The Iliad and The Odyssey, Homer (Robert Fagles translation)
The Histories, Herodotus (The Landmark Herodotus is highly recommended.)
The Peloponnesian War, Thucydides (The Landmark Thucydides is highly recommended.)
The Oresteia Trilogy, Aeschylus (Fagles translation)
The Theban Plays, Sophocles (Fagles translation)
Medea, Euripides
The Last Days of Socrates, Plato
The Republic, Plato
The Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle
Translation is VERY important, as my reading questions are keyed to line numbers in that particular translation.
Here is a link to the Ancient Greece book list on Amazon.
The Aeneid, Virgil (Robert Fitzgerald translation)
Early History of Rome, Livy
Annals, Tacitus
Plutarch’s Lives (selected chapters)
The Jugurthine War / Catilinarian Conspiracy, Sallust
The Church History, Eusebius (Paul Maier translation)
The Confessions, Augustine
Early Christian Fathers
On the Incarnation, Athanasius
The Consolation of Philosophy, Boethius
The translations have been chosen for their student friendliness and readability, but if you already have another translation, that will work as well.
Here is a link to the Ancient Rome book list on Amazon.
The Rule of St. Benedict
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People, Bede
Beowulf
Life of Charlemagne, Einhard
The Song of Roland
Chronicle of the Fourth Crusade, Villehardouin
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
The Canterbury Tales (selected stories), Chaucer
The Divine Comedy, Dante
The Shorter Summa, Peter Kreeft (selections)
The Prince, Machiavelli
Hamlet, Shakespeare
Henry V, Shakespeare
For most of the books, I have chosen the specific translation or edition for a reason: readability, valuable notes, or simply so the students will be in sync with specific passages alluded to in the reading guide they will receive. Please check with me before going with a different edition.
Here is a link to the Medieval book list on Amazon.
The Pilgrim's Progress, John Bunyan
Discourse on Method, Rene Descartes
Enlightenment and Great Awakening readings (provided for student)
Gulliver's Travels, Jonathan Swift
The Declaration of Independence and The Constitution
selected Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers
A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens
Frankenstein, Mary Shelley
Emma, Jane Austen
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain
Moby Dick, Herman Melville
Crime and Punishment, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Here is a link to the Modern book list on Amazon.
Mere Christianity
The Great Divorce
The Weight of Glory
Till We Have Faces
The Screwtape Letters
Out of the Silent Planet
Perelandra
That Hideous Strength