The Thousand Good Books

An Incomplete List; by John Senior

This is a book list written and published by the late, great, John Senior. I am simply republishing it here for your convenience and enjoyment. If you would like to read John Senior’s introduction and explanation of this catalogue, you can find it in the appendix of his book The Death of Christian Culture, linked here.

John Senior; Author and Professor of Humanities (1923-1999)

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THE NURSERY (Ages 2 – 7)

Literary experience begins for very young children with someone reading aloud while they look at the pictures. But they can begin to read the simplest stories which they already love at an early age.

1. Aesop

   1. Aesop’s Fables (The translation by Robert L’Estrange is the classic)

2. Andersen, Hans Christian

   1. Christine’s Picture Book

   2. A Christmas Greeting: A Series of Stories

   3. Fairy Tales

3. Arabian Nights (There are two classic translations, one expurgated for children by Andrew Lang, the other complete by Richard Burton)

4. Belloc, Hilaire

   1. The Bad Child’s Book of Beasts

5. Caldecott, Randolph

   1. Picture Books, 16 little volumes (published by Frederick Warne)

6. Collodi, Carlo (Carlo Lorenzini)

   1. Pinocchio

7. Carroll, Lewis (preferably illustrated by Tenniel)

   1. Alice in Wonderland

   2. Through the Looking Glass

8. De la Mare, Walter

   1. Come Hither (the best anthology of poetry for “children of all ages”)

   2. Songs of Childhood.

9. Edgeworth, Maria

   1. The Parent’s Assistant

   2. Moral Tales

10. Ewing, Juliana

    1. Jackanapes

11. Gesta Romanorum (Translated by Swann [scholarly facsimiles])

12. Grahame, Kenneth

    1. Wind in the Willows

13. Greenaway, Kate (Frederick Warne)

    1. Apple Pie

    2. Birthday Book

    3. Marigold Garden

    4. Mother Goose

    5. Under the Window

    6. The Language of Flowers

14. Grimm

    1. Household Stories (Illustrated by Walter Crane [Dover facsimiles])

15. Harris, Joel Chandler

    1. Uncle Remus

16. Kingsley, Charles

    1. Water Babies

17. Kipling, Rudyard

    1. Just So Stories

    2. Jungle Book

18. Lamb, Charles

    1. Beauty and the Beast

    2. Tales from Shakespeare

19. Lang, Andrew

    1. Blue Book of Fairies and other colors — five volumes (best illustrated by H.J. Ford [Dover facsimile])

20. Lear, Edward

    1. ABC (illustrated by Lear)

    2. Nonsense Omnibus (Illustrated by Lear [Warnel]).

    3. The Pobble Who Has No Toes

    4. The Quangle Wangles Hat

21. Lofting, Hugh

    1. Dr. Doolittle’s Circus and others in the series

22. Milne, A.A.

    1. Winnie the Pooh

    2. The House at Pooh Corner

    3. Now We Are Six

    4. Once On a Time

    5. Prince Rabbit

23. Mother Goose (Dover facsimiles – illustrated by Rackham; Viking Press)

24. Perrault, Charles

    1. Fairy Tales (Illustrated by Dore [Dover])

25. Potter, Beatrix:

    1. Peter Rabbit and 23 little volumes, ll illustrated by Potter

26. Stevenson, Robert Louis

    1. A Child’s Garden of Verses (Scribner’s)

SCHOOL DAYS (Ages 7 – 12)

