There is no end to the making of books. Nor does there seem to be any end to the making of lists of “great books.” There have always been more books than anyone could read. And as they have multiplied1 through the centuries, more and more blue-ribbon lists2 have had to be made.
No matter how long your life, you will, at best, be able to read only a few books of all that have been written, and the few you do read should include the best. You can rejoice3 in the fact that the number of such is relatively small.
The listing of the best books is as old as reading and writing. The teachers and librarians of ancient Alexandria4 did it. Quintilian5 did it for Roman education, selecting, as he said, both ancient and modern classics. In the Renaissance6, such leaders of the revival7 of learning as Montaigne8 and Erasmus9 made lists of the books they read.
It is to be expected that the selections will change with the times. Yet there is a surprising uniformity10 in the lists which represent the best choices of any period. In every age, the list makers include both ancient and modern books in their selections, and they always wonder whether the moderns are up to the great books of the past.
What are the signs by which we may recognize a great book? The six I will mention may not be all there are, but they are the ones I've found most useful in explaining my choices over the years.
Great books are probably the most widely read. They are not best sellers for a year or two. They are enduring11 best sellers. GONE WITH THE WIND12 has had relatively few readers compared to the plays of Shakespeare or DON QUIXOTE13. It would be reasonable to estimate that Homer's ILIAD14 has been read by at least 25,000,000 people in the last 3000 years.
A great book need not even be a best seller in its own day. It may take time for it to accumulate its ultimate15 audience. The astronomer Kepler, whose work on the planetary16 motions is now a classic, is reported to have said of his book that “it may wait a century for a reader, as God has waited 6000 years for an observer.”
Great books are popular, not pedantic17. They are not written by specialists about specialties for specialists. Whether they be philosophy or science, or history or poetry, they treat of human, not academic18 problems. They are written for men, not professors. To read a textbook for advanced students, you have to read an elementary19 textbook first. But the great books can be considered elementary in the sense that they treat the elements of any subject matter. They are not related to one another as a series of textbooks, graded in difficulty or in the technicality20 of the problems with which they deal.
There is one kind of prior21 reading, however, which does help you to read a great book, and that is the other great books the author himself read. Let me illustrate22 this point by taking Euclid's Elements of Geometry23 and Newton's Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy24. Euclid requires no prior study of mathematics. His book is generally an introduction to geometry, and to basic arithmetic as well. The same cannot be said for Newton, because Newton uses mathematics in the solution25 of physical problems. His style shows how deeply he was influenced by Euclid's treatment of ration and proportions26. His book is, therefore, not readily intelligible27, even to scientists, unless Euclid has been read before.
I am not saying that great scientific books can be read without effort. I am saying that if they are read in an historical order, the effort is rewarded. Just as Euclid illuminates28 Newton and Galileo, so they in turn help to make Einstein intelligible. The point applies to philosophical books as well.
Great books are always contemporary29. In contrast, the books we call “contemporary”, because they are currently popular, last only for a year or two, or ten at the most. You probably cannot recall the names of many earlier best sellers, and you probably would not be interested in reading them. But the great books are never outmoded30 by the movement of thought or the shifting winds of doctrine31 and opinion.
People regard the “classics” as the great has-beens, the great books of other times. “Our times are different,” they say. On the contrary, the great books are not dusty remains for scholars32 to investigate, they are, rather, the most potent33 civilizing forces in the world today.
The fundamental human problems remain the same in all ages. Anyone who reads the speeches of Demosthenes and the letters of Cicero, or the essays of Bacon and Montaigne, will find how constant is the preoccupation34 of men with happiness and justice, with virtue35 and truth and even with stability36 and change itself. We may accelerate the motions of life, but we cannot seem to change the routes37 that are available38 to its goals.
Great books are the most readable. They will not let you down if you try to read them well. They have more ideas per page than most books have in their entirety39. That is why you can read a great book over and over again and never exhaust40 its contents.
They can be read at many different levels of understanding, as well as with a great diversity41 of interpretations42. Obvious examples are GULLIVER＇S TRAVELS, ROBINSON CRUSOE and ODYSSEY. Children can read them with enjoyment, but fail to find therein43 all the beauty and significance which delight an adult mind.
Great books are the most instructive44. This follows from the fact that they are original communications; they contain what cannot be found in other books. Whether you ultimately agree or disagree with what they say, these are the primary teachers of mankind;they have made the basic contributions to human thought.
