Arranged in chronological order, from the ancient Greeks to 2018. They are basically grouped by nationality, era, and in some cases, theme or genre- the way they were grouped in the college courses that I had the pleasure to read some of them for. You can also find a scrambled version of the same list at goodreads.com/larmer, if you view the shelf called "english-majors-library" and set it to "infinite scroll" to view it all on one page.
Below each title, I have included the ISBN (the number that begins with 978). Of course, that means that all you have to do is copy and paste that code into a search bar on whatever site you buy your books from (amazon.com, bookdepository.com, etc.), to find the edition that the list refers to.
Why did I do something as crazy as include the ISBN for each book? For one thing, some of these editions include introductions and essays that have helped me think about them more deeply, or think about them in new ways, which has allowed me to enjoy them more.
Perhaps more importantly, some of these ISBN's simply refer to the edition with the coolest cover. To me, there is something special about the look of a shelf where most of the books match, for example, a row of Penguin Classics. Or at least, when the spines of books by the same author match. When I was a kid, I read series. Now I feel that the best books ever written form their own series. It seems right that they should fit together physically, as well. The ISBN's are there just in case you feel the same way.
Homer (Greek, c. 800 BCE)
- The Iliad (c. 760-10 BCE)
/ Fagles translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140445923
- The Odyssey (c. 750-00 BCE)
/ Fagles translation, Penguin Classics, 9780143039952
Hesiod (Greek, c. 700 BCE)
- Works and Days (c. 700 BCE)
/ Stallings translation, Penguin Classics, 9780141197524
Aeschylus (Greek, 525-426 BCE)
- Prometheus Bound and Other Plays
/ Vellacott translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140441123
Sophocles (Greek, c. 497-406 BCE)
- The Three Theban Plays:
Oedipus the King [aka Oedipus Tyrannus, Oedipus Rex] (c. 429 BCE)
Oedipus at Colonus (406 BCE)
/ Fagles translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140444254
Plato (Greek, c. 428-348 BCE)
/ Bloom translation, 9780465094080, or Rowe translation, Penguin Classics, 9780141442433
Aristotle (Greek, 384-322 BCE)
- Nicomachean Ethics (340 BCE)
/ Beresford translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140455472
/ Heath translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140446364, or Hutton translation, Norton Critical Editions, 9780393938869
Epistularum liber primus [First Book of Letters] (20 BCE)
Epistularum liber secundus [Second Book of Letters] (14 BCE)
(Contains Ars Poetica [The Art of Poetry])
/ Ferry translation, 9780374528522
Virgil (Roman, 70-19 BCE)
/ Fagles translation, Penguin Classics, 9780143106296
Ovid (Roman, 43 BCE- 18 CE)
/ Raeburn translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140447897
Lao Tzu (Laozi) (Chinese, born 6th to 5th century BCE, died 531 BCE)
- Tao Te Ching (Daodejing) (6th century BCE)
/ Lau translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140441314, or Mitchell translation, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 9780061142666
- The Upanishads (800-400 BCE)
/ MascarĂł translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140441635
- Bhagavad Gita (part of the Mahabharata) (5th-2nd century BCE)
/ MascarĂł translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140449181, or Mitchell translation, Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 9780609810347
Buddhist Scriptures (3rd century BCE)
/ Lopez edit, Penguin Classics, 9780140447583
/ Mallinson and Singleton translation, Penguin Classics, 9780241253045
Joseph Campbell, Myths of Light: Eastern Metaphors of the Eternal
/ 9781608681099
World Literature: The Middle Ages
One Thousand and One Nights
(Arabic compilation of Middle Eastern and South Asian stories and folk tales. Earliest known fragment dated to 9th century, first reference to title appears in 12th century)
- The Arabian Nights: Tales from a Thousand and One Nights
/ Burton translation, Modern Library Classics, 9780812972146
Snorri Sturluson (Icelandic, 1179-1241)
/ Byock Translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140447552
ChrĂŠtien de Troyes (French, 1135?-1185?)
/ Kibler and Carroll translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140445213
Wolfram von Eschenbach (German, c.â1160/80 â c.â1220)
/ Hatto translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140443615
Major English Authors I: Medieval to Renaissance
[Note: I did not enjoy Beowulf or the Canterbury Tales, so I omitted them from this list]
Thomas Malory (English, c. 1415-1471)
- Le Morte d'Arthur (completed 1469-70, published 1485)
/ Norton Critical Edition, 9780393974645
Christopher Marlowe (English, 1564-93)
- Doctor Faustus (c. 1589, or c. 1593)
/ Norton Critical Edition, 9780393977547
The Bible: Authorized King James Version (1611)Â
/ Oxford Worldâs Classics, 9780199535941
- The Shadow of a Great Rock: A Literary Appreciation of the King James Bible, by Harold Bloom
John Milton (English, 1608-74)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140424393
William Shakespeare (English, 1564-1616)
- A Midsummer Night's Dream (1595-6)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141396668
- The Merchant of Venice (1596-7)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141396545
- Romeo and Juliet (1595-6)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141396477
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141396538
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141396507
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141396514
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141396460
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141396316
- Antony and Cleopatra (1606-7)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141396293
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141396309
- Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human, by Harold Bloom
/ Fourth Estate, 9780007292844
World Literature: The "Aristocratic Age"
Dante (Italian, 1265-1321)
- The Divine Comedy: Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso (1308-20)
/ Kirkpatrick translation, Penguin Classics, 9780141197494
Miguel de Cervantes (Spanish, 1547-1616)
- Don Quixote (1605- Part 1, 1615- Part 2)
/Â Grossman translation, Vintage Classics, 9780099469698
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (German, 1749-1832)
- The Sufferings of Young Werther (1774)
/ Corngold translation, Norton Critical Editions, 9780393935561
- Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship (1796)
/ ? [Notable for being the first Bildungsroman. Still waiting for a good translation.]
