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

This is going to sound weird, but...

I remember your comment from four years ago (!) [0] and it really stuck with me. However, I could never find the thread, so when I saw this thread, I simply had to check if you wrote a comment again; and here we are! I recently began reading it and is really enjoying it. Thanks for the recommendation!

[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12245036

A solid contender for the title "best book of the 19th century".

Together with Madame Bovary.

Which wins, IMHO. But still: great book.

Between - very roughly - 100 and 200 years ago books (some containing essays) were where the intellectual life of the west happened. Since we are not in any meaningful way different - or smarter - than people from the 19th and early 20th century a lot of what they concerned themselves with is still relevant for us, especially the stuff that managed to get itself canonized.

The novels that managed to become classics became so for a reason (and if you've ever read some second rate 19th century material you'll appreciate the the distinction).

The art form of the fiction as moral treatise probably hasn't been surpassed since then. So just pick up a few big 19th century novels and start reading :-)

Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus

Basically the first science fiction, and the warnings of the perils of technology are still just as relevant today.

In no particular order:

Moby Dick

Les Miserables

Crime and punishment

Alice in wonderland

The Prince