The Imaginative Conservative has been running an insightful series on books that showcase what it means to be human, with an emphasis on texts that show what we should stand for. (See John Willson’s recommendations, for example.) To avoid duplicating what others have already said, I’ve submitted a list with some offbeat choices, some of which show humanity in its darker aspect, but all of which say something provocative, I hope, about the human thing.

Here’s the list, but visit the Imaginative Conservative to read my reasoning:

Richard Matheson, I Am Legend

Evelyn Waugh, Decline and Fall

Matthew Arnold, Culture and Anarchy

Carle Zimmerman, Family and Civilization

John Gray, The Immortalization Commission: Science and the Strange Quest to Cheat Death

Irving Babbitt, Rousseau and Romanticism

Michel Houellebecq, The Elementary Particles

Jacob Burckhardt, Reflections on History

Michael Oakeshott, Rationalism in Politics and other essays

Florence King, With Charity Toward None: A Fond Look At Misanthropy