- Faust, Parts I (1808) and II (1832)
/ Arndt translation, Norton Critical Editions, 9780393972825
Major English Authors II: Neoclassical to Romantic
Paradise Lost (above) is probably the best and most influential work of the Neoclassical period, and Milton's Satan becomes both Blake's messiah and a foundation for the Byronic hero.
William Blake (English, 1757-1827)
- Songs of Innocence and of Experience (1789-94)
/ Oxford Paperbacks, 9780192810892
- The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1790-93)
/ Oxford Paperbacks, 9780192811677
George Gordon, Lord Byron (English, 1788-1824)
- Lord Byron: The Major Works
(See "Prometheus," Manfred, Childe Harold's Pilgrimage, Mazeppa, Don Juan)Â
/ Oxford Worldâs Classics, 9780199537334
- Byron: Child of Passion, Fool of Fame by Benita Eisler
Percy Bysshe Shelley (English, 1792-1822)
- Prometheus Unbound (1820)
- A Defence of Poetry (1821)
See also: Keats, Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Wordsworth's Preface to Lyrical Ballads
Mary Shelley (English, 1797-1851)
- Frankenstein: or, The Modern Prometheus (1818)
/ Norton Critical Edition, 9780393927931
Jane Austen (English, 1775-1817)
- Northanger Abbey (completed 1803, published 1818)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141439792
- Pride and Prejudice (1813)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141439518
/ Penguin Classics, 978-0141439587
Charles Dickens (English, 1812-1870)
- David Copperfield (1849-50)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140439441
Emily BrontĂŤ (English, 1818-48)
- Wuthering Heights (1847)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141439556
George Eliot (English, 1819-80)
- The Mill on the Floss (1860)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141439624
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141439549
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140434279
Thomas Hardy (English, 1840-1928)
- The Return of the Native (1878)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140435184
- The Mayor of Casterbridge (1886)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141439785
- Tess of the D'Urbervilles (1891)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141439594
*
Alfred, Lord Tennyson (English, 1809-92)
- "The Lotos-Eaters" (1833)
- "In Memoriam A.H.H." (1849)Â
Robert Browning (English, 1812-89)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140437263
Thomas Hardy, Selected Poems
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140436990
W.B. Yeats (Irish, 1865-1939)
- "Aedh Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven" (1899)
See also (though mostly from the Modern era):
/ Finneran edit, Scribner, 9780684807317
Late Victorian-Edwardian Era/ Gothic and Grotesque/ Horror, Gender, and Sexuality/ Freud and Fiction
E. T. A. Hoffmann (Prussian, 1776-1822)
- The Golden Pot and Other Tales
/ Robertson translation, Oxford Worldâs Classics, 9780199552474
Sigmund Freud, "The Uncanny"
/ Penguin Classics, 9780142437476
Edgar Allan Poe (American, 1809-1849)
- The Portable Edgar Allan Poe
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143039914
âThe Fall of the House of Usherâ
âThe Imp of the Perverseâ
- Jonathan Haidt, "The Divided Self" in The Happiness Hypothesis
Sheridan Le Fanu (Irish, 1814-73)
/ Oxford Worldâs Classics, 9780199537983
Bram Stoker (Irish, 1847-1912)
/ Norton Critical Editions, 9780393970128
Robert Louis Stevenson (Scottish, 1850-94)
- Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886)
/ Norton Critical Editions, 9780393974652
Oscar Wilde (Irish, 1854-1900)
- The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
/ Norton Critical Editions, 9780393696875
Sigmund Freud (Austrian, 1856-1939)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780142437469
"Fragment of an Analysis of Hysteria (Dora)"
Three Essays on Sexual Theory
On the Sexual Theories of Children
"Contributions to the Psychology of Erotic Life"
âA Child is being Beatenâ
[Note: I realize that Freud's theories are no longer considered accurate, but I enjoy his imagination. If you want to read about the psychology of love/sex from an evidence-based perspective, check out The Evolution of Desire, by David Buss]
/ Penguin Classics, 9780142437476
The Creative Writer and Daydreaming
Leonardo da Vinci and a Memory of his Childhood
Arthur Machen (Welsh, 1863-1947)
- "The Great God Pan" (1894)
(âMaybe the best [horror story] in the English language.â - Stephen King)
/ Late Victorian Gothic Tales, Oxford Worldâs Classics, 9780199538874
- Vernon Lee, "Dionea," also in the above collection
Algernon Blackwood (English, 1869-1951)
- Ancient Sorceries and Other Weird Stories
/ Penguin Classics, 9780142180150
âThe Insanity of Jonesâ
âThe Glamour of the Snowâ
âThe Man Whom the Trees Lovedâ
Daphne du Maurier (English, 1907-89)
/ Virago Modern Classics, 9781844080380
- The Birds and Other Stories (1952)
/ Virago Modern Classics, 9781844080878
Robert Bloch (American, 1917-94)
See also: Alfred Hitchcock's adaptations of the above, and more:
- François Truffaut, Hitchcock
- Donald Spoto, The Art of Alfred Hitchcock Â
More films with similar themes:
- Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965)
- The Shining (Stanley Kubrick, 1980)
- Blue Velvet (David Lynch, 1986)
- The Twilight Zone (Original Series, 1959)
"Perchance to Dream" (Season 1, Episode 9)
"The Hitch-Hiker" (Season 1, Episode 16)
"Nightmare as a Child" (Season 1, Episode 29)
"A Stop at Willoughby" (Season 1, Episode 30)
"Long Distance Call" (Season 2, Episode 22)
"What's in the Box" (Season 5, Episode 24)
