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Read Me What to read 1601-1700

< 1401-1600 | 1701-1750 >

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17th Century It is often said that modern times began in 1600. --Peter Wolff, Foundations of Science and Mathematics (1960), p. 105

Antoine-francois, l'Abbe PREVOST (1697-1763) Etext: The Online Books Page
One star: Manon Lescaut (1731)

VOLTAIRE (Francois Marie Arouet, 1694-1778) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: post
Two stars: Philosophic Letters on the English (1734) Voltaire was the first publicly passionate Anglophile; unlike the snobbish variety, he did not admire English manners so much as English political moderation. --Brooke Allen,The New Criterion. September 1999 p. 66
One star: Zadig (Memnon 1747)
deals with a youth who practices all the virtues but still meets with misfortune. An angel finally explains that some good comes out of all evil, and that everything is predestined. --Philip Ward
One star: The Age of Louis XIV (1751)
One star: Micromegas (1752)
The Lisbon Earthquake (Poeme sur le desastre de Lisbonne 1756)
Four stars: Candide (1759) Humor: Pangloss Wisdom
satirizes what Voltaire condidered to be the irrational optimism of Leibnitz in the person of Dr. Pangloss, whose perennial view is that 'everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds'. --Philip Ward
Letter to Cardinal de Bernis (April 23, 1761)
Letter to Countess de Barcewitz (Dec. 24, 1761)
Toleration (1763)
One star: Philosophical Dictionary (1764)
The form of the 'Philosophical Dictionary' was ideal for Voltaire's purpose, an alphabetical medley covering a vast range of topics, on each of which the author could exercise his sharp wit. --Robert B. Downs
L'Ingenu (1767) about a youth, born in Canada of French parents, who spends twenty years among the Huron indians and, arriving in France, finds much to wonder at in Roman Catholic tenets and much to attach in the bureaucracy of Louis XV. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) pp. 30-31
about a youth, born in Canada of French parents, who spends twenty years among the Huron indians and, arriving in France, finds much to wonder at in Roman Catholic tenets and much to attach in the bureaucracy of Louis XV. --Philip Ward
Letter to James Marriott (Feb. 26, 1767)
Letter to Frederick the Great (April 6, 1767)
The Age of Louis XV (1768)
Letter to M. Le Riche (Feb. 6, 1770)
Epitre a l'Auteur du Livres des Trois Imposteurs (Nov. 10, 1770)
Select Letters (anthology 1963)

Joseph BUTLER (1692-1752) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Analogy of Religion (1736)

Charles-Louis de Secondat, Baron de MONTESQUIEU (1689-1755) Etext: The Online Books Page
Persian Letters (1722)
The Motives That Ought to Encourage Us to the Sciences (November 15, 1725)
Two stars: The Spirit of Laws (1748) Montesquieu's work, therefore, is not a treatise on law as such (as, for instance, Aquinas' 'Treatise on Law' is). Instead, we might call it a treatise on how laws ought to be adapted to particular circumstances and situations. --Peter Wolff, The Development of Political Theory and Government (1959), p. 137 ...it is true that 'The Spirit of Laws' was not well received by the rationalists dominating the eighteeth-century French intellectual scene. ... 'The Spirit of Laws' was more congenial to British and American thought. ----Peter Wolff, Philosophy of Law and Jurisprudence (1961), p. 142

Samuel RICHARDSON (1689-1767) Etext: The Online Books Page Why, Sir, if you were to read Richardson for the story, your impatience would be so much fretted that you would hang yourself. But you must read him for the sentiment, and consider the story as only giving occasion to the sentiment. --Samuel Johnson
Pamela full title: 'Pamela: Or, Virtue Rewarded' (1740) Criticism: Mullan
Clarissa full title: 'Clarissa: Or the History of a Young Lady' (1748)
Clarissa's solemn moralizing marked the English novel, led to a thousand works in which men confidently depicted female characters--and so helped, consciously or not, to alienate women from their own feelings and 'truth'. --Raphael and McLeish
Sir Charles Grandison (1753)