1. Adams, Andy

   1. Cattle Brands

   2. Log of a Cowboy (Illustrated by N.C. Wyeth)

   3. The Outlet

   4. Why the Chisholm Trail Forks, and other tales of the cattle country

2. Alcott, Louisa May

   1. Little Women

   2. Little Men

   3. Jo’s Boys, and how they turned out

   4. Aunt Jo’s Scrap-Bag (6 vols.)

   5. An Old Fashioned Girl

   6. Eight Cousins; or, The Aunt Hill

   7. A Free Bed

   8. Rose in Bloom (a sequel to Eight Cousins)

   9. Flower Fables

   10. Hospital Sketches, and Camp and Fireside Stories

   11. Jack and Jill; a Village Story

   12. Lulu’s Library (3 vol. collection of stories)

   13. Moods

   14. Morning-glories

   15. On Picket Duty

   16. Silver Pitchers and Independence, a Centennial Love Story

   17. Spinning-Wheel Stories

   18. Three Proverb Stories — Kitty’s Class Day, Aunt Kipp, Psyche’s Art

   19. Under the Lilacs

   20. Work: A Story of Experience

3. Aldrich, Thomas Bailey

   1. An Old Town by the Sea

   2. The Ballad of Baby Bell, and other poems

   3. Cloth of Gold, and other poems

   4. The Course of True Love Never Did Run Smooth

   5. Daisy’s Necklace: and What Came of It

   6. Flower and Thorn, later poems

   7. Friar Jerome’s Beautiful Book

   8. The Little Violinist

   9. Marjorie Daw

   10. Story of a Bad Boy

   11. A Midnight Fantasy

   12. Miss Mehetable’s Son

   13. Our New Neighbors at Ponkapog

   14. Poems of T.B. Aldrich

   15. The Stillwater Tragedy

   16. Two Bites at a Cherry, with other tales

4. Belloc, Hilaire

   1. Cautionary Tales for Children (designed for the admonition of children between the ages of 8 and 14)

5. Browning, Robert

   1. The Pied Piper of Hamelin (Illustrated by Kate Greenaway [Warne])

6. Burnett, Francis Hodgson

   1. The Secret Garden

   2. Little Lord Fauntleroy

7. Burroughs, Edgar Rice

   1. Apache Devil

   2. Back to the Stone Age

   3. Chessman of Mars

   4. John carter of Mars

   5. Jungle Tales of Tarzan

   6. Tales of Three Planets

   7. Tarzan series

8. Cooper, James Fenimore

   1. Afloat and Ashore

   2. The Bravo

   3. The Chainbearer

   4. The Crater

   5. The Deerslayer

   6. The Headsman

   7. The Heidenmauer

   8. Home as Found

   9. Homeward Bound

   10. Jack Tier

   11. The Last of the Mohicans

   12. Lionel Lincoln

   13. Mercedes of Castile

   14. Miles Wallingford

   15. The Monikins

   16. The Oak Openings

   17. The Path Finder

   18. The Pioneers

   19. The Pilot

   20. The Prairie

   21. Precaution

   22. The Red Rover

   23. The Redskins

   24. Satan’s Toe

   25. The Sea Lions

   26. The Two Admirals

   27. The Water-Witch

   28. The Ways of the Hour

   29. The Wing and Wing

   30. The Wept of Wish-ton-wish Wyandotte

9. Cowper, William

   1. John Gilpin’s Ride (illustrated by Caldecott [Warne])

10. Dana, Richard Henry

    1. Two Years Before the Mast

11. Defoe, Daniel

    1. Robinson Crusoe

12. Dickens, Charles

    1. A Christmas Carol

    2. Cricket on the Hearth

    3. David Copperfield

    4. Oliver Twist (These last two may be reserved for adolescents or reread)

13. Dodge, Mary Mapes

    1. Hans Brinker

14. Garland, Hamlin

    1. The Light of the Star

    2. The Long Trail

    3. Main-Traveled Roads

    4. Prairie Folks

    5. Son of the Middle Border

    6. The Spirit of Sweetwater

15. Hawthorne, Nathaniel

    1. Tanglewood Tales

16. Henty, George Alfred

    1. A hundred “Boys’ Books”

17. Irving, Washington

    1. Sketch Book

18. James, Will (illustrated by James [Scribner’s])

    1. Smoky

    2. Lone Cowboy

    3. Book of Cowboys

19. Kingsley, Charles

    1. Westward Ho

20. Kipling, Rudyard

    1. Captains Courageous

    2. Stalky and Co. (Illustrated by Miller)

    3. Kim

21. Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth

    1. Hiawatha

    2. Evangeline

22. MacDonald, George

    1. The Princess and Curdie

    2. The Princess and the Goblin

23. Marryat, Frederick

    1. Mr. Midshipman Easy

    2. Masterman Ready

24. Masefield, John

    1. Jim Davis

25. Pyle, Howard

    1. Robin Hood (illustrated by Pyle [Dover])

    2. Otto of the Silver Hand

26. Sewell, Anna

    1. Black Beauty

27. Shakespeare

    1. Comedy of Errors

28. Spyri, Johanna

    1. Chell

    2. Heidi

29. Stevenson, Robert Louis (illustrated by N.C. Wyeth)

    1. Across the Plains

    2. From Clyde to Sandy Hook

    3. Kidnapped

    4. The Silverado Squatters

    5. Treasure Island

30. Stowe, Harriet Beecher

    1. Uncle Tom’s Cabin

31. Stratton-Porter, Gene

    1. At the Foot of the Rainbow

    2. A Daughter of the Land

    3. Freckles

    4. A Girl of the Limberlost

    5. The Harvester

    6. Her Father’s Daughter

    7. The Magic Garden

    8. Michael O’Halloran

32. Tarkington, Booth

    1. Penrod, and others in the series

33. Til Eulenspiegel translated by Mackenzie

34. Twain, Mark

    1. Tom Sawyer

    2. Huckleberry Finn

    3. The Prince and the Pauper – but not Connecticut Yankee and later novels

35. Verne, Jules

    1. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

    2. 800 Leagues on the Amazon

    3. Around the World in 80 Days

    4. Caesar Cascabel

    5. From the Earth to the Moon

    6. Hector Servadac

    7. Journey into the Interior of the Earth

    8. The Lighthouse at the End of the World

    9. Mysterious Island

    10. On the Track

    11. Voyages and Adventures of Captain Hatteras

36. Wilder, Laura Ingalls

    1. Little House in the Big Woods

    2. Little House on the Prairie

    3. Farmer Boy

    4. On the Banks of Plum Creek

    5. By the Shores of Silver Lake

    6. The Long Winter

    7. Little Town on the Prairie

    8. These Happy Golden Years

37. Wister, Owen

    1. Indispensable Information for Infants

38. Wyss, Johann

    1. Swiss Family Robinson

    2. Willis the Pilot

ADOLESCENCE (Ages 12 – 16)

