When Charles William Eliot assembled The Harvard Classics, more commonly known as “The Five-Foot Shelf,” and later the “Shelf of Fiction”, he gathered this epic collection of key works which he thought would best represent “the progress of man… from the earliest historical times to the close of the nineteenth century.”

In his introduction to The Harvard Classics, Eliot likens the collection to a portable university. He does not intend it to resemble a museum display-case of the world’s best books. The volumes are not numbered in any particular order, although Eliot suggested that they be approached as a set of six courses:

This massive collection represents a cross section of the literary forces which effectively shaped our society. Universally regarded as one of the most comprehensive and well-researched anthologies of all time, these books cover every major literary figure, philosopher, religion, folklore and historical subject through the twentieth century. From “The Five-Foot Shelf” come the writings of Plato, John Milton, Plutarch, Augustine, Dante, More, Luther, Pasteur, Pascal, and others. Volume 51 contains 60 lectures, introducing and summarizing the fields of religion, history, poetry, natural science, philosophy, biography, prose fiction, criticism and the essay, education, political science, drama, voyages and travel. The “Shelf of Fiction” contributes the works of authors like Fielding, Dickens, Poe, Hugo, Tolstoy, Austen, and Dostoyevsky. In all, The Harvard Classics and Fiction Collection totals over 33,000 pages of the most notable writings of all time.

God reveals himself through history and literature—through the thoughts of philosophers, the characters of great fiction, and the cadences of poetic verse. These classics are vital tools for study and ministry, because they cultivate the life of the mind and reveal the intricacies of human nature.