American Literature: 19th Century, Pre-Civil War
Washington Irving (American, 1783-1859)
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143107538
James Fenimore Cooper (American, 1789-1851)
- The Last of the Mohicans: A Narrative of 1757 (1826)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140390247
Ralph Waldo Emerson (American, 1803-82)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143107460
"The American Scholar" (1832)
Henry David Thoreau (American, 1817-62)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143106500
"Civil Disobedience" (1849)
Frederick Douglass (American, 1818-95)
- The Portable Frederick Douglass
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143106814
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave (1845)
Edgar Allan Poe (American, 1809-1849)
- The Portable Edgar Allan Poe
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143039914
Nathaniel Hawthorne (American, 1804-1864)
- Selected Tales and Sketches (1830-1850)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140390575
Selections of the selections:
"My Kinsman, Major Molineux" (1832)
"Young Goodman Brown" (1835)
"The Minister's Black Veil" (1836)
"Rappaccini's Daughter" (1844)
A selection that is not included in the above volume:
- The Scarlet Letter (1850)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143107668
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140390773
Herman Melville (American, 1819-91)
- Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780142437247
American Literature: 19th Century, Civil War and After
Walt Whitman (American, 1819-92)
- Leaves of Grass and Other Writings
/ Norton Critical Editions, 9780393974966
Emily Dickinson (American, 1830-96)
- The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
/ Little, Brown & Company, 9780316184137
Mark Twain (American, 1835-1910)
- The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143107330
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143107323
- Tales, Speeches, Essays, and Sketches
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140434170
Ambrose Bierce (American, 1842-circa 1914)
- Tales of Soldiers and Civilians: And Other Stories
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140437560
Henry James (American, mostly writing in Britain, 1843-1916)
See Novel: Modern British, below.
Kate Chopin (American, 1850-1904)
- The Awakening [1899] and Selected Stories
/ Penguin Classics, 9780142437322
Terry Eagleton, "What is a Novel?" in The English Novel: An Introduction
Peter Childs, âWords, Words, Words: Modern, Modernism, Modernityâ
Thomas Hardy (English, 1840-1928)
- Jude the Obscure (1895)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140435382
Henry James (American, mostly writing in Britain, 1843-1916)
- What Maisie Knew (1897)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141441375
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141441320
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141441344
- The Turn of the Screw (1898)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141389752
"The Jolly Corner" (also collected in the above volume)
/ Collected in The New Penguin Book of American Short Stories: from Washington Irving to Lydia Davis, Edited by Kasia Boddy, Penguin Classics, 9780141194424
Joseph Conrad (Polish-British, 1857-1924)
- Heart of Darkness (1899)
/ Norton Critical Edition, 9780393264869
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141441610
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141441634
E. M. Forster (English, 1879-1970)
/ Penguin Classics, Â 9780141182131
- A Passage to India (1924)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141441160
James Joyce (Irish, 1882-1941)
- A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916)
/ In The Portable James Joyce, which also includes the short story collection, Dubliners (1914), 9780140150308
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141182803
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141183114
- Re Joyce, by Anthony Burgess (author of A Clockwork Orange)
- James Joyceâs Ulysses: A Study, by Stuart Gilbert
- A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake, by Joseph Campbell (author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, The Power of Myth, etc.)
- Joyceâs Book of the Dark: Finnegans Wake, by John Bishop
D. H. Lawrence (English, 1885-1930)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141441443
- Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141441498
Essays/Prefaces/Letters: Contexts for Course Novels
Henry James, âThe Art of Fictionâ (1884)
http://virgil.org/dswo/courses/novel/james-fiction.pdf
Thomas Hardy, Preface to the First Edition [of Jude the Obscure] (1895)
Joseph Conrad, Preface to "The Nigger of the Narcissusâ (1897)
Thomas Hardy, Postscript [to Preface] (1912)
Ford Madox Ford, âOn Impressionismâ (1913)
D.H. Lawrence, Letter to Edward Garnett (1912)
Virginia Woolf, âModern Fictionâ (1919)
---, "Mrs. Bennet and Mr. Brown" (1923)
See also: Modernist Poetry:
W. B. Yeats (Irish, 1865-1939)
/ Finneran edit, Scribner, 9780684807317
"The Second Coming" (1919)
T. S. Eliot (American born British citizen, 1888-1965)
- The Waste Land and Other Poems
/ Penguin Classics, 9780142437315
"The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock" (1915)
World Literature: 19th Century
[Note: I have skipped Balzac, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Stendhal, and the Brothers Grimm. Furthermore, 19th Century Russian Literature gets its own section, as well as American and British.]
