Continental Drama

Author names not noted above: Jean Racine, Molire, Gotthold Ephraim Lessing, Friedrich von Schiller

Originally published between 1909 and 1917 under the name "Harvard Classics," this stupendous 51-volume set-a collection of the greatest writings from literature, philosophy, history, and mythology-was assembled by American academic CHARLES WILLIAM ELIOT (1834-1926), Harvard University's longest-serving president. Also known as "Dr. Eliot's Five Foot Shelf," it represented Eliot's belief that a basic liberal education could be gleaned by reading from an anthology of works that could fit on five feet of bookshelf.

Volume XXVI features the six 17th- and 18th-century plays that have most influenced Western European literature and culture:

Life Is a Dream, by Spanish dramatist PEDRO CALDERN DE LA BARCA (1600-1681), his 1635 allegory debating free will and fate

Polyeucte, by French playwright and father of French tragedy PIERRE CORNEILLE (1606-1684), his 1642 drama based on the life of the martyr Saint Polyeuctus

Phdre, by French dramatist JEAN RACINE (1639-1699), his 1677 tragedy from Greek mythology

Tartuffe, by the French comic master Jean-Baptiste Poquelin (1622-1673), aka MOLIRE, his 1664 masterpiece about hypocrisy

Minna von Barnhelm, by German playwright GOTTHOLD EPHRAIM LESSING (1729-1781), a groundbreaking comedy

Wilhelm Tell, by German author FRIEDRICH VON SCHILLER (1759-1805), a tragedy of the Swiss fight for independence in the 14th century.