The Spectacled Avenger's Reading List, 2016

On this blog, a new year means a new reading list. Every January I publish the list of books I’ve read over the previous year. The total number of books on the list for 2016 is 86, up significantly from 65 in 2015. I attribute this in part to the unusually high number of novels on this year’s list. I read 12 novels this year, 13 if we include Sidney’s Arcadia. I also went through a phase of reading works by 17th-century English divines (Whichcote, Taylor, et al.), and Alexander Pope’s works. Otherwise, I don’t have much to say about the content of the list, other than that very few of these books were written after the 19th century. But then, I could say much the same of previous years’ lists, so nothing particularly unusual there.

In any case, without more ado, here’s the list. As always, bolded entries represent books I particularly enjoyed.

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ADAMS, John. Writings from the New Nation, 1784-1826. Gordon S. Wood (ed.). New York: Library of America, 2016.

ADDISON, Joseph et al. The Spectator (Vol. VIII). London: Jacob Tonson, 1715.

AESCHYLUS. Persians, Seven against Thebes, Suppliants, Prometheus Bound. Alan H. Sommerstein (trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008.

ASHWORTH, Andrew. Principles of Criminal Law. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991.

ATIYAH, P. S. An Introduction to the Law of Contract (4th Edition). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.

BAKER, J. H. An Introduction to English Legal History (4th edition). London: Butterworths, 2002.

BLAKE, William. Milton. Kay Parkhurst Easson and Roger R. Easson (eds.). Boulder, CO: Shambhala, 1978.

BOLINGBROKE, Henry St. John, Viscount. Contributions to the Craftsman. Simon Varey (ed). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.

BOSTROM, Nick. Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.

BROWN, John. Essays on the Characteristics of the Earl of Shaftesbury. London: C. Davis, 1751 (Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1969).

CICERO, Marcus Tullius. De Finibus Bonorum et Malorum. H. Rackham (trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1931.

CLARENDON, Edward Hyde, Earl of. A Compleat Collection of Tracts. London: C. Davis, S. Austen et al., 1747.

CLARENDON, Edward Hyde, Earl of. The History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England (Part III, Vol. II). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1816.

COVENTRY, Francis. The History of Pompey the Little: or, The Life and Adventures of a Lap-Dog. London: Oxford University Press, 1974.

COWPER, William. Poems, by William Cowper, of the Inner Temple, Esq. (Vol. I). London: J. Johnson, 1800.

CRAGG, Wesley. The Practice of Punishment: Towards a Theory of Restorative Justice. London: Routledge, 1992.

DEETZ, James. In Small Things Forgotten: An Archaeology of Early American Life. New York: Anchor Books, 1996.

DEFOE, Daniel. Roxana: The Fortunate Mistress. London: Oxford University Press, 1968.

DEFOE, Daniel. Colonel Jack. London: Oxford University Press, 1965.

ELIOT, George. Middlemarch. New York: Modern Library, 1994.

EPICTETUS. Discourses (Books I-II). W. A. Oldfather (trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1998.

FULLER, Thomas. Thomas Fuller: Selections. E. K. Broadus (ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1928.

FIELDING, Henry. Joseph Andrews and Shamela. Thomas Keymer (ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

FIELDING, Henry. Amelia. London: J. M. Dent and Sons, 1974.

GIBBON, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Vol. III). New York: Everyman's Library, 1993.

GRANT, George. Lament for a Nation: The Defeat of Canadian Nationalism (40th Anniversary Edition). Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2005.

GRAVES, Richard. The Spiritual Quixote. London: Oxford University Press, 1967.

HITCHENS, Christopher. No One Left To Lie To: The Values of the Worst Family. London: Verso, 2000.

HITLER, Adolf. Mein Kampf. Ralph Manheim (trans.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1999.

HOFFMANN, Richard C. An Environmental History of Medieval Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014.

HOGARTH, William. The Analysis of Beauty. Ronald Paulson (ed.). New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997.

HOWARD, Benjamin C. A Report of the Decision of the Supreme Court of the United States... in the Case of Dred Scott versus John F. A. Sandford. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1857.

HUME, David. The Natural History of Religion and Dialogues concerning Natural Religion. A. Wayne Colver and John Valdimir Price (eds.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1976.

HUME, David. An Enquiry concerning the Principles of Morals. Tom L. Beauchamp (ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1998.

JAMES, William. Writings, 1878-1899. New York: Library of America, 1992.

KAMES, Henry Home, Lord. Sketches of the History of Man (Vol. I). Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2007.

KAMES, Henry Home, Lord. Sketches of the History of Man (Vol. II). Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2007.

KAMES, Henry Home, Lord. Sketches of the History of Man (Vol. III). Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2007.

KEATS, John. Poetical Works. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1978.

LANGLAND, William. Piers Plowman. Elizabeth Robertson and Stephen H. A. Shepherd (eds.). New York: W. W. Norton, 2006.

LENNOX, Charlotte. The Female Quixote. Margaret Dalziel (ed.). London: Oxford University Press, 1970.

LEWIS, John. The Life of the Learned and Right Reverend Reynold Pecock. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1820.

LOVELACE, Richard. The Poems of Richard Lovelace. C. H. Wilkinson (ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930.

