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Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago? ↗

The books people recommended

2019-09-08 · 290 points · 237 comments · 38 books named by at least one person here and at least 3 people overall. The number on the left is how many people named it in this thread.

  1. 4Meditations

    Meditations

    Marcus Aurelius

    4 here · 35 all-time · #13 overall

  2. 4The Count of Monte Cristo

    The Count of Monte Cristo

    Alexandre Dumas

    4 here · 21 all-time · #38 overall

  3. 3The Brothers Karamazov

    The Brothers Karamazov

    Fyodor Dostoevsky

    3 here · 26 all-time · #20 overall

  4. 3The Art of War

    The Art of War

    Sun Tzu

    3 here · 11 all-time · #121 overall

  5. 2The Wealth of Nations

    The Wealth of Nations

    Adam Smith

    2 here · 6 all-time · #223 overall

  6. 2The Mysterious Island

    The Mysterious Island

    Jules Verne

    2 here · 6 all-time · #228 overall

  7. 2Candide

    Candide

    Voltaire

    2 here · 6 all-time · #231 overall

  8. 2Les Misérables

    Les Misérables

    Victor Hugo

    2 here · 6 all-time · #232 overall

  9. 2Essays

    Essays

    Michel de Montaigne

    2 here · 5 all-time · #334 overall

  10. 2Around the World in Eighty Days

    Around the World in Eighty Days

    Jules Verne

    2 here · 4 all-time · #445 overall

  11. 2Democracy in America

    Democracy in America

    Alexis de Tocqueville

    2 here · 3 all-time · #569 overall

  12. 1Anna Karenina

    Anna Karenina

    Leo Tolstoy

    1 here · 18 all-time · #48 overall

  13. 1Walden

    Walden

    Henry David Thoreau

    1 here · 14 all-time · #73 overall

  14. 1Tao Te Ching

    Tao Te Ching

    Lao Tzu

    1 here · 13 all-time · #86 overall

  15. 1War and Peace

    War and Peace

    Leo Tolstoy

    1 here · 12 all-time · #99 overall

  16. 1The Republic

    The Republic

    Plato

    1 here · 10 all-time · #132 overall

  17. 1Thus Spoke Zarathustra

    Thus Spoke Zarathustra

    Friedrich Nietzsche

    1 here · 7 all-time · #194 overall

  18. 1Sherlock Holmes

    Sherlock Holmes

    Arthur Conan Doyle

    1 here · 7 all-time · #206 overall

  19. 1Orthodoxy

    Orthodoxy

    G. K. Chesterton

    1 here · 6 all-time · #238 overall

  20. 1Frankenstein

    Frankenstein

    Mary Shelley

    1 here · 6 all-time · #246 overall

  21. 1Elements

    Elements

    Euclid

    1 here · 6 all-time · #249 overall

  22. 1Progress and Poverty

    Progress and Poverty

    Henry George

    1 here · 5 all-time · #258 overall

  23. 1The Prince

    The Prince

    Niccolò Machiavelli

    1 here · 5 all-time · #259 overall

  24. 1Self-Reliance

    Self-Reliance

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

    1 here · 5 all-time · #278 overall

  25. 1History of Western Philosophy

    History of Western Philosophy

    Bertrand Russell

    1 here · 5 all-time · #287 overall

  26. 1Flatland

    Flatland

    Edwin A. Abbott

    1 here · 5 all-time · #302 overall

  27. 1Notes from Underground

    Notes from Underground

    Fyodor Dostoevsky

    1 here · 4 all-time · #351 overall

  28. 1Don Quixote

    Don Quixote

    Miguel de Cervantes

    1 here · 4 all-time · #352 overall

  29. 1Critique of Pure Reason

    Critique of Pure Reason

    Immanuel Kant

    1 here · 4 all-time · #357 overall

  30. 1The Law

    The Law

    Frédéric Bastiat

    1 here · 4 all-time · #359 overall

  31. 1Das Kapital

    Das Kapital

    Karl Marx

    1 here · 4 all-time · #375 overall

  32. 1The Art of Worldly Wisdom

    The Art of Worldly Wisdom

    Baltasar Gracián

    1 here · 4 all-time · #398 overall

  33. 1Romance of the Three Kingdoms

    Romance of the Three Kingdoms

    Luo Guanzhong

    1 here · 4 all-time · #429 overall

  34. 1The Three Musketeers

    The Three Musketeers

    Alexandre Dumas

    1 here · 3 all-time · #476 overall

  35. 1A Treatise of Human Nature

    A Treatise of Human Nature

    David Hume

    1 here · 3 all-time · #503 overall

  36. 1The Revolt of the Masses

    The Revolt of the Masses

    José Ortega y Gasset

    1 here · 3 all-time · #504 overall

  37. 1Leaves of Grass

    Leaves of Grass

    Walt Whitman

    1 here · 3 all-time · #522 overall

  38. 1The War of the Worlds

    The War of the Worlds

    H.G. Wells

    1 here · 3 all-time · #536 overall