The Great Books are works that have shaped how people think, argue, and understand the world for centuries. From Homer to Dostoevsky, these texts endure because they speak to the questions that never go away:

What does it mean to live well? What do we owe each other? How do we face suffering, injustice, and death?

This list includes over 180 works of classic and classical literature, organized from middle school through high school and adapted from Veritas Press’s Omnibus curriculum, which sequences the Great Books historically and developmentally.

Whether you’re building a homeschool curriculum, supplementing your student’s education, or simply looking for what to read next, this is the place to start.

Also, a quick note: You can find all of these titles in our bookstore.

Classic Books for Middle School (Grades 7–8)

Middle schoolers are ready for real books, not just “age-appropriate” adaptations. At this stage, students can engage with narrative complexity, moral ambiguity, and rich language, especially with guidance and discussion. The books in this list are accessible to younger readers while still offering depth worth returning to.

7th Grade Classic Literature

• Gilgamesh
• The Codes of Hammurabi and Moses
• Odyssey of Homer
• The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories
• Aeschylus: The Oresteia
• Plutarch’s Lives
• Sophocles: Theban Trilogy
• The Last Days of Socrates
• Livy: The Early History of Rome, Books 1–5
• The Aeneid
• The Twelve Caesars
• Julius Caesar: Oxford School Shakespeare Series
  

7th Grade Modern Classics

• Chosen by God
• Til We Have Faces
• The Magician’s Nephew
• The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe
• The Horse and His Boy
• Prince Caspian
• The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
• The Silver Chair
• The Last Battle
• The Best Things in Life
• The Unaborted Socrates
• The Eagle of the Ninth
• The Screwtape Letters
• The Holiness of God

8th Grade Classic Literature

• Eusebius: The Church History
• Confessions
• On the Incarnation
• Ecclesiastical History of the English People
• The Rule of St. Benedict
• Beowulf
• Song of Roland
• The History of the Kings of Britain
• Macbeth
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight
• The Divine Comedy: Inferno
• The Canterbury Tales
• The Bondage of the Will
• Henry V
• Richard III
• A Midsummer Night’s Dream

8th Grade Modern Classics

• The Hobbit
• The Fellowship of the Ring
• The Two Towers
• The Nine Tailors
• The Dragon and the Raven
• The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood
• Winning His Spurs
• Return of the King
  

Classic Books for High School (Grades 9–12)

High school is where classical education deepens. Students at this level can handle longer works, more challenging prose, and ideas that require careful thought. History, theology, philosophy, and literature begin to intersect. And this is where students start to see how the Great Conversation unfolds across centuries.

9th Grade Classic Literature

• The Westminster
• Confession of Faith
• The Pilgrim’s Progress
• Of Plymouth Plantation
• The Social Contract
• The Federalist Papers
• The Anti-Federalist Papers
• Reflections on the
• Revolution in France
• Frankenstein
• Gulliver’s Travels
• Abraham Lincoln: Speeches and Writings
• The Communist Manifesto
• Mein Kampf
• The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
• The Autobiography of Charles G. Finney
• Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
• Pride & Prejudice

9th Grade Modern Classics

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
• Little Women
• The Killer Angels
• Christianity & Liberalism
• The Old Man and the Sea
• Animal Farm
• Death of a Salesman
• Postmodern Times
• How Should We Then Live?
• The Great Gatsby
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• 1984
• A Tale of Two Cities

10th Grade Classic Literature

• The Iliad of Homer
• Landmark Thucydides
• Bacchae
• Lysistrata and Other Plays
• The Republic
• Ethics and Poetics
• The New Oxford
• Annotated Apocrypha
• Thirteen Books of Euclid’s Elements
  Aesop’s Fables
• Antony & Cleopatra
• Troilus and Cressida
• On the Nature of Things
• Cicero
• Annals of Imperial Rome
• Eclogues and Georgics
• Metamorphoses
• Josephus
• Marcus Aurelius:
• Meditations
• The Apostolic Fathers
• The War with Hannibal
• Mythology
• Plutarch’s Lives

10th Grade Modern Classics

• Death on the Nile
• Augustus Caesar’s World
• Art & The Bible
• The Lost World
• Knowing God
• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea
• Phantastes
  

11th Grade Classic Literature

• City of God
• The Consolation of Philosophy
• Two Lives of Charlemagne
• Chronicle of the Kings of England
• Summa Theologica Selections
• Inferno
• Purgatorio
• Paradiso
• The Lives of Thomas Becket
• Tartuffe
• Le Morte d’Arthur
• The Canterbury Tales
• The Prince
• The Praise of Folly
• Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings
• Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves
• Romeo and Juliet
• The Koran
• Decameron
• The Travels of Marco Polo
• Othello
• Don Quixote
• The Saga of the Volsungs

11th Grade Modern Classics

• A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
• St. Thomas Aquinas & St. Francis of Assisi
• The Great Divorce
• A Distant Mirror
• Here I Stand
• Heidelberg Catechism
• The Name of the Rose
• The Idylls of the King

12th Grade Classic Literature

• Paradise Lost
• Robinson Crusoe
• Pensées
• Leviathan
• Emma
• Enlightenment Reader
• Wealth of Nations
• Origins & Principles of the American Revolution
• On Christian Doctrine
• Hamlet
• Common Sense
• Democracy in America

12th Grade Modern Classics

• Out of the Silent Planet
• Perelandra
• John Adams
• The Red Badge of Courage
• Self-Reliance
• Walden & Civil Disobedience
• Huckleberry Finn
• Battle Cry of Freedom
• All Quiet on the Western Front
• The Sun Also Rises
• Citizen Soldiers
• One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich
• Leaves of Grass
• Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
• The Picture of Dorian Gray
• The Interpretation of Dreams
• The Guns of August
• That Hideous Strength
• Heart of Darkness
• The Jungle
• 50 Great Short Stories
• Moby-Dick
• The Stranger
• I Have a Dream
• Brave New World
• Notes from Underground
• Beyond Good & Evil

How to Use This List

A list of 180 books can feel overwhelming. Here’s how to approach it:

Start where your student is. Grade levels are guidelines, not rules. A voracious 7th-grade reader might be ready for high school texts; a reluctant 10th grader might need to start earlier. Meet your student where they are.

You don’t have to read everything. This isn’t a checklist to complete. It’s a menu to choose from. Even reading a handful of Great Books well is more valuable than racing through dozens superficially.

Pair reading with discussion. The Great Books come alive in conversation. Talk about what you’re reading—at the dinner table, in a co-op, or through a structured curriculum. The goal isn’t just to finish the book; it’s to think deeply about it.

Don’t be afraid of difficulty. Some of these books are hard. That’s the point. Struggling with a challenging text builds the reading muscles your student will need for college, career, and lifelong learning.

Want a Complete Curriculum?

A reading list is a starting point. But books alone don’t make an education. Students need context, instruction, and discussion to get the most from what they read.

That’s why we created Omnibus.

Omnibus is our signature Great Books curriculum for 7th–12th graders. It brings together history, theology, and literature into a unified six-year program. Students get to study the Great Books with expert teachers, discuss them with peers, and write about them with care.

Each year of Omnibus includes:

• Primary courses focused on foundational historical and literary texts

• Secondary courses covering literature, theology, and related works

• Live online classes with discussion, accountability, and community (through Veritas Scholars Academy)

• Self-Paced and You-Teach options for families who want flexibility

If you’re looking for more than a list—if you want a complete classical Christian education built around the Great Books—Omnibus is where to start.