Marc-you should have been well pleased by the inclusion of #29 on the list. Every list is subjective, but that is what makes for some good "discussion."
I would argue that the wrong Marx book was added as #30.
The Wealth of Nations is head and shoulders above either one of those works, as history has proven hands down, but I digress.
What other works do you feel should have been included?
There is subjective and subjective ; about 80% of the list consists in english books, the rest being mostly classics from the Antiquity. How can someone believe that such a patently overblown proportion can be representative of the
humanity's literary heritage? To me, this list is nothing more then a reminiscence from a strong imperialistic past ; how else could I explain the ostentatious absence of writers such as Molière, Hugo, Balzac, Baudelaire, Montaigne, Rimbaud, Zola, Proust, Voltaire etc etc. ( I am only speaking for french literature as it is the only one that i know well enough to take a stand for)
I'm am not even glad about Rousseau if you ask me
His
Confessions, and even his
Rêveries were far more groundbreaking then the
Social contract ; the first is often mentioned as being the first modern autobiography, and it is a pleasure to read tant pour des raisons sociologiques que littéraires et philosophiques. Also, why the
Social Contract and not the
Emile? The latter one has also had a lasting influence in children pedagogy...
I am not going to elaborate for every addition that I would make to the list, as this post has already taken a lot of my time, but a palmarès without Baudelaire's
Fleurs du mal , Montaigne's
Essays, Laclos
Liaisons dangereuses (?), and nothing from the authors mentionned above could hardly pretend to be complete to me (especially when it lacks Balzac!)