1688

Alexander POPE (1688-1744) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Samuel Johnson biography | post
Ode on Solitude (c. 1700)
Letter to William Wycherley (June 23, 1705)
Essay on Criticism (1711)
One star: The Rape of the Lock (1712)
Intended for Sir Isaac Newton (1727)
Letter to John Gay Oct. 16, 1727)
Thoughts on Various Subjects (1727)
One star: An Essay on Man (1733-34)
An Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1734)
Moral Essays (1731-1735) Epistle to Burlington (1731), Epistle to Bathurst (1733), Epistle to Cobham (1734), Epistle to a Lady (1735)
Epistle to Augustus (1737)

Pierre Carlet de Chamblain de MARIVAUX (1688-1763)
One star: Up from the Country (1735-36)

Emanuel SWEDENBORG (1688-1772) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: post
Heaven and Hell (1758) The most imaginative of men, yet writing with the precision of a mathematician, he endeavored to engraft a purely philosophical Ethics on the popular Christianity of his time. --Ralph Waldo Emerson, The American Scholar

HAKUIN Ekaku (1686-1769)
...greatest of the Tokugawa perion Zen Masters, restored Rinzai Zen to the purity of its T'ang and Sung traditions. --A Guide to Oriental Classics
My Old Tea Kettle (Orategama, 1748)
Wild Ivy (Itsumadegusa, 1765-1766)

George BERKELEY (1685-1753) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Wilkins
A New Theory of Vision (1709)
Two stars: The Principles of Human Knowledge (1710) The one of Ireland who attacks the reality of bodies does not seem to bring forward suitable reasons, nor does he explain himself sufficiently. --Gottfried Wilhelm von Leibniz Berkeley's effort, in the 'Principles'--as well as in his other writings--is directed to recasting the picture of the world and the account of knowledge in such a fashion that knowledge will assuredly be real. --Seymour Cain, Philosophy (1963), p. 219

John GAY (1685-1732) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Beggar's Opera (1728)

George FARQUHAR (1677-1707) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Recruiting Officer (1706)
The Beaux' Strategem (1707)

Joseph ADDISON (1672–1719) Etext: Addison at The Online Books Page Reference: Roger Blackwell Bailey fan site Criticism: post
The Vision of Mirza (September 1, 1711)
The Spectator (1711-1712, 1714; with Richard STEELE, 1672–1729)
- The Spectator: Etext: The Spectator Project Criticism: Jamie Pratt essay
- Richard Steele: Steele at The Online Books Page Reference: Roger Blackwell Bailey fan site

William CONGREVE (1670-1729) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Old Bachelor (1693)
Love for Love (1695)
The Mourning Bride (1697)
One star: The Way of the World (1700)

Giambattista (Giovanni Battista) VICO (1668-1744) Criticism: Robert Miner review | Randall E. Auxier essay
Two stars: The New Science (1725) His revolutionary move is to have denied the doctrine of a timeless natural law the truths of which could have been known in principle to any man, at any time, anywhere. --Isaiah Berlin, The Counter-Enlightenment, Part II
Autobiography (1728)
One learns by reading it how a man deprived of skills that could help him to become prominent in a competitive society can bravely construct an image of the self in which all the deep thoughts, all the world's dreams, are mirrored. --Dante Della-Terza

