Great Book of Western World 10 Years Reading Plan

Footnotes

1. Plato: Apology, Crito

   • Article on Plato translation comparison

     For the last two decades, this has widely been considered the standard edition of Plato’s works in English … This volume offers the easiest, most accessible entry into Plato for modern English speakers.

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2. Aristophanes: The Clouds, Lysistrata

   • Reddit discussions

     so i really like Poochigian (the translator of the book i linked). i think he’s funny, making it less wordy and really getting the humor across without losing the Greek side of things. like as someone who’s read a good portion of Clouds in Greek and is currently doing Frogs right now you can tell (kind of) how the Greek is set up by looking at Poochigian’s translation, if that makes sense. but it isnt wordy, long, nor dense, as some translations that stick close to the Greek are.

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3. Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics

   • For Aristotle works, Reeve working on the whole Aristotle Corpus, and I decided to go with his edition whenever possible for consistency
   • Reeve’s translation review
   ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

4. Aristotle: Politics

   • Review and comparison to other translation
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5. Plutarch: The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans

   • Article on all the Plutarch Lives translation
   • Another articles with translation comparison
   • I went with the Penguin edition since they were the only new translation that is both available in ebook, and have everything.
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6. Holy Bible (Old Testament, New Testament)

   • Comparison between Bible translations
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7. St. Augustine: The Confessions

   • A review of various translations

     Williams … has produced the best overall translation of Augustine’s Confessions to date

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8. Machiavelli: The Prince

   • Reddit discussion

     • Anonymous: There is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin named Maurizio Viroli (he used to teach at Princeton) and he’s arguably the leading scholar for Machiavelli. I checked both of his syllabi for the classes he teaches at UT Austin and he recommends the Oxford World’s Classic Edition. It’s translated by Peter Bondanella, but probably the most important thing about this translation is there is an introduction by Viroli himself. As someone who has studied under Viroli at the graduate level, he’s definitely worth the read.
     • Anonymous: Bondanella. Includes a game changing (and accurate) translation of “si guarda al fine”- not “the end justifies the means” but rather “one must consider the final result.”

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9. Rabelais: Gargantua and Pantagruel

   • Comparison between translations
   • Only Screech translation is available in ebook format, and have all the books translated
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10. Montaigne: The Essays

    • A comparison between translations from Readthegreatbooks

      Donald M. Frame’s own translation is considered to be amore modern equivalent of Screech’s own. It has pushed this edition into the forefront and many academics use this edition today.

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11. Locke: Concerning Civil Government

    • While this work is also available on Standard Ebooks, some of his works in the reading plan are not available in either Standard Ebooks or Gutenberge, so I went with this edition
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12. Rousseau: The Social Contract

    • Amazon review that compares to the Cambridge edition

      This book is a useful and scholarly collection of Rousseau’s primary political writings, with a fine translation. I previously owned the two Cambridge University Press editions of Rousseau’s political writings, but I decided to replace one of them with this volume (but keep the one on Rousseau’s later writings). The advantages of the Cambridge edition are that it includes additional writings, including letters and short compositions, that are not included in the Scott translation … The Chicago edition uses footnotes rather than the confusing end-notes employed by Cambridge. The most important advantage is the translation. Scott’s translation is more fluid and readable than Gourevitch’s. I was surprised by this, since I have grown to expect a highly literal, “Straussian” translation from Chicago University Press (especially since the book has an endorsement by Robert Bartlett on the back cover). I cannot say whether Scott’s translation is also more faithful, but it is certainly more beautiful and fluid. However, it should be noted that the differences between the translations are fairly minor; many passages are translated identically (or nearly so), and both seem to be fairly literal.

