Getting Away from the Daily Digital Noise: A List of Time-Tested Classics

Let’s face facts; there is some great content online, but there’s also a lot of rubbish. Here’s a collection of offline classics that have stood the test of time:

 

Homer’s The Iliad & The Odyssey

 

Homer’s works are sometimes considered a prerequisite introduction to the world of classic literature. They are epic poems about legendary heroes.

 

The Works of Plato

 

Perhaps one of the most often referenced philosophers of all time, Plato wrote works that were often delivered in the form of dialogues, in which a particular concept or issue was explored.

 

The Works of Aristotle

 

Plato’s student Aristotle probably was trained in medicine before he became a student of philosophy, so it’s where Plato put more importance in ideas, conceptualization, reason and intellect, Aristotle saw the world as physical reality that can be dissected and researched.

 

The Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

 

Aurelius was a Roman Emperor who promoted ideas such as human freedom and the concept that virtue is to live in accord with nature. Perhaps most important is Aurelius’ idea that what makes us human is our mortality.

 

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer

 

Some of the most famous storytelling of the medieval era is that of Geoffrey Chaucer. The Canterbury Tales is a collection of stores written in poetry and prose. Some scholars contend that this is the work that marked the tipping point when English overtook French as the Western world’s primary literary language.

 

Machiavelli’s The Prince

 

Machiavelli was a diplomat, philosopher, musician, poet and playwright, and a central figure in the Italian Renaissance. He is best known for his classic work The Prince. It explores Machiavelli’s ideas on political theory, which place a high priority on maintaining stability above all else.

 

The Works of William Shakespeare

 

Shakespeare wrote everything from tragic love stories like Romeo and Juliet to slapstick comedies like The Comedy of Errors. Shakespeare remains relevant because his works are timeless; at one level or another, his plays are about humanity and its nature.

 

Milton’s Paradise Lost

 

John Milton was a 16th century civil servant in England, but also a writer of poetry and prose. His most famous work is the epic Paradise Lost. In this book Milton romanticized the fallen angel Lucifer and looked at the ancient story from a different perspective. For the modern reader, this book could provide some food for thought on the topics of individuality and freedom.

 

War and Peace by Tolstoy

 

War and Peace is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of literature. It contains broad and sweeping themes of giant proportion including, of course, war and peace, as well as other facts of life; aging, youth, and relationships.

 

These are only a few classics that are part of a very long history of deserving titles, but these are some of the most well-respected in history — not to mention more than enough to get you started and keep you busy for a long time.

 

 

Source:

 

    * Lifehack.org June 2, 2008