Eleventh Century; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Royall Tyler's English translation—Japanese

Geoffrey Chaucer

Canterbury Tales_30

1478; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Nevill Coghill's modern English version—English

Troilus and Criseyde_8

written ca. 1380s—English

Cáo Xuěqín (Mengruan) (Ts'ao Hsueh-ch'in)

Hóng Lóu Mèng

The Dream of the Red Chamber; The Story of the Stone
1791—Chinese

Marcus Aurelius

Ta Eis Heauton

Meditations
written 161-80—Greek

Plato

Politeia

The Republic
early Fourth Century B.C—Greek

Michel de Montaigne

Les Essais

Essays
originally published in three volumes: 1580, 1588, and 1595—French

Nicolas-Edme Rétif (Rétif de la Bretonne)

Monsieur Nicolas

originally published in 16 volumes, 1794-7—French

Giacomo Casanova
Histoire de Ma Vie Jusqu'à l'An 1797_2
The Story of My Life
German translation published in part, 1822-4; abridged and censored version of the original French published 1826-38; original French published in its entirety, 1960-2—French
*France* *Rexroth*

--
- The Book of Job_8

part of the Bible—Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek

Thomas More

Libellus Uere Aureus, nec Minus Salutaris Quam Festivus, de Optimo rei Publicae Statu Deque Nova Insula Utopia

Utopia
1516—Latin

Dialogue of Comfort Against Tribulation_1

written ca. 1534—English

William Roper

The Life of Sir Thomas More

1626—English

Stendhal

Le Rouge et le Noir, Chronique du XIXe Siècle

The Red and the Black
1830—French

William Shakespeare

Macbeth

ca. 1607—English

Apuleius

Metamorphoseon

Asinus Aureus; The Golden Ass
Second Century—Latin

Caius Julius Caesar

Commentarii de Bello Gallico_4

ca. 40 B C—Latin

Commentarii de Bello Civili_2

ca. 40 B C—Latin

John Bunyan

The Pilgrim's Progress From This World to That Which Is to Come

1678—English

Marco Polo and Rustichello da Pisa

Livre des Merveilles du Monde

ca. 1300—French

Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass

1855; expanded and revised through ninth edition, 1892—English

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels

Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei

The Communist Manifesto
1848—German

Karl Marx

Das Kapital, Kritik der Politischen Ökonomie_12

originally published in three volumes: 1867, 1885, and 1894—German

Ökonomisch-Philosophische Manuskripte aus dem Jahre 1844_1

written 1844—German

William Shakespeare

The Tempest

1611—English

Edmond de Goncourt and Jules de Goncourt

Journal des Goncourt: Memoires de la Vie Litteraire

1887-96—French

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Brat'â Karamazovy

The Brothers Karamazov
originally published serially 1880 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian

Ben Jonson

Volpone_6

1606—English

The Alchemist_8

1610—English

Bartholomew Fayre_5

1614—English

Gustave Flaubert
L'Éducation Sentimentale_8
1869—French
*Classics* *France* *Rexroth* *Ward* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Norway* *Newman*

Arthur Rimbaud
- Poems_3
late Nineteenth Century—French
*France* *Rexroth* *Ward*
- Lettres du Voyant_1
two letters written May 1871—French
*Rexroth*
- Dù Fǔ (Tu Fu)

Poems

Eighth Century—Chinese

John Webster
The Duchess of Malfi_4
ca. 1613-14—English
*Eliot* *Rexroth* *Bloom* *Dirda*

--
- Medieval Latin Lyrics_2
1952; English translations by Helen Waddell—Latin
*Rexroth* *Ward*

--
- Carmina Burana_1
Eleventh-Twelfth centuries; some works in German and French—Latin
*Rexroth*

--
- 'Stabat Mater'_1

hymn attributed to either Jacopone da Todi or Innocent III; Thirteenth Century—Latin

Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

1884—English

Henry Fielding
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling_19
1749—English
*Baldwin* *Eliot* *Durant* *Invitation* *Classics* *Hundred* *Rexroth* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Great* *Zane* *Smart* *Newman*
- Anton Chekhov
Plays_3
late Nineteenth-early Twentieth centuries—Russian
*Rexroth* *Good* *Dirda*

--
- The Greek Anthology_2

Greek

Kalevala_3
compiled by Elias Lönnrot; 1835; revised 1849—Finnish
*Baldwin* *Rexroth* *Ward*

