The Enlightenment Reading Path
According to ![]()
Swift to Goethe. Reason, satire, and the birth of the modern novel. Literature becomes a tool for social criticism.
14 works · 5,396 pages, in reading order
- 1Meditations on First PhilosophyRené Descartes · 1641Grueling · 59 pages
- 2LeviathanThomas Hobbes · 1651Grueling · 688 pages
- 3PenséesBlaise Pascal · 1670Grueling · 333 pages
- 4EthicsBaruch Spinoza · 1677Grueling · 208 pages
- 5The Pilgrim's ProgressJohn Bunyan · 1678Breezy · 352 pages
- 6Robinson CrusoeDaniel Defoe · 1719Easy · 304 pages
- 7Gulliver’s TravelsJonathan Swift · 1726Moderate · 336 pages
- 8An Enquiry Concerning Human UnderstandingDavid Hume · 1748Grueling · 142 pages
- 9The History of Tom Jones, a FoundlingHenry Fielding · 1749Moderate · 1024 pages
- 10CandideVoltaire · 1759Easy · 155 pages
- 11The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, GentlemanLaurence Sterne · 1759Grueling · 735 pages
- 12Common SenseThomas Paine · 1776Breezy · 103 pages
- 13ConfessionsJean-Jacques Rousseau · 1782Moderate · 606 pages
- 14The Autobiography of Benjamin FranklinBenjamin Franklin · 1791Breezy · 351 pages