Jonathan SWIFT (1667-1745) Etext: The Online Books Page | Great Books and Classics Reference: Muir Criticism: post
Resolutions When I Come to Be Old (1699)
Meditations Upon a Broomstick (1703-1710)
Battle of the Books (1704)
One star: A Tale of a Tub (1704)
Thoughts on Various Subjects (1706)
Argument against Abolishing Christianity (1708-1711)
Critical Essay upon the Faculties of Mind (1709)
Letter to Alexander Pope (Sept. 29, 1725)
Four stars: Gulliver's Travels (1726) full title: Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, by Lemuel Gulliver The prevalent view is strange because there are few books which are more adult in their meaning or more devoid of the qualities of simple entertainment that are usually associated with children's literature. --Peter Wolff, A General Introduction to the Great Books and to a Liberal Education (1959), p. 139
The book is an account of four imaginary voyages and was inspired by the immense popularity of travel narratives, real and fictitious, during Swift's age... --Robert B. Downs
On Time (1727) Ever eating, never cloying, All-devouring, all-destroying Never finding full repast, Till I eat the world at last.
Essay on Modern Education (1728)
One star: A Modest Proposal (1729) Swift's starting point is that common humanity is lost, and he makes it follow logically from this that it would be a good idea for the poor to sell, and the rich to buy, their children for food... . --Andre Gushurst-Moore, The Salisbury Review, Autumn 2001, p. 22
On Poetry: A Rhapsody (1733)
On the Death of Dr. Swift (1739)
Thoughts on Religion (1765)
One star: Journal to Stella (1766, 1768)

Daniel DEFOE (1661-1731) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: LitWeb Criticism: post
Four stars: Robinson Crusoe (1719) full title: The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner Such a book as 'Robinson Crusoe' never was written, and never will be written again. I have tried that book for years--generally in combination with a pipe of tobacco--and I have found it my friend in need in all the necessities of this mortal life. --Gabriel Betteredge in 'The Moonstone' by Wilkie Collins
One star: Journal of the Plague Year (1722)
One star: Moll Flanders (1722)

CHIKAMATSU Monzaemon (Sugimori Nobumori 1653-1725) Etext: Japanese Text Initiative
One star: Plays (1683-1721) Reference: Wikipedia
Plays written by Japan's leading dramatist for the popular puppet theater, performed as well in the Kubuki theater, which are mainly concerned with conflict between love and duty in the lives of city-dwelling commoners and low-ranking samurai. --A Guide to Oriental Classics

Thomas OTWAY (1652-1685) Etext: The Online Books Page
Venice Preserv'd (1682)

William DAMPIER (1651-1715) Etext: The Online Books Page
A New Voyage Round the World (1697)

Francois de FENELON (1651-1715) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: post
The Existence of God (1686)

John WILMOT, Earl of Rochester (1647-1680)
Selected Works (2004) Etext: Ynys-Mon

Pierre BAYLE (1647-1706)
Historical and Critical Dictionary (1697)

HUNG Sheng (1646-1704)
The Palace of Eternal Youth (c. 1688)

Gottfried Wilhelm von LEIBNIZ (1646-1716) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Leibniz Society newsletter | Cover | Roinila | Rutherford Criticism: Grosholz
Thoughts on Knowledge, Truth and Ideas (1684)
Discourse on Metaphysics (Discours de metaphysique 1686)
Animadversions on Descartes' Principles of Philosophy (1692)
On the Ultimate Origination of Things (1697)
New Essays Concerning Human Understanding (Nouveaux essais sur l'entendement humain 1704)
Theodicy (Theodicee 1710) It appears that the combination of infinite plenitude and intelligible laws lies at the heart of Leibniz's system, for it was part of the justification of his famous claim that the actual world is the best possible world. --Laurence Carlin, 'Leibniz, Berkeley, and the Science of Happiness', Journal of the History of Ideas, January 2007, p. 71
Monadology (Monadologie 1714)
Principles of Nature and Grace (1714)
On the Universal Science: Characteristics (Die Philosophischen Schriften von Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz VII, 205, 1875-1890)
Letters to Samuel Clarke (in The Leibniz-Clarke Correspondence 1956)

Jean de LA BRUYERE (1645-1696)
Characters (1688)