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13. The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution of the United States, The Federalist

    • This edition has all the work in a single place.
    • The Federalist Papers alone is also available in Standard Ebooks
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14. Tocqueville: Democracy in America

    • Comparison between editions from Reddit user

      • I started with the Harvey Mansfield translation. Its really good. The translation uses more modern english. I dont like Harvey Mansfield as a political commentator and some of his bias shows up here and there in the language, but that aside I dont really have any gripes or issues with the translation as a whole
      • Finally, my favorite is the Everyman’s Library edition. This is my go to translation. Anytime I recall a passage of Democracy in America, I think of this translation. The translation is based on Henry Reeves, but some of the anachronisms are modernized. I’ts a nice mix of the thoughtfulness of Reeves and the modernity of the Mansfield. One of the really, really, nice features about this translation is that it builds a vocabulary by using the same words in the same context very consistently.

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15. Marx-Engels: Manifesto of the Communist Party

    The 1888 English edition, translated by Samuel Moore and approved by Engels, who also provided notes throughout the text. It has been the standard English-language edition ever since.

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16. Ibsen: The Master Builder

    • The annoucement for Penguin edition
    • Reference for the list of Ibsen’s plays translation
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17. Homer: The Iliad

    • Reddit user comparision between translations

      • it comes down to Murray, Hammond, Verity, and Green as my top four. The fidelity to the Greek is just as close in all three, and they are all three well-written with no obvious issues. So it comes down to my preference for the style and readability of their writing.
      • Here, I’ve changed my mind since I first posted this. I thought Hammond’s prose was a little flat in comparison to the other two. And so I was wavering between Murray, Green and Verity. Although I originally preferred Verity’s poetry, I have read more of her work now and the somewhat random line-breaks of her false verse begin to get grating after a while. Despite Green’s semi-dull choice of “deadly Archer” for Apollo’s epithet, I find his poetry to be more engaging with a better flow. He also gets extra points for his translation being in true verse. Between Green and Murray, I think Green just pips him past the post for the fact that his version is in verse.
      • This leaves my preference as Green.

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18. Aeschylus, Euripides, Sophocles

    • I went with The Complete Greek Tragedies series since it has all the plays in the reading plan
    • As of writing, the whole collection with all the plays in the reading plan will be released on September 2025, so you might want to hold off for that one. Otherwise you can take the singular edition
    ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

19. Sophocles: Oedipus the King, Antigone

    • Reddit user comments on various translations of this work
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20. Herodotus: The History

    • Reddit user comments on various translations of this work
    • Comparison between translations from Textkit forum

      • I’d say clearly the best translation overall is Robin Waterfield’s … It’s a not-too-literal paraphrase of the Greek text that reproduces very faithfully the meaning but not the form of the Greek. As such, it’s of course not very useful as a crib for reading the original. Some people apparently don’t like the way Waterfield has cut up Herodotus’ long, elaborate sentences into short ones in English, but to get an adequate idea of what Herodotus really wants to say I think this is clearly the best option. The accompanying notes by Carolyn Dewald are good but rather advanced.
      • The Landmark Herodotus can be recommended for all the additional material it contains (mostly essays, the footnotes aren’t that good), including a LOT of maps (perhaps too many). The translation is very readable but has quite a few inaccuracies.
      • Pamela Mensch’s translation with James Romm’s introduction and notes. The translation is a bit dull, more accurate than the Landmark edition but less so than Waterfield’s, and more literal than either (the literal translation isn’t always the most accurate!). I’d mostly recommend this edition for someone who finds Dewald’s notes and introduction in Waterfield’s translation too long and advanced (say, perhaps, high school students). Romm’s unpretentious introduction and notes are aimed at someone who doesn’t know much about antiquity and do the job well without making things simpler than they really are. There are lots of notes to the text, but they are short and to the point.
      • For a crib to help with the Greek, I’d recommend Enoch Powell’s translation, which might be hard to come by, and failing that, the Loeb. These translations are, in my opinion, worthless unless you read them with the Greek. Especially Powell’s, which is written in an archaizing thee-and-thou lingo, but is excellent help in trying to decipher the Greek original.
      • There’s a new translation by Tom Holland, which was apparently made for teenagers who find reading boring, or perhaps with the general premise that reading is boring. A reviewer has said that this translation tries to sex up Herodotus (or something like that) and I agree. I don’t recommend this for anyone who seriously wants to get an idea of Herodotus, there are just too many inaccuracies. You can find several reviews by googling, at least one of them being surprisingly positive.
      • Aubrey de Selincourt’s translation from the 1950’s has similar aims as Tom Holland’s, but is rather more successful. It’s not very accurate but it’s nice to read.
      • Of the older translations, Macauley from the 19th century still has its place.

