You will not find a better collection of important literature and nonfiction than these two sets offer.

The books measure approximately 8 inches x 5.25 inches and offer over 1,000+ different works of literature and non-fiction.

THESE ARE OUR FINEST TWO GREEN hardboard sets (THC is Popular edition and SOF appears to be Southwark Cloth edition).  The boxes DO NOT come with the set - too expensive to ship.

The Popular Edition of THC was printed around 1921 by Collier to produce a less expensive set than the DeLuxe editions which were four times more expensive and also provide a very durable alternative to the all leather options.

The Southwark Linen (cloth) Edition of Shelf of Fiction was printed around 1920 and named after John Harvard (of Harvard University) who was born in the Southwark borough of London in 1607. Southwark is the oldest part of south London. An urban area to the south of the bridge was first developed in the Roman period, but subsequently abandoned. The name Southwark dates from the establishment of a defensive position in the area by King Alfred in the 9th century.

Both set are variants of green linen cloth, gold lettering, with embossed and painted harvard shields, faux library bands/hubbings (are both are ltd ed copies, although the number of copies is unknown).  The SOF in green linen is very RARE!

The binding materials are very durable hardboards and THC and SOF are both green (although 1 SOF vol appears darker, see pics).  Both appear to be a variant of green linen, although SOF is a bit darker.

These TWO sets of Harvard Classics are light and durable, without the cost and care issues of leather.  You can hold these sets comfortably because they are light (relative to bigger DeLuxe sets).

ABOUT US:  We have 1,000s of Harvard Classics including some or all complete sets in almost all the The Harvard Classics (THC) including the first four originally published in 1909 and 1910 - all 70+ printings.  We have spent thousands of hours collecting THC books and researching the history of each set or numbered printing (don't be fooled by sellers that mistake copyright dates for publications dates!). You can trust our descriptions are as close to accurate as you will find in The Harvard Classic sets.

BONUS:  We also include Dr. Eliot's 15 minutes a day guide (in print and in electronic form).  We have made minor adjustments to the Reading Guide (by a college English Professor) to conform the old guide to a new, more current, model to read!

BONUS:  Additionally, we include all 52 vols of The Harvard Classics and the 20 vols of Shelf of Fiction in pdf format --- so you get both the print and electronic versions!

We store all our books in a smoke-free (and both humidity and temperature controlled) environment.

Vol 1  -   Franklin, Woolman, Penn
Vol 2  -   Plato, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius
Vol 3  -   Bacon, Milton's Prose, Thomas Browne
Vol 4  -   Complete Poems in English (Milton)
Vol 5  -   Essays and English Traits (Emerson)
Vol 6  -   Poems and Songs (Burns)
Vol 7  -   Confessions of St. Augustine, Imitation of Christ
Vol 8  -   Nine Greek Dramas (Agamemnon, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes)
Vol 9  -   Letters and Treatises of Cicero and Pliny
Vol 10 -  Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith)
Vol 11 -  Origin of Species (Darwin)
Vol 12 -  Plutarch's Lives (Plutarch)
Vol 13 -  Aeneid (Virgil)
Vol 14 -  Don Quixote, Part 1 (Cervantes)
Vol 15 -  Pilgrim's Progress (Donne & Herbert, Bunyan, Walton)
Vol 16 - The Thousand and One Nights
Vol 17 -  Folklore and Fable (Aesop, Grimm, Andersen)
Vol 18 -  Modern English Drama (Dryden Sheridan, Goldsmith, Shelley, Browning, Byron)
Vol 19 -  Faust, Egmont, Etc (Goethe, Marlowe)
Vol 20 -  The Divine Comedy (Dante)
Vol 21 -  I Promessi Sposi (Manzoni)
Vol 22 -  the Odyssey (Homer)
Vol 23 -  Two Years Before the Mast (Dana)
Vol 24 -  On the Sublime, French Revolution, Etc (Edmund Burke)
Vol 25 -  Autobiography, Etc, Essays and Addresses (Mill & Carlyle)
Vol 26 -  Continental Drama (Barca, Corneille, Racine, Moliere, Lessing, von Barnhelm, Schiller)
Vol 27 -  English Essays (Addison, Steele, Swift, Defoe, Johnson) (Sidney to Macaulay)
Vol 28 -  Essays: English and American (Thackeray Newman Ruskin Huxley Thorreau etc)
Vol 29 -  Voyage of the Beagle (Darwin)
Vol 30 -  Faraday, Helmholtz, Kelvin, Newcomb, etc
Vol 31 -  Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini
Vol 32 -  Literary and Philosophical Essays (Montaigne Sainte-beuve, Renan, etc)
Vol 33 -  Voyages and Travels (Herodotus, Tacitus, Nichols, Pretty, Bigges, Haies, Sir Walter Raleigh)
Vol 34 -  French and English Philosophers (Descartes, Voltaire, Rousseau, Hobbes)
Vol 35 -  Chronicle and Romance (Froissart, Malory, Holinshead)
Vol 36 -  Machiavelli, More, Luther
Vol 37 -  Locke, Berkeley, Hume
Vol 38 -  Harvey, Jenner, Lister, Pasteur
Vol 39 -  Famous Prefaces (Caxton, Calvin, etc)
Vol 40 -  English Poetry 1 (Chaucer to Gray)
Vol 41 -  English Poetry 2 (Collins to Fitzgerald)
Vol 42 -  English Poetry 3 (Tennyson to Whitman)
Vol 43 -  American Historical Documents (1000 to 1904)
Vol 44 -  Sacred Writings, Vol 1 (Confucian Hebrew Christian)
Vol 45 -  Sacred Writings, Vol 2 (Christian Ii, Buddhist, Hindu, Mohammedan)
Vol 46 -  Elizabethan Drama, Vol 1 (Marlowe & Shakespeare)
Vol 47 -  Elizabethan Drama, Vol 2 (Dekker, Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, Webster, Massinger)
Vol 48 -  Thoughts and Minor Works (Pascal)
Vol 49 -  Epic and Saga
Vol 50 -  Index
Vol 51 -  Lectures
Vol 52 -  Reading Guide (not numbered)

The Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction is a supplement of 20 volumes of modern fiction added in 1917. Items were selected for inclusion by Charles W. Eliot, with notes and introductions by William Allan Neilson.

Vol. 1. HENRY FIELDING 1
        The History of Tom Jones, part 1, by Henry Fielding
Vol. 2. HENRY FIELDING 2
        The History of Tom Jones, part 2, by Henry Fielding
Vol. 3. LAURENCE STERN, JANE AUSTEN
        A Sentimental Journey, by Laurence Sterne
        Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen
Vol. 4. SIR WALTER SCOTT
        Guy Mannering, by Sir Walter Scott
Vol. 5. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY 1
        Vanity Fair, part 1, by William Makepeace Thackeray
Vol. 6. WILLIAM MAKEPEACE THACKERAY 2
        Vanity Fair, part 2, by William Makepeace Thackeray
Vol. 7. CHARLES DICKENS 1
        David Copperfield, part 1, by Charles Dickens
Vol. 8. CHARLES DICKENS 2
        David Copperfield, part 2, by Charles Dickens
Vol. 9. GEORGE ELIOT
        The Mill on the Floss, by George Eliot
Vol. 10. HAWTHORNE, IRVING, POE, BRET HARTE, MARK TWAIN, HALE
        The Scarlet Letter and Rappaccini's Daughter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
        Rip Van Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, by Washington Irving
        Eleonora, The Fall of the House of Usher, and The Purloined Letter, by Edgar Allan Poe
            The Luck of Roaring Camp, The Outcasts of Poker Flat, and The Idyl of Red Gulch, by Francis Bret Harte
        Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog, by Samuel L. Clemens
        The Man Without a Country, by Edward Everett Hale
Vol. 11. HENRY JAMES, JR.
        The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James
Vol. 12. VICTOR HUGO
        Notre Dame de Paris, by Victor Marie Hugo
Vol. 13. BALZAC, SAND, DE MUSSET, DAUDET, DE MAUPASSANT
        Old Goriot, by Honor Balzac
        The Devil's Pool, by George Sand
        The Story of a White Blackbird, by Alfred de Musset
            The Siege of Berlin, The Last ClassThe Story of a Little Alsatian, The Child Spy, The Game of Billiards, and The Bad Zouave, by Alphonse Daudet
        Walter Schnaffs Adventure and Two Friends, by Guy de Maupassant
Vol. 14. JOHANN WOLFGANG GOETHE
        Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship, by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
Vol. 15. GOETHE, KELLER, STORM, FONTANE
        The Sorrows of Young Werther, by Johann Wolfgang Goethe
        The Banner of the Upright Seven, by Gottfried Keller
        The Rider on the White Horse, by Theodor Storm
        Trials and Tribulations, by Theodor Fontane
Vol. 16. LEO NIKOLAEVITCH TOLSTOY 1
        Anna Karenina, part 1, by Leo Tolstoy
Vol. 17. LEO NIKOLAEVITCH TOLSTOY 2
        Anna Karenina, part 2, and Ivan the Fool, by Leo Tolstoy
Vol. 18. FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY
        Crime and Punishment, by Fyodor Dostoevsky
Vol. 19. IVAN TURGENEV
        A House of Gentlefolk and Fathers and Children, by Ivan Turgenev
Vol. 20. VALERA, BJRNSON, KIELLAND
        Pepita Jimenez, by Juan Valera
        A Happy Boy, by Bjrnstjerne Bjrnson
        Skipper Worse, by Alexander L. Kielland

Both sets are 100+ years old and COMPLETE - all 51 volumes plus the Reading Guide PLUS you get the 20 Shelf of Fiction books (similar color to bindings although one is smooth cloth and the SOF appears to be green linen). 

Some volumes of both sets have yellowed pages and foxing as appropriate for the age.  A couple of volumes have shelf pulls and shelf rubs as would be expected given the age.  A few have loose spines.

Volumes appear to have little or no highlighting although we did not inspect every page. 

We include Dr. Eliot's 15 minutes a day guide (in print and in electronic form).  Additionally, we include all 51 vols of THC and 20 vols of Shelf of Fiction in pdf format - you get print and electronic versions!

This set is truly amazing and looks incredible on the shelf!