BASHO (Matsuo Munefusa, 1644-1694) Etext: Haiku Poets Hut
New genres of poetry by the master of haiku, and one of the greatest of all Japanese poets. --A Guide to Oriental Classics
One star: The Narrow Road to the Interior (Oku no Hosomichi 1694) Etext: Nine Translations of the Opening Paragraph
Haiku Etext: Frog Haiku, Thirty Translations An admirer of such works as Wordsworth's The Prelude (there are no such poems in Japanese) might see the seventeen syllables of the haiku as too short a verbal span to convey, adequately, an emotion. But the devices for getting around this limitation are many and frequently clever. --G. L. Anderson, Masterpieces of the Orient (1961) p. 371
...a haiku by Matuso Basho is worth all of the long didactic poems from the European baroque. --Philip Ward

William PENN (1644-1718) Etext: The Online Books Page
Some Fruits of Solitude (1693)

Ihara SAIKAKU (1642-1693)
Fiction, chiefly about love and money in the new culture of townspeople in seventeenth-century Japan, by the greatest prose writer of the premodern period. --A Guide to Oriental Classics
The Life of an Amorous Woman (Koshoku ichidai onna 1686)

Sir Isaac NEWTON (1642-1727) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: William Newman fan site | Stephen David Snobelen fan site Criticism: post Nature and Nature's laws lay hid from sight; God said: 'Let Newton be', and all was light. --Alexander Pope
Two stars: Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy (1687)
It is the combination       Law of Motion plus Law of Attraction       which constitutes that marvelous edifice of thought which makes it possible to calculate the past and future states of a system from the state obtaining at one particular moment, in so far as the events take place under the influence of the forces of gravity alone. --Albert Einstein
One star: Optics (1704) Newton's method in this book is strictly experimental. --Peter Wolff, Foundations of Science and Mathematics (1960), p. 180

P'U Sung-ling (1640-1715)
Liao-chai chih-i (1766)

William WYCHERLEY (1640-1716) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Country Wife (1675) Etext: Bibliomania
The Plain Dealer (1676)

Jean-Baptiste RACINE (1639-1699) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: post
One star: Andromache (1668)
Love, revenge, motherhood and the aftermath of the Trojan War, in the poetic mix of passion and formality that is Racine's genius. --Stanley Hoffman
Britannicus (1669)
One star: Phaedra (1677)
what drives the action forward ineluctably is her inner state, nothing more than her desire for the crime, a state which horrifies her but which she can do nothing about, and which also drags down all the other characters with her, who are similarly impotent before forces they can do nothing about. --Anthony O'Hear
Athalie (1691)

Thomas TRAHERNE (1636/7-1674) Etext: The Online Books Page
Thanksgivings (A Serious and Patheticall Contemplation of the Mercies of God 1699)
The Poetical Works (1903)
Centuries of Meditations (1908)
Poems of Felicity (1910)

Nicolas BOILEAU-DESPREAUX (1636-1711)
The Art of Poetry (L'Art poetique 1694)
Lutrin (Le Lutrin 1694)

Sir George ETHEREGE (1635-1691) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Man of Mode, or, Sir Fopling Flutter (1676)

Robert HOOKE (1635-1703) Etext: The Online Books Page
Micrographia (1665) full title 'Micrographia: or Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies Made by Magnifying Glasses with Observations and Inquiries Thereupon'

Madame de LA FAYETTE (Marie-Madeline Pioche De La Vergue, 1634-1693) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Princess of Cleves (1678)

Samuel PEPYS (1633-1703) Etext: The Online Books Page | Gyford Criticism: post 'And so to bed,' wrote Samuel Pepys, And under blankets slowly crepys; His wife, poor wretch, stays up and wepys, While wayward Sam snores on and slepys. And that is how a source book kepys Pronouncing Mr. Samuel Pepys. The Pepyses of modern day Insist that this is not the way: 'Us cats prefer to call it Pepp-iss; It's real cool, man, and like the heppes!' The outcome of the book's misstep is A bunch of angry, red hot Pepys. --Gerald Kloss, Pepys-Squeaks (1980)
One star: The Diary of Samuel Pepys (1659-69)

