Great Books Study Plan

For 7-12th Grade Students

Below is one way you might tackle a great books education for students in 7-12th grade. Obviously, the list of Great Books worthy of being read exceeds what a student may reasonably read and study in a 6 year period, but the following offers an approach to getting students on their way into studying the Great Books canon. You can also search a list of our available study guides according to the name of Author. That way, if you care to pick and choose your own approach to studying the Great Books, you can more easily sift through your options.

7th Grade will study books from (or about) the period of time from the Creation of the world to just prior to the Incarnation of Christ.

8th Grade will study books from (or about) the period of time from the Incarnation of Christ to just before the Reformation of the church.

9th Grade will study books from (or about) the period of time from the Reformation of the church to the present day.

10th Grade will study a second cycle of Creation to Incarnation AND will do a literary dive into the Seven Virtues (4 Cardinal, 3 Theological).

11th Grade will study a second cycle of Incarnation to Reformation AND will do a literary dive into the Arts, Education, and Society & Politics.

12th Grade will study a second cycler of Reformation to Present day AND will do a literary dive into Unbelief, Faith, and Reason.

The curriculum is still in the process of being written and so this page will be updated regularly with new and additional links. Some changes to the reading plan may occur over time. Below you will find the following kinds of links:

1. “Online” = This link will take you to our free online versions of the Great Books study guides.

2. “PDF” = This link is only accessible to Paid Subscriber’s of STGB. The link takes you to the page with all of our PDF “beta” study guides (pre-physical publication). These include many extras beyond the free online versions and can be easily printed and used in a classroom, for homeschooling, book clubs, or personal study.¹ Just $5 a month, or $50 a year, gets you full access to our growing library of useable classical Christian curriculum.

3. “Purchase Book” = This link will take you to the right edition of the book that corresponds best with our study guides.²

4. “Purchase Curriculum” = Coming soon, this link will take you to where you can buy professionally produced and illustrated versions of our curriculum. Hopefully you will start seeing this option popping up for some of our study guides in 2025.

7th Grade: Creation to Incarnation (From the Beginning to c. 4 B.C.) Cycle 1

History Semester 1:

1. ESV Journaling Bible: (Purchase Book)

   1. Genesis (Online) (PDF)

   2. Exodus (Online) (PDF)

   3. Joshua

   4. Judges

   5. Ruth (Online) (PDF)

   6. 1-2 Samuel

   7. 1-2 Kings

History Semester 2:

1. Histories by Herodotus (Online) (Purchase Book)

2. ESV Journaling Bible: (Purchase Book)

   1. Ezra

   2. Nehemiah

   3. Esther

Literature Semester 1:

1. Epic of Gilgamesh (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

2. Tales of Ancient Egypt by Roger Lancelyn Green (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

3. The Theban Trilogy, by Sophocles translated by Robert Fagles (Purchase Book)

   1. Antigone (Online)

   2. Oedipus the King (Online) (PDF)

   3. Oedipus at Colonus

4. Tales of the Greek Heroes by Roger Lancelyn Green (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

Literature Semester 2:

1. The Odyssey by Homer, Translated by Robert Fagles (Purchase Book)

2. The Aeneid by Virgil, Translated by Robert Fagles (Purchase Book)

3. The Last Days of Socrates Translated by Jowett (Purchase Book)

   1. Euthyphro (Online) (PDF)

   2. Apology

4. The Young Carthaginian by G. A. Henty (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

5. Julius Caesar by Shakespeare (Purchase Book)

8th Grade: Incarnation to Reformation (From c. 4 B.C. to October 31, 1517 A.D.) Cycle 1

History Semester 1:

1. ESV Journaling Bible: (Purchase Book)

   1. Luke (Online) (PDF)

   2. Acts (Online) (PDF)

2. Didache (Online) (PDF)

3. The Eruption of Vesuvius, by Pliny the Younger (Online) (PDF)

4. Agricola, by Tacitus (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

5. The Twelve Caesars, Dover Thrift (Purchase Book)

6. Eusebius’ Church History, Translated by Paul Maier (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

History Semester 2:

