Harvard Classics Books

The Count of Monte Cristo

Alexandre Dumas

Revenge, murder, hidden treasure, and epic adventure! Dumas' masterpiece The Count of Monte Cristo details the wrongful imprisonment of the young sailor Edmond Dantes, a character whose transformation..

Ulysses

James Joyce

James Joyce's Ulysses is a conundrum of a book: some say it's unreadable stream-of-conscious gobbledegook, while others claim it to be the best book ever written. The 900 page work details a single da..

Alice in Wonderland

Lewis Carroll

Alice in Wonderland-the classic tale of "literary nonsense"-was enjoyed by everyone from the stodgy Queen Victoria to the salacious Oscar Wilde. Images have remained in the zeitgeist since its creatio..

Leaves of Grass

Walt Whitman

Leaves of Grass is a collection of poems by Walt Whitman, which was self-published in 1855. It has its origins in an essay written by Ralph Waldo Emerson 10 years earlier titled The Poet, which called..

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain

When Henry Miller was asked if there could be a sequel to Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass, he replied "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." His seemingly odd response suggests the pure American-ness of Twa..

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Mark Twain

This is the classic tale of Boy meets Girl, Boy loses Girl, Boy runs off with Huckleberry Finn. The characters in Twain's Adventures of Tom Sawyer are composites of his actual childhood friends, throw..

The Analects of Confucius

Confucius

The Analects are a record of the deeds and wisdom of China's primary philosopher Confucius, who lived during the 5th century BC. Much like Socrates, whose wisdom was later recorded by Plato, Confucius..

Collected Works of Poe

Edgar Allan Poe

As a storywriter and poet, Edgar Allan Poe was master of the macabre and one of America's great literary geniuses. His collection of poems, short stories, and literary criticism not only helped define..