Benedict (Baruch) de SPINOZA (1632-1677) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Spinoza's Insights Criticism: Alan Mittleman essay | post a God-intoxicated man. --Novalis
Letter to William de Blyenbergh (Jan. 5, 1665)
Theologico-Political Treatise (1670)
Letter to Henry Oldenburg (Nov. 1675)
Political Treatise (1675-76) Etext: Gosset translation
Three stars: Ethics (1677)
Spinoza still defines for me 'ethics' in its fullest and most proper sense. --Richard R. Niebuhr

Anton van LEEUWENHOEK (1632-1723)
Letters to the Royal Society of England (Epistolae ad Societatem Regiam Anglicam 1719)
Of the original discoveries credited to Leeuwenhoek, the most celebrated is that of the existence of bacteria and of protozoan life in the mouth and in water--his demonstration that the world is filled with a vast teeming universe of 'little animals'. --Robert B. Downs

John LOCKE (1631-1704) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: post
One star: A Letter Concerning Toleration (1689) Etext: Constitution Society Locke not only says that the use of state power to enforce religious uniformity is morally and religiously wrong. He also says that it is a danger to the security of civil society. --Seymour Cain, Religion and Theology (1961), p. 194
Two stars: An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1690) ...Locke vigorously opposes exclusive reliance on an 'inner light' as warrant for religious belief. He acknowledges the existence and validity of revelation--direct communication from God to man--but he insists that revelation cannot be contrary to reason. Indeed, reason and revelation are closely bound together. --Seymour Cain, Religion and Theology (1961), p. 202 ...cast doubt upon the possibility of achieving universally valid knowledge... --William H. McNeill, The Rise of the West, p. 686
Two stars: Two Essays Concerning Civil Government (1690) Such power and the government that wields it comes into being, Locke maintains, as the result of a compact made by persons who previously lived in a non-political condition. --Peter Wolff, A General Introduction to the Great Books and to a Liberal Education (1959), p. 126
Government came into being by common consent, created by the people through a social contract for the purpose of protecting and preserving life, liberty, and property against internal and external dangers. --Robert B. Downs
Some Thoughts Concerning Education (1693) Etext: Nijmegen
Letter to Samuel Bold (May 16, 1699)

John DRYDEN (1631-1700) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Matthew Reynolds review
Annus Mirabilis (1667)
One star: Essay of Dramatic Poesy (1668)
One star: Song for St. Cecilia's Day (1677)
All for Love (1678)
Absalom and Achitophel (1681)
Religio Laici (1682)
To the Memory of Mr. John Oldham (1684)
The Hind and the Panther (1687)
Alexander's Feast (1687)
Epigrams on Milton (1688)
Preface to the Fables (of Chaucer) (1700)
One star: The Secular Masque (1700)

Christiaan HUYGENS (1629-1695) Reference: IMHS | HMA
One star: Treatise on Light (1690) ...Huygens' wave theory won acceptance over Newton's corpuscular theory during the 19th century. --Peter Wolff, Foundations of Science and Mathematics (1960), p. 193

John BUNYAN (1628-1688) Etext: The Online Books Page
Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666) Humor: Jaffe-Notier
Three stars: The Pilgrim's Progress (1678) No refinement could surpass the tinker who, writing in his prison cell, earned the applause of a believing world, in expressing the emotions of the faithful Puritan, thinking only of his own salvation. --Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Ch. IV, sec. A
The man in rags is the hero, Christian; his pilgrimage represents the Christian life; and the road he travels, straight and narrow, leads him through mud, through green fields, over rocks and up and down hills--all indicative of the complicated moral life of man. --Robert B. Downs
Life and Death of Mr. Badman (1681)

Robert BOYLE (1627-1691) Etext: The Online Books Page
The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts and Paradoxes (1661)

Jacques-Benigne BOSSUET (1627-1704)
One star: Funeral Orations (1689)

John AUBREY (1626-1697) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Wikipedia
Brief Lives (1696)

Johann Jakob Chrisoffel von GRIMMELSHAUSEN (c. 1625-1676)
Simplicius Simplicissimus (1669)

