The Best From 1500–1799

Classical Et Cetera continues our best-books-by-century series, this time spanning 1500 to 1799 — from Gutenberg's press to the eve of the Romantics. Returning guest Kyle Janke joins Jessica, Paul, and Tanya to build a reading list from Don Quixote, Shakespeare, Paradise Lost, and more. Along the way: is Dracula secretly a Christian classic, why this era gave us more thinkers than storytellers, and how to read difficult old books without giving up.

Don Quixote – CervantesRobinson Crusoe – Daniel DefoeMoll Flanders – Daniel DefoeThe Vicar of Wakefield – Oliver GoldsmithTom Jones – Henry FieldingParadise Lost – John MiltonPilgrim's Progress – John BunyanGulliver's Travels – Jonathan SwiftCandide – VoltaireThe Faerie Queene – Edmund SpenserLyrical Ballads – Wordsworth & ColeridgeShakespeareJohn DonneGeorge HerbertSamuel JohnsonThe King James BibleDecline and Fall of the Roman Empire – Edward GibbonDescartes, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Adam Smith, Machiavelli, Thomas MoreNewton, Galileo, CopernicusCommon Sense – Thomas PaineThe U.S. ConstitutionThe Federalist PapersBenjamin Franklin's autobiographyJonathan Edwards, Cotton Mather

*Best Books by Era*

Greece: https://youtu.be/dijEqf0kcAM?si=9kVIpElDUhPlexqW

Rome: https://youtu.be/gMcuWkz6XQ4?si=HzXnHEfm6wQBlzhz

Middle Ages: https://youtu.be/rDB05FAPP0U?si=YuKH062Kr6uBrRak