Treasury · Merit

St. John's College

The Great Books list of St. John's College in Annapolis and Santa Fe — the same books read by every student through all four years of its undergraduate program.

129 books in the catalog stand on this list. The list itself (opens the list's own website) ↗

A reader aged

105 of these books carry no suggested reading age, so choosing an age leaves them out.

• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, 1885 · ages 12–17 · Lexile 980L · AR 6.6 · AR Interest: MG+ (6–8)
  also on Deep Roots Grade, TJEd Youth Recommended
  Remember
• Æneid by Virgil, -19
  also on Harvard Classics, Mensa Kids
  Remember
• Ajax by Sophocles, -440
  Remember
• Almagest by Ptolemy, 150
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
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• Annals by Tacitus, 116
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• Basic Writings by Martin Heidegger, 1977
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• Benito Cereno by Herman Melville, 1855
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• Beyond Good and Evil by Nietzsche, 1886 · Lexile 1420L
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
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• Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer, 1400 · Lexile 500L
  Remember
• Capital by Karl Marx, 1867
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• Categories by Aristotle, -350
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
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• Clouds by Aristophanes, -423
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• Conics by Apollonius, -200
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• Crisis of the European Sciences by Edmund Husserl, 1936
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• Critique of Pure Reason by Immanuel Kant, 1781 · Lexile 1500L
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• De Anima by Aristotle, -350 · Lexile 1270L
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
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• Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville, 1831 · Lexile 1310L · AR 13.4
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
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• Discourse on Metaphysics by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1846
  Remember
• Discourse on Method by René Descartes, 1637 · Lexile 1840L
  also on Harvard Classics, TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Discourses by Epictetus, 108
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• Don Quixote, Part 1 by Miguel Cervantes, 1612 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1410L · AR 13.2 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Davidson Gifted, Harvard Classics, Mensa Kids, TJEd Youth Recommended
  Remember
• Early History of Rome by Livy, -27
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• Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844 by Karl Marx, 1932
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• Elements by Euclid, -290 · ages 15–18
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
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• Elements of Chemistry by Antoine Lavoisier, 1789
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
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• Emma by Jane Austen, 1815 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1080L · AR 9.3 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
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• Encyclopaedia Logic by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1817
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• Epitome by Johannes Kepler, 1995
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
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• Essay on Conics by Blaise Pascal, 1640
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• Essays on the Theory of Numbers by Richard Dedekind, 1901
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• Fables by Jean de La Fontaine, 1668
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• Faust by Johann Wolfgang Goethe, 1829 · ages 14–17
  also on Harvard Classics, TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard, 1843
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• Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals by Immanuel Kant, 1785
  Remember
• Generation of Animals by Aristotle, -350
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Geometry by René Descartes, 1637
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• Go Down Moses by William Faulkner, 1942 · AR 7.2
  Remember
• Gorgias by Plato, -400 · Lexile 1230L
  also on Harvard Classics
  Remember
• Guide for the Perplexed by Maimonides, 1190
  Remember
• Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift, 1726 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1370L · AR 13.5 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Davidson Gifted, Deep Roots Grade, Mensa Kids, TJEd Youth Recommended
  Remember
• Hamlet by William Shakespeare, 1603 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 650L · AR 10.5 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Harvard Classics, Mensa Kids, TJEd Youth Recommended
  Remember
• Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad, 1899 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 950L · AR 9.0 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• Hippolytus & The Bacchæ by Euripides, -428
  also on Harvard Classics
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• Histories by Herodotus, -430