    • Comparison between translations from Librarything (2010)
    • Some thoughts on Waterfield translations on HN
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21. Aristotle: Poetics

    • Comments on edition choice from Readthegreatbooks
    • Personally I went with Oxford edition since its Table of Content in the ebook format contains all the chapter unlike the Hackett edition
    • For future reader, this work will be translated by Reeve in his Aristotle Complete Works Volume 2 which is the choice for all of our Aristotle works in the Reading plan
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22. Lucretius: On the Nature of Things

    • There are 3 editions with Ebook format that I’ve found that has written review on:
      • The first is the edition I chose, which is a translation in verse for the poem
        • Review on Melville editions
      • The second is a prose version by Martin Ferguson Smith
        • Review with responses from the author from BMCR
        • A recommendation from readthegreatbooks
      • The third is a verse version by Ian Johnston
        • PDF edition, free for personal uses
        • A brief overview on this edition
        • Commentary by the author on verse vs prose translation, with brief reviews on various other translations
    • While the Johnston is newer, the Melville and Smith version have scholarly recommendation, so my choice was between them. My preference went to the Melville version due to 2 reason:
      • The Melville version is a free verse, which I prefer since it attempts to preserve the poetic form. And, at least for the first reading (which is probably how the majority is approaching the Reading Plan), I believe the poetic form is essential to the understanding of the text. To quote Ian Johnston essay on Lucretius above:

        On the Nature of Things is not a scientific treatise (merely or primarily) but an amazing and influential poem, which succeeds because of its poetic insight and power. To overlook that or brush it aside in the interests of isolating its scientific content is to negate the very reason the work has played such an important role in our historical development and is still a wonderful read.

      • The Smith version have a headnotes sections for each book. If you need some help reading the text this could be preferable. Personally I chose Melville edition since it does not have such summary, which is closer to my critieria
    • Reddit discussion
    • Reddit discussion
    • Commentary on Lucretius translation verse vs prose
    • Discussion of various translation on Epicureanfriends
    • Goodreads discussion
    • List of all English translation available
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23. Marcus Aurelius: Meditations

    • List of translations for the work
    • Translation recommendation from Reddit

      Including Waterfield’s, any of the standard easy to find translations are accurate. The Penguin Classic’s Martin Hammond, Oxford World Classic’s Robin Hard

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24. Milton: Areopagitica

    • Other editions with supplementary note:
      • Areopagitica and Other Writings - William Poole
      • Areopagitica and Other Prose Works - C.E. Vaughan
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25. Pascal: Pensées

    • Comments on Penguin (Krailsheimer) and Hackett (Roger Ariew) version

      • The best translation on the market right now is the Penguin Classics edition—the notes could use some work, but the translation captures the spirit of Pascal’s French beautifully. However, it’s based on the Lafuma edition of the P’s—and the Sellier edition is the currently accepted standard, although there are a few Lafuma holdouts left. There are a few passages in crucial areas that are missing from the Lafuma, as well as some minor reordering of fragments; basically, it’s the more complete edition, although, to be fair, the differences are usually pretty minor.
      • The problem is that the Hackett edition, which is the only one that uses the Sellier, could be better. It’s a bit stodgy sometimes, and the book itself (like most Hackett editions) could really be better organized and produced. Frankly, it’s a bit of a toss-up between a better version of an older edition and a lesser version of a better edition.