George FOX (1624-1691) Etext: The Online Books Page
George Fox's Journal (1694)

Blaise PASCAL (1623-1662) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: MacTutor History of Mathematics Criticism: post
New Experiments Concerning the Vacuum (1647)
Account of the Great Experiment Concerning the Equilibrium of Fluids (1648) He rejects any explanation in terms of ultimate ends or purposes, or any notion that nature had desires or aversions. --Peter Wolff, Foundations of Science and Mathematics (1960), p. 147
Treatise on the Vacuum (Traite du vide 1651)
Letter to Fermat (July 29, 1654)
One star: Letters to a Provincial (1656-57)
On Geometrical Demonstrations (1658)
Treatise on the Weight of the Mass of Air (1663)
Three stars: Thoughts (Pensees 1670) Pascal's 'Pensees' belong to that class of religious writings called 'apologetics'. Indeed, the 'Pensees' comprise notes for a work which Pascal intended to call an 'Apology for the Christian Religion'. --Seymour Cain, Religion and Theology (1961), p. 177
But the power of Pascal's writing derives not from intellectual analysis, but from the depth of his psychological insights into our moral and intellectual infirmities, and also from his conviction of the living reality of God and of Jesus Christ: "The heart has its reasons which reason knows nothing of". --Anthony O'Hear

MOLIERE (Jean Baptiste Poquelin, 1622-1673) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: post
One star: The Affected Ladies (Ridiculous Precieuses 1659)
One star: The School for Husbands (L'Ecole des Maris 1661)
Two stars: The School for Wives (L'Ecole des Femmes 1662)
Three stars: Tartuffe (Le Tartuffe 1664)
One star: Love Doctor (L'Amour Medecin 1664)
Two stars: Don Juan (Dom Juan 1665)
Three stars: The Misanthrope (Le Misanthrope 1666)
Two stars: The Doctor in Spite of Himself (Le Medecin malgre lui 1666)
One star: The Sicilian (Le Sicilien 1667)
One star: The Miser (L'Avare 1668)
Two stars: The Would-Be Gentleman (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme 1670) Redescription can be intriguing and useful, and succeeding generations must, like Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, rename their beasts. Moliere revealed the comic possibilities of this when M. Jourdain discovered that all his life he had been speaking prose. --Saul Bellow, The New York Times Book Review, July 10, 1966
the favourite with modern audiences, for it shows a social climber in all his absurdity but does not suggest that he is evil or at all reprehensible, merely a lasting figure of fun, or perhaps even to be pitied... --Philip Ward
One star: Scapin's Schemings (Les Fourberies de Scapin 1671)
One star: The Learned Ladies (Les Femmes Savantes 1672)
Two stars: The Imaginary Invalid (Le Malade Imaginaire 1673)

Henry VAUGHAN (1622-1695) Etext: Henry Vaughan Project | The Online Books Page
Silex Scintillans ("Sparkling Flint" 1655)

Andrew MARVELL (1621-1678) Etext: The Online Books Page
One star: Miscellaneous Poems (1681)

Jean de LA FONTAINE (1621-1695) Etext: The Online Books Page
One star: Fables (Fable choisies mises en vers 1668-1694)
Human failings and foibles are criticized gently, and the Epicurean wit of La Fontaine is at odds with the solemn morality of his time. --Philip Ward

John EVELYN (1620-1706) Criticism: Thomas
Evelyn's Diary (1818)

Lucy HUTCHINSON (1620-1681)
Memoirs of the Life of Colonel Hutchinson (1806)

October 23, 1619 John Donne visits Johannes Kepler in Linz, Austria --Jeremy Bernstein, 'Heaven's Net: The Meeting of John Donne and Johannes Kepler,' The American Scholar, Spring 1997, pp. 175-195

One star: The Golden Lotus or The Plum in the Golden Vase (Chin P'ing Mei, 1618)
The first Chinese novel to depict urban domestic life in naturalistic terms ... --A Guide to Oriental Classics