It is almost unnecessary to add that the great books are the most influential45 books. In the tradition of learning, they have been most discussed by readers who have also been writers. These are the books about which there are many other books—countless and, for the most part, forgotten.
Great books deal with the persistently46 unsolved problems of human life. There are genuine mysteries47 in the world that mark the limits of human knowing and thinking. Inquiry not only begins with wonder, but usually ends with it also. Great minds acknowledge48 mysteries honestly. Wisdom is fortified not destroyed, by understanding its limitations.
It is our privilege49, as readers, to belong to the larger brotherhood of man which recognizes no national boundaries50. I do not know how to escape from the strait-jacket51 of political nationalism. I do know how we become friends of the human spirit in all its manifestations52, regardless of time and place. It is by reading the great books.
From Reader＇s Digest
书籍源源不断地问世，因此选定“名著”书目的工作似乎也无止境。书总是多得读不胜读。多少世纪以来，书籍的数量与日俱增，需要选定的名著佳作书目也越来越多。
不管你在世上活多久，充其量也只能浏览浩瀚书海中的极小部分。在这些你决意拜读的少数书中应该包括经典名著。事实上，经典名著为数很少，你为此可以感到庆幸。
编写最佳书目的历史，与阅读和写作的历史同样古远。古代亚历山大城的教师和图书管理员就曾做过这种工作。罗马修辞学家昆提连为罗马教育也做过这项工作，如他所说，选定古今经典名著。文艺复兴时期，领导文艺复兴运动的学者，如法国的蒙田和荷兰的伊拉兹马斯都曾对他们读过的书籍编制过目录。
可以预料，随着时代的变迁，书籍的选择会有所改变；然而，所选定的代表某个时代的佳作书目却令人惊异地一致。每个时代，编目人都把古代和现代佳作选进书目，但他们却一直怀疑，现代著作是否赶得上古代名著。
评定名著的标准是什么? 下面提出的六点可能不够全面，但它们都是我多年来选定书目最有用的依据。
名著可能拥有最广泛的读者。它们不是畅销一、两年的书，而是经久不衰的畅销书。《飘》的读者与莎士比亚戏剧或《堂·吉诃德》相比为数不多。在过去的三千年里，荷马的《伊利亚特》史诗读者至少有二千五百万，这样的估计不会是无稽之谈。一部名著无须在问世之际就成为畅销书，读者数量的积累需假以时日。十六世纪德国天文学家开普勒关于行星运动的著作现已成为经典名著；但据说，当时他对该书曾讲过这样一句话，“这本书可能要等上一个世纪才有一个读者，就像上帝等了六千年才有了一个追随者一样。”
名著绝不卖弄学识，相反它们通俗易读。它们不是专家为专业人员撰写的专业书籍。无论是哲学、科学、还是历史、诗歌等方面的名著，所探讨的都是人类的普遍性问题，而不是学术性问题。它们面向大众，而不是面向专家教授。阅读高级教科书，必须先读初级课本。名著探讨的是一切问题的基本道理；从这一意义上说，它们可视为初级课本。它们彼此之间没有联系，不像一套教科书那样，按照书中问题的难易程度，或专业的深浅来分级。
然而，有一种预读，的确可以加深你对一部名著的理解，就是预读名著作者本人读过的其他名著。让我以欧几里得的《几何学大纲》和牛顿的《自然哲学的数学原理》二书为例来说明这一点。阅读欧几里得几何学无须先学习数学，他的书，概括地讲，是几何学入门，也是基础数学入门。而牛顿的书则不同，因为他使用数学解释物理问题，这表明他深受欧几里得对量和比例分析的影响。因此，如果事先没读过欧几里得几何学，牛顿的书即使对科学家而言也是不易理解的。
我并不是说，读懂科学名著可以不费气力。我是说，如果按照历史顺序阅读它们，则必有所得。正如欧几里得的几何学帮助人们理解牛顿和伽利略的著作一样，它们又可帮助人们读懂爱因斯坦的书。这一点也适用于哲学名著。