    • There’s also an edition from Oxford, but the Amazon reviews indicate some translations error, and it doesn’t contains all Pascal manuscripts
    • The latest edition I can find is translated by Pierre Zoberman, released in 2022, but there’s no review of it that I can find, though some articles on Pascal uses it as source text
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26. Pascal: Treatise on the Arithmetical Triangle

    • Another translation by David Pengelley
      • This one has some useful supplementary notes, but does not translate every part of the work
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27. Swift: Gulliver’s Travels

    • The only translation that I can find from reputable publisher (Oxford). Also it is supposedly the standard edition according to Wikipedia

      The standard edition of Jonathan Swift’s prose works as of 2005 is the Prose Writings in 16 volumes, edited by Herbert Davis et al

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28. Voltaire: Candide

    • Reddit user recommendation

      Penguin’s version (Theo Cuffe) is fairly good, can’t recall the translator off the top of my head. It’s been a minute since I’ve read it, or in French, but it should be pretty consistent and in keeping with the wit.

    • Goodreads user recommendation

      By far, the best translation I have read is by Theo Cuffe. I have read excerpts of the original version in French and by my understanding they are very close. This translation provides the same wit and fearless poignancy that the original French does.

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29. Kant: Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals

    • For Kant works in the Reading plan I decided to go with The Cambridge Edition as it is the standard editions cited by scholars
    • Reddit users opinion on editions
      • 2020 threads
      • 2022 threads
    ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴

30. John Stuart Mill

    • For those interested in annotated edtions, there’s the Oxford editions
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31. Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil

    • The Complete Works of Friedrich Nietzsche by Stanford is the latest translation for Nietzsche with updated source material, and aim to be the scholar standard once it finishes. Unfortunately they are not available as ebook edition so I skipped them, but if you can use paperback this is probably the edition to get
    • Review for the Judith Norman translation were quite good, and it was the latest edition other than the Stanford collection, so I went with it
    • Reddit threads
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32. Whitehead: Science and the Modern World [Ch. I–VI]

    • There’s also a Dover Thrift edition that is cheaper, however this edition has some weird formatting (Italic and Coloring of random paragraph), and no chapter numbering for ToC. The text remains the same however, so you could use this edition to save a few $
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33. Thucydides: The History of the Peloponnesian War [Book I-II, V]

    • Commentary on a few translations

      I regularly use Mynott, but I don’t think I’d recommend it to everyone; any of Warner, Lattimore or Hammond would do you very well, and if you held a gun to my head I’d probably go for Hammond.

    • Review of Mynott version
    • Readthegreatbooks recommendation
    • I went with the Mynott translation due to it being the latest version with good reviews
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34. Aristotle: On Interpretation, Categories

    • For future reader, this work will be translated by Reeve in his Aristotle Complete Works Volume 1 which is the choice for all of our Aristotle works in the Reading plan
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35. Euclid: Elements

    • A web version
    • For those who want an epub format with comprehensive annotations and most recent translations, there’s the Dover edition
      • Discussions on StackExchange
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36. Tacitus: The Annals

    • There are 3 editions that matches my criteria:
      • Review for the chosen edition from Oxford
        • Comparison to other editions on Amazon
      • Penguin edition, translated by Cynthia Damon, 2014
        • Review
      • Hackett publisher, translated by A. J. Woodman
        • Review
    • I chose the Oxford edition due to it being accurate enough while easier for general readers compared to the Woodman edition. The Damon translation is bold, creative, commanding according to the review, which does not really match my criteria
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37. St. Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologica

    • Oxford handbooks on list of Editions and Translations

      For a more literal rendering of the text, see St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologica (translated by the Fathers of the English Dominican Province)

      • The chosen edition matches the one Oxford recommendation. It also has detailed ToC for each part
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38. Milton: Paradise Lost