Richard LOVELACE (1618-1658) Etext: The Online Books Page
Lucasta (1649)
Lucasta: Posthume Poems (1659)

Richard BAXTER (1615-1691) Etext: The Online Books Page
Richard Baxter's Narrative (1696)

Richard CRASHAW (1613-1649)
Steps To The Temple Delights of The Muses And Other Poems (1904)

Jeremy TAYLOR (1613-1667) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Wohlers
The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living (1650)
One star: The Rule and Exercises of Holy Dying (1651)

Francois, Duc de LA ROCHEFOUCAULD (1613-1680) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: post
Memoirs (1662)
One star: Maxims (Reflexions ou sentences et maximes morales 1665) ...shocking to persons who live in a state of illusion about themselves. --Edmund Gosse, in Three French Moralists

KHUSHHAL, Khan Khatak (1613-1689)
Poems from the Diwan of Khushhal Khan Khattak (1965)

Samuel BUTLER (1612-1680) Etext: The Online Books Page Criticism: Samuel Johnson biography
One star: Hudibras (1663-78)

EVLIYA Celebi (Dervis Muhammed, c. 1611-1684)
Seyahatname ("Book of Travels" 1896-1936)

Edward Hyde, 1st Earl CLARENDON (1609-1674) Etext: The Online Books Page
History of the Rebellion in England (c. 1670's)

John MILTON (1608-1674) Etext: The Online Books Page Reference: Creamer | Muir Criticism: post | Samuel Johnson biography
To the Lord Generall Cromwell (May 1632)
Arcades (1632)
On Shakespeare (1632)
Comus (1634)
At a Solemn Musick (1634)
Three stars: Areopagitica (1644)
full title: Areopagitica: A Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc'd Printing, in the Parliament of England
Censorship, he asserted, is the worst possible indignity to a free and knowing spirit, an insult to the nation, and an act hostile and detrimental to the survival of truth. --Robert B. Downs
Apology for Smectymnuus (1642)
Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce (1643)
Of Education (1644)
One star: L'Allegro (Poems, 1645)
One star: Il'Penseroso (Poems, 1645)
Two stars: Lycidas (Poems, 1645)
On the Morning of Christ's Nativity (Poems, 1645)
On Time (Poems, 1645)
The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates (1649)
The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth (1660)
Four stars: Paradise Lost (1667) Criticism: Joseph Addison essay
So Milton had to make Satan attractive at first, or neither we nor the devils would ever be tempted by him. --Anthony O'Hear
Paradise Regained (1671)
One star: Samson Agonistes (1671)
One star: Sonnets (Poems, 2nd Ed. 1673)

Sir Thomas BROWNE (1605-1682) Etext: The Online Books Page
Religio Medici (1643)
On Dreams (c. 1650)
Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial (1658)
The Garden of Cyrus (1658)
Christian Morals (1716)

Pierre CORNEILLE (1606-1684) Etext: The Online Books Page
... Corneille was educated at a Jesuit school, and the Latin-based training shaped the young dramatist in many ways, from the discipline of verse composition at an early age, to concepts of order, and plots from Roman history and legend. --Philip Ward
One star: The Cid (Le Cid (1636-37)
The famous riposte 'Je ne dois qu'a moi seul toute ma renommee' was ill-judged and untrue, for he had indeed taken the course, normal then and earlier, of deriving the structure of a play from a predecessor, in this case Guillen de Castro's Las Mocedades del Cid (1618). --Philip Ward
One star: Cinna (1639) ... a play in praise of generosity. --Philip Ward, A Lifetime's Reading (1982) p. 296
...a play in praise of generosity. --Philip Ward
One star: Horace (1640)
...the triumph of patriotism... --Philip Ward
One star: Polyeucte (1642)
...a tragedy of Christian martrydom... --Philip Ward
One star: Rodogune (1645)
One star: Nicomede (1651)

< 1401-1600 | 1701-1750 >



Revised September 6, 2010.

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