| Preface | p. 19 |
| Prologue: Why Read? | p. 21 |
| Short Stories | |
| Introduction | p. 31 |
| "Bezhin Lea" | p. 32 |
| "Kasyan from the Beautiful Lands" | p. 34 |
| "The Kiss" | p. 37 |
| "The Student" | p. 39 |
| "The Lady with the Dog" | p. 40 |
| "Madame Tellier's Establishment" | p. 43 |
| "The Horla" | p. 44 |
| "Hills Like White Elephants" | p. 46 |
| "God Rest You Merry, Gentlemen" | p. 47 |
| "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" | p. 48 |
| "A Sea Change" | p. 50 |
| "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" | p. 52 |
| "Good Country People" | p. 52 |
| "A View of the Woods" | p. 53 |
| "The Vane Sisters" | p. 54 |
| "Tlon, Ugbar, Orbis Tertius" | p. 58 |
| "Gogol's Wife" | p. 61 |
| Invisible Cities | p. 62 |
| Summary Observations | p. 65 |
| Poems | |
| Introduction | p. 69 |
| Housman, Blake, Landor, and Tennyson | p. 70 |
| "Into My Heart an Air That Kills" | p. 71 |
| "The Sick Rose" | p. 71 |
| "On His Seventy-fifth Birthday" | p. 72 |
| "The Eagle" | p. 73 |
| "Ulysses" | p. 74 |
| "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came" | p. 79 |
| Song of Myself | p. 89 |
| Dickinson, Bronte, Popular Ballads, and "Tom O'Bedlam" | p. 94 |
| Poem 1260, "Because That You Are Going" | p. 95 |
| "Stanzas: Often Rebuked, Yet Always Back Returning" | p. 97 |
| "Sir Patrick Spence" | p. 99 |
| "The Unquiet Grave" | p. 102 |
| dAnonymous | p. 104 |
| "Tom O'Bedlam" | p. 104 |
| Sonnet 121, "'Tis Better to Be Vile Than Vile Esteemed" | p. 111 |
| Sonnet 129, "Th' Expense of Spirit in a Waste of Shame" | p. 113 |
| Sonnet 144, "Two Loves I Have, of Comfort and Despair" | p. 114 |
| Paradise Lost | p. 116 |
| "A Slumber Did My Spirit Seal" | p. 121 |
| "My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold" | p. 123 |
| The Rime of the Ancient Mariner | p. 124 |
| Shelley and Keats | p. 129 |
| The Triumph of Life | p. 129 |
| "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" | p. 134 |
| Summary Observations | p. 138 |
| Novels, Part I | |
| Introduction | p. 143 |
| Don Quixote | p. 145 |
| The Charterhouse of Parma | p. 150 |
| Emma | p. 156 |
| Great Expectations | p. 162 |
| Crime and Punishment | p. 166 |
| The Portrait of a Lady | p. 173 |
| In Search of Lost Time | p. 181 |
| The Magic Mountain | p. 187 |
| Summary Observations | p. 193 |
| Plays | |
| Introduction | p. 199 |
| Hamlet | p. 201 |
| Hedda Gabler | p. 218 |
| The Importance of Being Earnest | p. 224 |
| Summary Observations | p. 231 |
| Novels, Part II | |
| Moby-Dick | p. 235 |
| As I Lay Dying | p. 239 |
| Miss Lonelyhearts | p. 245 |
| The Crying of Lot 49 | p. 249 |
| Blood Meridian | p. 254 |
| Invisible Man | p. 263 |
| Song of Solomon | p. 269 |
| Summary Observations | p. 272 |
| Epilogue: Completing the Work | p. 277 |
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