--
- "Classical Japanese Poetry"_1
—Japanese
*Rexroth*
- Kakinomoto no Hitomaro

Poems

late Seventh-early Eighth centuries—Japanese

Izaak Walton

The Compleat Angler

1653; revised through sixth edition, 1676—English

Vyasa

Mahabharata

includes Bhagavad Gita; ca. Ninth Century B C-Fourth Century—Sanskrit

Leo Tolstoy

Voyna i Mir"

War and Peace
originally entitled 1805, published in part, 1865 and 1867; retitled and published in its entirety, 1869—Russian

Herodotus

Historiē

History
Fifth Century B.C—Greek

Titus Lucretius Carus

De Rerum Natura

On the Nature of Things
First Century B.C—Latin

Edward Gibbon

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

originally published in six volumes: first, 1776; second-third, 1781; fourth-sixth, 1788—English

Laurence Sterne

The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman

originally published in nine volumes, 1759-67—English

Catullus

Poems

First Century B.C—Latin

Pierre Abélard

Historia Calamitatum_5
written ca. 1132; includes the letters of Abélard and Héloïse d'Argenteuil—Latin
*Classics* *Rexroth* *Ward* *Newman* *Graphic*
- Hymns_1

Twelfth Century—Latin

Francis Parkman

France and England in North America

originally published in seven volumes: Pioneers of France in the New World, 1865; The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century, 1867; The Discovery of the Great West, 1869; The Old Regime in Canada, 1874; Count Frontenac and New France Under Louis XIV, 1877; Montcalm and Wolfe, 1884; A Half-Century of Conflict, 1892—English

Ford Madox Ford

Parade's End

originally published in four volumes: Some Do Not..., 1924; No More Parades, 1925; A Man Could Stand Up, 1926; Last Post, 1928—English

William Blake

Tiriel_4

written ca. 1789; originally published 1874 as part of The Poetical Works of William Blake—English

Songs of Innocence and Experience Showing the Two Contrary States of the Human Soul_11

published in part, 1789, as Songs of Innocence; in its entirety, 1794—English

The Book of Thel_5

ca. 1789-90—English

America a Prophecy_4

1793—English

Visions of the Daughters of Albion_4

1793—English

Europe a Prophecy_4

1794—English

The Book of Urizen_5

originally entitled The First Book of Urizen, published 1794—English

The Book of Ahania_4

1795—English

The Book of Los_4

1795—English

The Song of Los_4

1795—English

Vala, or The Four Zoas_4

written ca. 1797-1807—English

Milton_5

ca. 1811—English

Jerusalem: The Emanation of the Giant Albion_6
1820—English
*Rexroth* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Bloom* *Graphic* *Newman*
- Arthur Conan Doyle

"Sherlock Holmes"

Unspecified selection—English

Gilbert White

The Natural History and Antiquities of Selborne

1789—English

Euripides

Hippolytos

428 B C—Greek

Jean Racine

Phèdre

1677—French

Lǎozǐ (Lao-tzu) (Laocius)

Dàodéjīng

Tao te Ching
ca. Sixth Century B C—Chinese

Choderlos de Laclos
Les Liaisons Dangereuses_6
The Dangerous Liaisons
1782—French
*France* *Rexroth* *Bloom* *Telegraph* *Newman* *Graphic*
- Honoré de Balzac

La Comédie Humaine

collective name for 91 finished and 46 unfinished works; Nineteenth Century—French

Ivan Turgenev

Otcy i Deti

Fathers and Children; Fathers and Sons
originally published Feb. 1862 in Rússkij Véstnik—Russian

Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro)
Aeneid_26
First Century B C; Mallison ("Smart") specifies Dudley Fitts and Robert Fagles's English translation—Latin
*Baldwin* *Eliot* *Classics* *France* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Norway* *Great* *O'Hear* *Zane* *Smart* *Reynolds* *World* *Newman* *Graphic*
- Vyasa

Bhagavad Gita

part of the Mahabharata; ca. Ninth Century B C-Fourth Century—Sanskrit

Daniel Defoe

The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner

originally anonymously published 1719—English

John Woolman
The Journal of John Woolman_3
1774—English
*Eliot* *Rexroth* *Trinity*