E. T. A. Hoffmann (Prussian, 1776-1822)
- The Golden Pot and Other Tales
/ Robertson translation, Oxford Worldâs Classics, 9780199552474
Victor Hugo (French, 1802-85)
- Notre-Dame de Paris (1831)
/ Sturrock translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140443530
Arthur Rimbaud (French, 1854-91]
- Selected Poems and Letters
/ Harding and Sturrock translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140448023
See also: Bruce Duffy, Disaster Was My God: A Novel of the Outlaw Life of Arthur Rimbaud
Guy de Maupassant (French, 1850-93)
- A Parisian Affair and Other Stories (1880-90)
/ Miles translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140448122
Henrik Ibsen (Norwegian, 1828-1906)
- A Doll's House and Other Plays
/ Dawkin and Skuggevik translation, Penguin Classics, 9780141194561
Friedrich Nietzsche (German, 1844-1900)
- The Birth of Tragedy (1872)
/ Whiteside translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140433395
/ Hill Translation (as The Joyful Science), Penguin Classics, 9780141195391
- Thus Spoke Zarathustra (1883)
/ Hollingdale translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140441185
- Beyond Good and Evil (1886)
/ Hollingdale translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140449235
- On the Genealogy of Morals (1887)
/ Scarpitti translation, Penguin Classics, 9780141195377
- The Will to Power (Posthumously Collected Manuscripts)
/ Hill and Scarpitti translation, Penguin Classics, 9780141195353
Russian Literature: 19th Century
Fyodor Dostoevsky (Russian, 1821-81)
- Notes from Underground (1864)
/ Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, Vintage International, 9780679734529
- Crime and Punishment (1866)
/ Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, Vintage International, 9780679734505
- The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
/ Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, FSG, 9780374528379
Leo Tolstoy (Russian, 1828-1910)
/ Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, Vintage, 9781400079988
/ Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140449174
/ Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140446425
- Last Steps: The Late Writings of Leo Tolstoy
/ Parini edit, Penguin Classics, 9780141191195
Anton Chekhov (Russian, 1860-1904)
- Selected Stories (1883-1903)
/ Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, Modern Library, 9780553381009
World Literature: 20th CenturyÂ
[Note: 20th Century Japanese Literature gets its own section, as well as American and British]
Boris Pasternak (Russian, 1890-1960)
/ Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, Vintage International, 9780307390950
Mikhail Bulgakov (Russian, 1891-1940)
- The Master and Margarita (written 1928-40, published 1967)
/ Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, Penguin Classics Deluxe,
Thomas Mann (German, 1875-1955)
- The Magic Mountain (1924)
/ Woods translation, Vintage International, 9780679772873
/ Woods translation, Vintage International, 9780375701160
Hermann Hesse (German-born Swiss, 1877-1962)
- Narcissus and Goldmund (1930)
/ Molinaro translation, Picador, 9780312421670
- The Glass Bead Game (1943)
/ Winston and Winston translation, Picador, 9780312278496
Franz Kafka (Austro-Hungarian, now Czech Republic, 1883-1924)
- The Trial (written 1914-5, published 1925)
/ Muir and Muir translation, Schocken, 9780805210408
- The Castle (written 1922, published 1926)
/ Muir and Muir translation, Schocken, 9780805210392
- The Complete Short Stories (1908-24)
/ Muir and Muir translation, Schocken, 9780805210552
Gabriel GarcĂa MĂĄrquez (Colombian, 1927-2014)
- Love in the Time of Cholera (1985)
/ Grossman translation, Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141189208
History of Literary Criticism and Theory
See above courses for Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Poetics, Horace's Ars Poetica, Wordsworth's Preface to the Lyrical Ballads, Wilde's Preface to The Picture of Dorian Gray, and the essays, prefaces, and letters that comprise the contexts for the Modern British Novel course.
Northrop Frye (Canadian, 1912-91)
- "The Archetypes of Literature" (1951)
- Anatomy of Criticism (1957)
/ Princeton University Press, 9780691069999
Harold Bloom (American, 1930- )
- The Anxiety of Influence: A Theory of Poetry (1973)
/ Oxford University Press, 9780195112214
(Further reading by Harold Bloom listed at the end of this section)
- I will not list the readings for the entire History of Literary Criticism and Theory. The works listed above are the essentials that still hold up today.
I have omitted what Harold Bloom dismisses as the "School of Resentment" in his book, The Western Canon.
Bloom points out the problem with reading a text in terms of whatever ideology one wishes to impose on it (Feminist, Marxist, Lacanian, New Historicist, Deconstructionist, Semiotician, etc.), rather than simply reading in order to "confront greatness." For example, if we read Hamlet through a feminist or Marxist lens, we may end up with insights about feminism or Marxism, but not necessarily about Hamlet (source: the book, The Western Canon, as well as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_Bloom).
Bloom suspects that people do not simply value classics due to social conditioning. To read more about how human behavior and values come from human nature, and not from social conditioning, here is the definitive book on the subject:
- Steven Pinker, The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature
- Steven Pinker, "Toward a Consilient Study of Literature"
- John Tooby and Leda Cosmides, "Does Beauty Build Adapted Minds? Toward an Evolutionary Theory of Aesthetics"
- Joseph Carroll, Literary Darwinism
/ Routledge, 9780415970143
- Jonathan Gottschall, The Storytelling AnimalÂ
- Stephen R. C. Hicks, Explaining Postmodernism
/ Ockham's Razor, 9780983258407
Louise M. Rosenblatt's Transactional Theory has been most informative to my understanding of what reading consists of.
