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Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?

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Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?

#71

Post by eitland »

I share many favorites with iBelieve (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20914527) and others but here are some I also enjoy that I don't see mentioned yet:

- a lot of the viking stories (Soga om Eigil Skallagrimson etc)

- viking poetry, particularly Håvamål: a kind of a viking version of the Proverbs.

- old Norwegian fairytales (a number of them can be read in more than one way besides the obvious bed time stories for kids and others aren't for kids, but you'll recognize the topics from modern films as well.)

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?

#73

Post by senjindarashiva »

It's been mentioned before but meditations is great, but I would also like to add "How to live on 24 hours a day" by Arnold Bennett https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2274

In fiction Sherlock Holmes and the Three Musketeers is some of my favorites.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?

#74

Post by misternonki »

kthejoker2 wrote: post #19

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius Essays by Michel de Montaigne Self Reliance by Emerson Theory of Moral Sentiment by Adam Smith A Treatise of Human Nature by Hume And the memoir of my vote for the most interesting man who ever lived, Humphry Davy's Consolations in Travel

Essays by Montaigne

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?

#75

Post by khazhou »

Thus Spoke Zarathustra - Nietzsche (esp. Walter Kaufmann preface edition). It's an energetic, angry, poetic, and often rambling tour de force on mankind overcoming its smallness. Halfway through you'll start wondering if Nietzsche is a genius or a lunatic, and the answer is Yes.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?

#76

Post by powersnail »

Les Misérables. First read it when I was in elementary school. It was a beautiful, touching piece. Not only did it tell a story, but also it presented the whole cultural background upon which the story occurred. Every time I read the book, I learn something new. In elementary school, I was mostly moved by Jean Valjean's resilience, calmness, and competency. Later on, I started to appreciate the humanity shown in other characters as well. Then, I read into the culture. It was most interesting to compare this book to A Tale of Two Cities.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?

#78

Post by onion2k »

senjindarashiva wrote: post #73

It's been mentioned before but meditations is great, but I would also like to add "How to live on 24 hours a day" by Arnold Bennett https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2274 In fiction Sherlock Holmes and the Three Musketeers is some of my favorites.

Sherlock Holmes and the Three Musketeers

I wish that was one book.

Re: Ask HN: What are your favorite books or essays written at least 100 years ago?

#80

Post by oh-moses »

bmmayer1 wrote: post #20

Economics: - The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith - Das Kapital, Karl Marx - That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen, Frederic Bastiat Philosophy / Politics: - The Republic, Plato - Second Treatise on Government, John Locke - The Law, Frederic Bastiat - Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes - Meditations, Marcus Aurelius - Democracy in America, Alexis de Toqueville - On Liberty, John Stuart Mill Fiction: - The Celebrated Jump…

I second That Which Is Seen by Bastiat, nice and short intro to economic way of thinking
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