名著永远不会落后于时代。与此相反，有一些称为“当代作品”的书籍，风靡一时，只畅销一年或两年，最多不过十年。你很可能记不起许多早年的畅销书名，也可能没有兴趣去读它们；但名著绝不会因思潮的改变或学说、见解的风向改变而过时。 人们往往视“经典著作”为过时的名著，其他时代的名著。他们说：“我们这个时代不同了。”然而经典名著绝不是供学者钻研的故纸堆，恰恰相反，它们是当今世界上最强大的文明动力。
在历史的各个时代，人类的基本问题都是相同的。凡是读过古希腊演说家德摩斯梯尼演讲集，古罗马政治家西塞罗书简集，或培根和蒙田论文集的人，都不难发现，人们都在专心不懈地探索幸福与公正，美德与真理，甚至永恒与变迁。我们也许可以加快生活的步伐，但似乎无法改变到达目标的途径。
名著隽永耐读。只要读法得当，你就会获益匪浅。一页名著的思想内容多于许多书籍的整本内容，这就是一部名著可以反复阅读，每读必有所获的道理。
名著可雅俗共赏，见仁见智。显而易见的例子有《格列佛游记》，《鲁滨逊飘流记》和《奥德赛》。儿童虽不能领略书中深为大人喜爱的优美文笔和深刻含义，但读起来同样津津有味。
名著最有启发教益，因为它们都有独创的见解，包含了其它书籍中未见的思想。不管人们最终是否赞同书中所述，它们都是人类智慧的启蒙老师，对人类思想史作出了根本性的贡献。
毋庸赘言，名著最有影响力。在世代传承的求知过程中，被读者探讨得最多的是名著。这些读者又著书发表己见，这样的书籍数不胜数，而绝大部分已被世人遗忘。
名著探讨的是人生长期未解决的问题。世界上确实存在人类知识与思维尚不能解释的奥秘。对问题的探讨不仅始于好奇，往往也终于好奇。伟大的思想家会坦承奥秘的存在。认识才智的局限性，不仅无损于人类的智慧，反而会使其增长。
我们感到荣幸的是，作为读者，我们都属于一个没有国界、更为广阔的精神上彼此亲近的人类群体。虽然我不知道如何摆脱政治民族主义的束缚，但却知道如何成为不受时空限制的，通过各种形式表现出来的人类精神的朋友，这就是通过阅读名著。
译自〔美〕《读者文摘》
1． multiply v． 增加
2． blue－ribbon adj． 头等的，一流的
3． rejoice v． （使）欣喜，（使）高兴
4． Alexandria n． 亚历山大城
5． Quintilian 昆提连，古罗马辞学家
6． Renaissance n． 文艺复兴
7． revival n． 复苏，复兴
8． Montaigne 蒙田，法国思想家，散文作家
9． Erasmus（人名）伊拉兹马斯（荷兰）
10． uniformity n． 一致，均匀
11． enduring adj． 持久的
12． Gone with the Wind 美国作家玛格丽特·米歇尔小说《飘》
13． Don Quixote 西班牙作家塞万提斯名著《堂·吉诃德》
14． Iliad 荷马史诗《伊利亚特》
15． ultimate adj． 最终的
16． planetary adj． 行星的
17． pedantic adj． 书生气的
18． academic adj． 学院的，理论的
19． elementary adj． 初级的
20． technicality n． 专门性，学术性
21． prior adj． 优先的，在前的
22． illustrate v． 阐明
23． geometry n． 几何学
24． Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy 自然哲学的数学原理
25． solution n． 解决方案
26． ration n． 定量，配给量 proportion n． 比例
27． intelligible adj． 可理解的
28． illuminate v． 阐明，说明
29． contemporary adj． 当代的，同时代的
30． outmode v． 使过时
31． doctrine n． 教条，学说
32． scholar n． 学者
33． potent adj． 有力的，有效的
34． preoccupation n． 专心，专注
35． virtue n． 美德
36． stability n． 稳定性
37． route n． 路程，线路
38． available adj． 可以得到的
39． entirety n． 完全，全部
40． exhaust v． 用尽，耗尽
41． diversity n． 差异；多样化
42． interpretation n． 解释，阐明
43． therein adv． 在那里
44． instructive adj． 有益的，教育性的
45． influential adj． 有影响力的，有势力的
46． persistently adv． 持久地
47． genuine mystery 真正的神秘
48． acknowledge v． 承认
49． privilege n． 特别待遇
50． boundary n． 边界，分界线
51． strait－jacket n． 紧身夹克；束缚
52． manifestation n． 显示，表现