
The Harvard Classics: Download All 51 Volumes as Free EBooks - yammesicka
http://www.openculture.com/2014/03/the-harvard-classics-download-all-51-volumes-as-free-ebooks.html
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devindotcom
Great to have these, but if you're interested in a classic, five minutes'
research will save you a lot of pain. The wrong translation can put you off a
book or author for life, and a bad edit, abridgement, or lack of notes can
render a work incomprehensible or weak.

Just take a second to look up whether there are any modern translations that
might be up your alley, or whether you prefer accuracy over readability, or
what have you.

~~~
cobralibre
Indeed, translations are products of their times, and most casual readers are
better served by (non-public domain) contemporary translations. I'm reminded
me of something Mary Beard said in a recent interview with the LA Review of
Books [1]:

"It's very interesting to look back at classics a hundred years ago. One of
the things I've done is look back at Gilbert Murray’s translations of
Euripides, which were huge popular success at the time. It seemed to engage
with all sorts of political issues of the time. And you look at them now, and
they're unreadable."

[1] - [http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/visit-mary-
beard](http://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/visit-mary-beard)

~~~
walshemj
I remember when I did classical studies (studying the classics in translation)
Our teacher commented that as she had been taught by nuns the version of
Thucydides that she had read had all the "gay" stuff taken out.

~~~
devindotcom
Yeah, there's a gay aspect in the Count of Monte Cristo that got excised or
downplayed as well. The question becomes do you want a biased translation that
reads better or an unbiased one that reads okay? It's really a case by case
thing. Any classicist will tell you Pope butchered the original Homer - he
didn't even speak Greek. But his is still the best in English, I think.

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themodelplumber
Beautiful. Thank you for the reminder that these books exist. I read some of
these books years back, and I still treasure the experience. I had a terrible
job that started at 6:30 a.m. where by some miracle people kept assigning me
tasks that could be automated, so I was about a month ahead on all of my work.
In the early mornings I would read from these books on a Dell Axim that was
propped up above my keyboard, next to my propped-up reversed CD-ROM disc.

One book that's not part of the collection but that I would recommend to the
people here on HN is "James Nasmyth, Engineer: An Autobiography":
[http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/476](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/476)

Here's a bit from a "coding interview" that went well for him:

"I carefully unpacked my working model of the steam-engine at the carpenter's
shop, and had it conveyed, together with my drawings, on a hand-cart to Mr.
Maudslay's next morning at the appointed hour. I was allowed to place my work
for his inspection in a room next his office and counting-house. I then called
at his residence close by, where he kindly received me in his library. He
asked me to wait until he and his partner, Joshua Field, had inspected my
handiwork.

I waited anxiously. Twenty long minutes passed. At last he entered the room,
and from a lively expression in his countenance I observed in a moment that
the great object of my long cherished ambition had been attained! He
expressed, in good round terms, his satisfaction at my practical ability as a
workman engineer and mechanical draughtsman. Then, opening the door which led
from his library into his beautiful private workshop, he said, "This is where
I wish you to work, beside me, as my assistant workman. From what I have seen
there is no need of an apprenticeship in your case."

He then proceeded to show me the collection of exquisite tools of all sorts
with which his private workshop was stored. They mostly bore the impress of
his own clearheadedness and common-sense. They were very simple, and quite
free from mere traditional forms and arrangements. At the same time they were
perfect for the special purposes for which they had been designed. The
workshop was surrounded with cabinets and drawers, filled with evidences of
the master's skill and industry. Every tool had a purpose. It had been
invented for some special reason. Sometimes it struck the keynote, as it were,
to many of the important contrivances which enable man to obtain a complete
mastery over materials."

Anyway, a pretty fun, educational book for someone with that mindset.

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wtbob
> It was in 1909, the nadir of this milieu, before the advent of modernism and
> world war, that The Harvard Classics took shape.

I think he means zenith, not nadir. 1909 was the high point of human
civilisation, before barbarism and ugliness took hold.

Also, not covering Freud, Nietzsche & Marx was no mistake: this is a
collection of lessons to learn, not lessons to learn _from_.

