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The Confessions of St. Augustine
by
3.99 avg rating — 73,068 ratings
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| 2 |
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The Pilgrim's Progress
by
4.07 avg rating — 157,027 ratings
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| 3 |
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The Canterbury Tales
by
3.52 avg rating — 236,618 ratings
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| 4 |
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Three Tales
by
3.62 avg rating — 7,742 ratings
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| 5 |
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The Temptation of St. Antony
by
3.83 avg rating — 3,320 ratings
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| 6 |
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Quo Vadis
by
4.01 avg rating — 41,684 ratings
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| 7 |
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Treasure Island
by
3.85 avg rating — 535,959 ratings
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| 8 |
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The Works of Matthew Arnold
by
3.91 avg rating — 58 ratings
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| 9 |
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The City of God : By St. Augustine - Illustrated
by
3.95 avg rating — 13,631 ratings
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| 10 |
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The Collected Works of CHARLES BAUDELAIRE: The Complete Works PergamonMedia
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating
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| 11 |
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The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso
by
4.08 avg rating — 170,352 ratings
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| 12 |
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Vita Nuova
by
3.88 avg rating — 8,605 ratings
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| 13 |
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The Works of John Dryden
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3.26 avg rating — 61 ratings
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| 14 |
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The Damnation of Theron Ware: Or Illumination
by
3.78 avg rating — 1,054 ratings
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| 15 |
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The Passes of the Pyrenees: A Practical Guide to the Mountain Roads of the Franco-Spanish Frontier
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0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings
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| 16 |
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Faust
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3.89 avg rating — 49,778 ratings
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| 17 |
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A Book of Brittany
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liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating
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| 18 |
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Drunk on the Wine of the Beloved: 100 Poems of Hafiz
by
4.20 avg rating — 142 ratings
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| 19 |
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The Subject Tonight Is Love: 60 Wild and Sweet Poems Inspired by Hafiz
by
4.41 avg rating — 1,363 ratings
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| 20 |
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The Complete Works of Thomas Hardy (Illustrated)
by
4.27 avg rating — 371 ratings
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| 21 |
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Complete Works of John Keats
by
4.48 avg rating — 271 ratings
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| 22 |
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Epic and Romance: Essays on Medieval Literature
by
3.48 avg rating — 31 ratings
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| 23 |
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A. E. W. Mason's Collected Works
by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings
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| 24 |
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Comedy: "An Essay on Comedy" by George Meredith. "Laughter" by Henri Bergson
by
3.48 avg rating — 58 ratings
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| 25 |
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The History of the Jews
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it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 2 ratings
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| 26 |
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The History of Rome Vol. 1-5 (Annotated)
by
4.19 avg rating — 155 ratings
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| 27 |
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Juvenile Offenders
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0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings
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| 28 |
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A History of Ancient Greek Literature
by
3.80 avg rating — 20 ratings
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| 29 |
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Works of John Henry Newman
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4.19 avg rating — 21 ratings
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| 30 |
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The Idea of a University
by
4.10 avg rating — 826 ratings
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| 31 |
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Pensées
by
3.94 avg rating — 14,294 ratings
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| 32 |
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The Renaissance: Studies in Art and Poetry
by
3.93 avg rating — 1,726 ratings
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| 33 |
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Imaginary Portraits and Gaston De Latour: An Unfinished Romance
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0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings
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| 34 |
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The Works Of Walter Pater: Miscellaneous Studies
by
4.33 avg rating — 6 ratings
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| 35 |
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Egyptian Decorative Art
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3.43 avg rating — 7 ratings
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| 36 |
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Dante Gabriel Rossetti: His Family-Letters, with a Memoir by William Michael Rossetti (Cambridge Library Collection - Art and Architecture) (Volume 1)
by
4.50 avg rating — 6 ratings
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| 37 |
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The Student's Chaucer: Being a Complete Edition of His Works
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0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings
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| 38 |
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Edmund Spenser's Poetry
by
3.85 avg rating — 671 ratings
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| 39 |
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Collected Works of August Strindberg
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3.98 avg rating — 40 ratings
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| 40 |
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The Works of William Wordsworth
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4.16 avg rating — 2,010 ratings
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I find it interesting, for instance, that Wilde read The Pilgrim's Progress while he was in prison, because the author, John Bunyan, wrote that book while he was in prison. Maybe Wilde could identify with Bunyan's characters Christian and Hopeful when they were caught in the dungeon of the Giant Despair.
I think every book on this list could tell us something valuable about Wilde if we could guess why he read it. And while we are contemplating that, we should read his poem "The Ballad of Reading Gaol."