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• Introduction to Arithmetic by Nicomachus, 100
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Introduction to the Analytical Art by François Viète, 1591
  Remember
• Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud, 1916
  Remember
• King Lear by William Shakespeare, 1603 · ages 14–18 · AR 8.8 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Mensa Kids
  Remember
• Le Misanthrope by Moliere, 1666
  also on Halsted - Best Friends
  Remember
• Les Fleurs du Mal by Charles Baudelaire, 1857
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• Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes, 1651 · Lexile 1270L
  also on Harvard Classics, TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Lives by Plutarch, 80 · ages 9–12 · Lexile 1690L
  also on Harvard Classics, TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Macbeth by William Shakespeare, 1606 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 310L · AR 10.9 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• Mathematical Principles by Isaac Newton, 1687
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
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• Maximes by Francois de La Rochefoucauld, 1665
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• Meditations by René Descartes, 1641
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• Meno by Plato, -400
  also on Harvard Classics
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• Metaphysics by Aristotle, -350
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
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• Middlemarch by George Eliot, 1871 · ages 14–18 · Lexile 1210L · AR 10.4 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  Remember
• Monadology by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1714
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• Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, 1981 · ages 14–17 · Lexile 950L · AR 7.2 · AR Interest: UG (9–12)
  also on Time Magazine 1923-2005
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• Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle, -350 · Lexile 1260L
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Novum Organum by Francis Bacon, 1620
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Oedipus the King by Sophocles, -429 · Lexile 1060L
  also on Harvard Classics, Mensa Kids, TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• On Generation and Corruption by Aristotle, -350
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• On Interpretation by Aristotle, -350
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• On the Inequality among Mankind & Profession of Faith of a Savoyard Vicar by Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1782 · Lexile 1600L
  also on Harvard Classics
  Remember
• On the Motion of Bodies by Impact by Christiaan Huygens, 1703
  Remember
• On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals by William Harvey, 1628
  also on Harvard Classics
  Remember
• On the Nature of Things by Lucretius, -55
  Remember
• On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus, 1543
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Oresteia by Aeschylus, -500 · Lexile 1380L
  also on Harvard Classics
  Remember
• Paradise Lost by John Milton, 1667 · Lexile 1360L
  Remember
• Parmenides by Plato, -400
  also on Harvard Classics
  Remember
• Parts of Animals by Aristotle, -350
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Pensees by Blaise Pascal, 1670 · ages 17–18
  Remember
• Phædra by Jean Racine, 1963
  also on Harvard Classics
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• Phaedrus by Plato, -400
  also on Harvard Classics
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• Phenomenology of Mind by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, 1807
  Remember
• Philoctetes by Sophocles, -409 · Lexile 1280L
  Remember
• Philosophical Essays by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1989 · Lexile 1450L
  Remember
• Philosophical Fragments by Søren Kierkegaard, 1844
  Remember
• Physics by Aristotle, -350 · Lexile 1460L
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Plutarch's Lives Vol. II by Plutarch, 100
  Remember
• Poetics by Aristotle, -350 · Lexile 1410L
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Politics by Aristotle, -350 · Lexile 1400L
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen, 1813 · ages 12–17 · Lexile 1070L · AR 12.0
  also on Deep Roots Grade, Harvard Classics, Mensa Kids, The Good & The Beautiful, TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Principles of Nature and Grace, Based on Reason by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1714
  Remember
• Prior Analytics by Aristotle, -350
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus, -430 · Lexile 1170L
  Remember
• Proslogium by Anselm, 1078
  Remember
• Republic by Plato, -385 · ages 17–21
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Rules for the Direction of the Mind by René Descartes, 1701
  Remember
• Second Treatise Of Government by John Locke, 1689 · Lexile 1690L
  also on TJEd Adult Recommended
  Remember
• Social Contract by Jean Jacques Rousseau, 1762
  Remember
• Sophist by Plato, -400
  also on Harvard Classics
  Remember
• Specimen Dynamicum by Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, 1695
  Remember
• Summa Theologiae by Thomas Aquinas, 1274
  Remember
• Symposium by Plato, -400
  also on Harvard Classics
  Remember
• Theaetetus by Plato, -400 · Lexile 1060L
  also on Harvard Classics
  Remember

Only the first 100 of 129 are listed here. Choosing an age narrows the list.