~~~
ZoFreX
You think 1909 was the high point of human civilisation?

~~~
crpatino
Not the OP, but I think that was the high point of the particular European
centric civilization that came out of the Enlightenment. There will be other
high points for sure, but each will come when their own civilizations reach
maturity.

And no, nobody alive today will see one of those, it is too late in the
previous cycle and too early in the next one for that. But you can make the
next one happen today by mastering something worthy and passing it on to the
next (human) generation. There's people not yet born who will use that as raw
material to create stuff that we would not be able to understand even if it
hit us in the nose.

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scottcha
I've owned the entire collection including the Shelf Of Fiction. The main
thing to consider is that for the works written originally in english or are
hard to find these are good resources. For the works which have been
translated there are usually much better translations available (and worth
paying for).

Very glad to see these freely available though.

~~~
devindotcom
Yeah, I have a few Harvards, but really the only reason is the nice binding
for a few classic titles. The Arabian Nights is the Lane translation, and if
you're going classic, you have to go Burton. Same for a few others - you can
go older or newer, but there's no particular reason to go for the Harvards.
Same for any big classics set.

That said it's not a bad place to start. I loved the Butler prose translation
of the Iliad and Odyssey because it was fun to read and straightforward. Now
that I have moved on and love Pope's and Lattimore's, I would recommend those
over it - but if someone bought one, I wouldn't "tut tut" or anything.

My advice with translations is always to gather a few, read the first few
pages or chapter in each, and go with the one that you like. There's always
the chance you'll end up with a Bowdlerized version or something (I did with
the Count of Monte Cristo, the old ~1850 anonymous translation) but if you
enjoy the book that's what matters - you can always read it again or fill in
the blanks.

------
atmosx
There's also the Gutenberg project[1] which offers a huge variety of classics
for free in (almost) every format.

[1] [http://www.gutenberg.org/](http://www.gutenberg.org/)

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LaSombra
Just wrote a dirty Ruby script to download them.
[https://gist.github.com/lasombra/a489f715985715663595](https://gist.github.com/lasombra/a489f715985715663595)

P.S.: This is my first Ruby script. I'm still learning it.

~~~
cJ0th
That script comes in very handy. It would've been even more useful if it would
name the files according to the book which is insde instead of:
harvardclassics28eliouoft

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walterbell
Archive.org has many out-of-copyright books, but there is little support for
discovery of "related books" or "all books in a multi-volume series". Sorting
by download count within categories is a start, for example:

[https://archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype%3A%22texts%22...](https://archive.org/search.php?query=mediatype%3A%22texts%22%20AND%20%28cambridge%20history%29&sort=-downloads)
will lead to _The Cambridge History of ____ (geography or topic, e.g.
Literature, India) and _The Cambridge ___ History_ (time or topic, e.g.
Ancient, Medieval, Natural). Each of these titles are several volumes,
500-1000 pages per volume, covering centuries of events from a British
perspective.

German Classics,
[https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22German%20l...](https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22German%20literature%20--%20Collections%22&sort=-downloads)

Eastern Classics,
[https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Oriental%2...](https://archive.org/search.php?query=subject%3A%22Oriental%20literatures%20--%20Collections%22&sort=-downloads)

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arethuza
As a Scot, I was pleasantly surprised to see Robert Burns on the list, but
digging around it looks like Burns was a keen supporter of the American
Revolution and even wrote a "A Toast for George Washington":

[http://burnsc21.glasgow.ac.uk/a-toast-for-george-
washington-...](http://burnsc21.glasgow.ac.uk/a-toast-for-george-washington-
as-well-as-an-ode/)

------
mynameishere
Well, that's one ghastly website you pointed to. I have a physical edition of
the Harvard Classics, and it's mostly boring stuff and speeches and political
documents that are sufficiently summarized in other contexts (history books,
Bartlett's, etc). One book that is worth reading is this (free):

[http://www.amazon.com/Years-Before-Mast-Richard-Henry-
ebook/...](http://www.amazon.com/Years-Before-Mast-Richard-Henry-
ebook/dp/B0082XP72S/)

~~~
Turing_Machine
Summaries just give you the opinion of the person who did the summarizing.