Louise M. Rosenblatt (American, 1904-2005)
- Literature as Exploration (1938)
- The Reader, The Text, The Poem: The Transactional Theory of the Literary Work (1978, 1994)
/ Southern Illinois University Press, 9780809318056
This brief article by Saul Bellow has also been enlightening for me:
"The Search for Symbols, a Writer Warns, Misses All the Fun and Fact of the Story"
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/25/reviews/bellow-symbol.html
- The Western Canon: The Books and School of the Ages (1994)
/ Little, Brown & Company, 9781573225144
- Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998)
/ Fourth Estate, 9780007292844
- Novelists and Novels: A Collection of Critical Essays (2007)
/ Chelsea House, 9780791097274
- The Shadow of a Great Rock: A Literary Appreciation of the King James Bible (2011)
/ Yale University Press, 9780300187946
- The Anatomy of Influence: Literature as a Way of Life (2011)
/ Yale University Press, 9780300181449
Steven Pinker, The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person's Guide to Writing in the 21st Century
John Gardner, The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers
/ Vintage, 9780679734031
Joseph Campbell, The Hero With A Thousand Faces
/ Yogi Impressions, 9789382742616
Alice LaPlante, The Making of a Story: A Norton Guide to Creative Writing
/ W. W. Norton and Company, 9780393337082
Kim Addonizio and Dorianne Laux, The Poet's Companion: A Guide to the Pleasures of Writing Poetry
/ W. W. Norton and Company, 9780393316544
American Short Story, 20th Century
Sherwood Anderson (American, 1876-1941)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140186550
Ernest Hemingway (American, 1899-1961)
- The Short Stories: The First Forty-Nine Stories with a Brief Preface by the Author
/ Scribner, 9780684803340
John Cheever (American, 1912-82)
/ Vintage Classics, 9780099748304
Bernard Malamud (American, 1914-86)
- The Complete Stories (written 1940-84, collected 1997)
/ FSG Classics, 9780374525750
Saul Bellow (Canadian-American, 1915-2005)
- Collected Stories (2001)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143107255
Carson McCullers (American, 1917-67)
- The Ballad of the Sad CafĂŠ (1951 novella along with previously published short stories)
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141183695
J. D. Salinger (American, 1919-2010)
/ Little, Brown and Company, 9780316767729
- Franny and Zooey (1961)
/ Back Bay Books, 9780316769020
- Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963)
/ Back Bay Books, 9780316766944
James Baldwin (American, 1924-87)
-Â âSonnyâs Bluesâ (1957)
Collected in several anthologies. I have not read them all, but I would probably recommend:
- American Short Story Masterpieces, edited by Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks
Flannery O'Connor (American, 1925-64)
- The Complete Stories (1971)
/ FSG Classics, 9780374515362
Philip Roth (American, 1933-2018)
- Goodbye, Columbus (1959)
Joyce Carol Oates (American, 1938- )
- "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" (1966)
Collected in several anthologies. I have not read them all, but I would probably recommend:
- American Short Story Masterpieces, edited by Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks
Raymond Carver (American, 1938-88)
- Where Iâm Calling From: Selected Stories (1988)
/ Harvill Press, 9781860460395
Tobias Wolff (American, 1945- )
- In the Garden of the North American Martyrs: Stories (1981)
Louise Erdrich (Native American, 1954- )
/ Harper Perennial, 9780061787423
Stephanie Vaughn (American, ?- )
- Sweet Talk: Stories (1990)
/ Other Press, 9781590515167
(Also collected in the Vintage Book of Contemporary American Short Stories, edited by Tobias Wolff, 9780679745136]
American Novel, 20th Century to Present
F. Scott Fitzgerald (American, 1896-1940)
- The Great Gatsby (1925)
/ Scribner, 9780743273565
- Tender is the Night (1934)
/ Scribner, 9780684801544
William Faulkner (American, 1897-1962)
- The Sound and the Fury (1929)
/ Norton Critical Editions, 9780393912692
Nathanael West (American, 1903-40)
- Miss Lonelyhearts (1933)
- The Day of the Locust (1939)
/ Both of these novels are collected in Vintage Classics, 9780099573166
Zora Neale Hurston (American, 1891-1960)
- Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
Betty Smith (American, 1896-1972)
- A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1943)
/ Harper Perennial, 9780060736262
John Steinbeck (American, 1902-68)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140186420
- The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143039433
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140186390
Ralph Ellison (American, 1913-94)
Vladimir Nabokov (Russian-American, 1899-1977)
/ Penguin Modern Classics, The Annotated Lolita, 9780141185040
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141185262
Nabokovâs Pale Fire: The Magic of Artistic Discovery, by Brian Boyd
/ Princeton University Press, 9780691089577
Saul Bellow (Canadian-American, 1915-2005)
- The Adventures of Augie March (1953)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143039570
Penguin Classics, 9780142437612
- Henderson the Rain King (1959)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143105480
/ Penguin Classics Deluxe, 9780143107675
- Mr. Sammlerâs Planet (1970)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780142437834
- Humboldtâs Gift (1975)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143105473
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143107576
- It All Adds Up: From the Dim Past to the Uncertain Future (1994)
/ Penguin Classics, 978-0143106685
"Facts That Put Fancy to Flight" (1962)
The above article is available on the New York Times archive here:
"A Novelist-Critic Discusses the Role of Reality in the Creation of Fiction"
http://movies2.nytimes.com/books/97/05/25/reviews/bellow-reality.html
- There is Simply Too Much to Think About: Collected Nonfiction, edited by Benjamin Taylor
/ Penguin, 978-0143108047
"Deep Readers of the World, Beware!"