1. Andersen, Hans Christian

   1. Pictures of Travel in Sweden, Among the Hartz Mountains, and in Switzerland

2. Brontë, Charlotte

   1. Jane Eyre

   2. Wuthering Heights

3. Collins, Wilkie

   1. After Dark, and others

4. Dampier, William

   1. A Voyage Round the World

5. Daudet, Alphonse

   1. Fromont Jeune

   2. Tartarin

6. Dickens, Charles

   1. Barnaby Rudge

   2. Nicholas Nickleby

   3. The Old Curiosity Shop

7. Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan

   1. The Lost World

   2. Sherlock Holmes (series)

   3. White Company

8. Dumas, Alexandre

   1. The Black Tulip

   2. Three Musketeers

   3. Twenty Years After

   4. The Whites and the Blues

9. Du Maurier, George

   1. George Trilby

10. Eliot, George

    1. Adam Bede

    2. Middlemarch

    3. Mill on the Floss

    4. Romola

    5. Silas Marner

11. Eggleston, Edward

    1. Brant and Red Jacket

    2. The Circuit Rider

    3. Duffles

    4. The Graysons

    5. The Hossier School-Boy

    6. The Hossier Schoolmaster

12. Fabre, Henri

    1. selections from Souvenirs Entymologiques

13. Gray, Zane

    1. The Call of the Cnayon

    2. Desert Gold

    3. The Desert of Wheat

    4. Fighting Caravans

    5. The Last of the Plainsmen

    6. The Last Trail

    7. Nevada

    8. Riders of the Purple Sage

14. Haggard, H. Rider (Henry Rider)

    1. Allan and the Holy Flower

    2. Allan’s Wife, and Other Tales

    3. Allan Quatermain

    4. Ayesha

    5. Child of the Storm

    6. Colonel Quartich, V.C.

    7. Dr. Therne

    8. Joan Haste

    9. King Solomon’s Mines

    10. Montezuma’s Daughter

    11. The People of the Mist

    12. She

    13. Treasure of the Lake

15. Hughes, Thomas

    1. Tom Brown’s School Days

    2. Tom Brown at Oxford

16. Hugo, Victor

    1. Les Miserables

    2. Hundback of Notre Dame

    3. Quatre-vingt-treize

17. Ibanez, Blasco

    1. Blood and Sand

    2. Four Hourseman of the Apocalypse

18. Irving, Washington

    1. The Alhambra

    2. Tales

19. Kingsley, Charles

    1. Hereward, the Wake

20. Le Sage, Alain

    1. Gil Blas

21. MacDonald, George

    1. Lilith

22. Park, Mungo

    1. Travels in Africa

23. Parkman, Francis

    1. Oregon Trail

24. Poe, Edgar Allen

    1. Tales and Poems

25. Polo, Marco

    1. Travels

26. Reade, Charles

    1. The Cloister and the Hearth

27. Rhodes, Eugene

    1. Best Novels, and Stories (edited by Dobie)

28. Scott, Sir Walter

    1. Ivanhoe

    2. Kenilworth

    3. Rob Roy

    4. The Talisman

29. Shakespeare, William

    1. Merchant of Venice

    2. Midsummer Night’s Dream

    3. Romeo and Juliet

30. Shelley, Mary

    1. Frankenstein

31. Sienkiewicz, Henryk

    1. With Fire and Sword

    2. Quo Vadis

32. Stevenson, Robert Louis

    1. The Master of Ballantrae

    2. Prince Otto

    3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

33. Swift, Jonathan

    1. Gulliver’s Travels

34. Wallace, Edgar

    1. Sanders of the River

    2. Again Sanders

    3. Bones (Further Adventures in Mr. Commissioner Sanders’ Country)

    4. Bosambo of the River

    5. Diana of Kara-Kara

    6. The Double

    7. Four Just Men

    8. The Girl from Scotland Yard

    9. The Man Who Knew

    10. The People of the River

    11. The Sinister Man

35. Wells, H.G.

    1. The First Men in the Moon

    2. The Food of the gods

    3. In the Days of the Comet

    4. The Invisible Man

    5. The Island of Dr. Moreau

    6. The Time Machine

    7. The War of the Worlds

36. Wister, Owen

    1. The Dragon of Wantley

    2. The Jimmyjohn Boss and Other Stories

    3. Lady Baltimore

    4. Lin McLean

    5. Members of the Family

    6. The Virginian

Youth (ages 16-20)