------
minopret
Whoever would like to improve that list at gutenberg.org can follow directions
on the site to get access to edit it. I hope they will.

I was glad to see that some like that page. I was actually the one who grabbed
that list of contents from Wikipedia, requested access to edit Project
Gutenberg's "Bookshelves" wiki, and added the links there to the Project
Gutenberg versions of many of the selections. It was fun and not hard.

~~~
minopret
Followup: The directions that I mentioned are somewhat buried in the site.
Here they are:
[http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Wiki](http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Gutenberg:Wiki)

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ensignavenger
My wife and I recently purchased this entire set, excepting books 1 and 5, at
our local library book sale. We are now looking for the missing volumes, so if
anyone happens to have them laying around, and would like them to go to a good
home, get in touch :)

~~~
akuchling
Try a secondhand book site: I like abebooks.com, and there's also alibris.com.
I'm slowly assembling a set of the Oxford Charles Dickens; every few months I
pick a title I haven't got and search for a copy that's called "fine" or "very
fine". ("Fair" copies are readable but may have markings, highlighting, etc.,
or be a battered ex-library copy.)

~~~
walterbell
A used books search engine: [http://used.addall.com](http://used.addall.com).
Bookfinder is owned by Abebooks which is owned by Amazon. Biblio is
independent and often price competitive.

------
shimshim
I've spent a few years searching these out for fun in second-hand shops and
used book stores, avoiding online simply for the thrill of trying to find them
on the street. This is fantastic that they are available for free download
now!

------
Paul12345534
Once upon a time when I was first learning to program, I wrote a Python script
to download them from bartleby.com and make them into nice CHM files :) some
good stuff

------
ChuckMcM
And if there was ever a testament to why Copyright should expire for the
public good, this is it.

~~~
walterbell
There could be a browser plugin which provides links to out-of-print versions
of books when they are referenced on a page, e.g. in a bibliography or other
list of books.

------
garric
It's fine to read these for the literature and/or a peek into how earlier
people saw their world, but beware of ideas whose underpinnings are still
touted as fact - such as those from the Wealth of Nations. Adam Smith may have
been among the intelligentsia of his time, but he made claims far outside of
his expertise which have long since been shown to be fantastical imaginings.
And if you've ever seen A Christmas Carol, you'll have passing familiarity
with the debtor prisons and Irish potato famines justified by classical
liberalism (economic theory, not to be confused with the popular modern term)
which has today become neoliberalism (which contains justification for
neoconservatism, so let's not get partisan about it) since about 1980 with
Reagan in the USA, Thatcher in the UK, and Deng in China and isn't any better
for reasons I won't currently go in to. (Crosby, Harvey)

For instance, Adam Smith argued that barter was an inefficient way to make
transactions because it required a dual coincidence of wants by both parties.
Nevermind that communities simply didn't function this way, instead giving
what they had now in a system of credit rather than debt. This is one of many
examples undermining Smith's ideas, so be careful if you decide to read such
books. Unless your degree concerns historiography, your time would be much
better spent elsewhere. (Graeber)

Smith is easy to debunk, but ideas contained within many classical novels
provide popular justification for cultural imperialism. They're not so easy to
address. (Said)

~~~
WoodenChair
There was absolutely no need to inject such politics into a seemingly innocent
post about a _collection_ of old books. Your topic sentence claimed that you
disputed the wisdom of old classics (notice the plural) but really your
extended post was a diatribe against The Wealth of Nations and classical free
market economics. Save your politics for a political topic.

~~~
dbcooper
I really need an extension that hides any post or article that uses the terms
neoliberal or neoliberalism.

~~~
ternaryoperator
Why be a minimalist? How about one that hides anything to do with politics.