1. On The Incarnation by Athanasius (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

2. The Ecumenical Creeds of Christendom (Online)

3. Confessions by Augustine (Online) (Purchase Book)

4. The Rule of St. Benedict (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

5. History of the Kings of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth (Purchase Book)

Literature Semester 1:

1. Eagle of the Ninth by Rosemary Sutcliff (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

2. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translated by Tolkien (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

3. Song of Roland (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

4. The Dragon and the Raven by G. A. Henty (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

5. Myths of the Norsemen by Roger Lancelyn Green (Purchase Book)

Literature Semester 2:

1. Beowulf, translated by Seamus Heaney (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

2. Macbeth by Shakespeare (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

3. Winning His Spurs by G. A. Henty (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

4. The Adventures of Robin Hood by Roger Lancelyn Green (Purchase Book)

5. Inferno, by Dante (Online) (Purchase Book)

9th Grade: Reformation to Present (From October 31, 1517 A.D. to Present) Cycle 1

History Semester 1:

1. The 95 Theses, by Martin Luther

2. The Bondage of the Will, by Martin Luther (Purchase Book)

3. In Praise of Folly, by Erasmus (Purchase Book)

4. The Westminster Confession of Faith (Purchase Book)

5. Won by the Sword, by G. A. Henty (Purchase Book)

History Semester 2:

1. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (Purchase Book)

2. A Documentary History of the United States (Purchase Book)

3. Reflections on the Revolution in France, by Edmund Burke (Purchase Book)

4. Killer Angels, by Michael Shaara (Purchase Book)

5. All Quiet on the Western Front, by Erich Maria Remarque (Purchase Book)

Literature Semester 1:

1. The Time Machine, by H. G. Wells (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

2. Starship Troopers, by Robert Heinlein (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

3. A Tale of Two Cities, by Charles Dickens (Purchase Book)

4. Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen (Purchase Book)

5. Dracula, by Bram Stoker (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

6. Fahrenheit 451, by Ray Bradbury (Purchase Book)

Literature Semester 2:

1. Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott (Purchase Book)

2. Animal Farm, by George Orwell (Purchase Book)

3. Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley (Purchase Book)

4. The Great Divorce, by C. S. Lewis (Purchase Book)

5. Billy Budd, Sailor by Herman Melville (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

6. Whose Body?, by Dorothy Sayers (Online) (Purchase Book)

10th Grade: Creation to Incarnation (From the Beginning to c. 4 B.C.) Cycle 2

History and Literature Semester 1:

1. ESV Journaling Bible: (Purchase Book)

   • Psalms

   • Proverbs

   • Ecclesiastes

   • Song of Solomon

2. The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides (Purchase Book)

3. The Lives of Famous Men by Plutarch (Selections)

   1. Romulus (Online)

   2. Alexander

4. Histories by Polybius (Purchase Book)

History and Literature Semester 2:

1. The Iliad by Homer (Purchase Book)

2. The Oresteia by Aeschylus (Purchase Book)

3. The Clouds by Aristophanes (Purchase Book)

4. Nicomachean Ethics by Aristotle (Purchase Book)

Syntopical Studies Semesters 1 & 2:

Intro: A Brief Reader on the Virtues of the Human Heart, by Josef Pieper (Purchase Book)

1. Prudence in The Giver, by Lois Lowry (Online) (PDF) (Purchase Book)

2. Fortitude in The Red Badge of Courage, by Stephen Crane (Purchase Book)

3. Justice in To Kill A Mockingbird, by Harper Lee (Purchase Book)

4. Temperance in Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen (Purchase Book)

5. Faith, Hope, & Love: in The Chronicles of Narnia, by C. S. Lewis (Purchase Books)

11th Grade Incarnation to Reformation (From c. 4 B.C. to October 31, 1517 A.D.) Cycle 2

History and Literature Semester 1:

1. ESV Journaling Bible: (Purchase Book)

   • The Pauline Epistles: (Online)

     • Romans

     • 1 Corinthians

     • 2 Corinthians

     • Galatians

     • Ephesians

     • Philippians

     • Colossians (Online) (PDF)

