The Epic of Gilgamesh
Anonymous · Ancient · Epic poetry
Canon tier guide
Essential core
Explore 153 works associated with Essential core in The Western Canon. This page is generated from reviewed catalog classifications and links directly to each featured work.
Featured works
The Hebrew Bible / Old Testament
Multiple authors · Ancient · Scripture, poetry, history
The Oresteia
Aeschylus · Ancient · Tragedy
Antigone
Sophocles · Ancient · Tragedy
The Histories
Herodotus · Ancient · History
Medea
Euripides · Ancient · Tragedy
Oedipus the King
Sophocles · Ancient · Tragedy
The Bacchae
Euripides · Ancient · Tragedy
History of the Peloponnesian War
Thucydides · Ancient · History, political thought
Apology
Plato · Ancient · Philosophy, dialogue
Symposium
Plato · Ancient · Philosophy, dialogue
The Republic
Plato · Ancient · Philosophy
Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle · Ancient · Philosophy
Politics
Aristotle · Ancient · Political philosophy
Poetics
Aristotle · Ancient · Literary criticism
Elements
Euclid · Ancient · Mathematics
Parallel Lives
Plutarch · Ancient · Biography, history
The New Testament
Multiple authors · Ancient · Scripture, theology
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius · Ancient · Philosophy
The Enneads
Plotinus · Late Antiquity · Philosophy
Confessions
Augustine of Hippo · Late Antiquity · Autobiography, theology
The City of God
Augustine of Hippo · Late Antiquity · Theology, political thought
The Consolation of Philosophy
Boethius · Medieval · Philosophy, dialogue
Beowulf
Anonymous · Medieval · Epic poetry
Summa Theologiae
Aquinas, Thomas · Medieval · Theology / philosophy
The Divine Comedy
Dante Alighieri · Medieval · Epic, allegory
The Decameron
Giovanni Boccaccio · Medieval / Renaissance · Story collection
The Canterbury Tales
Geoffrey Chaucer · Medieval · Story collection, poetry
The Prince
Niccolò Machiavelli · Renaissance · Political philosophy
Utopia
Thomas More · Renaissance · Political fiction
Discourses on Livy
Niccolò Machiavelli · Renaissance · Political philosophy
Institutes of the Christian Religion
John Calvin · Reformation · Theology
Essays
Michel de Montaigne · Renaissance · Essays
Hamlet
William Shakespeare · Early Modern · Tragedy
Othello
William Shakespeare · Early Modern · Tragedy
Don Quixote
Miguel de Cervantes · Early Modern · Novel
King Lear
William Shakespeare · Early Modern · Tragedy
Macbeth
William Shakespeare · Early Modern · Tragedy
The Tempest
William Shakespeare · Early Modern · Romance, drama
Discourse on Method
René Descartes · Early Modern · Philosophy
Meditations on First Philosophy
René Descartes · Early Modern · Philosophy
Leviathan
Thomas Hobbes · Early Modern · Political philosophy
Paradise Lost
John Milton · Early Modern · Epic poetry
Pensées
Blaise Pascal · Early Modern · Philosophy, theology
Ethics
Baruch Spinoza · Early Modern · Philosophy
Principia Mathematica / Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy
Isaac Newton · Enlightenment · Science, mathematics
Two Treatises of Government
John Locke · Enlightenment · Political philosophy
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
John Locke · Enlightenment · Philosophy
Robinson Crusoe
Daniel Defoe · Enlightenment · Novel
Gulliver’s Travels
Jonathan Swift · Enlightenment · Satirical fiction
A Treatise of Human Nature
David Hume · Enlightenment · Philosophy
Candide
Voltaire · Enlightenment · Satirical novella
The Social Contract
Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Enlightenment · Political philosophy
The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin · Enlightenment / Founding · Autobiography
The Wealth of Nations
Adam Smith · Enlightenment · Economics
The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Edward Gibbon · Enlightenment · History
Critique of Pure Reason
Immanuel Kant · Enlightenment · Philosophy
Confessions
Jean-Jacques Rousseau · Enlightenment · Autobiography
Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals
Immanuel Kant · Enlightenment · Ethics
The Federalist Papers
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, John Jay · Enlightenment / Founding · Political thought
This topic contains 153 cataloged works. Use the interactive catalog to search and filter the complete collection.