    • Reddit discussions on annotated editions
    • Another discussions
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39. Lavoisier: Elements of Chemistry

    • There’s another edition that supposedly has some fixes
      • Link to this free version of Google Docs by the author
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40. Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov

    • Translations comparison from Welovetranslations

      If you are familiar with the novel already, or you’re up for a challenge, try Pevear and Volokhonsky for a more authentically Russian reading experience. If the idea of reading an old-fashioned or jarringly Russian text is intimidating, try Avsey, a looser translation written in idiomatic modern English, or the newest translation by Katz.

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41. Lévi-Strauss: Structural Anthropology

    • In the GBWW, only a partial part of the full work was selected to be put into the volume. According to an advertisement brochure for the 2nd edition, this part was Chapters I-VI, IX-XII, XV, XVII
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42. Calvin: Institutes of the Christian Religion

    • I chose this edition since it is considered the authoritative edition of the work according to Wikipedia
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43. Bacon: Novum Organum

    • A comparison between editions from Readthegreatbooks

      The best option is that of Hackett’s. It balances the line between too much and too little quite well. It is easily readable but doesn’t skimp on details or notations, while at the same time it isn’t overly done.

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44. Descartes: Discourse on the Method

    • Discussion of edition choice on Stackexchange

      For Descartes’ major philosophical works the current Cambridge tr., ‘The Philosophical Writings of Descartes’, is probably the best both in terms of the Latin and French scholarship that has gone into it and in terms of philosophical finesse by which it is informed. Other translations, Hackett’s or Penguin’s, are pretty good but are not so complete (include fewer texts) than the Cambridge edition.

    • A review on Amazon also recommend Oxford editions if you find this edition too challenging
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45. Newton: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

    • This is the latest translations with Ebook format available. For paperback users I found 2 other editions worth noting:
      • Dana Densmore and William H. Donahue edition which was developed as a textbook for classes at St. John’s College and the aim of this translation is to be faithful to the Latin text, so it might be best suited for the readers of the set
      • Charles Leedham-Green edition which aim was to convey Newton’s own reasoning and arguments in a way intelligible to a modern mathematical scientist
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46. William James: The Principles of Psychology

    • While there are many editions of this work on Amazon, including Gutenberg, I chose the Dover edition due to it having footnotes hyperlink, and proper chapter with sections in table of contents
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47. Frazer: The Golden Bough

    • In the GBWW series, only a partial part of the full work was selected to be put into the volume. According to an advertisement brochure for the 2nd edition, this part was Chapters I-IV, LXVI-LXIX
    • The original work itself has many editions according to Wikipedia, however given the Chapters numbering, I found that it matches the 1922 edition so I went with it.
      • The latest edition from reputable publish with Ebook format is from Oxford, but since its version numbering was not matching the selections above, I decided to use the version that was used in the original GBWW series
    • If you want nicer formatting and an introduction, there’s the Penguin version. The text and footnotes are the same however
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48. Virgil: The Aeneid

    • A massive comparisons between the translations edition

      • Ahl: More than anyone else, Ahl seems to have striven to capture every possible facet of the original: the meter, the wordplay, the assonance & alliteration, the meaning… it’s all there. Most must choose between “accurate, but not an object of literary value per se” vs. “poetic & artful, but not very true to the source”; for my money, Ahl has—somehow—managed to have his libum (archive), and eat it too.
      • Ruden: Sure, sure, it is not the Sacred Hexameter… but it is an extremely faithful rendering—more-so than most—and she still manages word choice finer than Bartsch’s & phrasing more natural than Krisak’s, to my mind’s… ear(?); and, not infrequently, her brevity makes it a smoother & easier read compared to Ahl’s (relative) prolixity.

