Customer Reviews

Great Books of the Western World (54 Volume Set)

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This was the finest single set of books that I ever owned. They are the core of a true university education in themselves. Whether you use them for occasional reference, or as a systematic system of home education, they are well worth the price. You will be drawn back to them again and again over the years.


Britannica's Great Books 54 volume set (complete)
Chicago, Encyclopedia Britannica;

The 54 volumes are:
1) The Great Conversation;
2) The Great Ideas I;
3) The Great Ideas II;
4) Homer;
5) Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes;
6) Herodotus, Thucydides;
7) Plato;
8 & 9) Aristotle I & II;
10) Hippocrates, Galen;
11) Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius, Nicomachus;
12) Lucretius, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius;
13) Virgil;
14) Plutarch;
15) Tacitus;
16) Ptolemy, Copernicus, Kepler;
17) Plotinus;
18) Augustine;
19-20) Thomas Aquinas I/II;
21) Dante;
22) Chaucer;
23) Machiavelli, Hobbes;
24) Rabelais;
25) Montaigne;
26 & 27) Shakespeare;
28) Gilbert, Galileo, Harvey;
29) Cervantes;
30) Francis Bacon;
31) Descartes, Spinoza;
32) Milton;
33) Pascal;
34) Newton, Huygens;
35) Locke, Berkeley, Hume;
36) Swift, Sterne; 37) Fielding;
38) Montesquieu, Rousseau;
39) Adam Smith;
40 & 41) Gibbon I & II;
42) Kant;
43) American State Papers, The Federalist, JS Mill;
44) Boswell;
45) Lavoisier, Fourier, Faraday;
46) Hegel;
47) Goethe;
48) Melville;
49) Darwin;
50) Marx, Engels;
51) Tolstoy;
52) Dostoevsky;
53) William James;
54) Freud.

The Great Books of the Western World are the birthright of each member of western civilization. These are the source material for most of the structure of our modern society. Read them.

Let's be honest about these books. The print is cramped, the translations are hideous, and the selections are indeed rooted in a view of Great Books and Great Ideas that, while still quite vibrant, is less robust than it was in 1955. But no one in full control of their senses would sit down and read from cover to cover the Dante, the Homer, the Aristotle found in this set.

All true. But none of that matters. What you are buying here is the first three volumes (especially volumes 2 & 3) and their attendant reference set. I've owned the set for 20 years and found it invaluable because of those three first volumes. Here's how they work:

Volume 1, The Great Conversation, is essentially an inspirational text centered on the importance of a broad Liberal Education, as set against other views of education. You may take or leave it. The treasure house is the next two volumes.

The Syntopicon (volumes 2-3 of the set) is an index of 100 fundamental concepts that built the Euromerican mind and cultural vision. To give you an idea, here is a sample of the Great Ideas:
Art, Beauty, Cause, Chance, Democracy, Desire, Emotion, Eternity, Family, God, Good and Evil, Government, Habit, Happiness, History, Immortality, Infinity, Justice, Labor, Language, Life and Death, Love, Mathematics, Matter, Memory, Oligarchy, Progress, Prophecy, Quantity, Religion, Rhetoric, Sin, Soul, State, Time, Truth. War and Peace, Wisdom.... you get the idea: Big Ideas.

Each of the 100 ideas is introduced with a brief essay that explains it and attempts to sketch out how it has been viewed throughout Western history. The essays are not dumbed down, but most of them are perfectly accessible to most of us. After this introductory essay, there follows an index of virtually every significant reference to that idea in every author in the set; you are given page numbers within this set of books.

THAT is what you are buying.

Want to see how Plato's idea of "Punishment" differs from Rousseau's? Just look it up in the Syntopicon, and follow the indexed references. Want to know how "Animal" was dealt with in Montesquieu, William James, and Freud? Go to the Syntopicon.