The above article is available on the New York Times archive here:Â
"The Search for Symbols, a Writer Warns, Misses All the Fun and Fact of the Story"
https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/25/reviews/bellow-symbol.html
- The Life of Saul Bellow: To Fame and Fortune, 1915-1964, by Zachary Leader
- The Life of Saul Bellow: Love and Strife, 1965-2005, by Zachary Leader
Carson McCullers (American, 1917-67)
- The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940)
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141185224
J. D. Salinger (American, 1919-2010)
- The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
/ Back Bay Books, 9780316769174
Salinger, by David Shields and Shane Salerno
/ Simon & Schuster, 9781471130380
Kurt Vonnegut (American, 1922-2007)
/ Dial Press, 9780385333481
- Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
/ Dial Press, 9780385333849
William Gaddis (American, 1922-98)
- The Recognitions (1955)
- Nobody Grew but the Business: On the Life and Work of William Gaddis, by Joseph Tabbi
/ Northwestern University Press, 9780810131422
Joseph Heller (American, 1923-99)
/ 50th Anniversary Edition, Simon & Schuster, 9781451626650
Richard Yates (American, 1926-92)
- Revolutionary Road (1961)
/ Vintage Classics, 9780099518624
Toni Morrison (American, 1931-2019)
/ Vintage International, 9780307278449
/ Vintage International, 9781400033423
John Updike (American, 1932-2009)
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141187839
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141188546
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141188553
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141188447
Philip Roth (American, 1933-2018)
- Portnoyâs Complaint (1969)
/ Vintage International, 9780679756453
/ Vintage International, 9780375726347
Cormac McCarthy (American, 1933- )
/ Vintage International, 9780679728757
/ Vintage International, 9780307387899
Ken Kesey (American, 1935-2001)
- One Flew Over the Cuckooâs Nest (1962)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141181226
- Sometimes a Great Notion (1964)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143039860
Don DeLillo (American, 1936- )
/ Scribner, 9780684848150
Thomas Pynchon (American, 1937- )
/ Harper Perennial, 9780060930219
- Gravityâs Rainbow (1973)
/ Vintage Classics, 9780099511755
- A Gravityâs Rainbow Companion: Sources and Contexts for Pynchonâs Novel, 2nd Edition, by Steven Weisenburger
/ University of Georgia Press, 9780820328072
Pynchon dedicated Gâs R to Richard FariĂąa - see below:
Richard FariĂąa (American, 1937-66)
- Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me (1966)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780140189308
John Kennedy Toole (American, 1937-69)
- A Confederacy of Dunces (completed 1964, published 1980)
/ Grove Press, 9780802130204
Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna Pueblo, 1948- )
/ Penguin Classics Deluxe, 9780143104919
Louise Erdrich (Native American, 1954- )
- The Plague of Doves (2008)
/ Harper Perennial, 9780060515133
/ Harper Perennial, 9780062065254
David Foster Wallace (American, 1962-2008)
/ Back Bay Books, 9780316066525
- The Pale King (unfinished, published 2011)
/ Back Bay Books, 9780316074223
- Elegant Complexity: A Study of David Foster Wallaceâs Infinite Jest, by Greg Carlisle
/ SSMG Press, 978-0976146537
- Every Love Story is a Ghost Story: A Life of David Foster Wallace, by D. T. Max
Peter Hedges (American, 1962- )
- Whatâs Eating Gilbert Grape (1991)
/ Simon & Schuster, 9780671038540
Jennifer Egan (American, 1962- )
- A Visit from the Goon Squad (2010)
/ Anchor Books, 9780307477477
/ Scribner, 9781476716749
American Poetry, 20th Century
Robert Frost (American, 1874-1963)
/ Vintage Classics, 9780099583097
Robinson Jeffers (American, 1887-1962)
/ Stanford University Press, 9780804741088
John Berryman (American, 1914-72)
/ FSG Classics, 9780374534554
- Collected Poems, 1937-1971
/ Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 9780374522810
The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry, edited by Rita Dove
Gwendolyn Brooks, "We Real Cool," "The Bean Eaters"
Stephen Dobyns, "How to Like it"
Contemporary British Fiction
Graham Greene (English, 1904-91)
- Complete Short StoriesÂ
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143039105
Samuel Beckett (Irish, 1906-89)
- More Pricks than Kicks (1934)
/ Grove Press, 9780802151377
/ Grove Press, 9780802144478
Malcolm Lowry (English, 1909-57)
- Under the Volcano (1947)
/ Harper Perennial, 9780061120152
Flann O'Brien (Brian O'Nolan) (Irish, 1911-66)
- The Third Policeman (completed in 1940, published in 1967)
/ Dalkey Archive Press, 9781564782144
Iris Murdoch (Anglo-Irish, 1919-99)
/ Vintage Classics, 9780099429074
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141186696
- The Black Prince (1973)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780142180112
- The Sea, The Sea (1978)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141186160
Alan Sillitoe (English, 1928-2010)
- The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1959)
/ Vintage International, 9780307389640
"The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner"
Angela Carter (English, 1940-92)
- The Magic Toyshop (1967)
- The Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman (1972)
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141192390
- Burning Your Boats: Collected Stories (1962-93)
/ Vintage Classics, 9780099592914
âThe Courtship of Mr Lyonâ
âThe Tigerâs Brideâ
âThe Lady of the House of Loveâ
âThe Company of Wolvesâ
J. G. Ballard (English, 1930-2009)
- The Unlimited Dream Company (1979)
Salman Rushdie (British Indian, 1947- )
- The Satanic Verses (1988)
Ian McEwan (English, 1948- )
- In Between the Sheets (Short story collection) (1978)
- Atonement (novel) (2001)
Iain Banks (Scottish, 1954-2013)
- The Wasp Factory (1984)
/ Prentice Hall, 9780684853154
Hanif Kureishi (British, 1954- )
- The Buddha of Suburbia (1990)
Kazuo Ishiguro (British, 1954- )
- An Artist of the Floating World (1986)
/ Faber & Faber, 9780571209132
/ Faber & Faber, 9780571272136
- The Buried Giant (2015)
/ Faber & Faber, 9780571315062
Jeanette Winterson (English, 1959- )
- Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit (1985)
- Star Trek: The Original Series
"Arena" (Season 1, Episode 18)
"Turnabout Intruder" (Season 3, Episode 24)
Canadian Literature: 20th Century
Robertson Davies (Canadian, 1913-95)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141186153
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143039136
3. World of Wonders (1975)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780143039143
Alice Munro (Canadian, 1931- )
- A Wilderness Station: Selected Stories, 1968-1994
/ Vintage International, 9781101970362
- Family Furnishings: Selected Stories, 1995-2014
/ Vintage International, 9781101872352
Eugene O'Neill (American, 1888-1953)
- The Iceman Cometh (written 1939, first performed 1946)
/ Introduction by Harold Bloom, Yale University Press, 9780300117431
- Long Dayâs Journey Into Night (written 1941, first performed 1956)
/ Introduction by Harold Bloom, Yale University Press, 9780300093056
Jean-Paul Sartre (French, 1905-80)
- No Exit and Three Other Plays (1944-48)
/ Gilbert translation, Vintage International, 9780679725169
Samuel Beckett (Irish, 1906-89)
- Waiting for Godot (1959)
/ Grove Press, 9780802144423
/ Grove Press, 9780802144409
Tennessee Williams (American, 1911-83)
- The Glass Menagerie (1944)
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141190266
- A Streetcar Named Desire (1947)
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141190273
- Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1955)
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141190280
Arthur Miller (American, 1915-2005)
- Death of a Salesman (1949)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141180977
/ Penguin Classics, 9780142437339
Edward Albee (American, 1928-2016)
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1962)
/ Vintage Classics, 9780099285694
Sam Shepard (American, 1943- )
Sam Shepard: Seven Plays (Buried Child, Curse of the Starving Class, The
Tooth of Crime, La Turista, Tongues, Savage Love, True West) (1984)
/ Dial Press, 9780553346114
Shepard is also an actor- Chuck Yeager in The Right Stuff (1983 adaptation of Tom Wolfeâs book of the same title), and Robert Rayburn aka âPapa Rayâ in the 2015 Netflix series, Bloodline
- A Streetcar Named Desire (Elia Kazan, 1951)
- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Mike Nichols, 1966)
- Paris, Texas (Wim Wenders, 1984) (Screenplay by Sam Shepard)
- Death of a Salesman (Volker SchlĂśndorff, 1985)
- The Crucible (Nicholas Hytner, 1996)
- Happy Days (Patricia Rozema, 2001)
Science Fiction/ Dystopian/ Philosophical
H. G. Wells (English, 1866-1946)
- The Time Machine (1895)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141439976
Aldous Huxley (English, 1894-1963)
/ Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 9780060776091
/ Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 9780061561795
George Orwell (English, 1903-50)
- Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780241416419
John Wyndham (English, 1903-69)
/ Penguin Modern Classics, 9780141181479
Albert Camus (French, 1913-60)
/ Ward translation, Vintage International, 9780679720201
Osamu Dazai (Japanese, 1909-48)
/ Keene translation, New Directions, 9780811204811
William Golding (English, 1911-93)
- Lord of the Flies (1954)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780399533372
Anthony Burgess (English, 1917-93)
- A Clockwork Orange (1962)
/ Norton Critical Edition, 9780393928099
Yukio Mishima (Japanese, 1925-1970)
- The Sailor Who Fell From Grace With The Sea (1963)
/ Nathan translation, Vintage Classics, 9780099284796
Frank Herbert (American, 1920-86)
/ Orion Pub. Co., 9780575070707
- Children of Dune (1976)
Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (Russian, 1925-91 and 1933-2012, respectively)
/ Bormashenko translation, Chicago Review Press, 9781613743416
Robert M. Pirsig (American, 1928-2017)
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values (1974)
/ 40th Anniversery Edition, Vintage, 9780099598169
Alan Moore (English, 1953- )
More philosophical novels (Listed in other sections above):
- Herman Melville, Moby-Dick; or, The Whale (1851)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780142437247
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment (1866)
/ Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, Vintage International, 9780679734505
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov (1880)
/ Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, FSG, 9780374528379
- Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina (1877)
/ Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, Penguin Classics, 9780140449174
- George Eliot, Middlemarch (1871-72)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780141439549
- Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890)
/ Norton Critical Editions, 9780393696875
- Thomas Mann, The Magic Mountain (1924)
/ Woods translation, Vintage International, 9780679772873
- Hermann Hesse, Narcissus and Goldmund (1930)
/ Molinaro translation, Picador, 9780312421670
- Hermann Hesse, The Glass Bead Game (1943)
/ Winston and Winston translation, Vintage Classics, 9780099283621
- Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita (written 1928-40, published 1967)
/ Pevear and Volokhonsky translation, Penguin Classics Deluxe, 9780143108276
- J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
/ Back Bay Books, 9780316769174
- Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952)
/ Vintage, 978-0679732761
- Kurt Vonnegut, Catâs Cradle (1963)
/ Dial Press, 9780385333481
- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
/ Dial Press, 9780385333849
- Saul Bellow, Herzog (1964)
/ Penguin Classics Deluxe, 9780143107675
- Iris Murdoch, The Black Prince (1973)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780142180112
- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian (1985)
/ Vintage International, 9780679728757
- David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest (1996)
/ Back Bay Books, 9780316066525
- The Time Machine (George Pal, 1960)
- A Clockwork Orange (Stanley Kubrick, 1971)
- Logan's Run (Michael Anderson, 1976)
- Invasion of the Body Snatchers (Philip Kaufman, 1978)