1. Andersen, Hans Chistian

   1. The Fairy Tale of My Life: An Autobiography

2. Austen, Jane

   1. Emma

   2. Lady Susan

   3. Mansfield Park

   4. Northanger Abbey

   5. Persuasion

   6. Pride and Prejudice

   7. Sense and Sensibility

   8. The Watsons

3. Balzac, Honoré de

   1. The Cabinet of Antiquities

   2. Père Goriot

   3. Ursule Mirouët

   4. Other Stories

4. Bellamy, Edward

   1. The Blindman’s World and Other Stories

   2. The Duke of Stockbridge

   3. Looking Backward

   4. Equality (A Sequel to Looking Backward)

5. Belloc, Hilaire

   1. The Cruise of the “Nona” – and many others

6. Bernanos, Georges

   1. Diary of a Country Priest

   2. A Diary of my Times

   3. The Fearless Heart

   4. Joy

   5. Last Essays

7. Blackmore, Richard Dodridge

   1. Cripps, The Carrier

   2. Lorna Doone

   3. A Tale of the South Downs

8. Borrows, George

   1. The Bible in Spain

   2. Lavengro

   3. Romany Rye (a sequel to Lavengro)

9. Brontë, Charlotte

   1. Jane Eyre

10. Buchanan, John

    1. A Book of Escapes and Hurried Journeys (A Collection of Stories)

    2. Castle Gay

    3. The Courts of the Morning

    4. The Free Fishers

    5. The Gap in the Curtain

    6. Greemantle

    7. The House of the Four Winds

    8. Huntingtower

    9. Jon MacNab

    10. A Lodge in the Wildnerness

    11. Midwinter

    12. Mr. Standfast

    13. The Three Hostages

    14. The Thirty-Nine Steps

11. Butler, Samuel

    1. Erewhon

    2. The Way of All Flesh

12. Cabell, James Branch

    1. Chivalry

    2. Gallantry

    3. Jurgen

    4. The Silver Stallion

13. Cable, George Washington

    1. The Cavalier

    2. Old Creole Days

    3. Kincaid’s Battery

14. Cather, Willa

    1. Death Comes for the Archbishop

    2. My Antonia

    3. Shadows on the Rock

15. Chekhov, Anton

    1. Stories and Plays

16. Chesterton, G.K.

    1. Everlasting Man

    2. Father Brown Series

    3. A Man Called Thursday

17. Columbus, Christopher

    1. Four Voyages to the New World

18. Conrad, Joseph

    1. Almayer’s Folly

    2. An Outcast of the Islands

    3. The Arrow of Gold

    4. Lord Jim

    5. Nostromo

    6. The Rescue

    7. A Set of Six

    8. Twixt Land and Sea

    9. Typhoon

    10. Victory

19. Cook, James

    1. Captain Hook’s Explorations

20. DeMaupassant, Guy

    1. Stories

21. Dickens, Charles

    1. Bleak House

    2. Martin Chuzzlewit

    3. Our Mutual Friend

22. Dostoyevsky, Fyodor

    1. Brothers Karamazov

    2. Crime and Punishment

23. Doughty, Charles

    1. Travels in Arabian Deserts

24. Fielding, Henry

    1. Jonathan Wilde

    2. Tom Jones

25. Hakluyt, Richard

    1. Voyages to the New World

26. Hawkins, Anthony Hope

    1. Captain Dieppe

    2. A Change of Air

    3. Double Harness

    4. Half a Hero

    5. The King’s Mirror

    6. A Man of Mark

    7. The Prisoner of Zenda

    8. Rupert of Hentzau

    9. Simon Dale

    10. The Secret of the Tower

    11. Tristram of Blent

27. Hawthorne, Nathaniel

