Book List
Though subject to minor changes year-to-year, the following texts are typical for a standard Center year. (Additional texts of interest to individual students can be added and studied during one-on-one tutorial time.) The Center also informs all incoming students on what specific editions and versions to buy so that every one is (literally) on the same page.
Center for Western Studies
Book List for 2026-27
Below you will find the books and the editions we will be using for the year, starting in September. Often our students already own some of these books, but please make note of the editions/translations, not just the titles, as we will want to “be on the same page” for our lectures/discussions.
BOOK LIST FOR CWS - Fall 2026 - Spring 2027
Fall Semester
C S Lewis, Abolition of Man
Homer, Odyssey - Fagles translation.
Aeschylus, Orestia Trilogy
Aristotle Ethics
Augustine Confessions
Boethius Consolation of Philosophy
Bonaventure Journey of the Mind to God
Dante Inferno, Esolen Translation
Spring Semester
Shakespeare (any editions)
King Lear
Hamlet
A Midsummer Night’s Dream
Spenser Fairy Queene (Book 1)
Erasmus In Praise of Folly
Rousseau Social Contract
Shelley - Frankenstein
Marx Communist Manifesto
Bastiat The Law
Richard Weaver, Ideas Have Consequences
Conrad Heart of Darkness
O’Connor Short Stories
Chesterton Orthodoxy
T S Eliot Wasteland
T S Eliot Four Quartets
Lewis Four Loves
Fleming Arts and Ideas, 9th edition