    • A list of translations
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49. Plotinus: Sixth Ennead

    • NPR review on the chosen edition

      Although the team whose work it is points out that it is not meant to replace the Loeb translation, it has clear and significant advantages over the latter. First, it is based on a superior Greek text, for it takes into account all the corrections introduced by Henry and Schwyzer in the third volume of their editio minor and in subsequent work. Second, it reports almost all the references listed in the editio minor, while also adding to them a considerable number of cross-references. Third, it is very often more readable than Armstrong’s translation, and, being in one volume (without the facing Greek text) rather than in seven, it is much easier to consult.

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50. Dante: The Divine Comedy

    • Reddits comment on the chosen edition

      • Sayers-Reynolds tries to reproduce Dante’s terza rima to varying degrees of success and failure. The successes are superlative, the failures like nails across a board.
      • Musa is simple and clear and often has an understated beauty, but his poetry is not very memorable. His words don’t linger in the mind.
      • Ciardi is perhaps the most popular choice for most people, often gorgeously poetic, but less formally faithful to Dante. He plays too fast and loose for my tastes.
      • The Hollanders get the job done well enough, they’re “literal” for lack of a better word, at the same time there’s enough “music” in their translation as well, so many find it strikes and good balance. However I think most of the music in their translation is owing less to them and more to the fact that they’ve more or less turned Sinclair/Singleton’s prose into verse form, which the Hollanders admit in their introduction. See also Madison Sowell’s review of the Hollanders’ Paradiso which should be available to read for free online. The Hollanders’ notes are extremely detailed and systematic and comprehensive, even overwhelming so, and that’s the primary reason I use them.
      • Nichols is beautiful. I’d suggest Nichols is something of a Mandelbaum mixed with a Musa. By the way, it’s interesting to note not all the translations are done by poets. Yet poets who are also good translators typically capture what good translators alone cannot always capture.
      • Mandelbaum’s translation of The Divine Comedy is very good. It doesn’t use Dante’s terza rima scheme except incidentally and when it is natural for him to do so. Nevertheless Mandelbaum captures Dante quite well, I think, and often Mandelbaum does so sublimely and elegantly. All in all, I think Mandelbaum is one of the best English translations in a crowded field.
      • Michael Palma. His entire Commedia was only published last year in 2024. I’m working my way through it now. So far, I’m beyond impressed. It may prove to be one of the best translations. Already it has received rave reviews for apparently (mostly) successfully realizing terza rima in English. Of the major English translations I’m aware of, I think only Dorothy Sayers and Robert Pinsky have attempted to fully realize terza rima in English. Ciardi and others have tried a dummy terza rima where the first and third lines rhyme but the second line is blank verse. However, in all of these cases, from Sayers to Pinsky to Ciardi to Nichols and others, I don’t think they entirely succeed. Their attempts are valiant, and there are some or many pitch perfect renderings, but overall I’m afraid to say I think they fall short, for their rhymes are by and large uneven and lacking rather than full. They’re still fine translations for other reasons, but their terza rima doesn’t quite work in the end. I hope Palma truly has succeeded, for that would be quite a feat to say the least!

    • Another comparison between versions
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51. Waddington: The Nature of Life

    • Also available in the Compilation Works from Routledge
      • It is expensive however, so not for the general consumer. I believe those with institutional access can borrow it, and it is also available if you know where to look
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52. Homer: The Odyssey

    • I went with this version for consistency with the translator from The Iliad ¹⁷
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53. Aristophanes: The Poet and the Women, The Assemblywomen, Wealth

    • For Women at the Thesmophoria, I chose this edition since it is the newest one (2024)
    • There’s also an older edition with good review, however at 130$ the price is too steep to be considered
      • There’s also another edition from Penguin
    • For Wealth, it is the only digital edition from reputable publisher that I can find
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54. Veblen: The Theory of the Leisure Class

    • Annotated edition from Oxford
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55. Joyce: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

    • Annotated edtion from Oxford
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56. Darwin: The Descent of Man ↩