--
- The Ulster Cycle_1

written ca. Seventh-Fifteenth centuries—Irish

Charles Dickens
The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club_14
The Pickwick Papers
originally published serially Apr. 1836-Nov. 1837 under the pseudonym, Boz—English
*Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Durant* *Classics* *Hundred* *Rexroth* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Newman*

--
- Reliques of Ancient English Poetry_1
compiled by Thomas Percy; 1765—English
*Rexroth*

--
- The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border_1
compiled by Walter Scott; originally published in three volumes, 1802-03—English
*Rexroth*

--
- The English and Scottish Popular Ballads_1
compiled by Frances James Child; originally published in ten volumes, 1882-98—English
*Rexroth*

--
- Danmarks Gamle Folkeviser_1
Ancient Danish Ballads
compiled by Sven Grundtvig, Axel Olrik, and Hakon Harald Grüner-Nielsen; originally published in twelve volumes, 1853-1976—Danish
*Rexroth*

--
- One Hundred English Folksongs_1
compiled by Cecil Sharp; 1916—English
*Rexroth*

--
- English Folk Songs From the Southern Appalachians_1

compiled by Cecil Sharp; 1932—English

Frederick Douglass

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave

1845—English

Harriet Beecher Stowe

Uncle Tom's Cabin

1852—English

Aristotle

Peri Poiêtikês

De Poetica; Poetics
Fourth Century B.C—Greek

Jonathan Swift
Travels Into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and Then a Captain of Several Ships_29
Gulliver's Travels
1726; revised 1735—English
*Lubbock* *Durant* *Classics* *Hundred* *France* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Zulli* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Good* *Learning* *Bloom* *Recommended* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *Trinity* *Campbell* *Norway* *Great* *Zane* *GlobeMail* *Smart* *Telegraph* *Newman* *Graphic* *Educated*
- Robert Burns
Poems_7
late Eighteenth Century—English
*Lubbock* *Baldwin* *Rexroth* *Van Doren* *Good* *Bloom* *Newman*

--
- Song of Songs_3

Song of Solomon; Canticles
part of the Bible—Hebrew; Aramaic; Greek

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Faust

originally published in two volumes: first, Faust. Der Tragödie Erster Teil, published in part, 1790; in its entirey, 1808; revised 1829; second, Faust. Der Tragödie Zweiter Teil, 1832—German

Thucydides
History of the Peloponnesian War_23
early Fifth Century B.C—Greek
*Lubbock* *Durant* *Classics* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Read* *List* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Adler* *Good* *Bloom* *Fadiman* *Foundation* *Kanigel* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Utne* *Great* *Telegraph* *World* *Educated*
- Charles Baudelaire

Poems

Nineteenth Century—French

Thomas Aquinas

Summa Theologiae_13
Summa Theologica
written 1265-74—Latin
*Classics* *Downs* *Rexroth* *Read* *Ward* *Van Doren* *Magill* *Recommended* *SeymourSmith* *Trinity* *Great* *Reynolds* *World*
- 'Pange Lingua Gloriosi Corporis Mysterium'_1
Thirteenth Century—Latin
*Rexroth*
- 'Adoro te Devote'_1
Thirteenth Century—Latin
*Rexroth*
- 'Verbum Supernum Prodiens'_1

Thirteenth Century—Latin

H G Wells

The Time Machine_5

1895—English

The Island of Doctor Moreau_2

1896—English

The Invisible Man_2

originally published serially 1897 in Pearson's Magazine—English

The War of the Worlds_4

originally published serially 1897 in Pearson's Magazine—English

When the Sleeper Awakes_1

originally published serially 1898-1903 in the Graphic; revised and retitled, The Sleeper Awakes, 1910—English

The First Men in the Moon_2

1901—English

Kipps: The Story of a Simple Soul_1

1905—English

In the Days of the Comet_1

1906—English

The War in the Air_1

originally published serially 1908 in the Pall Mall Magazine—English

Tono-Bungay_2

1909—English

Ann Veronica_1

1909—English

The History of Mr. Polly_1

1910—English

The New Machiavelli_1

originally published serially 1910 in the English Review—English

The World Set Free: A Story of Mankind_1

originally entitled A Prophetic Trilogy, published serially Jan.-Mar. 1914 in the Century Illustrated Monthly Magazine; retitled for publication in book form, 1914—English

The Research Magnificent_1

1915—English