1740s

4 books

sort genre era audiobooks

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding David Hume
You get a bracing lesson in how little your certainty rests on, especially in Hume’s discussion of cause and effect, where habit quietly replaces proof. The prose is clear but the argument asks you to slow down, making this rewarding if you enjoy having familiar assumptions politely dismantled.
Clarissa Samuel Richardson
Fair warning, it's enormous and told entirely in letters, but that slowness is the point: you live inside Clarissa's mind as her family corners her and Lovelace charms and schemes. If you have patience for it, few books make you feel a trap closing this completely.
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling Henry Fielding
Fielding keeps interrupting his own story to chat with you, and that narrator ends up being half the fun. Tom is generous, reckless, hopeless around women, and easy to root for anyway.
The Indiscreet Jewels Denis Diderot, translated by R. Freeman
You get Sultan Mangogul using a magic ring to make women’s “jewels” speak, while Diderot pokes at vanity, hypocrisy, medicine, and sexual double standards. It’s bawdy, clever, and episodic rather than emotionally involving, best read for its impish arguments and wonderfully strange premise.

4 books

sort genre era audiobooks

An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding David Hume
You get a bracing lesson in how little your certainty rests on, especially in Hume’s discussion of cause and effect, where habit quietly replaces proof. The prose is clear but the argument asks you to slow down, making this rewarding if you enjoy having familiar assumptions politely dismantled.
Clarissa Samuel Richardson
Fair warning, it's enormous and told entirely in letters, but that slowness is the point: you live inside Clarissa's mind as her family corners her and Lovelace charms and schemes. If you have patience for it, few books make you feel a trap closing this completely.
The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling Henry Fielding
Fielding keeps interrupting his own story to chat with you, and that narrator ends up being half the fun. Tom is generous, reckless, hopeless around women, and easy to root for anyway.
The Indiscreet Jewels Denis Diderot, translated by R. Freeman
You get Sultan Mangogul using a magic ring to make women’s “jewels” speak, while Diderot pokes at vanity, hypocrisy, medicine, and sexual double standards. It’s bawdy, clever, and episodic rather than emotionally involving, best read for its impish arguments and wonderfully strange premise.