The Great Books of the Western World Collection
25th Anniversary Edition
Franklin Library - Limited Edition - 96 Volumes
This is arguably the best collection that the Franklin Library ever published. Issued from 1978 to 1985, this is a stunning 96 Volume collection of the finest works that built the groundwork for western civilization. The “Great Books of the Western World” is a series of books originally published in the United States in 1952 by the Encyclopedia Britannica in an attempt to present the western canon in a single package. The project got its start at the University of Chicago. University president Robert Hutchins collaborated with Mortimer Adler to develop a course, generally aimed at businessmen, for the purpose of filling in gaps in education, to make one more well-rounded and familiar with the Great Books and ideas of the past three millennia. Among the original students was William Benton future US Senator and then CEO of the Encyclopedia Britannica. It was he who proposed a series of books presenting the greatest works of the canon, complete and unabridged, to be edited by Hutchins and Adler and published by the Encyclopedia Britannica. Franklin Library licensed the rights to publish the collection and brought its own unique style and bookmaking talents to the project. These books feature all the usual Franklin Library fineries including full leather covers, silk moire endpapers, gold gilding and gilting, and satin bookmarks. In my opinion, this is the one of the best collections that the Franklin Library ever produced. The collection is approximately 13 feet of shelf space that will surely be a great addition to your home library.
The following is a list of the books in the collection:
Syntopicon (three volume guide to The Great Books)
Homer - The Odyssey (1978)
Homer - The Iliad (1979)
Aeschylus - Complete Plays (1978)
Sophocles - Plays (1980)
Euripides - Plays, Volume One (1983)
Euripides - Plays, Volume Two (1984)
Aristophanes - Plays, Volume One (1982)
Aristophanes - Plays, Volume Two (1982)
Herodotus - The History of Herodotus (1984)
Thucydides - The History of the Peloponnesian War (1978)
Plato - The Works of Plato, Volume One (1979)
Plato - The Works of Plato, Volume Two (1981)
Plato - The Works of Plato, Volume One (1983)
Aristotle - Volume One (1978)
Aristotle - Volume Two (1979)
Aristotle - Volume Three (1982)
Aristotle - Volume Four (1984)
Hippocrates and Galen (1979)
Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius and Nicomachus (1985)
Lucretius, Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius (1981)
Virgil - The Aeneid (1980)
Virgil - The Eclogues and The Georgics (1981)
Plutarch - The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans I (1979)
Plutarch - The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans II (1980)
Plutarch - The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans III (1981)
Plutarch - The Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans IV (1981)
Tacitus - The Annals and The Histories (1979)
Ptolemy, Copernicus and Kepler (1985)
Plotinus - The Enneads (1983)
Saint Augustine - The Confessions of Saint Augustine (1980)
Saint Augustine - The City of God and On Christian Doctrine (1985)
Saint Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologica I (1985)
Saint Thomas Aquinas - Summa Theologica II (1985)
Dante - The Divine Comedy (1978)
Geoffrey Chaucer - Troilus and Cressida (1982)
Geoffrey Chaucer - The Canterbury Tales (two volumes) (1983)
Machiavelli and Hobbes - Political Writings (1983)
François Rabelais - Gargantua and Pantagruel I (1979)
François Rabelais - Gargantua and Pantagruel II (1979)
Montaigne - Book One (1979)
Montaigne - Book Two (1979)
Montaigne - Book Three (1980)
William Shakespeare - Volume One (early history plays) (1978)
William Shakespeare - Volume Two (early comedies and tragedies) (1979)
William Shakespeare - Volume Three (later plays) (1979)
William Shakespeare - Volume Four (later plays) (1980)
William Shakespeare - Volume Five (later plays) (1981)
William Shakespeare - Volume Six (tragedies) (1982)
William Shakespeare - Volume Seven (sonnets and last plays) (1983)
Gilbert, Galileo and Harvey (1984)
Cervantes - Don Quixote de la Mancha I (1978)
Cervantes - Don Quixote de la Mancha II (a sequel) (1982)
Sir Francis Bacon - Selected Writings (1980)
Descartes and Spinoza (1982
John Milton - Poetry and Prose (1978)
Pascal - Provincial Letters, Pensées and Scientific Treatises (1984)
Newton and Huygens (1985)
Locke, Berkeley and Hume (1984)
Jonathan Swift - Gulliver's Travels (1982)
Laurence Sterne - Tristram Shandy (1983)
Henry Fielding - Tom Jones (two volumes) (1981)
Charles de Montesquieu - The Spirit of Laws (1984)
Jean Jacques Rousseau - Selected Writings (1982)
Adam Smith - The Wealth of Nations (1978)
Edward Gibbon - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volumes 1 and 2 (1980)
Edward Gibbon - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volumes 3 and 4 (1981)
Edward Gibbon - The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volumes 5 and 6 (1982)
Kant and Hegel (1985)
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison and John Jay - The Federalist (1980)
John Stuart Mill - Political Writings (1981)
James Boswell - The Life of Samuel Johnson (three volumes) (1983)
Lavoisier, Fourier and Faraday (1985)
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - Faust (1978)
Herman Melville - Moby-Dick (two volumes) (1980)
Charles Darwin - The Origin of Species (1978)
Charles Darwin - The Descent of Man (1980)
Marx and Engels - Capital and The Manifesto of the Communist Party (1984)
Leo Tolstoy - War and Peace (three volumes) (1984)
Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky - The Brothers Karamazov (1978)
William James - The Principles of Psychology (1985)
Sigmund Freud - The Major Works, Volume One (1981)
Sigmund Freud - The Major Works, Volume Two (1982)
Sigmund Freud - The Major Works, Volume Three (1983)
The overall condition of the collection is Near Fine+ to Fine with some volumes having some sunning to the spine. The books look wonderful as you can see from the photographs and appear to be unread. This is a great opportunity to purchase a complete set of one of the finest leather bound collections ever published at a fantastic price. The price includes free shipping by USPS Media Mail with delivery confirmation.
Photographs of the complete collection as well as numerous books contained in the collection appear below. Please note that although the photographs appear digitized as thumbnails, they are viewable in the photo viewer by clicking the thumbnail.