Certainly, once I have looked up the references in the GBWW volume on Plato, I will give the text a read there; but if my interest leads me to want a deeper view, I'll also go to other sources -- more accurate translations, even the original texts, if I have that language -- and read the better translations &c in those books. But I start with the Syntopicon. If tracing out the history of the main ideas that shaped Western civilization appeals to you, this is your set of Great Books.

Thus: this is not a set of books you buy to read for pleasure, curled up by the fire on a rainy day. By that standard, this set would be an abysmal failure. But this IS a set of books you would use as one of the most powerful reference libraries you can put on your shelf. By that criteria, you cannot find a better anywhere today, online or otherwise.

My parents bought this set probably before I was born (back in the 60's I remember this entire set (on the 2 shelf bookshelf that came with the collection). I never thought much of it and admittedly I don't believe my parents ever really opened any of the books.

Both my parents have passed away (my mother just recently) and now I have the collection.

I was about to sell it but was listening to a podcast on GNOSTIC MEDIA about the TRIVIUM and they mentioned this specific collection.. Not just because of the books in the collection (such as Plato, Aristotle etc) but for the 1st 3 volumes that comprise THE GREAT CONVERSATION and the SYNTOPICON (which is a summary of various main IDEAS (HISTORY, DEMOCRACY, FREEDOM, LOVE, DIALECTIC etc) and then a cross reference of all the works to help direct the reader to specific locations where the great writers discussed these issues. PLUS additional works not included in the collection).

These 1st 3 books alone are worth their weight in gold.

I am a Liberal and really feel that these ideas should be studied.

This is NOT to say that I do not feel that Works from the East or ideas from women and other cultures and minorities should be overlooked..by all means I think we can expand upon the Great Conversation by investigating newer material and incorporating and contemplating within our thinking.. but don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. This collection is a great place to start to informing oneself about these Great Ideas and move on from there. It is not about what to think.. but how to think.

One of the greatest gifts I think my parents left me.!

Perhaps these books should have been entitled Great Thoughts of The Western World. These books comprise the writings of the most influential minds from the about the second century B.C. to the mid 20th century. Even if you don't set out to read the set from beginning to end (and you likely won't), it serves as a great resource of these works. Many times I find myself reading another book and coming across a reference to an idea from an early writer. Wanting to know more of his thought, his work is generally among these. Having them collected in a series is an excellent means of having the references right at hand. The University of Chicago did an invaluable service to Mankind in compiling and printing these books. Every serious student of thought will benefit from having this collection.

I am generally not a fan of collections of similarly bound books on intellectual subjects that are for appearance and never read. Hopefully, these will be more than that to you. If you are concerned that your friends may think you are elitist or a mere poseur, hide them in the closet and read them privately.

Not to be forgotten is the amazingly well written two volume Syntopicon, which is a collection of essays categorized by ideas. These are very valid studies of the ideas themselves with references to the various works in which the subject is addressed. A wonder resource in and of itself.

The items came in two different packages as described. This is my dream come true, and I truly appreciate your business!
Keep up the great services!!!

I have ordered from this same bookstore and have never been disappointed by their mechandise. The descriptions of used books is accurate and honestly presented. I often skip by a few places to order from the vendor that sold me the Great Books. Years ago we had the same set of 54 volumes and gave them away to our son. We missed the opportunity to use these books, but didn't want to expend too much for a new set. The price offered was very reasonable, so we have this masterpiece of knowledge back on our shelves. The quality of binding, page coloration and wear parallels our original set bought second-hand in 1975 for $200. The recent purchase was $165. How's that for a challenge to the increase in the cost of living.

On the positive side, the books arrived in a timely way. I believe the condition was not as good as advertised. Some of the volumes were in fairly poor condition. While there were not a lot of markings inside, the bindings were in very poor condition. In fact, some of them further deteriorated in shipment. The volumes are very fragile. I would have purchased the leather bond set offered for a few dollars more had I understood the true condition of these books.