     • 1 Thessalonians

     • 2 Thessalonians

     • 1 Timothy

     • 2 Timothy

     • Titus

     • Philemon

     • Hebrews

   • General Epistles

     • James

     • 1 Peter

     • 2 Peter

     • 1-3 John

     • Jude

   • Revelation

2. Contentment, by Plutarch

3. Meditations, by Marcus Aurelius (Online) (Purchase Book)

History and Literature Semester 2:

1. The Consolation of Philosophy, by Boethius (Purchase Book)

2. Proslogion, by Anselm of Canterbury (Purchase Book)

3. The Nibelungenlied (Purchase Book)

4. Summa Theologica (Part 1, Q.1-25), by Thomas Aquinas

5. Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer (Purchase Book)

Syntopical Studies Semester 1:

The Arts

1. Poetics, by Aristotle (Purchase Book)

2. Only the Lover Sings, by Josef Pieper (Purchase Book)

3. Art and the Bible, by Francis Schaeffer (Purchase Book)

4. The Mind of the Maker, by Dorothy Sayers (Purchase Book)

Education

1. Meno, by Plato (Purchase Book)

2. The Abolition of Man, by C. S. Lewis (Purchase Book)

3. The Lost Tools of Learning, by Dorothy Sayers

Syntopical Studies Semester 2:

Society & Politics

1. The Prince, by Machiavelli (Purchase Book)

2. On Duties, by Cicero (Purchase Book)

3. The Republic, by Plato (Purchase Book)

4. Politics, by Aristotle (Purchase Book)

Economics

1. The Communist Manifesto, by Karl Marx (Purchase Book)

2. The Wealth of Nations (Book 1), by Adam Smith (Purchase Book)

3. Oeconomicus, by Xenophpon (Purchase Book)

12th Grade Reformation to Present (From October 31, 1517 A.D. to Present) Cycle 2

History and Literature Semester 1:

1. The Essential Tales and Poems (selections) of Edgar Allen Poe (Purchase Book)

   1. The Tell-Tale Heart

   2. The Murders in the Rue Morgue

   3. The Raven

2. Sonnets by Shakespeare (Purchase Book)

3. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson (Purchase Book)

4. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad (Purchase Book)

5. 1984 by George Orwell (Purchase Book)

History and Literature Semester 2:

1. Democracy in America by Alexis de Tocqueville (Purchase Book)

2. Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler

3. The Ransom Trilogy by C. S. Lewis (Purchase Book)

   • Out of the Silent Planet

   • Perelandra

   • That Hideous Strength

4. Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas (Purchase Book)

5. Paradise Lost by John Milton (Purchase Book)

Syntopical Studies Semester 1:

Unbelief, Faith, and Reason

1. Beyond Good and Evil, by Friedrich Nietzsche (Purchase Book)

2. The Enlightenment Reader: (Purchase Book)

   1. Selections from Hume

   2. Selections from Kant

3. Miracles, by C. S. Lewis (Purchase Book)

4. Meditations, by Rene Descartes (Purchase Book)

5. Pensees, by Blaise Pascal (Purchase Book)

6. Waiting for Godot by Samuel Beckett (Purchase Book)

7. Mere Christianity, by C. S. Lewis (Purchase Book)

8. Orthodoxy by G. K. Chesterton (Purchase Book)

Syntopical Studies Semester 2:

Unbelief, Faith, and Reason

1. The God Who is There by Francis Schaeffer (Purchase Book)

2. Christianity and Liberalism by J. Gresham Machen (Purchase Book)

3. The book of Job

4. Prometheus Bound, by Aeschylus (Purchase Book)

5. The death of Ivan Illyitch, by Leo Tolstoy (Purchase Book)

6. The Problem of Pain, by C. S. Lewis (Purchase Book)

7. A Grief Observed, by C. S. Lewis (Purchase Book)

8. The Brothers Karamazov, by Dostoevsky (Purchase Book)

1. Please note that the beta PDF edition won’t go away when the curriculum becomes available to purchase in print editions. Our Paid subscribers will continue to receive the same access to these they have always enjoyed.

2. Please note that Study The Great Books is a participant in the Amazon Associates program and receives a portion of every purchase made through the provided links.