1. Summa Theologica, by Thomas Aquinas. Written c1265-1273."The Summa Theologica...is the most famous work of Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225–1274) although it was never finished. It was intended as a manual for beginners as a compilation of all of the main theological teachings of that time. It summarizes the reasonings for almost all points of Christian theology in the West, which, before the Protestant Reformation, subsisted solely in the Roman Catholic Church. The Summa's topics follow a cycle: the existence of God, God's creation, Man, Man's purpose, Christ, the Sacraments, and back to God. It is famous for its five arguments for the existence of God, the Quinquae viae (Latin: five ways). Throughout his work, Aquinas cites Augustine, Aristotle, and other Christian, Jewish and even Muslim and ancient pagan scholars." - Wikipedia.
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2. The Divine Comedy, by Dante Alghieri. Written c1308-1321.
"The Divine Comedy (Italian: Commedia, later christened "Divina" by Giovanni Boccaccio), written by Dante Alighieri between 1308 and his death in 1321, is widely considered the central epic poem of Italian literature, and is seen as one of the greatest works of world literature. The poem's imaginative and allegorical vision of the Christian afterlife is a culmination of the medieval world-view as it had developed in the Western Church." - Wikipedia. See also The Princeton Dante Project.
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3. Don Quixote, by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra. Part 1 - 1605. Part 2 - 1615.
"Don Quixote..., fully titled El ingenioso hidalgo don Quijote de la Mancha ('The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote of La Mancha') is an early novel written by Spanish author Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra...The protagonist, Alonso Quixano, is a country gentleman who has read so many stories of chivalry that he descends into fantasy and becomes convinced he is a knight errant. Together with his earthy squire Sancho Panza, the self-styled 'Don Quixote de la Mancha' sets out in search of adventure. The 'lady' for whom Quixote seeks to toil is Dulcinea del Toboso, an imaginary object crafted from a neighbouring farmgirl...by the illusion-struck 'knight' to be the object of his courtly love. ...Don Quixote is the most influential work of literature to emerge from the Spanish Golden Age and perhaps the entire Spanish literary canon. As a founding work of modern Western literature, it regularly appears at the top of lists of the greatest works of fiction ever published." - Wikipedia.
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4. Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies by William Shakespeare. Written 1590-1613. Published 1623.
"William Shakespeare (baptised 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616)[a] was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the 'Bard of Avon'... His surviving works consist of 38 plays, 154 sonnets, two long narrative poems, and several other poems. His plays have been translated into every major living language, and are performed more often than those of any other playwright." - Wikipedia.
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5. Candide, by Voltaire. 1759.
"Candide, ou l'Optimisme (1759) is a French satire ...[which]....tells the tale of a young man, Candide (meaning 'ingenuous'), who has been indoctrinated with Leibnizian optimism but becomes disillusioned after witnessing and experiencing many great hardships. With a plot similar to that of a more serious picaresque novel or bildungsroman, Candide parodies many adventure and romance clichés, and the plights of the characters are described in a tone which is mordantly matter-of-fact. Through the allegory of Candide, Voltaire pokes fun at religion and theologians, governments and armies, philosophies and philosophers; most visibly, Voltaire rails against Leibniz and his Optimism. Voltaire's magnum opus, [Candide] is a literary work which, for its biting wit and insightful portrayal of the human condition, has often been mimicked by later authors and adapted for the stage (the most notable of which is Leonard Bernstein's 1956 comic operetta)." - Wikipedia.
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6. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, by Edward Gibbon. 1776-1788.
"The History of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is a major literary achievement of the 18th century...written by English historian Edward Gibbon and published in six volumes...The books cover the period of the Roman Empire after Marcus Aurelius, from just before 180 to 1453 and beyond, concluding in 1590. They take as their material the behaviour and decisions that led to the decay and eventual fall of the Roman Empire in the East and West, offering an explanation for why the Roman Empire fell...By virtue of its mostly objective approach and highly accurate use of reference material, Gibbon's work was adopted as a model for the methodologies of 19th and 20th century historians. His pessimism and detached use of irony was common to the historical genre of his era." - Wikipedia.
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7. War and Peace, by Leo Tolstoy. Written 1865-1869..
"War and Peace ... is a novel by Leo Tolstoy...which tells the story of Russian society during the Napoleonic Era. It is usually described as one of Tolstoy's two major masterpieces (the other being Anna Karenina) as well as one of the world's greatest novels. War and Peace offered a new kind of fiction, with a great many characters caught up in a plot that covered nothing less than the grand subjects indicated by the title, combined with the equally large topics of youth, marriage, age, and death." - Wikipedia.
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8. The Possessed, by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. 18871-1872.
"An extremely political book, The Possessed is a testimonial of life in Imperial Russia in the late 19th century. As the revolutionary democrats begin to rise in Russia, different ideologies begin to collide. Dostoevsky casts a critical eye on both the left-wing idealists, exposing their ideas and ideological foundation as demonic, and the conservative establishment's ineptitude in dealing with those ideas and their social consequences." - Wikipedia.
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9. Remembrance of Things Past, by Marcel Proust. 1913-1927.
"In Search of Lost Time or Remembrance of Things Past (French: À la recherche du temps perdu) ... is a semi-autobiographical novel in seven volumes by Marcel Proust. His most prominent work, it is popularly known for its extended length and the notion of involuntary memory... In it, Proust explores the themes of time, space, and memory, but the novel is above all a condensation of innumerable literary, structural, stylistic, and thematic possibilities." - Wikipedia.
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10. Ulysses, by James Joyce. 1922.
"Ulysses chronicles the passage through Dublin by its main character, Leopold Bloom, during an ordinary day, June 16, 1904. The title alludes to the hero of Homer's Odyssey (Latinised into Ulysses), and there are many parallels, both implicit and explicit, between the two works (e.g., the correspondences between Leopold Bloom and Odysseus, Molly Bloom and Penelope, and Stephen Dedalus and Telemachus). Ulysses's groundbreaking stream-of-consciousness technique, careful structuring, and highly experimental prose—full of puns, parodies, and allusions—as well as its rich characterizations and broad humour, have made the book perhaps the most highly regarded novel in the Modernist pantheon." - Wikipedia.
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2 comments:
If you are talking about Millennium, I'd suggest you to modify your title to "Ten Greatest European Works". The domination of European civilization occurred mainly after 1500s and I would be very surprised if not even a single work from numerous other civilization can be ranked into the top ones, in a time frame of 1000 years. To say less that you are talking about Literature, which is a highly subjective issue.
Alpha, John Updike called his list the ten greatest works of literature from the second millennium. Your title would be more apropos. What books would you recommend to represent the richness of world literature?
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