If someone asked you to list ten important works in the humanities that all students should read while in high school, how would you respond?
Once upon a time, William J. Bennett (the Secretary of Education during the Reagan administration) did pose the question. He informally surveyed several hundred "teachers, businessmen, lawyers, parents, journalists, and college professors" around the United States.
The list that follows is a compilation of the 30 most frequently mentioned works, in order of rank. (I have tried to provide links to e-texts when possible. Many thanks to Project Gutenberg and university servers!)