MACINTYRE, Alasdair. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1981.

MIDDLETON, Thomas and William ROWLEY. The Changeling. Patricia Thomson (ed.). London: A. and C. Black, 1985.

OAKESHOTT, Michael. Hobbes on Civil Association. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1975.

PARKINSON, C. Northcote. Parkinson's Law, and Other Studies in Administration. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957.

PATRIDES, C. A. (ed.). The Cambridge Platonists. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980.

PEPYS, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys (Vol. I: 1660). Robert Latham and William Matthews (eds.). London: G. Bell and Sons, 1970.

PEPYS, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys (Vol. II: 1661). Robert Latham and William Matthews (eds.). London: G. Bell and Sons, 1970.

PEPYS, Samuel. The Diary of Samuel Pepys (Vol. III: 1662). Robert Latham and William Matthews (eds.). London: G. Bell and Sons, 1970.

PIKETTY, Thomas. The Economics of Inequality. Arthur Goldhammer (trans.).Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015.

PINTO, Vivian de Sola. Peter Sterry, Platonist and Puritan, 1613-1672: A Biographical and Critical Study with Passages Selected from His Writings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1934.

PLATO. Euthyphro, Apology, Crito, Phaedo, Phaedrus. Harold North Fowler (trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1995.

POOS, L. R. A Rural Society after the Black Death: Essex 1350-1525. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991.

POPE, Alexander. The Rape of the Lock and Other Poems (Twickenham Edition, Vol. II). Geoffrey Tillotson (ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1962.

POPE, Alexander. An Essay on Man (Twickenham Edition, Vol. III.i). Maynard Mack (ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1964.

POPE, Alexander. Epistles to Several Persons (Twickenham Edition, Vol. III.ii). F. W. Bateson (ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1961.

POPE, Alexander. Imitations of Horace, etc. (Twickenham Edition, Vol. IV). John Butt (ed.). New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1961.

PUTTENHAM, George. The Art of English Poesy: A Critical Edition. Frank Whigham and Wayne A. Rebhorn (eds.). Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007.

REYNOLDS, Sir Joshua. The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Knt. (Vol. I). London: T. Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies, 1797 (facsimile, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1971).

REYNOLDS, Sir Joshua. The Works of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Knt. (Vol. II). London: T. Cadell, Jun. and W. Davies, 1797 (facsimile, Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1971).

RICHARDSON, Samuel. Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.

SHAFTESBURY, Anthony Ashley Cooper, 3rd Earl of. Characteristicks of Men, Manners, Opinions, Times (Vol. III). Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 2001.

SHAKESPEARE, William. Macbeth. London: Thomas Nelson and Sons, 1997.

SHAKESPEARE, William. Antony and Cleopatra. M. R. Ridley (ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1956.

SHAKESPEARE, William. The Third Part of King Henry VI. Andrew S. Cairncross (ed.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1964.

SHEPARD, Benjamin Heim. White Nights and Ascending Shadows: An Oral History of the San Francisco AIDS Epidemic. Washington, DC: Cassell, 1997.

SHERMAN, William Tecumseh. Memoirs of General William T. Sherman (Vol. I). New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1886.

SHERMAN, William Tecumseh. Memoirs of General William T. Sherman (Vol. II). New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1886.

SIDNEY, Sir Philip. The Countesse of Pembrokes Arcadia. London: William Ponsonbie, 1590 (facsimile, Kent, OH: Kent State University Press, 1970).

SMOLLETT, Tobias. The Life and Adventures of Sir Launcelot Greaves. London: Oxford University Press, 1973.

SPENSER, Edmund. The Faerie Queene (Books IV-VII). J. C. Smith (ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1978.

SPINGARN, J. E. (ed.). Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century (Vol. I: 1605-1650). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968.

SPINGARN, J. E. (ed.). Critical Essays of the Seventeenth Century (Vol. II: 1650-1685). Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1968.

STERNE, Laurence. A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy by Mr. Yorick, to which are added The Journal to Stella and A Political Romance. London: Oxford University Press, 1968.

STRYPE, John. The Life of the Learned Sir John Cheke. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1821.

SWIFT, Jonathan. A Tale of a Tub. London: The Fraser Press, 1970.

TAYLOR, Jeremy. The Golden Grove: Selected Passages from the Sermons and Writings of Jeremy Taylor. Logan Pearsall Smith (ed.). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1930.

TAYLOR, Jeremy. The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living and Dying (Whole Works, Vol. IV). London: Longman, Brown et al., 1839.

TILLOTSON, Geoffrey. On the Poetry of Pope (2nd edition). Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1962.

VAUGHAN, Henry. Poetry and Selected Prose. L. C. Martin (ed.). London: Oxford University Press, 1963.

WHICHCOTE, Benjamin. Moral and Religious Aphorisms. W. R. Inge (ed.). London: Elkin Mathews and Marrot, 1930.

WOOD, Gordon S. (ed.). The American Revolution: Writings from the Pamphlet Debate, 1764-1772. New York: Library of America, 2015.

XENOPHON. Cyropædia (Books I-IV). Walter Miller (trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.

XENOPHON. Cyropædia (Bks. V-VIII). Walter Miller (trans.). Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1914.