    1. The House of Seven Gables

    2. The Scarlet Letter – and others

28. Hudson, W.H.

    1. Green Mansions

    2. The Purple Land

29. Irving, Washington

    1. Conquest of Granada

    2. Life of Columbus

    3. Life of George Washington

30. Jackson, Helen Hunt

    1. Ramona

31. Lagelof, Selma

    1. Gösta Berling

    2. Jerusalem

32. Loti, Pierre (Louis Marie Julien Viaud)

    1. An Iceland Fisherman

    2. India (Without the English)

    3. On Life’s By-Ways

33. Manzonoi, Alessando

    1. The Betrothed

34. Melville, Herman

    1. Billy Budd

    2. Moby Dick

35. Moore, Tom

    1. Lalla Rookh

36. Morris, William

    1. News from Nowhere

    2. The Roots of the Mountains

    3. Sigurd the Volsung and the Fall of the Niblungs

37. Scott, Robert

    1. Scott’s Last Expedition

38. Shakespeare, William

    1. As You Like It

    2. Hamlet

    3. Henry IV

    4. Henry V

    5. Macbeth

    6. The Sonnets

    7. The Taming of the Shrew

    8. Twelfth Night

39. Stanley, Sir Henry Morton

    1. How I Found Livingston

40. Stendahl

    1. The Abbess of Castro and Other Tales

    2. Armance

    3. The Charterhouse of Parma

    4. Lamiel

    5. Lucien Lewen

    6. Italian Chronicles

    7. Memories of a Tourist

    8. The Red and the Black

41. Thackeray, William Makepeace

    1. Adventures of Philip

    2. Catherine

    3. Denis Duval

    4. Eastern Sketches

    5. Henry Esmond

    6. The Four Georges

    7. The History of Pendennis

    8. The Irish Sketchbook

    9. Lovel the Widower

    10. Memories of Barry Lyndon

    11. The Newcomes

    12. The Paris Sketchbook

    13. Roundabout Papers

    14. The Second Funeral of Napolean

    15. Sketches and Travels in London

    16. Vanity Fair

    17. The Virginians

42. Tolstoy, Leo

    1. Anna Karenina

    2. Childhood, Boyhood, Youth

    3. The Cossacks

    4. The Death of Ivan Ilyitch and Other Stories

    5. Fables for children

    6. The Kruetzer Sonata

    7. Master and Man

    8. My Confession

    9. My Religion

    10. Resurrection

    11. Tales of Sevastopol

    12. War and Peace

    13. What Is to Be Done?

43. Trollope, Anthony

    1. Barchester (series)

44. Turgenev, Ivan

    1. The Brigadier and Other Stories

    2. Dream Tales and Prose Poems

    3. Fathers and Sons

    4. A Hunter’s Sketches

    5. Knock, Knock, Knock, and Other Stories

    6. A Month in the Country

    7. A Nest of Gentlefolk

    8. Rudin

    9. Smoke

    10. Spring Torrents

45. Undset, Sigrid

    1. The Burning Bush

    2. Catherine of Siena

    3. The Faithful Wife

    4. Gunnar’s Daughter

    5. Ida Elisabeth

    6. Jenny

    7. Kristin Lavransdatter

    8. The Master of Hestviken

    9. Saga of Saints

    10. The Wild Orchid

46. Verga, Giovanni

    1. Cavalleria Rusticana and Other Stories

    2. The House by the Medlar Tree (translated by D.H. Lawrence)

    3. Little Novels of Sicily*

47. Washington, Booker T.

    1. Up From Slavery

La Fin.