- Stalker (Screenplay loosely adapted from Roadside Picnic by the authors, directed by Andrei Tarkovsky, 1979)
- Blade Runner (Ridley Scott, 1982)
- The Matrix (Wachowskis, 1999)
- The Twilight Zone (Original Series, 1959)
"The Obsolete Man" (Season 2, Episode 29)
"It's a Good Life" (Season 3, Episode 8)
"Number Twelve Looks Just Like You" (Season 5, Episode 17)
Japanese Literature: 20th Century to Present
Natsume SĹseki (1867-1916)
/ Cohn translation, Penguin Classics, 9780141391885
/ Rubin translation with introduction by Haruki Murakami, Penguin Classics, 9780140455625
/ McKinney translation, Penguin Classics, 9780143106036
RyĹŤnosuke Akutagawa (1892-1927)
- Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories (1914-27)
/ Jay Rubin translation with introduction by Haruki Murakami, Penguin Classics, 9780140449709
Jun'ichirĹ Tanizaki (1886-1965)
- Seven Japanese Tales (1910-59)
/ Vintage International, 9780679761075
/ Vintage International, 9780375724749
/ Vintage Classics, 9780099485612
- Some Prefer Nettles (1929)
/ Vintage Classics, 9780099283379
- The Makioka Sisters (1943-48)
/ Vintage Classics, 9780749397104
Yasunari Kawabata (1899-1972)
- Snow Country (1935-37, 1947)
/ Vintage International, 9780679761044
- The Master of Go (1951)
- The Sound of the Mountain (1954)
/ Seidensticker translation, Vintage International, 9780679762645
- House of the Sleeping Beauties and Other Stories
/ Vintage International, 9780525434139
- Beauty and Sadness (1964)
- Palm-of-the-Hand Stories (1923-64)
/ FSG Classics, 9780374530495
/ Keene translation, New Directions, 9780811204811
- Life of a Counterfeiter (1965)
/ Emmerich translation, Pushkin Press, 9781782270027
- The Woman in the Dunes (1962)
/ Saunders translation, Vintage International, 9780679733782
- The Face of Another (1964)
/ Saunders translation, Vintage International, 9780375726538
/ Saunders translation, Vintage International, 9780375726521
/ Saunders translation, Vintage International, 9780375726514
- Death in Midsummer: And Other Stories (1953)
/ New Directions, 9780811201179
- The Temple of the Golden Pavilion (1956)
/ Morris translation, Vintage Classics, 9780099285670
- After the Banquet (1960)
/ Keene translation, 9780099282785
- The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea (1963)
/ Nathan translation, Vintage Classics, 9780099284796
- The Sea of Fertility tetralogy (written 1965-70):
/ Gallagher translation, Vintage International, 9780679722410
/ Gallagher translation, Vintage International, 9780679722403
3. The Temple of Dawn (1970)
/ Saunders and Segawa Seigle translation, Vintage International, 9780679722427
4. The Decay of the Angel (1971)
/ Seidensticker translation, Vintage International, 9780679722434
Persona: A Biography of Yukio Mishima, by Naoki Inose
/ Stone Bridge Press, 9781611720082
- A Personal Matter (1965)
/ Nathan translation, Grove Press, 9780802150615
/ Bester translation, Serpent's Tail Classics, 9781781255650
- Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World (1985)
/ Birnbaum translation, Vintage, 9780099448785
/ Rubin translation, Vintage, 9780099448822
- The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle (1994-5)
/ Rubin translation, Vintage International, 9780099448792
- Kafka on the Shore (2002)
/ Gabriel translation, Vintage International, 9780099458326
/ Rubin translation, Vintage, 9780099506249
/ Rubin and Gabriel translation, Vintage, 9780099578079
- Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (2013)
/ Gabriel translation, Vintage, 9780099590378
- The Elephant Vanishes (17 stories, 1980-91)
- Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman (24 stories, 1980-2005)
/ Vintage, Gabriel and Rubin translation, 9780099488668
- Birthday Stories (2002) (an anthology of stories featuring birthdays, by various authors including Raymond Carver, David Foster Wallace, and Murakami himself)
- Men Without Women (7 stories, 2013-14)
/ Gabriel and Goossen translation, Vintage, 9781101974520
Haruki Murakami: A Long, Long Interview, by Mieko Kawakami
- Almost Transparent Blue (1976)
- Coin Locker Babies (1980)
/ Pushkin Press, 9781908968470
/ Pushkin Press, 9781908968463
/ Bloomsbury, 9781408800720
Banana Yoshimoto (1964- )
/ Backus translation, Faber & Faber, 9780571342723
/ Emmerich translation, Faber & Faber, 9780571212842
/ Emmerich translation, Faber & Faber, 9780571205370
/ Sherif translation, Simon & Schuster, 9780671532765
/ Faber & Faber, 9780571193745
/ Asa Yoneda translation, Counterpoint, 9781640090156
- Strange Weather in Tokyo (2001)
/ Powell translation, Counterpoint, 9781640090163
- The Ten Loves of Nishino (2003)
/ Powell translation, Granta, 9781846276972
- The Diving Pool: Three Novellas (1990)Â
- Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales (1998)Â
- The Housekeeper and the Professor (2008)
- Ms. Ice Sandwich (2018)
/ Pushkin Press, 9781782273301
- Convenience Store Woman (2018)
- The Lonesome Bodybuilder (2018)Â
/ Asa Yoneda translation, Soft Skull Press, 9781593766788
- The Penguin Book of Japanese Short Stories (2018)
/ Edited by Jay Rubin, Penguin Classics, 9780241311905
Possible contexts for some of the works listed above:
Murasaki Shikibu (Lady Murasaki) (c. 973 or 978-1014 or 1031)
- The Tale of Genji (<1021)
/ Waley translation, Tuttle, 9784805310816
- The Tale of Genji: A Readerâs Guide, by William J. Puette
Miyamoto Musashi (1584-1645)
- The Book of Five Rings (1645)
/ Bennett translation, Tuttle, [paperback coming soon]
Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659-1719)
/ Bennett translation, Tuttle, 9784805311981
Nitobe InazĹ (1862-1933)
- Bushido: The Soul of Japan (1900)
/ Bennett translation, Tuttle, [paperback coming soon]
Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904)
/ Penguin Classics, 9780241381274
- An Introduction to Zen Buddhism (1934)
/ Grove Press, 9780802130556
Eugene Herrigel (1884-1955)
- Zen in the Art of Archery (1948)
ShunryĹŤ Suzuki (1904-71)
- Zen Mind, Beginnerâs Mind (1970)
/ Shambhala, 9781590308493
- Etiquette Guide to Japan: Know the Rules that Make the Difference!
- Japan: A Guide to Traditions, Customs and Etiquette: Kata as the Key to Understanding the Japanese
- The Japanese Mind: Understanding Contemporary Japanese Culture
- Japanese Culture: The Religious and Philosophical Foundations