Library Class and Subject Guides: Classic Books: Welcome

How to Use this Guide

Classic books are books that hold meaning to society as a whole. The reputations of these books develop over time. This guide contains lists of common classic books that are available in the MSU Memorial Library. The books are arranged under four tabs: Classic Fiction, Classic Nonfiction, Classic Plays and Poetry, and Cult Classics.

The Classic Fiction page is separated into two sub-pages: Classic Fiction (to 1899) and Modern Classic Fiction (from 1900). These are not formal categories, but they are used to create distinction between twentieth century works and their predecessors.

Classic Nonfiction has its own category. It has subjects including Philosophy, History, Psychology, and more.

Classic Plays and Poetry has two sub-pages: one for Classic Plays and the other for Poetry.

There is a fourth tab entitled Cult Classics, which includes titles that may not be recognized as classics in scholarly literary circles, but that silently climb in popularity with avid readers. Cult Classics contains both fiction and nonfiction titles.

A fifth tab entitled Children's Classics contains books that have been cherished through time. Some titles have been repeated from other tabs. Children's Classics has two sub-pages: Young Adult Classics and Picture Book Classics.

Each book is listed with its title, author, call number, and date of original publication. The title and author are linked to the MSU Memorial Library catalog. From there, it is possible to see if the book is available or if it is currently checked out. "See reviews | Goodreads.com" will open reviews of the title in a new window.

Goodreads.com is a personal content management system to help people track what they've read and what they want to read next. It also provides descriptions along with user ratings and user-generated book reviews.

This guide is meant to give readers a starting point to find classics within the MSU Memorial Library collections. Identifying and categorizing classics can be subjective. Not every classic is mentioned. Some of the books mentioned may not be considered classics by everyone. It is strongly suggested that readers compile personal lists of books to read based on some of the sources listed below.

Recommended Sources for Reading the Classics

The Classic Hundred Poems by William Harmon (Editor)
Call Number: PR1175 .C55 1998 (General Collection)
ISBN: 0231112599
Publication Date: 1998
Now in its second edition, The Classic Hundred Poems presents the most anthologized poems in the English language in chronological order. Complete with detailed, informative notes; bibliographic information on poems and poets; a glossary of terms; and author, title, and first line indexes, The Classic Hundred Poems is a treasured resource for students, teachers, and poetry enthusiasts.
The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature by M. C. Howatson (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9780199548545
Publication Date: 2011
The third edition of The Oxford Companion to Classical Literature is the complete and authoritative reference guide to the classical world and its literary heritage. It not only presents the reader with all the essential facts about the authors, tales, and characters from ancient myth and literature, but it also places these details in the wider contexts of the history and society of the Greek and Roman worlds. With an extensive web of cross-references and a useful chronological table and location maps (all of which have been brought fully up to date), this volume traces the development of literary forms and the classical allusions which have become embedded in our Western culture. Extensively revised and updated since the second edition was published in 1989, the Companion acknowledges changes in the focus of scholarship over the last twenty years, through the incorporation of a far larger number of thematic entries such as medicine, friendship, science, freedom (concept of), and sexuality. These topical entries provide an excellent starting point to the exploration of their subjects in classical literature; after all, for many aspects of classical society the literature we have inherited is the primary (and sometimes the only) source material. Additions and changes have been made taking into account the advice of teachers and lecturers in Classics, ensuring that current educational needs are catered for. In addition to newly covered topics, the Companion still plays to its traditional strengths, with extensive biographies of classical literary figures from Aeschylus to Zeno; entries on a multitude of literary styles from biography and rhetoric to lyric poetry and epic, encompassing everything in between; and character entries and plot summaries for the major figures and myths in the classical canon. It is the ideal guide for students in Classics, and for all who are passionate about the vast and varied literary tradition bequeathed to us from the classical world.
The Well-Educated Mind by Susan Wise Bauer
Call Number: (not in collection)
ISBN: 0393050947
Publication Date: 2003
Have you lost the art of reading for pleasure? Are there books you know you should read but haven't because they seem too daunting? In The Well-Educated Mind, Susan Wise Bauer provides a welcome and encouraging antidote to the distractions of our age, electronic and otherwise. In her previous book, The Well-Trained Mind, the author provided a road map of classical education for parents wishing to home-school their children, and that book is now the premier resource for home-schoolers. In this new book, Bauer takes the same elements and techniques and adapts them to the use of adult readers who want both enjoyment and self-improvement from the time they spend reading.The Well-Educated Mind offers brief, entertaining histories of five literary genres--fiction, autobiography, history, drama, and poetry--accompanied by detailed instructions on how to read each type. The annotated lists at the end of each chapter--ranging from Cervantes to A. S. Byatt, Herodotus to Laurel Thatcher Ulrich--preview recommended reading and encourage readers to make vital connections between ancient traditions and contemporary writing.The Well-Educated Mind reassures those readers who worry that they read too slowly or with below-average comprehension. If you can understand a daily newspaper, there's no reason you can't read and enjoy Shakespeare's Sonnets or Jane Eyre. But no one should attempt to read the "Great Books" without a guide and a plan. Susan Wise Bauer will show you how to allocate time to your reading on a regular basis; how to master a difficult argument; how to make personal and literary judgments about what you read; how to appreciate the resonant links among texts within a genre--what does Anna Karenina owe to Madame Bovary?--and also between genres. Followed carefully, the advice in The Well-Educated Mind will restore and expand the pleasure of the written word.

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Web Resources for Navigating the Classics

Top 100 Penguin Classics
These are the top 100 books in the Penguin Classics series on Goodreads
ClassicBooks.com
Discover classic books to read. Reviews and biographies.
Harvard Classics Bookshelf
From Project Gutenberg, the first producer of free ebooks.
Harvard Classics | 90 Day Challenge
Use this accelerated reading guide for 1 hour a day and become a cultivated scholar with all the elements of a liberal education in 90 Days
1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
Listology.com | Enabling your OCD. One post at a time.
100 Best Nonfiction
ModernLibrary.com | Random House, Inc.
Thomas Jefferson’s Library | Library of Congress
Thomas Jefferson collected books across a vast spectrum of topics and languages. Divided into categories of Memory, Reason, and Imagination [...] the collection placed within Jefferson’s fingertips the span of his multifaceted interests. The books from Jefferson’s library are part of the Rare Book and Special Collections Division of the Library of Congress.